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Everything You Want to Know about KY ARES Reporting:
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One of the most confusing parts of being an ARES coordinator is reporting. As a requirement of the position; some understand its importance, some are not convinced. We hope this page helps build understanding.
If you would like to review the entire body of information, please just scroll down through the material. If you would like to review a specific subject area, please use the links below.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Myths About Reporting:
Importance of Reporting:
Common Reporting Mishaps:
Detailed "How To" on filling out reports.
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Frequently Asked Questions: |
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Where do I file my report?
There are two ways to file your report. Connect directly to your district page from the Local Information Page and select your district, or go to the KYHAM EMCOMM Section Reports Page.
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Who Receives My Report?
EC reports are received by the DEC. DEC reports are received by the ASEC. ASEC reports are received by the SEC.
If any position is vacant, the report is automatically transmitted to the next coordination level. If the DEC and ASEC positions in your region were vacant, it would travel all the way to the SEC.
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I used to be able to receive a copy of my report. Why can’t I get a copy now?
When KYHAM changed hosting companies, this feature was no longer possible due to security features on our new host. We apologize for this.
Only addresses on the KYHAM domain can receive emails from forms. DECs and ASECs have an email alias so they can receive forms.
It would be impossible for the volunteer web administrator to manage aliases for 120 ECs and numerous other net managers.
Please request of your DEC or ASEC that your report is forwarded back to you If you are a DEC or ASEC, please forward the reports of coordinators reporting to you back to them as a courtesy.
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What is the deadline for my report?
In order to give coordinators at all levels opportunity to compile their data and file their report in time, the deadlines are spaced 2-3 days apart.
- EC Reports are due on the 3rd day of the month.
- DEC Reports are due on the 5th day of the month.
- ASEC reports are due on the 8th day of the month.
- SEC reports are due by the 10th day of the month.
If your DEC or ASEC has different deadline for EC or DEC reports, please honor that schedule.
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I am a DEC or ASEC. What do I report?
As a DEC or ASEC, your reporting requirement is to compile the reports of coordinators who submit reports to you.
- If you are a DEC, you need to compile (add the totals and comments) the data from ECs in your district and report that.
- If you are an ASEC, you need to compile (add the totals and comments) the data from DECs in your region and report that.
A spreadsheet tool is available to you if you have Microsoft Office or Open Office to compile your reports. If you would like this tool, please contact
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What if I report over email, the phone, or radio?
Please understand that all reports submitted on KYHAM are transmitted to the proper coordinator, are recorded in the SEC data and stored in the archive for future reference if necessary.
If you do not report over KYHAM, your data may not be recorded unless the coordinator receiving your verbal or email report forwards it on to KY ARES officials.
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What if I report, and the coordinator above my level fails to report. Is my data recorded? Do I get credit for reporting?
Yes and Yes. In the past this has been a frustrating issue for some coordinators. Corrective action has been put in place to make sure that everyone that all data reported and everyone reporting gets credit for doing so.
At the end of the monthly reporting period, all data is compiled and presented to the Section Emergency Coordinator and the Section Manager. Everyone reporting over KYHAM and their data is included.
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My report has be to full of activity, or the coordinators I report to will think I am not doing well at my job as a coordinator.
False!
Not every ARES group has a lot of activity. In some counties, government agencies do not seek ham radio support. In some counties, there aren’t a lot of public events. That is okay.
Even if your group doesn’t have a lot of activity, stay active and involved. Counties near you may have a serious disaster and need help.
Your district and regional coordinators will need to know you are active, so please report so when the call goes out to find help, they know your group is active, able and available.
- If I don’t report, Section Coordinators are going to fire me.
False!
If you miss a report on occasion, it is understandable. We are all volunteers, and we have job, family and other complications.
If you are past the deadline, submit it anyway. It will still be archived and recorded for data purposes.
Section level coordinators are not going to arbitrarily fire any coordinator for not reporting. They, along with District and Regional coordinators will work as a team with you to understand why your aren't reporting, help facilitate you, and get things worked out.
