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Episode: 432
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Title: HPR0432: How to use walkies
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Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0432/hpr0432.mp3
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Transcribed: 2025-10-07 20:25:55
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---
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Hello everyone, this is Kwatu and I'm sitting outside enjoying the pleasant weather, so if
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you hear birds or other kinds of wildlife, that's probably why.
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If you hear loud car noises, that's because I'm like maybe six meters away from a busy
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street.
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It's kind of killed the atmosphere for me, but the best I could do.
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So yeah, it's quite a nice day, and I thought it was a perfect afternoon for a quick hacker
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public radio episode, and the thing that I thought I'd talk about was something that I've
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had a little bit of experience with, which is how to use a walkie.
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Now walkie is a term for a walkie-talkie, instead of calling it a walkie-talkie in certain
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industries, you're going to hear it just referred to as walkie.
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And the intuitiveness of a walkie-talkie, or a CB radio, or whatever you want to call
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it, is pretty good.
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You can usually figure out how to use a walkie without much instruction.
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Now can you use it well?
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That is an entire different question.
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I was at an event recently, where they were using walkies for communication between
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the different groups that were kind of involved in putting this event together.
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And it was great to have them because they're really handy to have instant access to someone
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who's located two floors above you.
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You can just say, hey, how's it going up there?
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Do you need anything?
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Whatever.
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It's very handy.
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And that is that if you don't use them as efficiently as you could, they become a little
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bit either bothersome or just ineffective.
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And so that's what I thought I'd talk about is sort of the methodology that a lot of
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people use when they're using walkies, people with experience or whatever, the people who
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do events very frequently have kind of perfected a method of using walkies.
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And eventually I kind of learned my way around them in these groups.
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And so I'm going to pass them on in this episode.
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So where might you find walkies being used?
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Well, one of the places is a film production.
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If you're doing a video production or if you're part of it, you're going to find walkies
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on the set because they're handy for the cameraman to be able to instantly access the traffic
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production assistant, the guy blocking traffic and stuff like that.
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They need to walk you so that the PA can say, hey, yeah, I've stopped traffic successfully,
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start the shot now.
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And then when the shot is over, the cameraman says the PA okay, the shot's finished, let
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the traffic through and the traffic continues, you know, things like that.
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It's important.
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So you might also find them on political demonstrations on this big, not just like spontaneous riots,
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but I mean, that was sort of really overly planned and official kind of political demonstrations
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done by the likes of Greenpeace or Peta or Peta or whatever.
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They kind of have those big demonstrations and they need walkies.
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So that, you know, when the celebrity wearing the fur coat is just about to turn the corner,
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the person watching the celebrity can walk you over to the person with the bucket of red
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paint and say, okay, they're turning the corner right now and then they can successfully
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get the red paint onto the fur coat.
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Things like that.
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What else might use a walkie?
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Why Linux festivals might use walkies?
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For instance, Southeast Linux Fest.
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They have walkies.
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Ohio Linux Fest will probably have walkies.
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These places, you know, you need walkies so that the person at the front door can be told
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by the person up in the speaker lounge room, you know, where the speakers can go to do all
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their last minute slide presentations and things, you know.
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They could walk you down to the person at the front door and say, hey, keep an eye out
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for a delivery person from, you know, office depot, whatever.
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So it's really handy to have them.
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How to use them is pretty simple.
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You press the button and start talking.
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But there are two kinds of walkies.
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They're going to be the cheap ones that you can buy at the apartment stores and they're
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going to be expensive ones that you can rent from an equipment rental house.
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Let's talk about the cheap ones first.
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Cheap ones usually come in two in a package.
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They will come with some kind of charging station possibly or they might just use everyday
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household batteries, you know, double A's, nine volt, whatever, depends on what brand
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you get.
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And they will come usually with earpieces which you can use obviously to hear without,
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you know, blasting all the communication out loud and the walkie themselves.
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And usually the walkies have about 10 channels on them and they'll advertise a range maybe
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of two miles which translates into like one mile, sometimes less in real life conditions.
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So that's what you get for like, I don't know, 50 bucks for two of them or maybe even
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less.
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Now, obviously within that range there are quite a few different levels.
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I mean, you've got walkies that are resigned for kids to talk to each other across the living
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room or you've got walkies that are resigned for sports enthusiasts who go climbing mountains
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and need to talk to their buddy or you've got like anything in between there, you know,
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something in the middle.
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So the effectiveness of the walkie communication is going to depend largely on the conditions
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of your surroundings.
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If you're out in the wilderness without a radio signal at all around you and you're going
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to have great reception, you're going to just see, you know, it's going to be a clear
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shot.
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Now, if you're in the big city, you've got lots of interference, you've got big buildings
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like that, you might have some problems.
