jcheeseright
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- Jun 14, 2012
- 4,280
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I apologise in advance, there is going to be some rambling ahead!
Effective use of radios can change your game in a big way, lots of people have them but very few use them effectively to communicate with one another. The ability to coordinate your team across distance and to pass information around quickly is invaluable, but to do it effectively you need to know what you're doing... 99% of airsofters don't know what they're doing with a radio and so 99% of the time an airsofter's radio is just another useless bit of junk they hang off their rig.
Don't be that guy!
First rule, the one you should never, EVER break is the following:
LISTEN before you TRANSMIT, if two radios are transmitting on the same frequency at the same time no one gets either message!
The key to effective radio communication is brevity;
BREVITY
noun
1. shortness of time or duration; briefness :
the brevity of human life.
2. the quality of expressing much in few words; terseness:
Brevity is the soul of wit.
The second definition there is really what we're after, your transmissions should be short but meaningful. If you have a piece of information that you feel is important to pass on to other members of your team then do so, but before you do, stop and think for a second; Is this information actually useful? Will transmitting 'tango down' like a badass mofo rainbow six operator benefit the team's awareness of the current situation or your intentions? If the answer is no, then kindly STFU.
How do we achieve brevity while still effectively communicating all of the information required?
Simple, you use a standard message format and only transmit what you absolutely must to get the message across. I'll include a glossary of terms at the end, but for now I'll work through examples.
The standard NATO voice procedure for passing a message (as laid down in APP1E, for those with access to it that wish to error check me) is as follows:
YOU this is ME, this is my concise message, OVER.
Breaking that down it's a very simple construct, but all of it is there for a reason;
YOU - who you are addressing the message to, we lead with this to get their attention - everyone listens for their own name/callsign.
ME - who are you? the identity of the person passing the message is not always useful information however it always helps provide context for the recipient.
OVER - I have finished transmitting, and require acknowledgement/a response.
Key with this is to put all of the information needed into one concise message, e.g:
AARON this is JAMES, four blues moving to the south of the fort, heading towards fuel dump, OVER
From that message, AARON knows that JAMES is calling him, and that he has seen four blue players, he's stated their location and their direction of travel. AARON from that message has gained insight into the situation in game and could potentially be in a position to act upon it.
As the message ends with OVER, AARON should acknowledge receipt of it, the standard format for that is:
JAMES this is AARON, roger, OUT
OUT - at the end of the message this indicates that you have finished transmitting and do not require a response
If you need to transmit a message everyone, the format remains largely the same, you just skip off the recipient's callsign. Since you're not addressing anyone specific there's no requirement for acknowledgement, so you should end the transmission with OUT.
The standard, pointless, airsoft way of passing that message is generally as follows;
Spotted four blues in my 12 o clock, anyone else see them?
I hear that crap week in week out, and that's me being generous, normally the message goes on way longer than that with way less useful information! The sender hasn't identified them self or stated any kind of location, so the message is robbed of all context, where is this person? where is his 12 o clock? Where are those blue players going? No one gains anything from that message, it uses up time on the radio that could be used to pass useful information for the benefit of everyone!
One I actually heard a few months back (at Black Ops Cribbs in Bristol) was a cracker, and summed up to me why some people shouldn't ever be given a radio. The game being played was a bomb-delivery game, where the other team needed to deliver a bomb to a gate at the end of a road that runs through the site; the bomb was not allowed to leave the road under any circumstances. As a defender I had called over the team channel requesting someone update me on the location of the bomb, so I could get myself into an effective position to help stop it so I said the following:this is James, I am in the barracks, does anyone know the location of the bomb, OVER
I passed my location, so others on the site knew where I was and what I could see and I requested a bit of information from anyone who had it, finishing with OVER to indicate that I'd like a response. The response I got went something like this, it was probably longer:
Yeah I saw it a minute ago but I died and had to go back to respawn cos I'd already been mediced once, it's on the road.
That was the point where I switched my radio off for the day.
Radio do's and don'ts:
DO listen before you transmit.
DO ensure that the information you're passing is USEFUL and RELEVANT.
DO format and address your transmissions in a standard way, it helps everyone.
DO think about what you're going to say before you push the button, umm and err are not useful information!
DO conduct radio checks with your team before you start, ensure everyone can both receive and transmit
DON'T 'step on' other people's transmissions by transmitting at the same time as them!
DON'T 'radio check' people in-game, if they're not responding it's because they either can't hear you or can't speak because they're dead.
DON'T transmit unless you've got something USEFUL to say -
Some examples of things that aren't useful, but get sent ALL THE BLOODY TIME follow;
reloading! - no one cares.
contact! - without context this is useless, format it correctly and tell people who you are, where you are, where the enemy are, how many of them there are, which way they're headed, etc.
tango down! / enemy hit! / etc - no one cares how super elite you are, at all.
We're OSCAR MIKE - just f*ck off, seriously now. No one says this, not even Americans.
Radio words that are useful;
OVER - I have finished transmitting and would like a response
OUT - I have finished transmitting and do not require a response
SAY AGAIN - I didn't hear your last transmission, please send it again
ROGER - I received your last message and understood it
NEGATIVE - no
AFFIRMATIVE (sometimes shortened to AFFIRM) - yes
This is just a brief (lol, not really) rambling introduction into comms use and more importantly, comms discipline. It's a really deep subject which I can rant about for hours if required, but no one wants to read that! If anyone has any specific questions about voice procedures, not radio equipment, then I'm happy to answer them in this thread. Likewise, if anyone has anything specific they'd like to add or correct please chuck it below.