If the pattern continues, all level of coordinators have the responsiblity of considerring your appointment.
- Reporting is difficult, and is too tough for anyone to do.
False!
Since 1996, reporting has been easier for ARES coordinators in Kentucky than in any other section. There is a web form to fill out.
The time needed is 5 minutes beyond the time it takes for you to add up your net, event, and emergency activation totals.
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The Importance of Reporting: |
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It shows you are active as a coordinator.
Even if you don't have a whole lot of activity to report, the act of reporting shows that you are active, and a part of the larger ARES community.
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It provides a valuable library of data that any EC, DEC, ASEC, or SEC who needs it for meetings with local, district, regional, or state emergency management or disaster relief organization coordinator can use.
.Imagine sitting across the desk from a government official when they ask, “What can your group and the hams in adjacent counties and across the state can do to help? What are your resources?”
You don’t want to shrug your shoulders and say “I don't know, can I get back to you.”
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Common Mishaps of Reporting: |
- Not including all information?
Please be sure to include all available information. Most importantly:
- Number of members.
- Number of nets, events and emergencies and person hours.
- Use the comment section to share any information you feel is important about the activities of your group. It is important to recognize them, and their accomplishments.
If your DEC or ASEC has different deadline for EC or DEC reports, please honor that schedule.
- Being unsure about how to calculate manpower.
There is a lot of confusion about how to calculate manpower and time.
Some calculate that an activation (net, drill, emergency, event) lasting one hour with ten operators as “one hour” of manpower. This does not accurately reflect the amount of effort your organization puts forth.
Use the business model of calculating manpower. Imagine you are an employer, and you have a project where you have to hire ten people to work for one hour. How many hours of wages will you have to pay? Ten.
Persons times hours. 10 x 1 = 10.
Another method to make your calculations easier is to divide the hour into four 15 munite periods. (Example: 15 minutes is .25 hours, 30 minutes is .5 hours, 45 minutes is .75 hours.)
- Accidentally missing the deadline and thinking you can't file a report late.
Once in a while, if you miss the deadline because life gets busy (see #2 in Myths above) that is okay.
Go ahead and file your report so the data is captured and you get credit for reporting.
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Detailed "How To" on filling out reports: |
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If you have questions about the information asked for on a particular report, please select the report below. If you would like to review all report, scroll down normally.
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Below is an image of the Monthly EC report. Let’s review the information it is asking for.
- Name, Callsign, Email, County, Month and Year – Basic info that needs little explanation.
- Members – How many members are in your ARES organization? This is very important information for district and section level coordinators. Consult your roster and include this number. If you don’t have a roster, this is a good time to start one.
- Change – Has the number of ARES members changed in the past month? If it hasn’t, put zero. If you have new members put the number. If you have had members move away, etc put a negative number.
- Net Name, Freq, and NTS Liaison – if your ARES group has a net, please list its name and frequency. If you pass traffic on your net, please list the net or callsign of NTS operator that takes it to the NTS system.
- Activity – Nets, Drills, Training Sessions and Public Service Events and Emergency Operations you list the number of the activations and the number of person hours. To calculate the person hours, round each event to the nearest 15 minutes (1/4 of an hour) and multiply it by the number of operators involved.
- Total Operations – Add up the totals of Nets, Drills, Training Sessions and Public Service Events and Emergency Operations.
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Below is an image of the Monthly DEC report. Let’s review the information it is asking for.
Notice the report is very similar to the EC report. There are differences for you as DEC.
- Name, Callsign, Email, District, Month, and Year are your data.
- Members and Change – Add the totals from all of your EC reports.
- Net Name, Freq, and NTS Liaison – Only fill this out if you have a “District Net.”
- EC’s Reporting – List the callsigns of the ECs that filed their reports with you.
- Activity – These fields are for you to add up and report the data reported by your ECs.
A spreadsheet tool is available to you if you have Microsoft Office or Open Office to compile your reports. If you would like this tool, please contact
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Below is an image of the Monthly ASEC report. Let’s review the information it is asking for.
