Apophis

SOP (Radio) - The Radio Check

In our virtual world we don’t use actual military radios, but with TeamSpeak and other Internet voice technologies, the similarities to real world radio practices are quite a good fit.

The standard military Radio Check serves three purposes. First, it immediately identifies the name (call sign) of the individual joining the radio net. Second, it provides clear and concise feedback to the individual joining, as to how loud and clear other people on the same radio frequency hear their transmissions. Finally, it permits people to make adjustments to their settings, in order to improve how well others hear them from a loudness perspective, as well as the clarity of their transmissions.

The real life military form of the standard Radio Check differs somewhat from the procedure we have established here using TeamSpeak. We have taken the liberty of abbreviating and modifying it somewhat for the sake of game play simplicity.

Example usage of the Radio Check procedure:

Badger starts up the TeamSpeak program on his computer and joins a server on the default channel.

Badger transmits: "Tactical Gamer Server #108, this is Badger, RADIO CHECK"

The current team leader responds: "Badger, this is Leader (or Eternal), read you 5 by 5"

Badger transmits: "Roger, reading you 5 by 5"

Note: if the Team Leader does not respond, then after an appropriate pause, any call sign in the fire team may acknowledge the Radio Check.

The referencing of "5 by 5" stands for the following combinations of Signal Strength and Readability in the sequence shown. In our example, "5 by 5" is a short form way of saying "your signal strength is strong (loud) and you are perfectly readable. It actual practice, many people state the real words (or some variation on the same theme) as opposed to using numbers. In this same case, instead of "5 by 5", one could have easily said "loud and clear" or "strong and readable", which are virtually the same as "5 by 5".

Signal Strength (Loudness)

1--Faint signals, barely perceptible.
2--Very weak signals.
3--Weak signals.
4--Fair signals.
5--Strong signals.

Readability (Comprehension)

1--Unreadable
2--Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable.
3--Readable with considerable difficulty.
4--Readable with practically no difficulty.
5--Perfectly readable.

Note: DO NOT get hung up on remembering numbers, but if necessary, simply focus on replying in plain English with the two primary elements of information in response to any Radio Check. They are first, how LOUD do you hear them and second, how UNDERSTANDABLE to you are the words they are saying.

After a bit of practice using this technique, it becomes almost second nature and makes it much easier for someone to know whether he's connected successfully to a TeamSpeak server, or if there's an extended period of silence, checking to see if he's still connected as his previously good link may have dropped.

We would encourage all players on any public server, to use this standard Radio Check SOP as much as possible.

__________________
Diplomacy is the art of saying "good doggie" while looking for a bigger stick.