PROWORDS

RADIOTELEPHONE PROCEDURE

PROGRAMMED TEXT

CREATED BY WA7JRF

FORWARD

This booklet contains a course of Programmed Instruction designed to teach you the fundamentals of Radiotelephone Procedure. The instruction includes the essentialmaterial that you will require to understand and participate in the operation of a basicRadio Net. This booklet is designed as a self-teaching device presented in a step-by-step manner. Including a familiarization with the phonetic alphabet, the properpronunciation of numerals and more frequently used prowords. The statements and questions where you receive practice are to insure that you fully understand the correct

usage of the proper prowords. This is an explanation of a radio net and the types of calls and responses used within a radio net. You are then presented with the correct procedures used in transmittingmessages, including the transmission of abbreviations, isolated letters, numerals,difficult words, corrections and repetitions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Table of contents I

Introduction II

Instructions to students III

Prowords and Phrases 1 - 85

Self Test 86

RADIOTELEPHONE PROCEDURE 90

REFERENCE GIUDE

I

INTRODUCTION

Prowords are pronounceable words or phrases which have been assigned meanings for the purpose of expediting message handling on Nets were radiotelephone procedure isemployed.

This programmed text was designed to teach you the prowords which are most often used by amateur radiotelephone operators. The knowledge of these basic prowords will enable you to operate more efficiently in a radio Net and to correct radio operators who

work for you. These prowords are standard throughout all U. S. Armed Forces and theNATO countries.

II

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE STUDENTS

Read instructions before beginning this programmed text.

The pages are numberedconsecutively. Read each statement or question carefully, then provide the required response. Afterresponding, turn the page and check the accuracy of your response. If your response was correct go to the next page progressing in numerical sequence. If yourresponse was incorrect, reread the statement or question before continuing.

After you have completed all the statements or questions you will find the selftest starting on page 86 which will enable you to apply your knowledge of the commonly used prowords and phrases of radiotelephone procedures.

III

  1. Each and every radio transmission is ended by the use of one of two prowords.

These two prowords are never used together. These two prowords are OVER and OUT.

1

1. No response required.

2

  1. The only two prowords which are used to end a radio transmission, but which are never used together are (a)______and (b)______.

3

2. (a)OVER (b)OUT

4

  1. OVER means that this is the end of my transmission to you and a response is

necessary. Go ahead: transmit. OUT means that this is the end of my transmission to you and no answer is required or expected.

5

  1. No response required.

6

  1. The proword which means that I have completed transmitting and that a reply is

necessary is (a)______; the proword which means I have finished transmitting and

no answer is required is (b)______.

7

4. (a)OVER (b)OUT .

8

  1. There are several prowords which are often used in-conjunction with OVER orwith OUT. These prowords are ROGER, WILCO and WAIT. WAIT byitself means that I must pause for only a few seconds, but WAIT - OUTmeansI must wait longer than a few seconds, after which communications must be

re-established.

9

  1. No response required.

10

  1. To indicate that you must pause for longer than a few seconds you would use

the proword(a)______; where as if you only had to pause for a few seconds you would use the proword (b)______.

11

  1. (a)WAIT-OUT

(b)WAIT

12

  1. The proword ROGER means, I have received your last transmissionsatisfactory.

13

  1. No response required.

14

  1. The proword used to indicate satisfactory reception of a transmission is

______.

15

  1. ROGER

16

  1. To indicate that you have received the last transmission satisfactorily, that this

is the end of your transmission, and no reply is required you would use the

prowords (a)______, (b)______.

17

9. (a)ROGER (b)OUT

18

  1. WILCO means, I have received your message, understand it, and will

comply.

WILCO includes the meaning of ROGER, so they are never used together.

WILCO is used by the individual who will actually comply with the message.

19

  1. No response required.

20

  1. If you received a properly request to “close your station” from the Net Control Station, you would reply with the prowords (a)______, (b)______.

21

11. (a)WILCO (b)OUT

22

  1. Now that we know that every transmission must end with either (a)______

or (b)______, let’s see how a radio station identifies itself by using the proword

THIS IS . In every transmission the minimum we must do is to identifyourselves. THIS IS means, this transmission is from the station whose

designation immediately follows. Example: THIS IS KA7ZDL.

23

12. (a)OVER (b)OUT

24

  1. If you were trying to contact KA7ZDL and you were N7ZRX, you would

call: KA7ZDL (a) ______N7ZRX (b)______”.

