This subject of radio communications is essential on the fire scene. All too often when we have a emergency, our adreneline gets the best of us. You need to be smart and stay off the radio unless it is something important or if called. Listening to some of the firefighters whom have been trapped in buildings, it is shocking to hear the amount of chatter on the radio when someones trying to call a mayday!!! It also seems with increased radios in the truck and nobody properly trained on the use and communications we need and don't need, it is constant abuse of the airways. If you need to call the chief on the radio and ask what truck to bring, perhaps your not trained enough. If a chief calls on the radio and asks for 5 scba's to be brought inside at the top of the stairs (trust me I couldn't believe my ears hearing it) perhaps your in the wrong business!!! We need to spend a lot of time training to help make communications issues a thing of the past.
Let us also not forget when multiple unit's are clearing a scene or going back in quarters they all radio themselves in and off or avialable on the return instead of all (insert fd name here) units returning or in quarters.
What a time to be reading this thread! I've just been listening to some very ordinary radio traffic. No, let's be honest and say 'extremely poor' radio traffic. And here, at least. there is no excuse for that. We include radio communications in our initial training. Everybody receives the training, it seems that many just ignore it.
Our training is simple, because using a radio is simple. A few rules, a few techniques, and that's it. To issue radios to all without giving training is irresponsible - yes it's simple, but you have to be taught first! Then, all you need is radio discipline. Oh, sorry, did I just use a dirty word? Discipline? Lack of discipline is what makes a 'Mayday' call go unheard. As well as other important messages.
End of rant. But poor radio communications happens to be one of my big hates.