Keep it short and simple
For most of us we tend to forget things. In particular things we have learned in a classroom setting. Do not blame the teacher and do not blame the student. Today I found myself thinking back to when I was learning radio theory and in particular radio jargon. There always is jargon. In the case of communications, a lot of that becomes codified. You were taught to say things in a certain order with a certain pacing so that others who have learned similar things will catch on to what you’re doing. It probably is not good to grab your microphone and yell help. And so, for fun I watched a video made in a classroom in I believe England where they were teaching correct radio techniques at sea. Voting if you will. And because most of this is used internationally, I felt immediately at home even though my classroom time happened a lifetime ago. You know I could probably do a decent emergency call up even after all this time. I was well trained, and I was tested regularly, and the brain holds on to things like that. What I enjoyed in the video was seeing how newer technologies are integrated into the field. We have better tools than we used to. And a lot of things that we took for granted have been codified into the radios themselves. You press the right button, and it does things that you used to have to do based on your training. It does not negate the need to train the operator. And so, watching people give emergency call-ups means that we are still doing things the way we used to, but with better tools and that’s a good thing. Am I going to race to my radio and shout to the world? Not a chance. Because the most important message I took away from today’s class was, that you should talk as little as possible. It makes sense in our busy world.
