Tactical Call Signs
Synopsis
Your tactical call sign should be your NET team name or an abbreviation. If your net team name is long, choose an abbreviation. For example if your full team name was “Portland South Heights”, your tactical call sign might be “South Heights.” If the neighborhood name is Classic Historic Neighborhood your tactical call sign could be "Classic."
Your subnet controller may ask you for the full team name of your team. For some exercises, several teams may have been combined and will work together as a single team. Nevertheless, report only the name of the host team or the neighborhood in which the staging area is located. Your tactical call sign should be based on this host name.
Note: During NET Simplex Net exercises, we encourage operators to use suffixes (“South Heights-2”, etc.) because there are often several AROs from the same NET participating. Do not add a suffix for exercises or deployments where you operate from a staging area as there should only be one ARO representing a team at a time.
Understanding Tactical Call Signs
Tactical call signs are often used during emergency communications by radio. We recommend their use for all amateur radio operators participating in NET exercises and deployments because they make communication more efficient than using FCC call signs. FCC call signs should still be used at least every ten minutes and at the end of a communication.
When operators participate in weekly NET nets, or other on-air activities, they do not use a tactical call sign. Their FCC call signs or FCC call signs and first names are sufficient.
Operators Representing NET Teams
Your tactical call sign should be your NET team name or an abbreviation. If your net team name is long, choose an abbreviation. For example if your full team name was “Portland South Heights and Jake Creek NET”, your tactical call sign might be “South Heights.”
Several teams sometimes operate from a single staging area. You should be aware of which teams you represent as subnet controllers will probably ask you for that information when they check in.
Operators Serving as NET Control Operators
When you serve as a subnet control for a simplex region your call sign should usually be the name of the region. When you serve as the control operator for a resource net, command net or tactical net the corresponding net name is your tactical call sign.
Why Tactical Call Signs are More Efficient
There are at least three reasons why tactical call signs are more efficient:
They focus on roles and/or places. During a deployment, the focus is on getting information from one place to another. Tactical call signs place the emphasis on where information is coming from and where it is going rather than who is at a particular location. They also place emphasis on the roles people are serving in rather than who is serving in a particular role. During an extended deployment the person serving in a particular role may change but the tactical call sign can remain the same.
Fewer syllables save time. A good tactical call sign will usually be much shorter than an FCC call sign. For example, “South Heights” has two syllables while “Kilo Kilo Seven Alpha Bravo Charlie” has twelve. Even “Kay Kay Seven A Bee Cee” has seven sylables.
Easier to remember. Unless you’ve worked with all the operators participating in a deployment several times before, you haven’t memorized their FCC call signs but you’re probably familiar with the names of nearby neighborhoods and the name of your simplex region.
Sample Radio Dialogs
Checking into a net
- You: This is South Heights.
- Net Controller: Welcome South Heights.
- You: Thank you Net Control. KK7ABC as South Heights Out.
Responding to Net Control
- Net Controller: South Heights Net Control Over.
- You: Net Control South Heights Over.
- Net Controller: South Heights, please provide the current number of NET Team members at your staging area.
- You: Net Control, we have five team members present at this time. South Heights Over.
- Net Controller: Thank you South Heights.
Getting attention of the Net Control operator
- You [Wait for a gap in communication.] Net Control. South Heights. Over.
- Net Controller: South Heights go ahead OR South Heights Stand By.
- You [When you receive a “go ahead”] I have one Emergency and two priority messages.
- Net Control: Thank you South Heights. I will contact you when I am ready for your traffic.
- You: KK7ABC as South Heights Out.
Checking out of a net
- Net Control: South Heights, are you ready to check out?
- You: Net Control, Affirmative. South Heights. Over.
- Net Control: South Heights, you are checked out.
- You: KK7ABC as South Heights Out.
See also Use of FCC Call Signs When Tactical Call Signs Are Being Used