25

13. (a)THIS IS (b)OVER

You didn’t forget to say OVER did you? Remember, “OVER” means I have finished transmitting and a response isnecessary – go ahead: transmit.

26

  1. Once you have established radio contact and you have information to pass to another station, identify yourself and use the proword MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

MESSAGE FOLLOWS means, that a message which requires copying follows

immediately.

28

14No response required.

29

  1. To give N7ZRX your location you would say, “N7ZRX ______,

KA7ZDL ______, my location is Fire Station number Two______.”

30

15. a. THIS IS, b. MESSAGE FOLLOWS c. OVER

31

  1. Whenever a mistake is made during the transmission of a message it must be

corrected. The proword CORRECTION means, an error has been made in this transmission. Transmission will continue with the last word correctly transmitted.

32

16. No response required.

33

  1. To indicate that an error has been made during transmission, you would use

The proword “______” and continue on with the last correct word of thetransmission.

34

17. CORRECTION

35

  1. You’re sending the message “my location, worksite Alpha” and as you said

Alpha you realized that you are at worksite Bravo. You would correct this bysaying “my location, worksite Alpha, (a)______, (b)______(c)______(d)______”.

36

18. (a)CORRECTION (b)WORKSITE

(c)BRAVO (d) OVER.

You must say thelast correct word in your original transmission after the proword CORRECTION.

37

  1. To let you know that she understood the correction was finished transmitting

and required no reply, the called station would say THIS IS N7ZRX(a)______

(b)______.”

38

19. (a)RODGER (b)OUT

If you got this one right you’re right on the ball;

if not, go back to page 13.

39

  1. If for some reason the called station did not receive all of your message he would use the proword SAY-AGAIN which means repeat all of your last transmission. The operator may identify which part of the message he wantsrepeated by saying the words ALL-BEFORE, ALL-AFTER, WORD-BEFOREor WORD-AFTER; (followed by the last word he correctly received).

40

  1. No response required.

41

  1. For instance if you received the message

“ I am now located *&^%?)@#$/ “

You would request repetition of the jumbled portion of the message by saying “THISIS KA7ZDL (a) ______(b)______located over”.

42

21. (a) SAY AGAIN (b) ALL AFTER.

43

22. The proword I SAY AGAIN is used by a station when repeating the requested part of a message.

44

22. No response required.

45

23. N7ZRX missed part of the message. She would say “THIS IS N7ZRX

(a)______ALL BEFORE , “location” OVER”.

THIS IS KA7ZDL (b) ______(c)______

“location” ------OVER.

46

23. (a)SAY AGAIN

(b)I SAY AGAIN (c)ALL BEFORE

47

  1. Whenever there is a difficult word to pronounce or where a word is spelled differently from the way it sounds, the radio operator can use theproword I SPELL which means, I shall spell the next word phonetically.

48

  1. No response required.

49

  1. When sending the word xenon you would say, “ I am located at xenon

______XRAY, ECHO, NOVEMBER, OSCAR, NOVEMBER,

xenon, OVER”.

50

25. I SPELL

Note: When sending individual letters,

abbreviations or code groups – the

phonetic alphabet is used but NOT

the proword I SPELL.

51

  1. If the called station missed the last three phonetic letters she would say

“(a)______N7ZRX (b)______(c)______“ECHO” (d)______.”

52

26. (a)THIS IS (b)SAY AGAIN

(c)ALL AFTER (d)OVER

53

  1. There are several prowords which aid us in understanding what follows them,

these are the prowords TIME and FIGURES. TIME means, that which follows is the time or date-time group of the message. FIGURES means, numeralsor numbers follow.

54

27. No response required.

55

  1. If you were transmitting a resupply request on the 12th of March at 1315 hoursYou would say, “THIS IS KA7ZDL (a) ______(b) ______

121315A, I need (c)______40 cases of rations and (d)______150 gallons

of drinking water. Send them to my location as soon as possible, OVER.

56

28. (a) MESSAGE FOLLOWS Remember! You must tell him that

this message is to be copied.

(b) TIME to indicate date/time group 121315A

(c)FIGURES 40

(d)FIGURES 150

57

  1. To let you know that she has received your resupply request, that she will send

it out as directed, and that she has finished transmitting and reply is required;

N7ZRX would say “(a)______N7ZRX (b)______, (c) ______.”

