How to Become a
Mission Radio Operator
A Step-by-step Guide
What this Slideshow Does & How
This will lead you step-by-step through everything you need to do to become a Mission Radio Operator.
While this slideshow does not contain all the documents themselves that you will need, both a direct hyperlink to any resources will be provided if possible. Anything that is inside carrots like <this> will be a hyperlink that will take you directly to the material referenced. Anything requiring a login is to log in to E-Services (aka. <www.capmembers.com>)
Note that this PowerPoint assumes you are already GES certified, which is a prerequisite! If you are not, then please see this other quick PowerPoint on <How to Become GES Certified>.
Prerequisite:
ACUT/BCUT/ICUT
ICUT, ACUT, & BCUT stand for (Advanced, Basic, Introductory) Communications User Training. You must be certified in at least one of these to begin training as an MRO.
This slideshow will only cover ICUT as it is usually the easiest to achieve. As such, if you already have your ACUT, BCUT, or ICUT, then you can skip this slide.
ICUT is a combination of many tiny online quizzes and a hands-on portion. The test and studying can be done on your own, but a hands-on course with the radios is required within 180 days of the course, and that is most likely where you will need help from your Squadron. As such, it is likely a good idea to go through your chain of command to request an ICUT hands-on class.
Go to <Introductory Communications User Training (ICUT)>.
You will see many different sub-courses listed. Each one is a separate, short (about 5 question long) quiz. For each one, go over everything in the “References/Reading” section, and take the quiz. You must take every single one of those quizzes to complete the course!
DO NOT FORGET TO DO THE HANDS-ON PORTION AT YOUR SQUADRON!
MRO Commander Approval
for Prerequisites
This is probably the easiest task there is.
Go to <SQTR Entry/View Worksheets> and log in. Enter your CAPID into the box and then click the search button.
Then for “Functional Area” select “OPS-Emergency_Services”, and for “Achievement” select “MRO - Mission Radio Operator”.
Find the task boxes called “MRO – Commander Approval for Prerequisites” and click in its date box. Simply select today’s date and then at the bottom of the page click “Submit”. The task box should turn yellow and say “PENDING”.
It may be a good idea to ask your Squadron Commander to approve the task if it takes a while, as all the task does is ask your Squadron Commander to check that you are GES and ICUT/BCUT/ACUT certified.
Getting Your Materials & Tasks
- SQTR
Most ES certification training is made up of many various training tasks that must be completed, which are tracked on your Specialty Qualification Training Records.
Go to <SQTR Entry/View Worksheets> and log in.
For Functional Area select “OPS-Emergency_Services”, and for Achievement select “MRO - Mission Radio Operator”.
At the bottom of the page click “Print SQTR Worksheet” and print the document it pulls up. This is your SQTR where you will get signoffs.
Equipment & MRO Handbook
The information for training towards each of the tasks can be found in the <MRO Handbook>. Please note that the document does not appear properly unless you download it and open it in Microsoft Word! Each task has its own specific section in the handbook, including both the training information as well as how you will be evaluated for the task.
How to do Tasks
The MRO Handbook contains all the information for almost every task, so study it and learn the material. When you are ready to actually take the evaluation for each task, you will need to find a qualified MRO Skills Evaluator and ask him/her to evaluate you on the task. Each task has its own unique requirements which are shown in the handbook, but ALL tasks must be done closed-book and without help unless otherwise stated.
When you have passed the evaluation, ask the Evaluator to sign off on the task on your SQTR.
When you next get access to a computer, go back to <SQTR Entry/View Worksheets> and log in. Find the respective task, and then enter the date and CAPID that the Skills Evaluator wrote for that task. Although the Mission ID and Certificate ID are not required to submit a task, they should be entered if applicable. When you are done entering the task’s information, click “Submit” at the bottom of the page and accept. The tasks you selected should now be Yellow and say “Pending”.
When your Skills Evaluator logs into E-Services, they will get a notification to verify the task. When they verify the task it will change to green and say “ACTIVE”.
Exercise Participations
Along with the regular tasks for becoming a Mission Radio Operator, you also need to participate in at least two missions as a Mission Radio Operator (training is usually the best option here).
Exercises are signed off in the same way as regular tasks, but do not forget to have the Skills Evaluator also sign off on the third page of the SQTR as well as the actual task boxes. Also, when entering the tasks in the SQTR online, the Mission Number is a requirement for these.
Keep in mind that you can usually get training and sign-offs while doing these, so watch for opportunities and don’t hesitate to ask! As a trainee you will most likely be on a training mission anyways, so that’s a huge portion of the mission’s goal - to get you trained!
