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The PracticeRadio Procedure, is a collection of rules and guides, developed over the years, designed to let the radio operators work best within the limitations that radios have. It is split into two main sections, "Preparation and Planning", and "Voice Procedure". Preparation and Planning covers all of the aspects that should be considered before an event. Voice Procedure covers actually talking over the radios to enable the successful handling of an event. Preparation And PlanningIn the Preparation and Planning stages, the points to be covered include the placement and manning of stations. When placing a station, you will need to consider what that station's function will be. You will also need to consider the radio signal performance. For instance, if the event organizers have a marshal point you will probably need an outstation there. However, if the marshal point is in a hollow, they will not be able to talk very far. At this point you have two choices, you either move the outstation to a hill overlooking the marshal point and have a runner, or have another station relaying messages for the one in the hollow. The position and function of a station should also be considered when deciding who will be manning it. It makes more sense to put a member who is an off duty police officer at a busy road junction that it would a non-driver. In the same way, someone who is quick thinking and calm in a crisis would be better suited to control. All of the points mentioned for organizing an outstation also hold true when placing the two control stations. I say two controls because, if possible, it is always a good idea to split the functions of network control and event control. While the event control should ideally be as close the the event organizers as possible, the network control should be placed in the best position to control the radio network - even if this is in a field at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere. Once you have placed all of your stations, it is time to do a radio check. To carry out a radio check you should set up as many of the outstations and the controls as possible. You then make sure that everyone can talk to everyone else. In this way, if you have anyone who cannot talk to others, you have time to move them, or to arrange relay routes before the event. For instance if you have to move the network control because of a big oak tree killing your signal on one side, and you're beaming live into thousands of living rooms because you've got a T.V. transmitter on the other side, you don't want to find this out 15 minutes before the event starts. The next part of PnP is deciding what information the stations and controls need before the event, and what information they will require when the event first starts. This may be such items as a map of the event, a list of outstation locations and callsigns before the event; and a total number of competitors once the event has started. The last and most important part of PnP, and this goes to every member who will be on the event, is to check their equipment is working. There is no point in doing any of the steps above, if on the day no sets are working. Voice ProcedureOkay, you've done all of the PnP. The day of the event is here, somebody has to say something. This is where the second half of the Radio Procedure, the Voice Procedure, comes into play. It is quite possible to run a network of 20 or more radios, even with the limitations imposed (see above) if correct voice procedure is followed. Voice procedure covers every aspect of transmitting over a radio, including what to say and when to say it. Some parts of the voice procedure are required by under the terms of the license, most notably the need to always identify yourself when you transmit, and to state the end of a message. However, that is not why we use Voice Procedure. The reason that we use it is because it works and works well. The first rule of using a radio is to listen. This may be another point where you think that I am stating the obvious. I don't care! The art of listening is one that we all should practice. To listen to a radio is not always as easy as you may think. For example you may only hear half of a conversation because the other station is out of reach, or the quality of the signal may not be too good. But why do I have to listen, they're not talking to me? When you are on an event, you should listen to every message. A message affecting another station will probably affect you too at some point. If the station before you reports to control that a runner is struggling and wobbly, you need to know so that you can tell your marshals to keep a lookout for him and make sure he doesn't disappear between stations. There are procedure guides to cover almost all aspects of using the radio, from setting up a station, to closing it down, and everything in between.
Most of the voice procedures shown here will be in the form of example dialogs. In these dialogs we will use callsign REVCOM 201 as the outstation and REVCOM CHARLIE CONTROL as the network control. ALL transmissions must go through Network control unless control allows a talk-through, or exceptional conditions dictate otherwise.
