2008.07.26
Summer Encampment Comm School
Submitted by Cadet K. Gadzala
Comm School is an incredibly unique activity that you won't come close to anywhere else. Although Comm School is technically part of Summer Encampment with all the other cadets, it is a very different section. This course offers a chance to train in something a lot of people have no idea about.
The purpose of Comm School is to train a cadre of ES communicators that will be able to operate in future missions for Civil Air Patrol. Qualified radio operators are always in high demand for missions. The course not only teaches how to talk on the radio, but also how to safely setup the radio and antenna, and otherwise properly operate the radio.
Basically, Comm School is at the core of the whole encampment. All communications go through the Comm/Sec room. Everything is kept track of on a status board. The communicators operate at the encampment as if it were a real search mission. Cadets learn to listen to, record, and log messages, and even relay them to second sources. Cadets learn about radio etiquette and callsigns and procedures.
The coolest thing in my opinion about Comm School is when we went on a surprise ELT search late at night when everyone else was in bed. It gave us all ES training and gave the radio crew another chance to get a feel of what a real mission would be like. The course also taught some basic electronics which was very interesting and different from what I have learned elsewhere.
The commander of the Comm School was Major Bartel, from our own unit. He
and his assistant instructors did a great job and were very thorough in
what they taught us.