Operating Procedures

Foundations of Amateur Radio

Today we're going to look at operating procedures, that is, what to say, when to say it and when not to say it. Amateur Radio being over a century old has lots of traditions and lots of quirky exceptions to rules, but you'll learn those as you go on air and make mistakes, and assume that you'll make those, probably regularly and every now and then someone will gently correct you, or you'll get shouted at, either way you'll get feedback.

It's generally a better idea to figure out what's going on before you even open your mouth, so lets look at some things that really need to be second nature.

Your callsign is always last. Always! That way the other station knows who you are, every time.

I realise that you might not think that this is important, but just imagine that you've been inconsistent with this across your activities and one day you're in an emergency. Now it's crucial to know who is who. If you always do it the same, always your callsign last, then you'll do that in an emergency too.

That out of the way, there are other aspects to operating that you need to take into account.

You should always listen on the frequency that you're intending to operate. The longer the better. The reason I say that is because you may not hear both sides, or even two out of three, or more sides of the conversation. If there is a group talking, you may only hear one station who is happily chatting with others.

After listening, you should say: "Is this frequency in use?" and listen some more. After about a minute, ask again, adding your callsign: "Is this frequency in use, VK6FLAB". If you still hear nothing, you can say: "Nothing heard" and start your transmission on the frequency.

While you're operating remember that band conditions change and that you might find yourself all of a sudden among other stations that were not there earlier. They were, but you didn't hear them and you might actually find that they could hear you all along, so be prepared to make some new friends or make peace.

There are idiots on air. You'll find net controllers who all of a sudden turn up on the frequency that you've been operating on and demand that you QSY. You can argue the point, or you can take the high road and leave the frequency to those who think they own the air. No mileage to be made from yelling at each other, no benefit and you'll end up looking like the problem, even though no single station owns any frequency.

Similarly you'll find stations who have particular perspectives on how stations should operate and they'll go out of their way to tell you off. Pay no attention, unless they are actually going to make a formal complaint to your regulator, their feedback is just that, feedback.

If you hear a couple of stations talking to each other and there's a few stations you know, you can drop your callsign in between the gap between overs and if they're inclined, a station will acknowledge you and let you in. This in turn implies a gap between overs. Sometimes that gap doesn't exist. If it's urgent, you can try your callsign and understand that it may clash with another station, but don't force it and if you're in a group, leave a gap after the previous station hands over to you.

If you hear two stations discussing a medical issue, family affairs or other topics that are not generic, listen, but don't but in. When they're done and said goodbye, you can try your callsign and see if they respond, but don't expect it.

Next week I'll take a look at Q-codes.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB