TRAFFIC HANDLING TUTORIAL

Message identification & classification

Every message must be identified with a unique ID. In Amateur practice, the message number and the callsign of the originating station combine to be unique. Army MARS uses a "date-time" group that will identify a message, assuming only one message per minute originated by a particular station. This serves to record the date and time at the same time.

The unique identification of a message is important in order to track the message from origin to delivery, and as a reference in case there is a question about the message, or if a reply is required.

Classification of a message generally means the "precedence".

This is a designator which tells those handling the message what level priority the message carries.

Addressee

In order to deliver a message, you must know to whom and where to deliver it. The addressee information must be clear, complete and accurate. If there is any doubt about how a message is addressed, check with the originator before putting it into the system. A simple clarification about where to find Captain Whatsisname could make a major difference in how fast the message gets there.

Message Text

The message text, of course is the whole point. Different message formats require that the text be organized in specific ways, but there are no general rules about the text. If you don't understand it, you still must transmit the message EXACTLY as received. If you suspect the addressee will not understand it, you may want to attempt to get clarification before sending the message, but if the originator says "thats it" don't quibble. Get the message moving. Experience will tell you when to ask for clarifications.

Signature: Source individual or organization

This is a very important element and often overlooked. When the message is delivered, it must be clear to the addressee who the message is from and who is responsible for its content. This is important in case there is a question or a reply is required. Many messages will require both a name AND a title or position.

Sending the message

Basics

Efficient traffic handling means getting the message relayed with 100% accuracy in the least practical amount of time. 100% accuracy is especially important if you do not understand the content of the message.

If it makes no sense to you, it MAY be appropriate to get an explanation before you put it on the air. This is a judgement call. If you are handling medical traffic, it is helpful but not necessary to understand what you communicating. But if you are communicating information you do not understand, accuracy is all the more critical.

Send the message ONCE (right the first time.) There are many elements of technique that contribute to getting it "right the first time".

The most important is, you SEND a message, you DON'T READ it. When you are sending the message, the person receiving it must write it down. Most people can't write as fast as we talk. Therefore, you must slow your delivery to allow the receiving station to comfortably (and legibly) write the message down.

If you are too fast, and have to repeat many times, the end result is that it takes longer. It's better to slow your delivery so that the receiving station gets it the first time than to repeat all or part of the message.

You might try composing a message and sending it to a tape recorder. Then play the tape back and see if you are comfortable writing it down at that speed. You will probably be suprised.

When sending a message, speak slowly, distinctly, clearly, and do not let your voice trail off at the end of words or sentences. Give each and every word equal force.

Follow standard procedures as much as possible, and try to do things consistently. That way people receiving traffic from you will be used to your delivery and it won't be a guessing game about what you are going to do next.

Procedural Words

Sending technique involves the use of certain procedural words and phrases which help the receiving station anticipate what is coming ... phrases such as "figures" or "I spell", etc.

When first encountered, these procedures sometimes seem a bit artificial and unnecessary. However, these have proven over a long period of time to be useful. When you make them habititual in your message sending, they fall in automatically and become natural.

The primary function of these words and phrases is to define the parts of the message, and to alert the receiving station about what is to follow.

The phrase MESSAGE FOLLOWS is used to alert the receiving operator that the message is about to start. The next thing the receiving operator hears must be written down.

The word BREAK is used at the end of the address and again at the end of the text, along with releasing the microphone. This procedure separates the parts of the message as well as giving the receiving operator an opportunity to ask for a fill or other clarification.

If the receiving station requires a fill, he or she should say "BREAK" in return, and wait for an acknowledgement from the sending station before asking for a fill.

END indicates the end of the message, and is usually accompanied by an indication of whether there are more messages to follow:

END NO MORE, OVER indicates end of message and no more messages. END ONE MORE, OVER indicates end of message and one more to follow.

END ... MORE, OVER indicates end of message and two or more to follow.

Saying OVER after the END phrase asks the receiving station to acknowledge your message. Make sure you get a clear acknowledgement before you leave the frequency or proceed with other business.

When receiving traffic make sure you have it right before you acknowledge the message.

Train yourself to always use OVER when you finish a transmission and want another station to reply.

In the process of sending the message, there are various introductory words and phrases that alert the receiving station about what is to follow.

"FIGURE" OR "FIGURES" introduces a number or group of numbers.

For example, if the number 528 appears in the message, the sending operator would say

"FIGURES FIVE TWO EIGHT"

Note that the individual digits are always given ... "FIVE TWO EIGHT", not "FIVE HUNDRED TWENTY EIGHT".

