Using your Radio
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Your biggest asset in MSA radio operating anywhere is your ears!
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Use them continually even before a rally starts. So much is going on that you
need to know and the only way to find out what is going on is to listen.
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Listen and keep radio silence (don't use the mike!!!!) until the radio check.
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Listen!
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Of course, to listen you need to switch that radio on! You did check everything
before you left home? The aerial is connected, for instance, all the wires are
joined and you do have a secure connection to the car battery? Hooking into the
12v supply via a cigar lighter might seem ideal but the only secure way to
connect is via a direct feed from the battery including
in-line fuses in both feed and return.
(black and red cables!)
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So what else do we need to do?
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Listen!!
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You will hear good and bad operators, listen and you will find the one's you
would like to emulate. You will hear some who always transmit in a cool, clear
voice in brief, to the point transmissions. That's the way to do it.
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That clear voice is obtained by speaking across the microphone, not into it. If
you speak
into
the mike the words will be difficult to decipher as they mingle with every
normally unheard sound your mouth makes when speaking - including what sounds
like very heavy breathing!
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And, ladies, ensure you keep your voice pitched low, there is nothing incites
panic more than a female voice raised in pitch!
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When you have said "I'm here, where do I go?" (or some such) to the Stage Radio
Co-ordinator go to your post and still keep radio silence unless you have a
problem. The first time you should use your radio is to reply to the
controller's radio check.
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So what else do we need to do?
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Listen!!!
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Always be aware of the position of your mike - don't sit on it!
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Wait for control to announce "Standby" or "Clear" before you transmit. Only one
person can use the air at a time, two voices at once become a garbled mess.
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Write down any messages you have to pass on.
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If your message is long, and you think Control may need a chance to listen for
other calls in the middle, then finish a sentence and say
"Break"
, then take your finger off the mike button until Control indicates you should
carry on - it may just be with a double click so be listening. This is useful
when you are start or finish radio and have to give opening/closing details at
a busy time
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Be friendly and polite to marshals - they have the dirty job and they are all
volunteers!
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Get out of your vehicles and replace tape, arrows etc: - you, too,
are a marshal and part of your job at a rally is to ensure your junction
remains safe and is kept to the Stage Commander's standard. If you work alone
that is your choice, you still must do the marshalling job as well as the radio
job.
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If control comments on a deterioration in your transmit quality try starting
your engine - it takes far more power to transmit than receive so a flattening
battery will show on transmit long before it shows on receive.
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Above all be conscientious and hardworking at every rally you
attend. Without radio communication competitors' safety is compromised - they
all rely on you wherever you might be on the stage - which, of course, will be
the place you were told to go not where you think might be better. A lot of
work will have gone into the Safety Plan for the event and the Stage Commander
and Organisers expect their plan to be followed so they can use it in an
emergency (what we are all in place for really) and if there is a blank spot
they thought was filled it could end up a matter of life or death.
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Go, and stay, where you are told to go. Don't risk Competitor Safety.
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Have you got the message yet?
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LISTEN !!!!
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Even if you don't transmit at all except for the radio check you should never,
ever, stop listening
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