Santa Clara County ARES®/RACES
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Message Passing

Course Description and Materials

 

Overview: This class will will review message passing skills and work up through tips and techniques for accurate and clear communications. It includes numerous exercises for practicing learned skills and techniques.
Intended Audience: Hams who want to learn or improve their message passing skills.
Prerequisites:

Note:  The above prerequisites are not strictly enforced. But in order to get the most out of this course, you should have previously attended the above courses. If you have not yet attended one or more of the prerequisites, you should carefully review the course materials for the missed prerequisites prior to attending this course. Then, be sure to attend any missed prerequisites at your earliest opportunity.

Length: 3 hours
Pre-Class Homework:

Students are expected to perform the following pre-class homework:

  • Study SCCo ARES/RACES Message Handling Procedures (PDF) [updated 07/11/2022]
  • Learn the prowords and techniques. Practice until you know them well. (It's not hard. But it does take time and must be done before class.)
  • Our class work will assume you know all of the ProWords and techniques covered in that document.
Students should bring:
  • Copy of course materials (see below)
  • Pen/pencil and pad of paper
Learning Objectives:

At the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Accurately and effectively pass operator-to-operator and 3rd party message traffic
Topics Covered:

The course agenda includes:

  • Prowords and Basic Techniques - Review Homework
  • Message types
    • Operator-to-operator vs. 3rd party (spoken and written)
  • Radio Routing Information
  • Common Procedures
    • Announcing, Sending, Logging
  • Form-specific Exercises
  • Relaying Messages
  • Problem Solving
  • Exercises, exercises, exercises ...
Scheduling Info: http://www.scc-ares-races.org/activities
Course Materials:

Classroom presentation (Last revised 23-January-2023):

Print out and bring the following to class:

Additional reference material:

Our message passing procedures are based on the NTS Chapter 2. If you desire more background you can review this document, however some of it is not applicable to EmComm message passing (you do not need to print out and bring with you).

  • ARRL NTS Chapter 2 - Sending Messages on Voice  (PDF - 187 KB)
    • Chapter 2 defines how to voice various types of message content, such as numbers, initials, addresses, etc. Some of this document is not applicable to EmComm traffic as it relates to working with served agencies, but does provide some background to our procedures.

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This page was last updated on 23-Feb-2023