Announcements:
The Cache Valley version of the MS150 Bike Tour is next weekend, Saturday and Sunday June 22 and 23. There will be a lot of radio traffic on the local repeater system as amateur operators support the event. It's a chance to listen in to get a feel for how an emergency net would be handled.
Training:
Last week we discussed message formats and some basic message handling rules, as seen in the Introduction to Emergency Communications Course from the Amateur Radio Relay League. For our training tonight, I referenced Section 2, Topic 5 of the course, titled Basic Communications Skills:
Life-and-death communications are not part of our daily experience. Most of what we say and do
each day does not have the potential to severely impact the lives and property of hundreds or thousands of people. In an emergency, any given message can have huge and often unintended consequences. An unclear message, or one that is modified, delayed, misdelivered, or never delivered at all can have disastrous results.
Listening is at least 50 percent of communication. Discipline yourself to focus on your job and “tune out” distractions. If your attention drifts at the wrong time, you could miss a critical message. Consider a headset to help reduce the ambient noise around you so you can better concentrate on the radio messages.
Even something as simple as using your microphone correctly can make a big difference in intelligibility. For optimum performance, hold the mic close to your cheek, and just off to the side of your mouth. Talk across, rather than into, the microphone. This will reduce breath noises and “popping” sounds that can mask your speech.
Speak in a normal, clear, calm voice. Raising your voice or shouting can result in over modulation and distortion and will not increase volume at the receiving end. Speak at a normal pace — rushing your words can result in slurred and unintelligible speech. Pronounce words carefully, making sure to enunciate each syllable and sound. Radios should be adjusted so that a normal voice within two inches of the mic element will produce full modulation. If your microphone gain is set so high that you can achieve full modulation with the mic in your lap, it will also pick up extraneous background noise that can mask or garble your voice.
As ham radio operators, we use a great deal of jargon and specialized terminology in our daily conversations. Most of us understand each other when we do, and if we do not on occasion it usually makes little difference. In an emergency, however, the results can be much different. A misunderstood message could be costly.
Not everyone involved in an emergency communication situation will understand our slang and technical jargon. Even terms used by ham radio operators vary from one region to another, and non-hams or new hams will have no knowledge of most of our terminology. Ham radio operators assisting from another region might understand certain jargon very differently from local ones.
For these reasons, all messages and communications during an emergency should be in plain language. “Q” signals (except in CW communication), 10 codes, and similar jargon should be avoided. The one exception to this is the list of standard “prowords” (often called “prosigns”) used in amateur traffic nets, such as “clear,” “say again all after,” and so on.
Avoid words or phrases that carry strong emotions. Most emergency situations are emotionally charged already, and you do not need to add to the problem. For instance, instead of saying, “horrific damage and people torn to bits,” you might say “significant physical damage and serious personal injuries.” And please watch the speed at which you speak. It should be at a normal rate. Many times, emergency operators get too excited and talk very fast, making it hard for receiving stations to understand them.
In the course of sending and receiving messages, certain words in a message may not be immediately understood. This might be the case with an unusual place name, or an unusual last name. The best way to be sure it is understood correctly is to spell it. The trouble is, if you just spell the word using letters, it might still be misunderstood, because many letters sound alike at the other end of a radio circuit. “Z” and “C” are two good examples. For that reason, radio communicators often use phonetics. These are specific words that begin with the letter being sent.
To reduce requests to repeat words, use phonetics any time a word has an unusual or difficult
spelling, or may be easily misunderstood. Do not spell common words unless the receiving
station asks you to. In some cases, they may ask for the phonetic spelling of a common word to
clear up confusion over what has been received. Standard practice is to first say the word, say “I
spell,” and then spell the word phonetically. This lets the receiving station know you are about to
spell the word they just heard.
Several different phonetic alphabets are in common use, but most ham radio operators and public safety agencies use the ITU Phonetic Alphabet, and others use military alphabets. Many ham radio operators like to make up their own phonetics, especially as a memory aid for call signs, and often with humorous results. This may not be good practice in emergency communications, as in poor conditions, unusual phonetic words might also be misunderstood. We need to be sure that what we say is always interpreted exactly as intended.
Here is a reference copy of the ITU Phonetic Alphabet:
