Episode: 432
Title: HPR0432: How to use walkies
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0432/hpr0432.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-07 20:25:55

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Hello everyone, this is Kwatu and I'm sitting outside enjoying the pleasant weather, so if
you hear birds or other kinds of wildlife, that's probably why.
If you hear loud car noises, that's because I'm like maybe six meters away from a busy
street.
It's kind of killed the atmosphere for me, but the best I could do.
So yeah, it's quite a nice day, and I thought it was a perfect afternoon for a quick hacker
public radio episode, and the thing that I thought I'd talk about was something that I've
had a little bit of experience with, which is how to use a walkie.
Now walkie is a term for a walkie-talkie, instead of calling it a walkie-talkie in certain
industries, you're going to hear it just referred to as walkie.
And the intuitiveness of a walkie-talkie, or a CB radio, or whatever you want to call
it, is pretty good.
You can usually figure out how to use a walkie without much instruction.
Now can you use it well?
That is an entire different question.
I was at an event recently, where they were using walkies for communication between
the different groups that were kind of involved in putting this event together.
And it was great to have them because they're really handy to have instant access to someone
who's located two floors above you.
You can just say, hey, how's it going up there?
Do you need anything?
Whatever.
It's very handy.
And that is that if you don't use them as efficiently as you could, they become a little
bit either bothersome or just ineffective.
And so that's what I thought I'd talk about is sort of the methodology that a lot of
people use when they're using walkies, people with experience or whatever, the people who
do events very frequently have kind of perfected a method of using walkies.
And eventually I kind of learned my way around them in these groups.
And so I'm going to pass them on in this episode.
So where might you find walkies being used?
Well, one of the places is a film production.
If you're doing a video production or if you're part of it, you're going to find walkies
on the set because they're handy for the cameraman to be able to instantly access the traffic
production assistant, the guy blocking traffic and stuff like that.
They need to walk you so that the PA can say, hey, yeah, I've stopped traffic successfully,
start the shot now.
And then when the shot is over, the cameraman says the PA okay, the shot's finished, let
the traffic through and the traffic continues, you know, things like that.
It's important.
So you might also find them on political demonstrations on this big, not just like spontaneous riots,
but I mean, that was sort of really overly planned and official kind of political demonstrations
done by the likes of Greenpeace or Peta or Peta or whatever.
They kind of have those big demonstrations and they need walkies.
So that, you know, when the celebrity wearing the fur coat is just about to turn the corner,
the person watching the celebrity can walk you over to the person with the bucket of red
paint and say, okay, they're turning the corner right now and then they can successfully
get the red paint onto the fur coat.
Things like that.
What else might use a walkie?
Why Linux festivals might use walkies?
For instance, Southeast Linux Fest.
They have walkies.
Ohio Linux Fest will probably have walkies.
These places, you know, you need walkies so that the person at the front door can be told
by the person up in the speaker lounge room, you know, where the speakers can go to do all
their last minute slide presentations and things, you know.
They could walk you down to the person at the front door and say, hey, keep an eye out
for a delivery person from, you know, office depot, whatever.
So it's really handy to have them.
How to use them is pretty simple.
You press the button and start talking.
But there are two kinds of walkies.
They're going to be the cheap ones that you can buy at the apartment stores and they're
going to be expensive ones that you can rent from an equipment rental house.
Let's talk about the cheap ones first.
Cheap ones usually come in two in a package.
They will come with some kind of charging station possibly or they might just use everyday
household batteries, you know, double A's, nine volt, whatever, depends on what brand
you get.
And they will come usually with earpieces which you can use obviously to hear without,
you know, blasting all the communication out loud and the walkie themselves.
And usually the walkies have about 10 channels on them and they'll advertise a range maybe
of two miles which translates into like one mile, sometimes less in real life conditions.
So that's what you get for like, I don't know, 50 bucks for two of them or maybe even
less.
Now, obviously within that range there are quite a few different levels.
I mean, you've got walkies that are resigned for kids to talk to each other across the living
room or you've got walkies that are resigned for sports enthusiasts who go climbing mountains
and need to talk to their buddy or you've got like anything in between there, you know,
something in the middle.
