Putnam County Radio Identifier System

This is just off the top of my head (remember, I'm a trainee!); I'll try to flesh it out later

• Listen on the channel for a bit before transmitting; you wouldn't want to cut in in the middle of an ongoing exchange (e.g., transmitting after tones were sent and before the dispatcher had a chance to finish the dispatch broadcast)
• Key the mic and wait one full second before speaking (it takes a bit for the radio to establish the carrier signal and open the channel).
• Consider, before you press the transmit button: is this transmission necessary? What is the purpose and desired effect of your transmission? If it isn't necessary, don't bother making it.
• Begin each communication exchange with [addressee] this is [caller], as in "40 Control, this is 18-7-1". This gives folks a chance to hear their identifier first and start paying attention.
• By the way, it may sound "cool", but avoid packing the numbers together in your call sign. Say "Eighteen, Seven, One", not "Eighteen, Seventy-One".
• Don't bother to say "be advised", it is zero-content and just clutters up the airwaves.
• When you say the word "responding", it means you are responding to the scene, don't use it to say you are replying to the caller's transmission.
• We don't use 10-codes in our district.
• Don't transmit from an apparatus while it is still in the parking bay; the metal doors will become a "secondary antenna" and will distort the broadcast. (It might even damage the output transistors on the radio.)
• Times recorded on the NYS PCR (based on what the dispatcher relays to the EMT at the end of the call):
  1. Call Received (I'm not sure at this time whether that's the time the 911 call was received or when the radio dispatch was first made -- I suspect the latter and will clear this up here shortly)
  2. Enroute (When the responding unit leaves to go to the scene -- note this is not what is meant by "enroute" in our radio district, for us I think, "Enroute" means leaving the scene for the treatment location, i.e., hospital)
  3. Arrived at Scene (as reported by the responding unit)
  4. From Scene (I think this is what we refer to as "Enroute")
  5. At Destination (Arrived at hospital)
  6. In Service (If the EMT calls the dispatcher from the hospital at the very end of the call, he or she may collect the times and then report the unit back in service at that time -- be sure to get the time from the dispatcher if you do!)
  7. In Quarters (I'm not sure if we use this field -- if we do, it doesn't involve the dispatcher.)