Intercom
Spring 2022
19
Communications Howard Bush, Staff Officer-Communications Division 7 Operations received approval for April missions on short notice. BM1 Reardon smoothly rushed through the orders for four missions. All were conducted in Boca Ciega Bay. One mission on April 23 was an on-the-water boat crew qualifying examination and class at Flotilla 7-16 Gulfport. lo loti otitill illa a I notified all Flotilla omStaff Officer-Communications that the mison-the-water ed d sions presented or an opportunity for onss Telecommunications es Operator trainees eiir to complete their orr-required perforio on mance qualification s se ed standard supervised io on nss. radio guard missions. F lottilla ililla a 75, 75, 5 Don Hebert from Flotilla ok advantage adva adva ad vant vant ntage age of ag of this th hiis Apollo Beach took w i ll l s oon oo o n be b e a n e ew w Tel eleeopportunity and will soon new Telep rato pe ra ato or B ravvo ra o Z ulu ulu ul communications O Operator. Bravo Zulu Don! A new performance qualification standard is planned for Telecommunications Operators. Dave Rockwell, Auxiliary Sector Coordinator-St. Petersburg recommends trainees complete these PQS now, or TCO trainees will have to do it all over when new standards come out. A Telecommunications Operator refresher training was conducted on April 6, with
nine TCOs attending. This brings our division TCOs to nearly 100% current, not counting trainees and TCOs from other divisions participating We face two challenges: getting all our radio facilities inspected so they do not go non-operational and getting TCO trainees to complete PQS and mandatory radio hour ho urs. ur s. hours. T Th he Co C oasst G Gu uar ard rd does not see evThe Coast Guard e eryt er ryt ythi h ng hi g w e do. do. T do erything we They do hear eve er r y yt t h hi hing i n ng g w e sa s a ay y erything we say on the radio! Ev E ver eryo yon ne ew ho uses ho u Everyone who the VHF Rad di o s sh shou h ou o u l ld d r ev e vie v ie e dio should review the Radiotelep ph hon one Handbook, Han Ha phone especially p prow pr r o ow w prowords, figures-not nu um numbers, or latitude, an n d and longitude; saying ‘Tack’ to denote in ing a decimal; calling Station to inform them when you provide a radio guard for an Auxiliary Facility. These are some of the most common errors we hear over the radio this year. If anyone would like to come review radio procedures, please get in touch with me. Ω
“The Coast Guard does not see everything we do. They do hear everything we say on the radio!”