Like the DEC report, the ASEC report is a mixture of your biographical information and a compilation of the reports from the ECs and DECs in your region
- Name, Callsign, Email, District, Month, and Year are your personal data.
- Members and Change – Add the totals from all of your DEC reports.
- Net Name, Freq, and NTS Liaison – Only fill this out if you have a “Regional Net.”
- EC’s and DECs Reporting – List the coordinators that filed their reports with you.
- Activity – These fields are for you to add up and report the data reported by your DECs.
A spreadsheet tool is available to you if you have Microsoft Office or Open Office to compile your reports. If you would like this tool, please contact
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Public Service Activity Report: |
Below is an image of the Public Service Activity Report (PSAR). The PSAR is perhaps the most challenging report to fill out. Let's review he information is is asking for.
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Name, Email, Callsign, Phone, ARRL Appointments – Purely biographical information.
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Select Activity Type – Properly classifying the event is important. A communications emergency – An event where your organization is requested to assist with an emergency situation by an agency, or disaster relief organization such as the Red Cross. Alert – Were on Standby but Situation Didn’t Develop – An event where you are in a state of readiness at the request of ARES, agency or disaster relief coordinators, but did not activate.
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Event – A public service event such as a parade, 5K run, or other events. Training Exercise or Drill – This includes agency drills, classroom and tabletop exercises.
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Brief Description and Area/Place – Give a brief description of what happened, and where it happened.
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Event Start Time/Date, Event End Time/Date and Event Duration – Record the start and end time. Then record how many hours of work your team did. Some public events are multiple days, so only report the time you worked.
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Total Person Hours – Multiple Even Duration by the number of operators you had.
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Number of Repeaters Used and Nets/Frequencies Used – How many repeaters did you use? What other frequencies did you use? Don’t be afraid to list repeater callsigns to recognize the contribution of the trustees that allow use of their repeaters.
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Estimated Manpower Cost – Multiply your person hours by $10 per hour.
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Estimated Equipment Cost – This is the most difficult part of this report. Guidance received from the ARRL Field Service Coordinator a few years ago was as follows:
$250 per hand held,
$400 per mobile,
$1500 per HF Station
$3000 per repeater.
The difficult portion of this is how you account for antennas, feed line, etc. The best guidance we can give is to be honest and a little conservative in your estimate.
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Total Estimated Cost of Service – Add the manpower and equipment estimates.
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Number of Messages Passed – Not too difficult in an emergency where a log is kept, but can be a challenge during a long public service event. What do you count as a message since very few radiograms are used anymore? Here’s a little guidance? Did your message go to an authority in the emergency or event?
Was it a report of something needed for operational goals or response? Was it a reply to a request for information? Or was it a “I’m over here” message? If there were too many messages to count, it is acceptable to state so, but do your best to record them.
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Agencies Receiving Support, List of Key Operators, Name of Organizations – List the agencies or organizations receiving support. List operators that went above and beyond the call of duty to make the operation successful. Then list the organizations where operators participated from. Many events have operators from multiple counties.
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Monthly Net Manager Report: |
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Name, Email, Callsign and County – Biographical information about you.
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Net Name and Net Abbreviation – What is your net called? Create an abbreviation for it. For example Any County ARES net may be “ACARES.” Just a suggestion. There are no rules here.
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Month/Year – Pretty clear information.
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Sessions – How many nets did you have in this month?
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Checkins – How many operators checked into your nets?
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Total Minutes – How many minutes was the net in session for the month?
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Total Hours – Multiply your checkins by minutes. Then divide that number by 60. For example – if you had 10 checkins and 60 minutes, the total would be 10 hours.
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Total Messages Handled – How many NTS messages were passed on your net?
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NTS Liaison – Who or what net is the NTS connection for your net?
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Net Manager Name and Callsign – If you are not the Net Manager, please list their name and callsign.
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Public Service Honor Roll: |
There are detailed instructions on the PSHR form. Please look on the page as you fill out the report for help.
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If you have any questions about filing any report, please
He is happy to help.
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