So the effectiveness of the walkie communication is going to depend largely on the conditions
of your surroundings.
If you're out in the wilderness without a radio signal at all around you and you're going
to have great reception, you're going to just see, you know, it's going to be a clear
shot.
Now, if you're in the big city, you've got lots of interference, you've got big buildings
like that, you might have some problems.
If you're in the same building, you might really have great luck because there's not much
going on in there either.
So it just really depends.
And the best thing there is to try to try it out first, you know, if you're going to
get the cheap kind, start low, start with sort of a reasonably professional looking set
that seems to have good features by them as long as there's a return policy, there's
no harm in buying them, going out and testing them with a friend in the location that they're
actually going to be used, preferably even like around the same time, like if you're going
to be using them all day, well, you can use them pretty much all day and I mean, use
them any time during the day and then test it out.
If it's just a morning production or something, you might want to test it out, see, in the
same kind of like traffic and city conditions, it all depends on how much time you have for
this kind of pre-planning.
Obviously, the more pre-planning you do for any kind of event, the better it's going
to turn out.
So that's something that you're definitely going to want to start early.
But testing the walkies is not a bad idea.
And then if you have to upgrade to a more robust model for a little bit more money, you can
do that.
Now, is the whole total cost of ownership thing?
Is it worth it to buy the cheap walkies or is it better to rent some walkies?
It depends on how often you're going to use them.
If this is a one-time deal and you don't really anticipate ever using walkies again or you
simply anticipate using walkies once a year, it might be better just to rent them.
You're going to get a good set, you're going to get really good batteries, you're going
to get a good range, and it will probably cost you as much as it would have to buy them,
but at least you don't then have to store them and you don't have to worry about them
breaking and you don't have to worry about the batteries not being any good or the range
not being as good as advertised things like that.
As you can tell, the more expensive ones that you rent, the more typically they come
with the good brick batteries that last a long time, they come with a charging station,
they come with goody or pieces and microphones, they've got a good set of features.
You may want to look into those, they're usually the price of renting them for a day or two
days or three days, usually is not, it's usually comparable to just if you bought them from
the department store.
But again, you're getting better quality for that event, so you might want to check
into that.
Where to rent them?
You can rent them at film production rental houses, if you're in an area that has a film
scene, that's often what they'll be called a film rental house or a prop rental house
or production rental house.
You can find them in construction gear rental places, so if you're in an area that doesn't
really have a film scene or a video scene whenever, then a lot of times it'll be advertised
as places to rent equipment for construction crews.
If you're in a place like Aspen, Colorado, where it's famous for sporting stuff, it might
be a sports rental store geared toward mountain climbers and skiers, cross-country skiers,
and whatever else they have out in sport areas, so it just depends, jump online and look
around for a rental house or walkie rentals, whatever, CB radio rentals, walkie-talkie rentals,
film books sometimes are handy for this as well, so just call around, see what people have
to offer, see what the prices are.
So that is the renting and purchasing section of the episode.
Now we move swiftly along to how exactly to use them.
So walkies come with a couple of different channels usually, usually one through ten, the
really good ones go all the way up to eleven.
So the channels exist simply because they need to exist so that if I'm in the building
doing my little independent film and you're in the same building on the other end doing
your Linux festival, then my crew isn't trying to talk on channel one and your crew isn't
trying to talk on channel one.
If that is happening, obviously we're going to be picking up each other's transmissions,
right?
So just for our own sanity, we would switch over to, for instance, I would switch channel
two, you guys would be on channel one, and now we're out of each other's way.
So it's quite handy.
There's also a reason to use the channels to just make your communication more efficient
within your organization.
And the idea is that within any event occurring, you've got probably at least two or three
different groups.
So there might be, let's say, a facilities group, a volunteer coordination group, and
just a purely administrative group.
All of these people might have walkies, while it would be good for them to have access
to each other via the walkie, it's not necessarily good for them to always have to hear what
each other is saying, among the different groups.
For instance, why does the admin group need to hear the facilities people try to figure
out where the electrical power is in such in such a room?
It's not something that that kind of chatter is not something that the admin group would
need to hear.
