Making a contact: listening, calling, phonetics, reports and logs

This lesson is about your first contact and every one after it: finding a clear frequency, making a call, spelling with the phonetic alphabet, giving signal reports, and keeping a log.

Listen first. A frequency that sounds quiet may be in use by a station you can't hear, so ask: Is this frequency in use? If no one answers, make your call. On S S B you might say: C Q, C Q, C Q, this is M seven X Y Z, M seven X Y Z, calling C Q and listening. On F M on two metres, you can call on the calling channel, but once you've made contact, agree another frequency and move off the calling channel to leave it free. A centre of activity is a frequency where one kind of activity gathers, such as S S B on two metres.

Letters are easy to mishear, so amateurs spell with the phonetic alphabet: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, and so on to Zulu. You can add a suffix to your call sign. Stroke P means portable, stroke M means mobile, stroke M M means maritime mobile on a boat, and stroke A means you're at another address. So M three A B C working portable becomes Mike Three Alfa Bravo Charlie stroke Portable.

Signal reports use the R S T code. R is readability, on a scale of one to five. S is strength, from one to nine. T is tone, from one to nine, and it's only used for C W. Higher numbers are always better. So five nine on speech means perfectly readable and very strong, and five nine nine is the same for Morse.

It's good practice to keep a log, even though it isn't a routine requirement. Note the date, the time, the mode and the call sign of each station you work, which you'll need for Q S L cards and contests. Use U T C, coordinated universal time, so logs agree wherever the stations are. On air, playing music and offensive or threatening language are unacceptable. If you hear it, don't respond, and simply move away. And carry out tests to make sure your station isn't causing undue interference to others.