Special Tasks
Some SQTRs will have some special or unusual tasks that are not signed off in the normal method.
For MSA the special tasks are:
Each of these tasks will be covered on the next slides.
Special Tasks:
IS-100 & IS-700
Although these tasks are thrown in with the others, they are quite different as they are fairly long online courses. Both must be passed to become MRO certified.
For IS-100, go to the course overview here <https://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS /courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-100.b>.
For IS-700, go to the course overview here <http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/IS /courseOverview.aspx?code=IS-700.a>.
First you should click on “Download Classroom Materials” on the right and download everything from the Student Manual.
You can then either take the course (long powerpoint) by clicking on “Interactive Web Based Course”; or you can read over the student manual you downloaded (long document reading). Both should cover the information.
When you are ready to take the open-book course, click on “Take Final Exam Online” and follow all of its instructions to take the test. If you are using a Windows computer, you can use Ctrl+F to search the student manual you downloaded for specific words if you get stuck on a question. READ THE NEXT SLIDE BEFORE YOU SUBMIT THE EXAM!
Special Tasks:
IS-100 & IS-700 (Continued)
When you finish taking each test, make sure you enter your email correctly. When you get the email from FEMA, download and save the certificate they give you.
Go back to <SQTR Entry/View Worksheets> and near the top of the screen select “View/Upload Documents”. Under “What would you like to upload?” select either IS-100 or IS-700 respectively. Then click browse and find the respective certificate you saved. Then click “Upload ES Files”.
Back in the <SQTR Entry/View Worksheets> and under “Achievement” select either “IS100 – IS-100” or “IS700 – IS-700” respectively.
In the one task box that appears, enter the date on your certificate, and then click “Submit” at the bottom of the page.
Do not delete the certificates from your computer or email!
Special Tasks: CAPT 117
ES Continuing Education Exam - Part 3
The final thing you have to do to obtain your MRO certification is to pass the CAPT 117 Exam Part 3. The CAPT 117 exam is another fairly simple test much like the 116 you took earlier for GES.
To get to the test, go to <CAPT 117 ES Continuing Education Part 3>.
At the test information page, first read all the info on the test. Then download and open the documents under the “References/Reading Material” section. Study the material until you feel you understand and remember it.
When you are ready to start the test, click “Start CAPT 117 ES Continuing Education Part 3”. On Windows, you can use Ctrl+F to search the reading documents for specific words.
When you have passed the test, go back to your <SQTR> to ensure the “CAPT 117 ES Continuing Education Exam - Part 3” task box is green and says “ACTIVE”.
When All the Required Tasks are Completed
Go to <SQTR Entry/View Worksheets> and log in.
Then for “Functional Area” select “OPS-Emergency_Services”, and for “Achievement” select “MRO - Mission Radio Operator”.
If you have done everything in this slideshow correctly, then in the upper right hand corner of the screen you should see an indication saying that your certification as a MRO is “ACTIVE”. If that is the case, then CONGRATULATIONS! You are now certified as a Mission Radio Operator!
If the box says “TRAINING” in orange or yellow, check to see that all of your required task boxes are filled in and “ACTIVE”. If any are yellow and say “PENDING”, then just wait for your Skills Evaluator to verify them. If any are grey, than you need to go back through this slideshow to figure out what you need to do to complete them.
The 101 Card
The final check to make sure that you have completed everything is by getting your 101 card, which also serves as an immediate proof of all of your certifications for in the field.
Go to <101 Card> and log in.
In the card that appears on screen with your qualifications, make sure that “MRO” is listed with no asterisk and that there is a date listed next to it. If both of those are correct, then everything has been done properly and you are certified as a Mission Radio Operator. If “MRO” is not listed at all or has an asterisk next to it, then go back through the slideshow to figure out what you missed and do it.
Where to go From Here
At this point, you should make sure that your Squadron Commander and Emergency Services Officer know that you are a fully certified MRO, and make sure they know you are available for missions.
At this point, many new ES certification are available out there for you. If you are interested in staying on the base, you might be interested in looking over all the other available Incident Command Staff positions you can train for.
MRO certification is also useful on Ground and Urban Direction Finding Teams, which are the “boots on the ground” that actually do the searching and rescuing. Ground Teams tend to be the ones that go out into the woods, while UDF Teams tend to stay in civilized areas such as neighborhoods and airports.
If you are interested in becoming a Ground Team Member, see this slideshow on <How to Become a Ground Team Member>.
If you are interested in becoming a UDF Team Member, see this slideshow on <How to Become a Urban Direction Finding Team Member>.