Similarly, the admin people trying to figure out the cost of the food for all the special
guests, they don't need to, this doesn't need to be heard by the facilities people or
the volunteer coordination people, and so on and so on.
So on a film production crew, if you've got a lighting department, you've got a camera
department, you've got an art department, you've got a main channel, those would each be
on their own individual frequency, so you've got channel one, channel two, channel three,
and channel four, with the lighting department maybe taking channel three, the art people
taking four, the main channel being one, whatever other group I imagined there was on
channel two.
So you've got all these different little subgroups, and they each can have their own
channel, and that's not to say that there's any reason that they can't switch over to
another channel, they might need to talk to, you know, an art person might need to talk
to the lighting department for some reason.
Maybe they need to find out, you know, which electrical sockets are being used, are being
claimed by the lighting department versus which one they're allowed to use for their, for
their on set, on set lighting.
So if they want to switch over to channel three, and talk to someone on the lighting department,
that's fine, they can do that.
But for their everyday, menial tasks focused upon their, their usual job as an art department
person, they would be on channel four, quite happily isolated from all the other chatter
that's going on on all the other channels.
Now on any channel, regardless of which channel you would, you set a certain group to, there's
the option to always switch to a different channel.
So if, if two people, you know, on the admin group, at a Linux Fest, are talking and
trying to figure something out, and they can't figure it out within, I don't know, say
three or four or five sentences or exchanges, then that probably starts to get classified
as noise rather than, than useful information in everyone's ear.
And at that point, one of the two people trying to figure something out would want to say,
hey, let's switch over to channel seven and continue this conversation there.
That way they leave the channel open to anyone else who needs to talk about something.
And they also stop bugging the people who are going to be, who have the walkie, you
know, stuck in their ear all day, you don't necessarily want to hear every single conversation
going on and on and on and on and on.
So it's kind of a courtesy as well.
And so to do that, you just say switch to seven and you go to seven and you pick up the
conversation, figure out whatever it was that, you know, you couldn't figure out, and
then you can go back to your original channel and make sure that you're not missing out
or anything exciting or important.
But that is the kind of a layout of the channels.
You should designate groups within your organization unless this is just a very small production,
but usually it's not.
Usually even in a fairly small production, there's two or three different subgroups within
that.
So each subgroup can take their own little channel and all their important information
can go on on that channel.
If there's anything that they just really can't figure out after a couple of exchanges,
they can go to a private channel and talk and then return to the main channel afterwards.
If it is a small production and you only need one channel for everyone, then keep in
mind the ability to switch to a different channel for the private conversations because
again, even though it's a main channel and everyone might be on it and yes, it might
not be a lot of activity right now, but you guys talking about where did I put that little
paper that I showed you earlier today.
I don't know.
I last saw it on the stairs, okay, well, I thought I gave it to you.
No, you have.
Give me a break.
I mean, just switch to a different channel, stop chattering in my ear because I've got this
walkie-stuck in my ear all day long and I don't need to be hearing every little detail
of how you can't keep track of your paperwork or whatever it might be.
And it's just a very real courtesy to keep that kind of conversation out of people's
ears who don't need to hear it.
So that's what you want to do.
If it's a slightly larger organization and you do feel it there are subgroups and you
feel that it would be beneficial to have different channels for each group, then tell them,
okay, guys, you're the volunteer group, you know, there's my volunteer coordinator.
I've got my key volunteers or my key production assistants, whatever, and you each have a walkie
and so go to this channel and make it your own and figure out everything that you need
to figure out among yourselves.
And that's fine.
It kind of consolidates things and keeps the main channel a lot quieter.
Who should have a walkie?
Well, people are, I mean, this is going to be a function of both how many walkies you
could afford as well as who really needs a walkie.
Like if you've got, let's say, four different volunteers in one room or in one very, very
close area, do every one of those volunteers need a walkie?
No, probably not.
You know, just give one volunteer a walkie and tell them, okay, you're the walkie volunteer.
And if you need to absolutely contact some particular volunteer, then he can walk over
to that volunteer and talk to them or you simply say, you're the walkie volunteer.
When I shout out over the walkie that I need to volunteer over at the concession stand
pronto, you know, I send someone over.
