download part three:             

RACES/ARES
Message Handling Tutorial

Part 3 - Message Handling Training  

 A Practice Message

 [MESSAGE FOLLOWS]

 NUMBER ONE SIX ROUTINE ...
 [FIGURES] ONE FOUR ... JULY ...
 [FIGURES] ZERO ZERO ONE ZERO ZULU ...
 RADIO OFFICER ... BERKELEY
 [I SPELL] B-E-R-K-E-L-E-Y ... COUNTY
[BREAK]
 SHIROV [I SPELL] S-H-I-R-O-V ...
 [I SPELL] LIMA ALPHA TANG0 ...
 [FIGURES] TWO SIX SEVEN ZERO ...
 [FIGURES] EIGHT DECIMAL ZERO ...
 [INITIAL] XRAY ...
 GELFAND [I SPELL] G-E-L-F-A-N-D ...
 [I SPELL] BRAVO LIMA ROMEO ...
 [FIGURES] TWO SIX NINER ZERO ...
 [FIGURES] SEVEN DECIMAL FIVE ...
 [INITIAL] XRAY ...
 GUREVICH [I SPELL] GOLF UNIFORM ROMEO ECHO VICTOR INDIA CHARLIE HOTEL ...
 [I SPELL] BRAVO ECHO LIMA ...
 [FIGURES] TWO SIX ONE ZERO ...
 [FIGURES] SEVEN DECIMAL ZERO ...
 [INITIAL] XRAY ...
 ADAMS [I SPELL] A-D-A-M-S ...
 [I SPELL] ECHO NOVEMBER GOLF...
 [FIGURES] TWO SIX THREE ZERO ...
 [FIGURES] SIX DECIMAL FIVE ...
 [BREAK]
 [I SPELL] PAPA SIERRA MIKE INDIA TANGO HOTEL
 [END NO MORE ... OVER]

 The preamble gives basic message classification and identification. Notice that there is no "check" in this
 preamble. The "check" is a word count and is useful for many kinds of messages, but is not used in all types of
 message formats. This is NOT in ARRL format. It is more consistent with the kind of "tactical" messages we
 might handle in an emergency operation in support of the county government.

 The "TO:" is addressed to a position rather than an individual person.
This is acceptable as in a long operation,  several individuals may fill a particular position. However, it should be
understood where the person filling this  position is located. 

 The text is a series of names, letter groups and number groups, which
incidentally, is actual data. As an  exercise message, it was designed to be information which probably would
not make sense to the average person.  There is a clear (if unusual) signature.
 
Phonetics were used for only one of the names in the text. It may or may not have been necessary, and would  have been up to the discretion of the operator as to whether to use them or not. As receiving operator, you know  that when you hear I SPELL, you might get letters or phonetic words.
 
The signature, being nearly unpronounceable as spelled, should be simply spelled. 
 As a receiving operator, you may have missed a word or phrase. You can get the fill you need by specifying:

 SAY AGAIN WORD (BEFORE ...)(AFTER ...)
 SAY AGAIN ALL AFTER ...
 SAY AGAIN ALL BEFORE ...
 SAY AGAIN ALL BETWEEN ... AND ...

 Some message forms have a "check" in the heading or preamble which gives a word count. This is helpful to determine whether the message was received correctly, especially if it goes through many relays. If you copy a message in five or ten word lines, it is easy to check the word count before you acknowledge receipt of the message. There are some additional procedural phrases that you may encounter. These are accepted by some organizations and not by others. For the most part they are redundant to
the procedures already discussed.

 LETTER GROUP introduces a group of two or more letters that generally do
not form a common word. For example, RACES is a letter group and would be sent
 "LETTER GROUP ROMEO ALPHA CHARLIE ECHO SIERRA".
 
MIXED GROUP introduces a group that is a combination of letters and
numbers. For example, Z4758RSK. 
This would be sent MIXED GROUP ZULU FOUR SEVEN FIVE EIGHT
 ROMEO SIERRA KILO
 Again, always say the individual numbers and use phonetics for the letters.
Using  I SPELL before the "letter group" and "mixed group" accomplishes the same thing.
 The term AMATEUR CALL is sometimes used to introduce an amateur callsign.
So if a message were addressed to K3XO, it would be stated AMATEUR CALL KILO THREE XRAY OSCAR
 Amateur callsigns should always be given phonetically.