Good To Know – Now, Put It To Practice!
- 29 December 2024
- West Georgia Amateur Radio Society
Every Thursday evening, the West Georgia Amateur Radio Society (WGARS) repeater hosts the Carroll County ARES training Net at 8:00 p.m. EST on the W4FWD repeater, on a 146.640 Mhz frequency, with a negative offset and a 131.8 Hz sub-audible tone. These nets provide our club with an abundance of information, operating techniques, and ways to improve our radio skills when operating over the repeater or as a participant in a net. During the net, those participating are able to ask questions, bring up issues related to ARES and EMCOMM, or ask questions related to the Amateur Radio world.
On this past ARES Net, December 26, 2024 ARES Emergency Coordinator (EC), WX4BK, went over several important communication skills, radio communication techniques, and common errors made when communicating. His training was inspired by “Seven Tips For Better Repeater Operating”, which was published in AARL’s On The Air magazine. This was an excellent presentation that focused on better radio communication, common radio communication errors most Operators make, and mis-conceptions most Operators have. If put into practice, all of these communication tips and corrections will no doubt greatly improve your radio communication skills. Every Amateur Radio Operator should want to improve their communication skills. Why not? It can only help the receiving Operator to understand you better and help them to get the message correctly. Below, are just a few of the highlights given during our recent presentation training session.
• The Repeater is not as quick as your PTT finger. So, pause after keying and delay speaking a moment. This will allow the Repeater to catch up and retransmit what you are saying. Many times, the first letter or two of a call sign is lost when checking into a net or identifying on the repeater, due to the Operator not allowing this delay.
• WGARS is a formal net. There is no need to indicate to Net Control that you have No Comment or have No Traffic. In other words, it is assumed you have no traffic or comment unless you say you do. On a Rag-Chew net, where each station will be called back for comment (Monday night nets), then the use of No Comment should be used to tell Net Control not to call on you.
• Traffic is meant to mean a formal message for the National Traffic System (NTS).
• Comment is not typically ever used on a formal net.
• “Break” is only used for emergencies.
• Speed Speaking is not communicating and there is no reward for being able to say your call sign the fastest. Net Control has an important job to do – listen to what you are saying, understand what you are saying, recall what you are saying, and then record the correct call sign for a correct check-in. Communication is a big part of Amateur Radio and speaking so fast that no one understands what you are saying or keep up logging it is not communicating.
• Using proper Amateur Radio phonetics is a must! C is not Carat/Karet, K is not Knot/Not or Kilowatt and J is not Jim/Gym. Remember, Amateur Radio is about communication. In any situation, why make the other station stop and try to figure out what you mean? In an emergency situation, valuable time will be wasted if the Receiver has to stop and struggle to try and figure out what you are saying or what you mean to say. Knowing the lingo goes hand in hand with your radio. Yes, it is easy to forget some of the correct phonetics and call out “Larry” instead of “Lima” but do your best to hone your radio communication skills, learn proper Amateur Radio phonetics and then show off your radio communication skills during field day.
If you missed this ARES Net, you missed a lot. Again, these were just a few of the many radio communication tips, recommendations and corrections WX4BK spoke on during our ARES Net. Don’t miss our next net. Lock in our WGARS frequency and offset in your radio and program your iPhone or Android to tone every Thursday evening at 7:55 p.m. est. We would love to have you check-in with us at the top of the hour, 8:00 p.m est., and be a part of our ARES Net and training session.
Until next time,
K4SBE
73
No, we're not hunting a real fox! Our fox is a radio transmitter strategically hidden by "Team Veal" somewhere in West Georgia for us to locate. Fox hunting lets us improve our skills at everything from finding downed aircraft to missing persons to malfunctioning transmitters. But in reality, its just fun!
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