So that volunteer becomes kind of the key volunteer where the key PA, key production assistant,
and they divvy out the tasks as dictated to them via the walkie or they take on the tasks
themselves, although typically you'd probably better divvy it out because that way they
can stay on walkie and be accessible to assign tasks.
Again, it all depends on the size of your organization, depends on how complex the event is
going to be and stuff like that.
But that would be sort of some ideas to take into consideration when you are trying to
put something together like that.
Now as you can expect, there is a certain protocol for walkies that is kind of developed.
And I'm sure that there is different jargon and different idioms among different groups
of people who use walkies.
The trucking community has their own sort of lingo for their CV radio chatter.
I don't know what that is.
I have never used a CV radio while driving a big rig.
In fact, I've never driven a big rig.
But the film community, the film and video community independent and otherwise has sort
of a protocol of walkies that I find pretty effective.
So we will talk a little bit about some of the things that they do and the things that
they don't do.
So before we get into the specific jargon and things, we will talk about some of the
dos and don'ts.
So do not fill a channel with chatter.
And again, that just goes back to switching over to another channel.
If there's some conversation that you're having that is obviously very, very based on one
or two people or two or three people, just switch over to a channel, it's just common
courtesy.
You use appropriate language and do be professional.
Remember that walkies are not, by any means, a secure method of communication.
It's very easy to pick up walkie signals.
I mean, someone with a spare walkie can absolutely tune into your frequency.
Someone with a, probably just whatever radio receiver can tune in.
So you want to be careful about what you're talking about because I assume the organization
that you are with wants to have some kind of appearance of being professional and being
responsible, especially if you are, I mean, if you're a film or production crew or a Linux
festival, keep in mind that not only do you probably want to do this again at some point,
you probably want to hold, you probably want to make your project again in that location
or at a similar location.
You want to get a reputation as what I'm trying to say of being a responsible organization
or a Linux fest.
So you probably want to go back to that same hotel the very next year or that same convention
center that very next year and do the whole thing over again.
Part of getting a good reputation like that is to make sure that anything overheard from
your group, whether it's just being passed by in the hall, hearing a second hand conversation
or something that you're broadcasting through the air, you want to make sure that that's
professional.
So be professional.
Don't use language that you don't think is appropriate for everyone to hear something
that might have thinned people, whatever, just kind of keep in mind that you're representing
not only that specific organization, but the community of whatever organization, you
know, that's a part of whether it's a filmmaking community, you know, you don't want to spoil
it for the next people who come along and say, hey, we want to make a film here.
And they automatically say, oh, filmmakers equals trouble because that last year we had
was really, really horrific and we'd never want to go, we'd never want to put ourselves
to that again, you know, or the Linux community.
You don't want to portray the Linux community as a bunch of drunk, you know, wild, crazy
people, although, you know, that might be the case.
You want to represent them as a responsible professional group.
So don't spoil it for everyone else, don't spoil it for yourself.
Do, hold down the talk button a lot, meaning that when you go to talk, hold down the talk
button and then wait a beat and then start talking.
When you are finished talking, wait a beat and then release the talk button.
This is something that you kind of have to train yourself to do, your automatic tendency
is going to be just press the button and start talking and then release, but I guarantee
you it's going to cut off the beginning of your sentence and the end of your sentence
if you do that.
Lockies are a little bit slow on the update.
They, you press the button, make sure that you're transmitting a then start talking,
you know, and it doesn't take much.
It's just like a split second, but inevitably there's going to be someone pressing the
button down.
They start talking, you miss the first three words and then they finish their sentence
and they cut themselves off by the last three words.
So, you know, what you end up getting is, where's the, and you know, that's it.
You don't know who asked, you don't know what they're asking for.
And that kind of, that kind of takes me to the next point, which is announce yourself.
Remember that you're on a walkie, people don't know who you are, even if you think you
have the most distinctive voice in the world, announce yourself.
This is Clat 2, where's the laptop that I brought, you know, I mean, just announce it,
make sure you get a hole sentence out and then release the button.
Run the channel how you want to run your channel, meaning while you should be professional
and you should be respectful channels, if you're in charge of a group and everything,
I mean, the channel kind of reflects the spirit of your group as well.
