<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><br>Hi All<div><br></div><div>I have been reading the mail with discussion on our future involvement in emergencies in Victora and I comment on Training and National information sharing.</div><div><br></div><div>Training </div><div>Some of the discussion so far has suggested that we should undertake training to operate equipment for other agencies. ( SES CFA and the like ). I do not believe that this is relevant to our operation even if we are called to operate in ICC’s or Opperation Rooms in the future.</div><div>Reflecting on the past I have been activated to work in ICC’s and a Forward Control Communication Centre, and my experience was that the radio was set up on a particular channel and my only interface with the system was the microphone and the PTT. My job was to <u>handle messages and </u>keep a log. In the Ovens ICC I had some shifts where I monitored a phone and I was required to <u>handle messages and keep a log.</u></div><div>In King Lake in a CFA forward control van I was required to<u> handle messages and keep a log.</u> The only interface with the radio equipment was the microphone and the PTT.</div><div>The point I make is that it is not nessesery to train to use other agencies radio equipment, our expertise is as message handlers and log keepers and that is reflected in our training package.</div><div>That is not to say that we shouldn’t expand and update our training. It would be helpful to add CFA procedures and pro words. These were circulated to WICEN members in the past but not actually included in our training.</div><div><br></div><div>National I formation Shairing</div><div>I accept that the various WICEN groups are state based ( although there is a national coordinator who ever that is) but I now see that there should be formal discussion between them. In our current fire season we have seen NSW called to perform the same rolls that Wicen Vic have performed in the past, but in Vic we were not called. In Queensland their fire service has employed a professional training organisation to train and qualify (and I expect licence) hundreds of their fire fighters as Ameteur Radio Operators. This seems to be some sort of reverse thinking.</div><div>I think the time has come for some formal interstate discussion and information sharing to see how we can help each other into the future understanding of our roll.</div><div><br></div><div>Graham Mason</div><div>VK3KMG</div><div><br></div></div></body></html>