INITIAL introduces a single letter. It is often an initial in a person's name, but not always. It may be the "X" that is used in placed of a period in many messages. INITIAL is used any time there is a single letter. Always use phonetics when saying the letter. So if a person's middle initial is "I", it is sent as

"INITIAL INDIA".

I SPELL is used to alert the receiving operator that the next thing that will be sent will be a series of letters. If the word or group to be spelled is a pronouncable word, say the word followed by I SPELL followed by the spelling. So if the city name Bethesda appears in a message, it would be sent

BETHESDA ... I SPELL ...

BRAVO ECHO TANGO HOTEL ECHO SIERRA DELTA ALFA

Phonetics may or may not be used. Whether or not to use phonetics becomes a judgement call on the part of the sending operator, and depends on the quality of communications. If the radio conditions are poor, phonetics generally work better. If we're working on 2-meter FM and both stations are full-quieting to each other, phonetics often are not necessary and can actually slow the process down. If spelling without phonetics, deliver the letters slowly and distinctly.

If you do use phonetics, learn and use only the standard ICAO phonetic alphabet:

I SAY AGAIN indicates that you are going to repeat the previous word, group or phrase. It is important that the receiving operator knows that what is coming is a repeat, to avoid incorporating duplicate wording or information into the message.

There is often no punctuation in messages. The letter "X" or "XRAY" is used in place of a period. Questions are indicated with the word "QUERY". If the meaning of the message is dependent on a comma or other punctuation, spell the name of the punctuation out as a word, such as COMMA or PERIOD. Decimal points in numbers are indicated by the word DECIMAL.

A Practice Message

The following message was used for an exercise in a RACES net (7/13/93).

NUMBER 16 ROUTINE 14 JULY 0010Z
RADIO OFFICER, MONTGOMERY COUNTY

SHIROV LAT 2670 8.0 X
GELFAND BLR 2690 7.5 X
GUREVICH BEL 2610 7.0 X
ADAMS ENG 2630 6.5

SIGNATURE: PSMITH

END

The preamble gives basic message classification and identification. Notice that there is no "check" in this preamble. The "check" is a word count and is useful for many kinds of messages, but is not used in all types of message formats. This is NOT in ARRL format. It is more consistent with the kind of "tactical" messages we might handle in an emergency operation in support of the county government.

The "TO:" is addressed to a position rather than an individual person. This is acceptable as in a long operation, several individuals may fill a particular position. However, it should be understood where the person filling this position is located.

The text is a series of names, letter groups and number groups, which incidentally, is actual data. As an exercise message, it was designed to be information which probably would not make sense to the average person.

There is a clear (if unusual) signature.

This message would be delivered as follows:

[procedural words will be in brackets ]

[MESSAGE FOLLOWS]

NUMBER ONE SIX ROUTINE ...
[FIGURES] ONE FOUR ... JULY ...
[FIGURES] ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ZULU ...

RADIO OFFICER ... MONTGOMERY
[I SPELL] M-O-N-T-G-O-M-E-R-Y ... COUNTY

[BREAK]

SHIROV [I SPELL] S-H-I-R-O-V ...
[I SPELL] LIMA ALPHA TANG0 ...
[FIGURES] TWO SIX SEVEN ZERO ...
[FIGURES] EIGHT DECIMAL ZERO ...
[INITIAL] XRAY ...
GELFAND [I SPELL] G-E-L-F-A-N-D ...
[I SPELL] BRAVO LIMA ROMEO ...
[FIGURES] TWO SIX NINER ZERO ...
[FIGURES] SEVEN DECIMAL FIVE ...
[INITIAL] XRAY ...
GUREVICH [I SPELL] GOLF UNIFORM ROMEO ECHO VICTOR INDIA CHARLIE HOTEL ...
[I SPELL] BRAVO ECHO LIMA ...
[FIGURES] TWO SIX ONE ZERO ...
[FIGURES] SEVEN DECIMAL ZERO ...
[INITIAL] XRAY ...
ADAMS [I SPELL] A-D-A-M-S ...
[I SPELL] ECHO NOVEMBER GOLF...
[FIGURES] TWO SIX THREE ZERO ...
[FIGURES] SIX DECIMAL FIVE ...

[BREAK]

[I SPELL] PAPA SIERRA MIKE INDIA TANGO HOTEL

[END NO MORE ... OVER]

Phonetics were used for only one of the names in the text. It may or may not have been necessary, and would have been up to the discretion of the operator as to whether to use them or not. As receiving operator, you know that when you hear I SPELL, you might get letters or phonetic words.

The signature, being nearly unpronouncable as spelled, should be simply spelled.

As a receiving operator, you may have missed a word or phrase.