And you know, if you want to, if it is your own little channel among your own little group
and you feel like you guys have worked together before or you guys have a pretty good report,
you can crack jokes, you can be funny, you can be super professional, just whatever you
want to do.
Be, under any circumstances, you know, keep in mind that you could be listening, someone
could be listening in, but also let it be your own channel.
Don't feel like you have to have no personality at all.
It's a lot more fun, I think, if you do have some personality, just keep in mind, like
I say, that you do want to, you want to reflect on the organization well, but also, you
know, make it so that you're, the groups of your channel, the people in that group have
a good time and enjoy themselves and are comfortable with each other.
Be respectful of each other, however.
Remember that you're on a walkie, there are no emoticons, there is no body language.
You just have to rely on the fact that people remember that they're on a walkie and they're
assuming everyone's being nice and that everyone means well, and that's sometimes hard
to remember in some situations, especially when events are being thrown, there's usually
some pressure, everyone wants everything to go right.
You start making wise cracks on the walkie, someone might not realize you're joking and
might really start getting offended.
You might be making an enemy without really meaning to, so be respectful.
So be sure that the walkie isn't talking without your knowledge, that is to say, people
will have their walkie on their belt and they will lean up against the table and without
them really realizing it, they will hit the talk button and it will start broadcasting
and they'll just start talking idly about, you know, what a great cup of coffee they
had and how the cookies weren't actually that good and the place needs to really serve
better food and who decides on this caterer, what about this volunteer, aren't they stupid
or whatever, you know, and they're just broadcasting to the whole group and it could be anything.
The point is they're just chattering and making everyone hear this and you can't interrupt
it very easily on a walkie and let them know, hey, you are broadcasting, stop it.
So just make sure that you're not leaning up against your walkie or that you don't have
the walkie in your pocket and it's being and the talk button's being depressed there,
you know, so be mindful of that sort of thing.
Okay, now the lingo, first of all, base camp.
You don't have to use the term base camp but the concept is very good and a lot of people
do use the term base camp.
A base camp is any place that you have that is the official gathering point or the central
location of the group.
Base camp is very important, it needs to be a central location, it can be anything, it
should be the light post on the corner of such and such a street or it can be the office
number 404 in such and such a building, it can be anything, it can be anywhere but it
needs to be someplace that is commonly known and easily accessible to everyone in the
group.
So that you can say, okay, everyone is symbol at base camp, that's pretty clear.
Or if it's something even simpler, you need to get some paperwork to someone, you can
say, hey, I'm going to drop this off at base camp and you can pick it up there at your
leisure and that way there's that central location so you don't have to coordinate, okay, meet
me over by the red phone booth, over around the back of the bathrooms and through that
one hall, forget that, just base camp, it's a lot simpler.
Go to channel, so go to three, this is quite two, go to four, whatever.
It's when you're saying, okay, this conversation is taking too long or I need to ask you something
that I don't really necessarily want everyone to hear, go to channel, go to four, go to
channel four and then the person that you're talking to goes to channel four, you guys talk
and then it's very important to say, okay, back to one or back to, you know, seven or whatever
channel you came from.
This is important for yourself so that you remember that you are both going to go back
to that channel as well as for the other person that you're talking to because it's a gentle
reminder to them, okay, remember to switch back to one or back to seven or eight or whatever
channel you came from.
So if I was in channel one and then I asked you, dear listener, to go to channel four,
we would both switch to channel four, we would have a conversation and I'd be, I'd say,
okay, back to one and then we would both switch to channel one.
The problem is that some people don't do that, they say, okay, thanks, they don't tell
me they're switching back to one, they switch back to one.
Not only do I forget to go back to one but I also forget that they're not, or I don't
even realize that they're not there, it's a good way of announcing that, yes, I'm leaving
this channel now, so I'll sit there and talk to them and then figure out, oh, they're
not listening anymore, in fact, they're not even in this channel anymore.
So it's a good thing to kind of announce that you're going back to a certain channel
for yourself as well as the person you're talking to.
What's your 20?
If you ask someone what's their 20, that means where are you?
So if you say, Gort, what's your 20, then Gort would walk you back to you and say,
I'm a base camp right now and then you would know exactly where Gort was.
