Emergency Communications Special: Developing Your Radio Voice

I’m sure you all have heard it. Someone less skilled in radio communications is not able to properly transmit important information over the radio. Whether they added their own perspective to the message or just could not maintain accuracy, the result is the same: The intended message did not get through. That is a shame and it didn’t have to be that way.

The individual was trying to help but just did not have the necessary skillset to deliver information over the radio in a timely, concise, accurate, and understandable manner. The last thing we want is to be an impediment to communications during a disaster. The obvious answer is to practice, yet that is not the whole story. There are many tools available that can be learned which will go a long way towards excellence in radio communications. In a previous article, I touched on finding your radio voice and felt a more in-depth discussion on the topic is warranted. I’ll start with a couple of questions.

Whar IS Your Radio Voice?

So, what is your radio voice? For you sharp-eyed readers, it was essentially stated above. It is the ability to deliver information over the radio in a timely, concise, accurate, and understandable manner the first time, every time. It sounds pretty easy, but in reality, it is not always that way. Things get in the way and it’s not always equipment malfunctions. Perhaps the radio communicator was not being an active listener. It could have been background noise causing interference with communications. Or maybe the radio operator is in a stressful situation and that stress carries over to his/her radio communications. You get the idea. So, what we need to do is improve our radio voice so these types of things will be minimized.

Why is it important to improve our radio voice? We all want to be able to succeed in meeting our definition of radio voice when we are on the air