Radio Etiquette for a city

[DragoSapien]

I was asked to put on a ( How to use a radio and what not to do ) class for our city workers. We are doing away with cell phones and going back to radios. Some of the workers don't have a clue how to use them. LOL. They had cell phones all there life's.
Other then what I know about ham radio rules, are there any other laws that I need to know about that other company's have to go by. Or if someone has a spread sheet of topic I can use would really help. Im in Texas

Thanks for any help.

 

[Mudfoot]

Just to use common sense and remind them that scanner junkies are listening. No matter what you say or do, your still gonna have nimrods on the radio.

 

[WA8ZYT]

Push button, then talk. NOT start talking, then push button. Also, turn up volume on radio, so you can hear the other persons transmission. And last but not least, turn the radio ON. People used to full duplex cell phones often forget this basic rule.

 

[Watergate]

Avoid foul language such as "I heard dat I did", "I know you right", and "rahjo rahjo".

I had to sit through an orientation at a company that used business band radios, but its been 15 years ago at least. Back then, the one thing I remember being stressed is that each radio had a company assigned call sign. In this case the truck number the radio was installed in, or in the shop we had shop 1, shop 2, and shop 3. I can't say this is an FCC rule, but we had to use the call sign to initiate all conversation. It sounded professional, and kept confusion to a minimum.

I thought it was kind of ridiculous that we had to be told that, until I heard the company radio for our contracting company. Constant confusion, alot of "who is this?", alot of BS on the air. A good majority of them had never used any kind of radio before, and here they were, at work and able to tell dirty jokes to their buddy who is two miles away, and at work too.

 

[DragoSapien]

We have some workers that dont know English and thats because they were told they didnt have to know it to work for us. With everyone going to the oil field, it hard to find good workers. So we end up with legal workers that are just happy to have a job. There good people, but other workers dont like it when there told what needs to be done in Spanish. They keep asking me if thats legal for them to do. All im telling them is, as far as I know, they only need to say there call sign in English and the rest can be in Spanish. Would it just come down to company policy? I dont know. These are the kind of things I need to know so there's no question.

 

[Moleculo]

Tell them to ALWAYS remember that others are listening that don't work for the city. That includes the press, scanner junkies, ham radio guys, etc. DON'T give out personal information on the air about themselves or other members of the public.

I recently attended a class given by the National Forest Service which included basic radio training procedures. One of the things they stressed was that unless you are qualified to diagnose a situation, choose your words carefully on the air or you could wind up the subject of a lawsuit down the road. For example: You're a city worker and see a car accident happen and are first on the scene and want to radio for help. You are describing the scene over the radio and see one of the driver's head is sitting in the backseat with the body in the front. Now you and I know that the person is dead, but unless you're the coroner or an MD, you MUST NOT say that over the air. You say what you see and no more: "The subject (don't say "victim") appears to have his head separated from his body". Get the drift? It sounds silly, but mistakes can cost the city a lot of money.

 

[IMD262]

Push button, then talk. NOT start talking, then push button. Also, turn up volume on radio, so you can hear the other persons transmission. And last but not least, turn the radio ON. People used to full duplex cell phones often forget this basic rule.

Also, finish speaking before unkeying the mic.

 

[st1ngr4y]

You should also mention that holding the radio in the upright vertical position actually makes the radio work better than when you hold it like a gangster all upside-down and sideways like

 

[W5LZ]

It sounds like most of the 'rules' for your particular situation will be 'company rules'. I think that keeping things as short and simple as possible would be your best bet. Most of it is just common sense. Of course, that common sense can be in short supply for a lot of reasons, so explaining things is good (as if you didn't already know that).
It's also very good to let people know that there's NO privacy on the radio! It just ain't a cell phone, don't treat it as such. The generalities aren't that hard to get across, but the specifics can be a real PITA to start with.
Good luck.
- 'Doc

 

[W5LZ]

double post, sorry.

 

[exces3]

Drago..

is your system, duplex, half-duplex, or simplex?
are there other 'companies/units' on the same freq?
are PL tones involved?
is operation, dispatch to car, worker to worker?