Does anyone have eyes on Gort?
So that would mean does anyone have actual visual contact on Gort?
Does anyone actually see him?
So an acceptable answer to this would be Gort is here at base camp, I see him right
across the room, he's at the coffee machine, Gort's at the coffee machine, that's an acceptable
answer.
Unacceptable answer would be, I think I saw Gort like a couple of minutes ago over at
the coffee machine.
That's not having eyes on Gort, that's thinking that you saw Gort over at the coffee machine
a couple of minutes ago.
So if you are asking, does anyone have eyes on Gort?
You are asking if someone can locate them right now and if needed, can they just step right
over to him and ask him, you know, whatever you need to ask him?
The term breaker breaker, this is an announcement that you're breaking into a conversation.
Usually this is done, well most commonly this is done when two people are trying to figure
something out.
And switch to another channel, they're talking and talking.
You say breaker breaker and you give them the answer that they're seeking.
I've heard it a million times before.
People will be talking for a couple of sentences, you know, where's Class 2?
Well I don't know, I saw them up there.
Well I just was up there and I didn't see them.
And they're talking so rapidly and so cluelessly about where this person is and you're sitting
there trying to tell them, I'm right here, I'm at base camp, excuse me, I'm at base camp.
Say breaker breaker, Class 2 is at base camp.
That indicates that you're interrupting, it's an urgent message and here's the message.
So that would be breaker breaker.
Breaker breaker can also be used if there's something very urgent that's just not in that
conversation.
People are talking about very important matters, whatever it is.
You have something more important, the police are on their way, we need to get out of here.
That would be a cause for breaker breaker, it doesn't matter what they're talking about,
you need to break in to the conversation.
So after you get your walkie from whoever's issuing walkies on that day, you want to do
a test to make sure everyone's hearing you.
So you say testing, testing.
And someone says, yep, we hear you.
Or you might even say, this is a Class 2, testing, testing and then they'll say, yes,
Class 2, we hear you.
Going off walkie, if you're going off walkie, that means you're probably, usually you
say it because you're finished for the day.
Possibly it's because you're on your lunch break or you need to focus on someone in real
life that you're talking to right then and there.
Maybe you're talking to the person financing the whole venture and the last thing you
really want is to be distracted by stuff going on in your ear.
So you say, this is a Class 2, I'm going to go off walkie for a while and then you go off
walkie and people will know not to talk to you.
When you're back on, you need to say this is a Class 2, I'm back or back on, something
like that.
And sometimes you might ask after you get your walkie, you might also have to ask what
channel is such and such a group on.
This is an acceptable question to broadcast to everyone because you need to know what
channel the lighting department is on or the volunteer group is on or the admin group
is on whatever.
So you just announce, you ask that and someone answers you, it's a lot like IRC in that
sense.
That's a wrap.
That means it's finished.
The event is over.
We've finished the thing that we've come together to do is now complete.
This means it's okay to finish up all your old work, you know, clean up, do the striking
of the set or the event equipment and go off walkie.
And when you go off walkie, of course, you would announce it.
For the days end, you usually will issue a good night.
Good night everyone.
That's the end of the work day or something like that.
And the big good night simply means that it's okay to go off walkie.
Typically, I think every group is going to do this differently and at least in a lot
of the productions that I've worked on, it's been a good night at the end of the day
and that's a wrap at the end of the production.
And that's about all the lingo and jargon that I can think of and that is how to use a
walkie.
That is how to organize the use of walkies.
Remember that walkies are not a data symbol, they're not a symbol of who's your favorite.
It's a tool.
You give them out to the people who need to be able to communicate to other people within
that organization.
Divide all the people up into little groups or you can keep them all on one channel.
Just remember that common courtesy and a little bit of protocol will go a long way on
a walkie circuit to make people not be annoyed, to make them really productive and useful
rather than something just really annoying.
And that's about it, I guess, so hopefully this has been informative and helpful and thanks
for listening.
Talk to you next time.
Over and out.
Thank you for listening to Hack with Public Radio.
HPR is sponsored by Carol.net, so head on over to C-A-R-O-DOT-E-C for all of us to meet.
