Planning Series · PLN-05
COMCON: Communications Readiness Condition
Reading the health of the network before it fails — a five-level status you can act on, every cycle.
COMCON — the Communications Readiness Condition — is the FFTP five-level status for the health of communications infrastructure. It answers one question, every cycle: can you still get a message through? This course teaches you to read it, understand what drives it, and connect it directly to your own Communications P.A.C.E. Plan.
Format
5 online lessons
Time
Roughly 60–75 minutes
Companion
COM-01 PACE Planning
Why This Course
Most preparedness groups find out their communications plan doesn’t work at the worst possible moment — when the network is already down and there’s no time left to test anything. COMCON exists so that decision is made on evidence, published on a fixed cycle, well before you need it. This course teaches the status itself, what feeds it, and exactly how it connects to the PACE plan you build in COM-01.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:
- Read a COMCON level and know the specific move it calls for — not just the label
- Name the eight domains that can move COMCON on their own, so a headline number never blindsides you
- Turn a COMCON level change into a decision you’ve already made, by wiring it directly to your own COM-01 PACE plan
- Walk away with your own completed COMCON Trigger Worksheet, written while conditions are calm
PREP-CON and CONCON mark where you are in the disruption timeline; COMCON governs how you communicate throughout it.
Course Lessons
Lesson 1
What COMCON Is
The five-level scale, the DEFCON-style convention behind it, and where COMCON sits next to PREP-CON and CONCON.
Lesson 2
The Five COMCON Levels
Full detail on each level — posture, picture, and your specific move at each one.
Lesson 3
What COMCON Watches
The eight domains behind the number, and the worst-domain-not-average rule that governs them.
Lesson 4
COMCON and Your PACE Plan
How a COMCON level change becomes the trigger that moves you down your COM-01 PACE plan.
Lesson 5
COMCON in the Readiness Family
Putting PREP-CON, COMCON, and CONCON together, and building your own COMCON trigger worksheet.
Each lesson includes knowledge checks you’ll need to complete before the next lesson unlocks. A companion guide with reference tables, checklists, and blank worksheets is available starting on Lesson 1.