I suppose I ought to have a good read through the Bronze syllabus, because as it stands I can’t help but think that the blue syllabus is more advanced than it need be. Especially when compared to other blue badge subjects.
It possibly doesn’t help that I seem to have two somewhat contradictory versions of the Blue badge training materials, both provided to me by the CoC.
Maybe it’s time to ditch some of our overly complicated procedures (which were designed in the days of valve sets and poor conditions); get away from ACP 125(f) and start teaching modern comms which might be useful to cadets who go on to join the services.
Even the RAF Regiment use modern land component procedures.
The differences are minor enough to cause little difficulty in transitioning.
It seems that in some areas some of the modern approach is already being adopted unofficially. For example the blue badge materials provided to me by my Wing comms officer specifically adopt the modern approach of speaking numbers as one would in normal conversation when conditions are good (e.g. “Sixteen Thirty Hours”, “Four Hundred and Twenty Three”, &c), despite our own ACP stating that they must always be given as figures using the old fashioned pronunciations.
Frankly I simply refuse to say “Tree” and “Fife” instead of “th-ree” and “Fi-yve”.
Modern radios give far clearer communication than they did 60 years ago and the vast majority of time cadets will be using them will be in relatively close proximity. We made a good step towards common sense a few years back when the books were updated (such as the move away from offering a message every time, and greater use of abbreviated procedures) but the whole syllabus is still pretty complicated for new operators.
I’ve given a lot of thought to radio training over the years - mainly because I’m a bit of a geek and the temptation to teach everything which I think is at least a “should know” makes the training quite technical, so I have to regularly go over my materials to check myself and prune them.
It’s given me much pause for thought.
I can see that there is a logic to teaching full procedures and then, once an operator is familiar with those, telling them when and how they can abbreviate. However I think that any advantage to that approach is lost outside of a closed environment like the Radio School at Cosford where people are on a course to learn that day-in, day-out until they’ve got it.
Trying to cover everything with a group of cadets spread over a couple of lessons per month, muddled amongst everything else that we need/try to deliver to them makes it complicated.
The more complicated it is the more skill fade will affect them. In addition we’ve got the ever present problem of cadets missing a session here and there. The more complicated the training the harder it is to get individuals up to speed when they miss a session.
I would think that a better approach would be - given that new operators will almost always be working closely in good conditions - we teach them simple, abbreviated procedures. Then as they progress we can start introducing full procedures to be used when they’re communicating longer range and with other units.
Arguably we should be using abbreviated procedures whenever possible since the whole point of comms procedures is brevity. The only way to achieve that under the current system is to teach new cadets the whole shebang in order to work up to abbreviated procedures before letting them loose routinely with an actual radio; and that just seems like a backwards and overly-complicated approach to me.
Agreed 100%. Requiring full procedures at blue level is as much of an obstacle to training as it is a reinforcement. We’ll be taking cadets at that level our to assist on public events with a significant radio element and we will not be wasting airtime and duty cycle in that way.
Absolutely. In the early days of the Corps when Sqns didn’t have 12 relatively inexpensive handheld sets radio training was about preparing cadets to join in with the Wing radio exercises when full procedures were far more of a necessity.
These days it’s about getting cadets ready to operate a UHF handheld in support of a local event.
The way we use radio has changed drastically but the approach to training hasn’t.
Consider that the Blue Badge syllabus includes relaying messages as an optional part! There is absolutely no way I’m covering relaying messages at that level!
I always feel, rightly or wrongly, that the personalities (if not the individuals) involved at a high level haven’t changed either. There is sometimes undue influence from people with an amateur radio background which pollute the more “tactical” world of cadet comms, much as the RBL could be said to have polluted our banner drill world in the past, or SJA pollute our FA world currently. We have latched onto existing expertise and have become bound by it.
I absolutely loathe quantity and technicality included in 1st class and blue.
And what’s the outcome? Phonetics, callsigns, a handful of prowords, radio checks, and simple authentication.
What do the majority of cadets need to know and use most often? Phonetics, abbreviated callsigns, a handful of prowords, and radio checks.
There’s your 1st class.
Add in care, full callsigns, simple authentication, a couple of other BASIC bits, an assessed exercise for competency and confidence - there’s your blue. It’s called BASIC Radio Operator fgs.
I couldn’t agree more.
For a Bronze course I will see 12 mad keen radio Cadets eager to learn more, some will have more geek points than me, perhaps they’ll have their own radio, even be familiar with the amateur world.
For those Cadets they enjoy the course but as soon as they return to Squadron it is back to the local event environment where it is a case of passing simply straightforward transmissions as a SitRep.
The advances in Radio PTS is much like the shooting world. both suffer from skill fade and to do well requires some dedication to the topic but is only ever practised within that closed environment of a Radio course/range day.
this is it.
whether i am on a local event be that a fate or the local show, on a “greens exercise” or on a larger environment like RIAT all i would ever expect is a basic radio operator.
for those who take up the mic at a NCS are experienced operators, and comfortable with continual traffic but nothing more.
the advances in anything past an experienced, confident basic operator are of no use to me or how our Squadron operates.
as a for instance, when I use the Radio on Squadron events am I applying Bronze or Blue level techniques…90% of the time I would suggest blue
That would work too. Although I like the element of HAVING to introduce cadets to radios as I could see a lot of people happily dropping it completely.
1 - it would certainly give the Blue course some authority, relevance and meaning as it would appear new information and something to aim for.
2 - it could (would?) put Cadets off using radios until they have passed blue, or (more likely) some overly eager CFAVs or Cadets SNCOs would demand that only Blue radio badge operators cans use radios…
unlike weapons, there is a higher chance that a Squadron will have radios and are likely to use them regardless of having a “Squadron Radio Officer” (by this i mean someone who is active in the radio world and not just ticked as able to teach the blue course). ie there are Units using radios without anyone “qualified” or with any real understanding or experience. Does this bother me? no, there is very little harm that can come from it, ok so there maybe cases where some reeducation is required following a transmission which justifies “beadwindow” but unlike weapons no one’s real safety is compromised
In my opinion, it takes significantly more work to get to a reasonable blue radio pass than simply working through that is in the first class course. Lots of airtime for one.
I don’t like holding up a first class pass to try to get a competent radio operator out of it. I’d sooner keep it ti a basic understanding, then follow that up with a good amount of on-air training up to assessment.
Oh, I also think the assessment criteria for blue are questionable at that level.
Not necessarily into the book, though. Of course, why not put the Blue pages into the 1st class book? Heartstart plus any 2 others (revised radio syllabus) to pass.
Of course, we’re in the realms of hypocrisy being the community that usually shouts down quantity and speed of meddling. That said, I suppose we’re simplifying and reducing, not adding…
Without digging out the manual what additional procedures are there left to learn after the current Blue level?
Another bunch of prowords, relaying (if you haven’t done it already), formal messages (that’s just date-time groups and “fill out this form and read it over the radio”), CODEX (god knows why we even bother), some beadwindow… I can’t think of much else.
We cram probably 90% of actually used procedures into blue level.
Kind of, yes. I am expecting somebody who isn’t terrified of speaking on the thing, can pass a normal, conversational message and who will get the callsigns the right way round.
