Operating hints: dos and don'ts
Amateur radio runs on courtesy far more than on regulation. Get these right and nobody will guess you were licensed last month.
Do
- Listen first. Then listen a bit longer. Most beginner mistakes are transmitting on top of a conversation you could not hear both halves of.
- Give your callsign clearly at the end of a transmission and at least every ten minutes. Use phonetics when conditions are poor.
- Leave a gap between overs on a repeater, so someone with an emergency or a quick call can break in.
- Say "break" - once - if you need to join a conversation, then wait to be invited in.
- Answer new callsigns. Someone did it for you.
- Assume everyone is listening: scanners, neighbours, children, your boss.
- Ask if a frequency is in use before you start on HF - "is this frequency in use?" - because the station using it may be inaudible to you.
- Use only the power you need. It is a rule, and it is also good manners.
- Log your contacts and confirm them. It costs nothing and people appreciate it.
Don't
- Don't do business on the air. No advertising, no work dispatching, no selling - a small exception exists for selling your own used radio gear.
- Don't swear, play music or use codes meant to obscure meaning. All three are prohibited.
- Don't transmit without identifying. An unidentified transmission - even a test keying-up - is not allowed.
- Don't transmit outside your licence privileges. Know which slice of each band your class covers before you turn the dial.
- Don't monopolise a repeater. It is a shared resource paid for by a club.
- Don't argue on the air. If someone is rude, do not answer; the audience is entirely on the side of the person who stayed calm.
- Don't tune up on a busy frequency, and never into an antenna someone is standing next to.
- Don't be embarrassed to say you are new. It is the fastest way to get help.
Emergencies come first, always
If you hear a station declaring an emergency, stop transmitting and listen. In a genuine emergency any station may use any means of radio to call for help, regardless of the usual rules. Otherwise, keep out of the way and let the people handling it work.
Things that mark you out as experienced
- Short overs. Long monologues lose the room on radio just as they do in person.
- Standard phonetics - Alpha, Bravo, Charlie - rather than invented ones.
- Not saying "for" instead of "four", or "we do QSY now". Plain speech sounds better than jargon on VHF voice.
- Giving an honest signal report instead of an automatic "five nine".