Effective use of radios can change your game in a big way, lots of people have them but very few use them effectively to communicate with one another. The ability to coordinate your team across distance and to pass information around quickly is invaluable, but to do it effectively you need to know what you're doing... 99% of airsofters don't know what they're doing with a radio and so 99% of the time an airsofter's radio is just another useless bit of junk they hang off their rig.
Don't be that guy!
First rule, the one you should never, EVER break is the following:
LISTEN before you TRANSMIT, if two radios are transmitting on the same frequency at the same time no one gets either message!
The key to effective radio communication is brevity;
BREVITY
noun
1. shortness of time or duration; briefness :
the brevity of human life.
2. the quality of expressing much in few words; terseness:
Brevity is the soul of wit.
The second definition there is really what we're after, your transmissions should be short but meaningful. If you have a piece of information that you feel is important to pass on to other members of your team then do so, but before you do, stop and think for a second; Is this information actually useful? Will transmitting 'tango down' like a badass mofo rainbow six operator benefit the team's awareness of the current situation or your intentions? If the answer is no, then kindly STFU.
How do we achieve brevity while still effectively communicating all of the information required?
Simple, you use a standard message format and only transmit what you absolutely must to get the message across. I'll include a glossary of terms at the end, but for now I'll work through examples.
The standard NATO voice procedure for passing a message (as laid down in APP1E, for those with access to it that wish to error check me) is as follows:
YOU this is ME, this is my concise message, OVER.
Breaking that down it's a very simple construct, but all of it is there for a reason;
YOU - who you are addressing the message to, we lead with this to get their attention - everyone listens for their own name/callsign.
ME - who are you? the identity of the person passing the message is not always useful information however it always helps provide context for the recipient.
OVER - I have finished transmitting, and require acknowledgement/a response.
Key with this is to put all of the information needed into one concise message, e.g:
AARON this is JAMES, four blues moving to the south of the fort, heading towards fuel dump, OVER
From that message, AARON knows that JAMES is calling him, and that he has seen four blue players, he's stated their location and their direction of travel. AARON from that message has gained insight into the situation in game and could potentially be in a position to act upon it.
As the message ends with OVER, AARON should acknowledge receipt of it, the standard format for that is:
JAMES this is AARON, roger, OUT
OUT - at the end of the message this indicates that you have finished transmitting and do not require a response
If you need to transmit a message everyone, the format remains largely the same, you just skip off the recipient's callsign. Since you're not addressing anyone specific there's no requirement for acknowledgement, so you should end the transmission with OUT.
Code:
this is JAMES, four blues moving to the south of the fort, heading towards fuel dump, OUTSpotted four blues in my 12 o clock, anyone else see them?
I hear that crap week in week out, and that's me being generous, normally the message goes on way longer than that with way less useful information! The sender hasn't identified them self or stated any kind of location, so the message is robbed of all context, where is this person? where is his 12 o clock? Where are those blue players going? No one gains anything from that message, it uses up time on the radio that could be used to pass useful information for the benefit of everyone!
One I actually heard a few months back (at Black Ops Cribbs in Bristol) was a cracker, and summed up to me why some people shouldn't ever be given a radio. The game being played was a bomb-delivery game, where the other team needed to deliver a bomb to a gate at the end of a road that runs through the site; the bomb was not allowed to leave the road under any circumstances. As a defender I had called over the team channel requesting someone update me on the location of the bomb, so I could get myself into an effective position to help stop it so I said the following:this is James, I am in the barracks, does anyone know the location of the bomb, OVER
I passed my location, so others on the site knew where I was and what I could see and I requested a bit of information from anyone who had it, finishing with OVER to indicate that I'd like a response. The response I got went something like this, it was probably longer:
Yeah I saw it a minute ago but I died and had to go back to respawn cos I'd already been mediced once, it's on the road.
That was the point where I switched my radio off for the day.
Radio do's and don'ts:
DO listen before you transmit.
DO ensure that the information you're passing is USEFUL and RELEVANT.
DO format and address your transmissions in a standard way, it helps everyone.
DO think about what you're going to say before you push the button, umm and err are not useful information!
DO conduct radio checks with your team before you start, ensure everyone can both receive and transmit
DON'T 'step on' other people's transmissions by transmitting at the same time as them!
DON'T 'radio check' people in-game, if they're not responding it's because they either can't hear you or can't speak because they're dead.
DON'T transmit unless you've got something USEFUL to say -
Some examples of things that aren't useful, but get sent ALL THE BLOODY TIME follow;
reloading! - no one cares.
contact! - without context this is useless, format it correctly and tell people who you are, where you are, where the enemy are, how many of them there are, which way they're headed, etc.
tango down! / enemy hit! / etc - no one cares how super elite you are, at all.
We're OSCAR MIKE - just f*ck off, seriously now. No one says this, not even Americans.
Radio words that are useful;
OVER - I have finished transmitting and would like a response
OUT - I have finished transmitting and do not require a response
SAY AGAIN - I didn't hear your last transmission, please send it again
ROGER - I received your last message and understood it
NEGATIVE - no
AFFIRMATIVE (sometimes shortened to AFFIRM) - yes
This is just a brief (lol, not really) rambling introduction into comms use and more importantly, comms discipline. It's a really deep subject which I can rant about for hours if required, but no one wants to read that! If anyone has any specific questions about voice procedures, not radio equipment, then I'm happy to answer them in this thread. Likewise, if anyone has anything specific they'd like to add or correct please chuck it below.