You can get the fill you need by specifying:

SAY AGAIN WORD (BEFORE ...)(AFTER ...)

SAY AGAIN ALL AFTER ...

SAY AGAIN ALL BEFORE ...

SAY AGAIN ALL BETWEEN ... AND ...

Some message forms have a "check" in the heading or preamble which gives a word count. This is helpful to determine whether the message was received correctly, especially if it goes through many relays. If you copy a message in five or ten word lines, it is easy to check the word count before you acknowledge receipt of the message.

There are some additional procedural phrases that you may encounter. These are accepted by some organizations and not by others. For the most part they are redundant to the procedures already discussed.

LETTER GROUP introduces a group of two or more letters that generally do not form a common word. For example, RACES is a letter group and would be sent "LETTER GROUP ROMEO ALPHA CHARLIE ECHO SIERRA".

MIXED GROUP introduces a group that is a combination of letters and numbers. For example, Z4758RSK. This would be sent MIXED GROUP ZULU FOUR SEVEN FIVE EIGHT ROMEO SIERRA KILO

Again, always say the indivdual numbers and use phonetics for the letters. Using I SPELL before the "letter group" and "mixed group" accomplishes the same thing.

The term AMATEUR CALL is sometimes used to introduce an amateur callsign. So if a message were addressed to KC3H, it would be stated AMATEUR CALL KILO CHARLIE THREE HOTEL

Amateur callsigns should always be given phonetically.

ARRL Format

Message Identification and classification: The Preamble

The "Preamble" of an ARRL Format message has eight elements:

First is a message number. The number is a serial number starting with number one and adding one for each message that is originated by the originating station, usually counted for that calendar year.

The next element is the "precedence". This is an indicator of the level of priority the message carries. There are four possiblilities, in order of priority:

EMERGENCY is used rarely and is only to be used if there is immediate life or death urgency to a person or group of persons. This may include official messages of welfare agencies during emergency or disaster conditions which are vital to relief of stricken population in the disaster area. On CW or other digital mode, spell the word EMERGENCY out in full.

PRIORITY is used to indicate an important message with a specific time limit. This might include, among other things, official messages not covered by the emergency category, or notification of a death or injury in the disaster area.

WELFARE indicates a message that is either an inquiry as the the health and welfare of an individual in the disaster area or a reply to such an inquiry that indicates that all is well. Messages with the WELFARE precedence should be handled after EMERGENCY and PRIORITY messages.

ROUTINE is used on any message that does not qualify for the more urgent precedences, and is used on the vast majority of National Traffic System messages.

The next item in the preamble is the handling instructions.

Handling instructions are optional, and indicate actions to be taken by the delivering station under certain circumstances. For example, the handling instruction HXG indicates that delivery by toll call or mail is not required. HXE requests a reply from the addressee. There seven handling codes and they are listed in many ARRL and other publications.

Next is the station of origin. This callsign, along with the message number establishes unique message identification.

The next element, the "check" is one of the more mysterious elements of the preamble. But it really isn't that mysterious. The check is a count of words in the text of the message. When in doubt, the easiest rule to work with, is that if there is white space between two characters, that indicates there is a new word. When the letter X-Ray is used like a period, it s considered a separate word. Groups of numbers such as area code, prefix and main number in phone numbers are considered separate groups so that a full phone number is three words. There are numerous rules for counting words in a message, use the "white space" rule and you won't be far off.

The check is used to verify that the message was received correctly. A message that is relayed many times can become scrambled anyway, but the check can help keep it straight. If you don't receive enough words, you've missed something.

Then there follows the place of origin. Note that this is not necessarily the location of the station of origin, but the place where the person signing the message is at the time of originating the message.

The time and date follow and usually are given in 24-hour time. The time zone should be indicated, and if UTC is indicated with the "zulu" indicator, the date must be consistent.

The eight elements of the preamble give detailed information about the message.

After the preamble, there is the address. When originating a message, you should try to supply as complete information as possible. Name, address including zip code, and telephone number. Remember, the operator who must deliver the message has to fill in the blanks on the other end.

Finally, we get to the text. There are a few rules that apply to the ARRL method of composing messages. Generally, there is no punctuation in an ARRL message. The letter X, "INITIAL XRAY" is used to indicate the end of a sentence or thought. Questions are indicated with the word "QUERY".

When composing a message it is a good idea to organize the text on paper five words to a line. That makes it easier to count the words to figure the check. When copying a message, write it down five words to a line and it will be easy to verify the check. ARRL Radiogram forms have the lines already set up that way, but you can create your own form that will do the same thing.

At the end of the message there is the signature. This is the name of person for whom the message is being sent. Note that this is not necessarily the station of origin.