Your First DialogAll message dialogs are basically collections of individual transmissions. These transmissions build up the structure of the dialog. This structure consists of
If the message is a long one, or is complicated, the message passing / confirmation pair may be repeated a number of times. Okay, now you know what a message dialog looks like, lets have our first example. Notice in the example that the individual transmissions also have a structure. Example 1. A typical message passing dialog
The first thing to always remember is that if someone else is talking, you must wait until they have finished. In line (1) the outstation (that's me) tries to contact the network controller. Note that their callsign comes before my callsign. This is because of human nature. If my callsign was to go first, then the controller may think that call is someone else trying to call me and, although not intentionally, take less notice of the call. The word "calling" simply means that I am calling control and wish to talk to them. The word "Over" means that I have finished what I am saying and am about to stop transmitting. You should also have noticed that before every transmission there is a pause. This is very important as we will discuss later when we talk about priority calls. The pause does not need to be long, only a few seconds, not much more that the time it takes to move the microphone to your mouth. In line (2) the controller has responded to the call. Make sure that when you receive this transmission, that it is actually the controller that is transmitting, and also that it is you that they are responding to. It is quite common for two outstations to call control at the same time. You will not here this as you are deaf while you are transmitting, and control will only hear the outstation with the stronger signal. Once again, the "Over" is tagged on the end. Line (3) is where we actually pass our message. The transmission starts of with me identifying myself. I then say what I have to say, and again finish with "Over". If I had a lot to say, I would split it up into smaller messages. When I hear line (4), I know that my message has got to control. In know this because they identified themselves as control, and then confirmed my message with the word "Received". If they had not received my message okay, they would have said "Say Again" instead. I am now quite happy that my message has been sent successfully, so I can shut up now and go back to sitting down. In line (4) I identify myself as usual, but instead of ending with "Over" I finish my message with "to Standby". This tells everyone that I have finished my dialog. Finally, in line (6), control does the same. Once everyone has heard control go to standby, they know that they can have a go. Apart from priority calls, nobody should transmit until Control is at standby. That's it. It's that simple. No black magic; my mystical incantions. Practically every message that you will want to pass is based on this example. There are some more specialised radio usage based jobs that you will want to do. The rest of this chapter will cover these jobs. These jobs include Opening an outstation, closing an outstation, opening and closing the network control, passing a priority message, requesting and performing a talk-through and finally, relaying a message. Opening An OutstationThe first job in this list is opening an outstation. This is also the first job that you will have to do. Once you have got to your location, you will need to tell the controller that you are ready. Example 2. Opening an Outstation
If you compare this example with the previous one, you will notice that the only difference between the two is the body of the message, lines (3) and (4). As well as telling control that you are on location and on-frequency, you are asking control how good your signal is. Ideally, "loud and clear" will be your reply. If control report that you are quiet, or the sound is poor, try moving and try again. Also, if control is quiet to you, move and try again. Once these checks have been done I can go to standby happy that control knows that you are there, and that they can talk to you. Quite often you will do this immediately after turning on your radio. If this is the case, the wait before line (1) is even more important. Closing An OutstationAt the other end of the day, you will want to close your station. As usual this is a normal dialog with a slight change. Example 3. Closing an Outstation
The first point to notice from this example is that you do not tell control that you are closing, but ask. This is a small but important point. Don't forget that the Controller is King. They may be aware of a problem that you don't. The last thing control wants if a runner has vanished is for an outstation to vanish too. The second point to notice is that on line (5) you are not going to standby, because you are not going to be standing by - you are closing down. Opening ControlOpening the network control is even easier than opening an outstation. It consists of just one transmission and then waiting for each outstation to announce itself as described above. Example 4. Opening the Control Station
