This article explains some methods for effective communication using radios, phones and other devices.

Call Sign

Everyone in your family or group should have a call sign, even children. Call signs should not be reflective of any characteristics or provide any clue as to the identity of the person.  Do not use your real names on any communication device, during an emergency.  This can compromise both the caller and the receiver’s operational security, OPSEC.

Note: Call signs for U.S. Presidents and their families begin with the same letter – see example below.

Example

This technique should be used regardless of the communication devise, e.g., phone, voice mail, instant messaging or radio.

Response codes can be used to communicate the situation status.  If someone is holding a knife to your throat, you can communicate that you are under duress using response codes without the assailant knowing.

Example

       Example

In this transmission, both the caller and receiver have confirmed their identity to each other and provided their circumstances.  Rainbow is normal and Rawhide is under duress.

Encrypt Status

Status can be discretely provided on each member of the family or group without revealing their real names.  Each person can have two codes to describe their circumstance.  This serves as a confirmation the identities of the caller and receiver to each other.  One family has established some phrases to discreetly communicate their situation. 

Encrypt Locations

Locations need to be codified during communication transmissions, also. Define code names for each relevant location.  Begin with your three shelters and work location

If you need to provide latitude and longitude coordinates, develop a method of disguising the numbers. A primitive technique is to select a key.  This is a number that will be added by the person who is encoding the latitude.  To encode the latitude, add the key.  The receiver must know the key to decode the latitude.

The receiver (of the encoded numbers) must know the key to decode the phone number

The encrypted coordinates are listed below. 

Encrypting location coordinates, it may be beneficial to add the key to the first (leftmost) digit. Adding the key to the end would place the coordinates close to actual location.  Adding the key to the first digit would make it a location farther away from the actual location.

The above examples are simple and may not be appropriate for all number encoding conditions.  To increase the level of encryption, you can use a calculation for the key. Using a calculation for the key would make the encryption more complicated and more difficult to decipher.  

Prowords

To reduce the transmission duration radio operators use prowords to convey a message.  They are language short-cuts used in radio transmissions. 

They can also be used to obscure the meaning of the transmission to eavesdropper.  Prowords can be used to communicate a meaning that is only known to certain other radio operators. Emergency responders can use prowords to communicate to other emergency responders.  If an emergency responder is at an accident site and needs to report the condition of the victims, they may use a proword to inform their incident commander of a deceased victim.

Locations are good candidates for prowords.  There are situations when you do not want to transmit a location over a communication device.  That information could be used by someone with malicious intent.

Standard Prowords

Some prowords are defined for each specific situation and some have been standardized.  Below is a sample of common standard prowords.

 Situationally-Defined Prowords

Using standardized prowords are good to reduce the amount of transmission traffic, but since they are standardized, their meaning is (intentionally) common knowledge.  Some situations may require OPSEC.  In a sensitive situation, prowords are created and only shared with appropriate people.  Below are some examples of situationally-defined prowords. 

By Roger Eaton Over thirty years of experience in information technology and over seventeen years of experience in emergency services converged to inspire Eaton to develop Prep Smartz, emergency management software and Prep Smartz Academy.