58

29. (a) THIS IS (b) WILCO (c) OUT.

If you said Roger, Out reread Number 10

Page 19

59

  1. Let’s clear up one point when using FIGURES or TIME. The numerals which follow these prowords are transmitted digit by digit (eg., TIME one-three-one-eight-zero-zero-alpha for the date-time group 131800A). FIGURES are always transmitted digit by digit except that exact multiples of hundreds and thousands maybe spoken as such. (eg. 1,500 could be transmitted as ONE FIVE HUNDRED).

60

30. No response required.

61

31. How would you transmit the date-time group 271425A? “(a)______(b)______(c)______(d)______(e)______(f)______(g)______(h)______”.

62

31. (a) TIME (b)TWO (c)SEVEN (d)ONE (e)FOUR (f)TWO (g)FIVE (h)ALPHA

64

  1. In many instances a station may be sending a lot of important facts or technicaltype information. If the station wants to be sure that the called station has copied everything correctly he will utilize the proword READ BACK which means, read this entire transmission back to me exactly as received.

65

32. No response required.

66

  1. To make sure the called station has copied your message correctly, you would utilize the proword ______.

67

  1. READ-BACK

68

  1. When the called station is ready to read back your entire transmission

Exactly as he received it he will use the prowords I-READ-BACK. Complete the following transmissions: N7ZRX (a)______KC7BFW, Message follows, READ-BACK, BREAK ……..OVER.

KC7BFW (b)______N7ZRX (c)______my location is Fire Station number Two, OVER.

69

34. (a)THIS IS (b)THIS IS

(c)I READ BACK

Make sure you identify your station by using THIS IS and tell him to copythe message by using MESSAGE FOLLOWS.

70

  1. Once the called station has read back the entire transmission as was requestedby the calling station, the calling station must reply with one of the following twoprowords; either THAT IS CORRECT or WRONG. THAT IS CORRECT means, just what it says, you are correct or what you have transmitted is correct. Ifyou happen to read back the message incorrectly the calling station would use the proword WRONG which means, your last transmission was incorrect - the correct version would then be repeated by the calling station.

70

35. No response required

71

  1. Complete these transmissions:

THIS IS N7ZRX MESSAGE FOLLOWS, READ BACK my location isFire Station one OVER.

THIS IS KA7ZDL (a)______my location is Fire Station two

(b)______.

THIS IS N7ZRX (c)______station one OVER.

THIS IS KA7ZDL (d)______OUT.

72

36. (a)I READ BACK

(b)OVER

(c)WRONG

(d)ROGER

73

  1. A proword which is used in many messages is the proword BREAK. BREAK means, I hereby indicate the separation of the text from other portionsof the message.

74

  1. No response required

75

  1. In order to show the separation of the text from the heading and ending of a message, you would insert the proword ______immediately before andafter the text.

76

38. BREAK

77

  1. Complete the following transmission.

THIS IS N7ZRX, MESSAGE FOLLOWS, Routine, (a)______281455Alpha, (b)______, I am now located at check point Bravo, (c)______, OVER.

78

  1. (a)TIME

(b)BREAK

(c)BREAK

79

  1. If for some reason the operator is sending the message to the wrong party or if he is sending the wrong message he may utilize the prowords DISREGARD THIS TRANSMISSION which means, this transmission is in error – disregard it. This proword shall not be used to cancel any message that has been completely transmitted and for which receipt or acknowledgement has been received.

80

  1. No response required.

81

  1. If you discover that the message you are sending is not the correct message forthe station you are communicating with, you would use the proword, “______, out”.

82

42. DISREGARD THIS TRANSMISSION

83

  1. If you have a message for a station which is located outside your transmission planning range, you may have to have the message relayed. The proword RELAY TO means, relay this message to all addresses immediately following. “N7ZRX (a)______KA7ZDL (b)______W7DTS”.

84

45. (a) THIS IS (b) RELAY TO

85

SELF TEST

Page

1. The proword used to separate the heading and 74

ending from the text of the message is ______.

2. When you make an error in your message and 32

want to continue on with the last correct word, you

would use the proword ______.

3. The proword used to indicate that numbers 54

follows is ______.

4. To have the calling party retransmit all or part

of his message you would utilize the proword ______. 40

5. When retransmitting the requested message or part of

the message the calling party would use the proword ______. 44

6. When transmitting words which are hard to pronounce 48

or words which have a difficult spelling the operator should

use the proword ______.

