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By Scott Read, KM6RFB
Shorthand expressions and codes are useful for radio communication, especially when you need to transfer information quickly. It's important to make sure that everyone's on the same page with the terminology you're using and what it all means, so make sure all radio users know and understand all the terms in advance. You may decide to just use plain language, or use just a few of these terms instead of all of them ¨C whichever helps your team to communicate effectively.
Common terminology in radio communication is crucial because it ensures clear and concise information exchange between individuals or groups, especially in critical situations like emergencies/disasters, by eliminating confusion arising from different interpretations of words or phrases, allowing for swift and effective action; essentially, everyone on the same radio channel understands the meaning of each term used, leading to better coordination and response times.
In amateur radio, we tend to use terminology that has been applied to and accepted in our community, deeply rooted in our long history, particularly from the historic use of telegraphy with Morse code stemming from the 1850s.
In the world of the public safety community we serve, however, amateur radio operators need to shift our mindset to using its language of public safety, understand agencies' requirements and how they communicate. Public safety workers generally do not understand our jargon, nor have the time to learn it. Under presidential directive after 9/11, the whole community needed to adopt common language, which ultimately embraced the NIMS/ICS terminology set.
A good example is the Q-signals table, a system of radio shorthand as old as wireless and developed from even older telegraphy codes. Q-signals are a set of abbreviations for common information that save time and allow communication between amateur radio operators. But public safety professionals are almost totally unfamiliar with it. Just the opposite is true with public safety and the use of Ten Codes, with which we as hams are mostly unfamiliar. Examples for police radio:?10-0?Use Caution;?10-1?Weak Signal;?10-2?Good Signal;?10-3?Stop Transmitting;?10-4?Affirmative; etc.?. Even worse, they may not even be clear between public safety agencies. This can impede the flow of information between served agencies in a timely process.
Key points about the importance of common radio terminology:
- Reduces miscommunication: Using standardized terms minimizes the risk of misunderstandings that could have serious consequences in emergency scenarios.
- Improves interoperability: When different agencies or teams use the same radio language, it facilitates collaboration and information sharing across groups.
- Efficiency in communication: Standardized phrases and codes allow for faster transmission of information, particularly when time is critical.
- Safety enhancement: Clear and consistent communication is essential for ensuring safety in situations like search and rescue operations or industrial work environments.
Examples of common radio terminology:
- Roger: Acknowledgment of a message received.
- Over and Out: Indicates the end of a transmission and requests a response
- Mayday: Emergency distress call
- Affirmative: Yes
- Negative: No
- Go ahead: I am ready for your message
- Say again: Repeat all of your last message
- Say all before/after: Repeat all before/after a certain phrase or word if you didn't catch part of the message
- Out: Conversation is finished, no answer is required or expected
- Radio check: What's my signal strength? Can you hear me?
- Read you loud and clear: Your transmission signal is good; I can hear you fine
- Wilco: Abbreviation of "I will comply", means the speaker will complete the task that's been asked of them
- Break, break: Interruption to a transmission to communicate urgently
- Emergency, emergency: Distress call, only to be used when there is an imminent danger to life and immediate assistance is required
- Stand by: Wait
- Wait out: Waiting period is longer than I expected, I will get back to you as soon as possible
- I spell: The next word will be spelled out using the phonetic alphabet
The ITU or NATO phonetic alphabet is internationally recognized and used. If you've ever tried to spell a word over a radio, you'll understand why¨Cit makes things much simpler.?.
In conclusion, we need to keep in mind that at the end of the day we work for the served agency. We should think of them as our client and the citizens we serve as our customers. It is also important to remember how we integrate into their operation and not the other way around. [Scott Read, KM6RFB, is a COML, COMT, AUXCOMM cert holder, and SKYWARN operator]
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