TO: ALL WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
ALL NON-WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS AMATEURS
FROM: KEN HARRIS WA8LLM
WOOD COUNTY EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS INCORPORATED
WOOD COUNTY BULLETIN NR 15.32 DATE: August 9, 2015
SUBJECT: PROPER IDENTIFICATION
It's that time of the year again when we will be operating in a more professional manner. The Parkersburg Half Marathon is one of those times when several people, both on the air, and in person, will be listening to our radio transmissions to see what is going on. The FCC says we need to identify our stations every 10 minutes, and at the end of our communications.
Since a lot of our transmissions will be using Tactical Callsigns, we need to be sure and identify our station properly when our communication with another station has ended. You may not get to make another transmission for over 10 minutes, so you should identify as often as possible. It doesn't hurt to use your FCC assigned callsign more often than required, it may keep you out of hot water.
Tactical Callsigns, such as "Race Control", "Mile Marker 2", "Water Stop 6", and such are legal to use. The FCC Rules no longer requires you to identify your station at the beginning of your communication, only at the end. If your communications are lasting, or going to last more then 10 minutes, take a break, identify our station, let the station you are in communications with, identify their station, then resume your communications.
The main thing to remember is to identify every 10 minutes during your communications, and at the end of your communications. The very last thing that you should say is your callsign. If you are still going to monitor the frequency, say the word monitoring followed by your callsign, not the other way around.
Idea for this bulletin by Matt Greathouse, N8MDG
Ken Harris WA8LLM
WCEC
Wood County WV