This class is designed for auxiliary communicators and groups who volunteer to provide redundant and contingency communications support to public safety agencies through amateur radio and other communication technologies.  North Carolina offers this course jointly with OEC and FEMA.  This course provides DHS-approved and NIMS-compliant instructors who have had experience operating within a NIMS/ICS environment and as auxiliary communicators.  This course addresses all responsibilities appropriate to a volunteer auxiliary communicator while serving on a local or state-level All-Hazard Incident Management Team.

This course focuses on auxiliary communications interoperability, the relationship between the Communications Unit and the volunteer, emergency operations center (EOC) etiquette, on-the-air etiquette, FCC rules and regulations, auxiliary communications training and planning, and auxiliary communications personnel deployment processes and procedures.  This course is intended to supplement and standardize an auxiliary communicator’s experience and knowledge of contingency communications within the context of public safety and NIMS/ICS.

The NC All-Hazards Auxiliary Emergency Communications (AUXCOMM) Course should be completed by personnel who have an affiliation with a public safety agency, an active FCC amateur radio license, past experience in auxiliary communications, and a desire to work within a Communications Unit in a NIMS/ICS environment.

Prerequisites for attendance are:

• An affiliation with a public safety agency
• An active FCC amateur radio license
• A desire to work within a Communications Unit in a NIMS/ICS environment
• Past experience in auxiliary communications
• IS 100.c, Introduction to the ICS
• IS 200.c, for Single Resources and Initial Incidents
• IS 700.b, National Incident Management System (NIMS), an Introduction
• IS 800.d, National Response Framework (NRF)