86

. Page

7. To indicate that you are about to send a message 48

that has to be recorded, you would use the proword ______.

8. To indicate that you have ended your transmission 28

and that you require a response you would say the proword ______.

9. To indicate that you must pause for a few seconds 9

you would use the proword ______but if for longer

than a few seconds you must say ______.

10. To indicate that you understand the message and 19

will comply with it you say the proword ______.

11. When you are about to send the time or the date/time 54

group of a message you use the proword ______.

12. When sending highly detailed information, you may 65

check to see if the receiving party copied it correctly by saying______.

87

13. If the receiving party reads back the message correctly 70

you say the proword ______if incorrect you say ______.

14. To indicate that you are through transmitting and 5

that no reply is expected you say the proword ______.

15. To let the calling party know that you have received 13

his last transmission satisfactory you use the proword ______.

16. To indicate your identity you use the proword 23 ______immediately before your call sign.

17. If you discover that you are sending a message 80

to a station which is not a designated addressee you

may stop it by saying ______.

18. In order to get a message retransmitted to a station 84

outside your coverage range you could use the proword ______to get anotherstation to send it.

88

ANSWERS TO SELF TEST

  1. BREAK
  1. CORRECTION
  1. FIGURES
  1. SAY AGAIN
  1. I SAY AGAIN
  1. I SPELL
  1. MESSAGE FOLLOWS
  1. OVER
  1. WAIT WAIT-OUT
  1. WILCO

11. TIME

12. READ BACK

13. THAT IS CORRECT WRONG

14. OUT

15. ROGER

16. THIS IS

17. DISREGARD THIS TRANSMISSION

18. RELAY TO

89

If you missed any of the above questions, go back to the appropriate page (as indicated)and re-do them. A thorough knowledge of these prowords will allow you to become abetter communicator during Traffic Nets.

RADIOTELEPHONE PROCEDURE REFERENCE GIUDE

RADIO RULES: 1. Listen before transmitting to ascertain that the frequency is open.

. 2. Write or plan message before transmitting.

. 3. Speak clearly and slowly.

. 4. Keep transmissions as brief as possible.

PHONETIC ALPHABET:

A ALPHA AL FAH N NOVEMBER NOVEMBER

B BRAVO BRAH OH O OSCAR OSS CAH

C CHARLIE CHAR LEE P PAPA PAH PAH

D DELTA DELL TAH Q QUEBEC KEH BECK

E ECHO ECK OH R ROMEO ROW ME OH

F FOXTROT FOKS TROT S SIERRA SEEAIRRAH

G GOLF GOLF T TANGO TANG GO

H HOTEL HOH TELL U UNIFORM YOU NEE FORM

I INDIA INDEE AH V VICTOR VIK TAH

J JULIETT JEW LEE ETT W WHISKEY WISSKEY

K KILO KEY LOH X XRAY ECKSRAY

L LIMA LEE MAH Y YANKEE YANG KEY

M MIKE MIKE Z ZULU ZOO LOO

NUMERALS:

0 ZERO ZE RO 5 FIVE FIFE

1 ONE WUN 6 SIX SIX

2 TWO TOO 7 SEVEN SEV EN

3 THREE TREE 8 EIGHT AIT

4 FOUR FOW ER 9 NINE NIN ER

90

PROWORDS: Procedure Words ( referred to as prowords ) are words used to convey a specific meaning. They are used in standard phrases between two amateur radio operators to shorten and minimize transmissions.

THIS IS This transmission is from the station whose call immediately follows.

OVER This is the end of my transmission to you and a response is necessary. Go ahead; . transmit

OUT This is the end of my transmission to you and no answer is required or expected.

Since OVER and OUT have opposite meanings, they are never used together.

ROGER I have received your last transmission satisfactorily.

SAY AGAIN Repeat all of your last transmission.

I SPELL I shall spell the preceding word phonetically.

CORRECTION An error has been made in this transmission.

WILCO I have received your message, understand it, and will comply.

I SAY AGAIN I am repeating transmission or portion indicated.

WORDS TWICE Communication is difficult. Transmit each phrase twice.

ALL AFTER The portion of the message to which I have referred is all that which follows.

ALL BEFORE The portion of the message to which I have referred is all that which precedes.

WORD AFTER The word of the message to which I have referred is that which follows.

WORD BEFORE The word of the message to which I have referred is that which precedes.

91