Use The Right Radio Lingo!!!
Right now I’m reading Halo: Flood and as a result I’ve been exposed to one of my biggest pet peeves and that is radio language use. It seems like people don’t have a clear understanding of how to talk over a radio (in the military that is, not trucker radio language). My training in the military and in ROTC taught me how to talk on the radio and so, for all you writers out there who have people talking on the radio and don’t know this information, please pay attention. My prayer is that by making this post I can eliminate these egregious errors.
The United States Army uses procedural words (prowords) in place of otherwise longer communications. Here is a list of prowords from the U.S. Army Field Manual 3-21.13:
- All After – I refer to the entire message that follows…
- All Before – I refer to the entire message that precedes…
- Break – I now separate the text from other parts of the message.
- Correction – There is an error in this transmission. This will continue with the last word correctly transmitted.
- Groups – This message contains the number of groups indicated by the numeral following.
- I Say Again – I am repeating transmission or part indicated.
- I Spell – I shall spell the next word phonetically.
- Message – A message that requires recording is about to follow. (Transmission immediately after the call.) This proword is not used on nets primarily employed for conveying messages. It is intended for use when messages are passed on tactical or reporting net.
- More to Follow – Transmitting station had additional traffic for the receiving station.
- Out – This is the end of my transmission to you and no answer is required or expected.
- Over – This is the end of my transmission to you and a response is necessary. Go ahead: Transmit.
- Radio Check – What is my signal strength and readability, i.e. how do you hear me?
- Roger – I have received your last transmission satisfactorily. Radio check is loud and clear.
- Say Again – Repeat all of your last transmission. Followed by identification data means “repeat – (portion indicated).”
- This Is – This transmission is from the station whose designator immediately follows.
- Time – That which immediately follows is the time or date-time group of the message.
- Wait – I must pause for a few seconds.
- Wait-out – I must pause for longer than a few seconds.
- Wilco – I have received your transmission, understand it, and will comply, to be used only by the addressee. Since the meaning of ROGER is included in that of WILCO, the two passwords are never used together.
- Word After – I refer to the word of the message that follows.
- Word Before – I refer to the word of the message that precedes.
Alright, there you have it: The specific prowords as stated by the Army. Now let me clear up a few things…
- You NEVER say “over and out.” I can’t express strongly enough how wrong this is. If you’ve followed the definitions above, it should be obvious why. But, just in case I’ll state in plain English what “over and out” means. “I’m done talking and my message requires a response, please transmit that response, but do not respond.”
- Copy is not a response meaning you understand a message. I hear this EVERYWHERE! The proper response is ROGER. For instance: “Alpha One, proceed to checkpoint Juliet and wait for further instructions, over.” The reply to this is, “Roger that Higher.” Or another acceptable response would be, “wilco Higher.”
- NOTE: Copy is sometimes used when the transmitter wants the transmittee to repeat back a message. For instance: “Alpha One, prepare to copy, over.” “Roger Higher.” “Proceed to checkpoint Juliet and wait for further instructions, over.” “I copy, proceed to checkpoint Juliet and wait for further instructions, over.” The exact procedure for this would be stated in a unit’s SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) since it would deviate from the training manual.
I hope that this helps everyone understand radio lingo a little better. The last thing that I’ll say is, in reality most soldiers don’t adhere to these prowords, even in combat situations. But when you’re writing you want it to seem more military by using them, so use them correctly!
- Rich
Hi Rich, just a quick question on military lingo when using the radio. I hear the following statement on the Military Channel alot when two US individuals are speaking on the radio. They say “HOW COPY”…what is with the “HOW”? Any ideas? Thanks
How isn’t a proword, it’s actually just a shortening of the phrase “how do you…?” As for the phrase “how copy,” when you are telling someone you’re talking to to write something down, you say “prepare to copy.” When you have finished giving your transmission and want to make sure they wrote it down right you ask them to read back what they wrote by saying, “how do you copy?” or “how copy?”
ok, that makes alot of sense. In that scenario, a squad was calling in coordinates for artillery. Thanks Rich!!!
Yeah, that sounds right. Also, when you call in for artillery, it’s very common to have prearranged coordinates set up for calling in. For instance, instead of calling in to fire on Grid Coordinated EH 08120625, you can just call for fire on position Alpha.