Straight forward or what? In that one short transmission you have informed everyone who you are and what callsign you are using, and also that you are standing by for them to call you. Closing ControlThe transmission to close down a control station is just as easy. Realistically, this should not be needed as there should be nobody to hear it. This is because the control should always be the last station to close down - while there are still outstations operating, the control should be available. Notice that in this example that the initial wait for quiet was not included. This is because the network should already be quiet. Priority MessagesNext on the list of tasks is "Priority Messages". These messages are a bit of a double edged sword. These messages are the main reason people join REVCOM in the first place. However, I personally consider an event to be a successful one if we have not had one priority call. The main purpose of an outstation is to inform control of any incident that affects the safety of the competitors. These include things such as road accidents, or a competitor requiring first aid. However, organisers often like other information such as competitor progress, who is in front. Priority Messages are a way of getting the important messages through even if the network is in use on messages that are not as important. In this example control is currently talking to REVCOM 212 Example 6. Starting A Priority Message
Okay, lets look at this example. The first thing to note is that the wait before line (1) has changed. This time, because of the urgency, you do not want to wait until the network is quiet. You will transmit line (1) as soon as there is a gap. Immediately after the station transmitting says "Over", get straight in there. That's what the gap is there for. Depending on how quickly you get in and how long the pause is, you may not get through to control on the first attempt. If not, keep trying every time someone stops talking. At line (2), control has heard you. The first thing that is done is that all other stations are told to go quiet. At this point, everyone else should stop what they are doing and not try to transmit. You are then told to pass your message. Obviously, you would not use a priority message to say something this trivial, but lines (3) to (5) show that this part of a priority is exactly like a normal message. In line (6), control has finished talking to you, and goes back to the station that it was talking to before you interrupted. Performing a TalkthroughNext, we have talk-though. This allows one outstation to talk directly to another outstation. There are some very good arguments against ever using talk-through, most notably the handling of priority messages above. The preferred method is "Relaying" as discussed in the next section. However, talkthrough is possible and is allowed so I will show you an example here. In this example, REVCOM 201 will talk through to REVCOM 212 . Example 7. A typical talk-through dialog
As you can see, this is the longest example we have seen so far. This is one of the reasons talk-throughs should be avoided. The dialog starts perfectly normal with lines (1) and (2). Then at line (3), instead of passing a message you ask control for the talk-through. In line (4) control grants you permission. If control does not grant you permission, ask control to relay the message for you. Never disobey control. Once you have control, the dialog between you and the other station, lines (5) to (8), are a normal message dialog. Once you have finished talking to the other station, you have to hand then network back to the controller. This is done in lines (11) and (12). Remember that no other station can start to transmit until after control has gone to standby. Relaying Through ControlThe preferred way of sending a message from one outstation to another is by "Relaying". This involves you sending the message to control, who then send it on to the station that is it intended for. The first thing to realise with relaying is that the message potentially has to be sent twice taking up double the amount of time needed to pass it. In Reality (and in the example below), this is not the case. Example 8. Relaying A Message
With lines (1) and (2) the dialog starts normally. In line (3) you tell control that the message is not for them, but for REVCOM 212 . This does two things; it tells control who the message is for, but it also tells REVCOM 212 who is already listening to pay a little more attentions. Once control has acknowledged your request in line (4) you can send the actual message in line (5). As usual, control will confirm that they have received the message in line (6) and then you can go back to standby in line (7). Once you are out of the way, control will then contact the other station in line (8). REVCOM 212, again being the good little operator that they are, know what control wants and are waiting for control to call. In line (9) they confirm that they heard and understood the message that was for them. This saves control having to repeat it. Control can simply acknowledge REVCOM 212 and say that there is nothing further in line (10). The only thing left is for REVCOM 212 to go to standby followed by control - lines (11) and (12). If you compare relaying through control with talk-through, you will notice that relaying is no faster that talk-through, and can even take longer if the receiver did not hear the message in the first place. If this is the case, then why relay? The first reason is one of control. With talk-through the network controller hands over the rains to someone else. This is never a good thing. If a station has a priority call because someone is injured or in danger, it is much harder to regain control. The second reason is one of ability. The only reason that relaying would need the message to be transmitted twice is if the receiving station cannot hear the sending station. If this is the case, then talk-through would not be an option anyway. That's it. Anything else that you will want to do over the radios should be possible by using the examples above.
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