This training tape was produced by Santa Clara ARES/RACES, the Santa County Valley Section training staff, and radio station KSJO. Voice Radio Procedures. While the rise of digital communications for both tactical and logistic traffic has reduced our dependency on voice communications, we still rely on the spoken word for many point-to-point messages, as well as virtually all field communications. In addition we are often asked to handle traffic on local government radio channels. Voice communications whether on amateur or government frequencies are to be carried out with brief, accurate transmissions, according to the following procedures and examples. Use of clear text. Always use plain English for all communications. Do not use 10-codes or Q-signals, and minimize use of abbreviations. When acknowledging a message use the word copy and not 10-4 or QSL. Advise the OES Manager that Sheriff Gillingham is en route. is not a long message. In fact, this message may be delivered verbally to the OES manager. On the other hand, >Sheriff Gillingham requires contact with the OES Manager. >He can be reached at 299-2511. is a long message. Break up long messages into logical phrases; end each phrase with the word break, and stop transmitting. Pause long enough for the receiving station to write out the message and to ask for repeats. >Sheriff Gillingham requires contact with the OES Manager. Break. stop transmitting and wait for any requests to repeat. >He can be reach at 299-2511. End of message. Again stop transmitting and wait for the receiving station. >Message received. Transmission of numbers Routinely repeat long numbers during message transmission. Read once as single digits, and again as commonly grouped digits. >He can be reached at two nine nine, two five, one one. >Once again, that's two nine nine, twenty five, eleven. Another example, >Report to 2212 Alamaden Avenue. >Repeating, twenty two twelve Almaden Avenue. Message addresses. Be sure all incoming and ougtoing messages have both from and two locations and position titles or names. >From Fire Chief, Mt. View EOC. >To Fire Mutual Aid Coordinator, County EOC. Tactical and FCC callsigns. Always use the tactical call sign assigned to your location. Ask the operator you are relieving, or the Emergency Coordinator or Shift Supervisor, for the tactical callsign for your assignment. Tactical call signs often use location names: >Milpitas EOC. >Independence High School Shelter or geographical names >Alum Rock Park >Curtner Avenue Command Post. or incident command system names >First Street Command >Berryessa IC or functional names for shadows >Medical Group Supervisor >Harry Hall's Shadows. or sometimes tactical callsigns are arbitratrily assigned names: >van 1 >van 2 Identify with your FCC callsign only every 10 minutes, or only at the end of a series of transmissions if it is likely there will be no more transmissions for 10 minutes. Do not over-identify with your FCC callsign. This clutters up tactical communications. Do not initiate a call with your FCC callsign; use your tactical callsign instead. Similarly, do not respond to a call with your FCC callsign; again, use only your tactical callsign. >First Street Command, Santa Clara County. >First Street Command. At the end of the final transmission, identify with both your tactical and FCC callsigns. >First Street Command, WD6ABC. >Santa Clara County, WA6XYZ. Acknowledging checkins. When you operate at a fixed location, such as an EOC, or as a tactical net control, it is good practice to acknowedge field status check-in reports with the time, and both your tactical and fcc callsigns. >Van 2 arrived on scene. KA6ABC. >Santa Clara County copies, 15:12 hours, N6XYZ. Another use for break. It is not necessary to stop transmitting between acknowledging an incoming message and beginning an outgoing call. Use the word break to separate the two parts of the same transmission. >Santa Clara County copies. Break. Van 2, Santa Clara County. Directed calls. When operating on a directed net, it is customary to request permission from the net control to call another station. >Net Control, Milpitas EOC, directed call. >Milpitas, go ahead with your call. >Mountain View EOC, Milpitas EOC. >Mountain View EOC, go ahead. And after the message is complete, >Mountain View EOC copies, N6ZZZ. >Milpitas EOC, K6AAA. >Net Control, 18:09 hours, W6GGG. Use of the time stamp. While not required, regular use of a verbal time stamp by net control operators has several benefits. It brings some degree of order to the net. It increases the value of audio tape logging of the net. And it prompts operators to date- and time-stamp their messages. Local government radio callsigns. Although the previous examples used amateur radio FCC callsigns, the same procedures apply to operation on government radios. Unlike amateur radio callsigns, local government callsigns are usually issued for each radio system at specific locations and are used by all operators on that system. For instance, the base station for the 37 MHz EOC-to-EOC radio system at the Cupertino EOC is WGNU359. Regardless of who uses it, that radio station always has the same callsign. The following example utilizes the California Emergency Services radio system, although the procedure is applicapable to any government radio. >State OES Sacramento, Santa Clara County. >State OES Sacramento. >the sheriff requests contact with the State OES Law Enforcement Coordinator; what is his phone number? >Stand by please. A few moments later, >Santa Clara County, State OES Sacramento. >Santa Clara County. >the number is 916-555-1700, repeating, 916-555-1700. >Santa Clara County copies, KFT277. >KFD667. Notice that the FCC callsigns are only given at the end of the the series of transmissions. No callsign was used when State OES asked Santa Clara County to stand by, because the conversation was going to resume shortly. Also, notice one other difference. Unlike most ARES/RACES operation, this radio traffic was not third-party communications. Although the call to State OES was a long message, the State OESradio operator did not transcribe it for some other person. Therefore, there was no need to break between the two parts of the outgoing message. Government radio operation requires judgment regarding differences from ARES/RACES operation. Composite example. Combining all of the previous procedures, listen to the following example of net operations. De La Cruz IC, Santa Clara County. De La Cruz IC> The Red Cross Van 1 is enroute to your location. De La Cruz IC copies, N6ABC. Santa Clara County. Break. Red Cross Van 1, Santa Clara County. Red Cross Van 1. What is your travel time to the scene? About 10 minutes. Santa Clara copies, 13:15 hours, K6XYZ. Red Cross Van 1 , WA6DEF. Santa Clara County, Union School Shelter. Santa Clara County, Red Cross Van 1. Stand by, Union School Shelter. Red Cross Van 1, go ahead. Red Cross Van 1 is on scene, WA6DEF. On scene at 13:24. Break. Union School Shelter, Santa Clara County. Union School Shelter has traffic for the EOC Shelter Coordinator. Go ahead with your traffic. Message from Union School Shelter Manager to EOC Shelter Coordinator. Break. Go ahead. 24 people now in shelter. Requesting the following items. Break. Santa Clara County, De La Cruz IC. Stand by, De La Cruz IC. Continue with your message, Union School Shelter. Need cots, blankets, and food for 40 people. Break. Go ahead. Please advice when we may expect supplies. End of message. Santa Clara County copies at 13:27. Union School Shelter, W6GHI. De La Cruz IC, Santa Clara County. De La Cruz IC. Go ahead with your traffic, please. The Incident Commander requests that the CHP representative give him a call on his cellular phone. Break. Go ahead with the number. The number is 439-2111. Repeating, four three nine, twenty-one eleven. Santa Clara County copies. N6XYZ. De La Cruz IC, N6ABC. Santa Clara County, Red Cross Van 1. Directed call. Red Cross Van 1, go ahead with your call. Union School Shelter, Red Cross Van 1. Union School Shelter. We have the supplies you need on board, and we will be at your location in about five minutes. Union School Shelter copies, W6GHI. Red Cross Van 1, WA6DEF. Santa Clara County copies and will forward to EOC Shelter Coordinator, 13:35 hours, N6XYZ. We hope that this training tape has been helpful. Remember, effective emergency communications requires alert operators, good discipline, and common sense. Participation in weekly nets and public service events will prepare you for the next emergency.