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If you're in the same building, you might really have great luck because there's not much
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going on in there either.
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So it just really depends.
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And the best thing there is to try to try it out first, you know, if you're going to
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get the cheap kind, start low, start with sort of a reasonably professional looking set
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that seems to have good features by them as long as there's a return policy, there's
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no harm in buying them, going out and testing them with a friend in the location that they're
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actually going to be used, preferably even like around the same time, like if you're going
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to be using them all day, well, you can use them pretty much all day and I mean, use
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them any time during the day and then test it out.
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If it's just a morning production or something, you might want to test it out, see, in the
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same kind of like traffic and city conditions, it all depends on how much time you have for
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this kind of pre-planning.
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Obviously, the more pre-planning you do for any kind of event, the better it's going
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to turn out.
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So that's something that you're definitely going to want to start early.
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But testing the walkies is not a bad idea.
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And then if you have to upgrade to a more robust model for a little bit more money, you can
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do that.
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Now, is the whole total cost of ownership thing?
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Is it worth it to buy the cheap walkies or is it better to rent some walkies?
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It depends on how often you're going to use them.
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If this is a one-time deal and you don't really anticipate ever using walkies again or you
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simply anticipate using walkies once a year, it might be better just to rent them.
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You're going to get a good set, you're going to get really good batteries, you're going
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to get a good range, and it will probably cost you as much as it would have to buy them,
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but at least you don't then have to store them and you don't have to worry about them
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breaking and you don't have to worry about the batteries not being any good or the range
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not being as good as advertised things like that.
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As you can tell, the more expensive ones that you rent, the more typically they come
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with the good brick batteries that last a long time, they come with a charging station,
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they come with goody or pieces and microphones, they've got a good set of features.
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You may want to look into those, they're usually the price of renting them for a day or two
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days or three days, usually is not, it's usually comparable to just if you bought them from
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the department store.
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But again, you're getting better quality for that event, so you might want to check
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into that.
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Where to rent them?
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You can rent them at film production rental houses, if you're in an area that has a film
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scene, that's often what they'll be called a film rental house or a prop rental house
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or production rental house.
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You can find them in construction gear rental places, so if you're in an area that doesn't
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really have a film scene or a video scene whenever, then a lot of times it'll be advertised
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as places to rent equipment for construction crews.
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If you're in a place like Aspen, Colorado, where it's famous for sporting stuff, it might
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be a sports rental store geared toward mountain climbers and skiers, cross-country skiers,
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and whatever else they have out in sport areas, so it just depends, jump online and look
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around for a rental house or walkie rentals, whatever, CB radio rentals, walkie-talkie rentals,
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film books sometimes are handy for this as well, so just call around, see what people have
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to offer, see what the prices are.
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So that is the renting and purchasing section of the episode.
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Now we move swiftly along to how exactly to use them.
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So walkies come with a couple of different channels usually, usually one through ten, the
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really good ones go all the way up to eleven.
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So the channels exist simply because they need to exist so that if I'm in the building
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doing my little independent film and you're in the same building on the other end doing
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your Linux festival, then my crew isn't trying to talk on channel one and your crew isn't
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trying to talk on channel one.
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If that is happening, obviously we're going to be picking up each other's transmissions,
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right?
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So just for our own sanity, we would switch over to, for instance, I would switch channel
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two, you guys would be on channel one, and now we're out of each other's way.
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So it's quite handy.
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There's also a reason to use the channels to just make your communication more efficient
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within your organization.
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And the idea is that within any event occurring, you've got probably at least two or three
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different groups.
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So there might be, let's say, a facilities group, a volunteer coordination group, and
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just a purely administrative group.
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All of these people might have walkies, while it would be good for them to have access
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to each other via the walkie, it's not necessarily good for them to always have to hear what
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each other is saying, among the different groups.
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For instance, why does the admin group need to hear the facilities people try to figure
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out where the electrical power is in such in such a room?
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It's not something that that kind of chatter is not something that the admin group would
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need to hear.
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Similarly, the admin people trying to figure out the cost of the food for all the special
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guests, they don't need to, this doesn't need to be heard by the facilities people or
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the volunteer coordination people, and so on and so on.
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So on a film production crew, if you've got a lighting department, you've got a camera
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department, you've got an art department, you've got a main channel, those would each be
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on their own individual frequency, so you've got channel one, channel two, channel three,
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and channel four, with the lighting department maybe taking channel three, the art people
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taking four, the main channel being one, whatever other group I imagined there was on
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channel two.
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So you've got all these different little subgroups, and they each can have their own
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channel, and that's not to say that there's any reason that they can't switch over to
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another channel, they might need to talk to, you know, an art person might need to talk
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to the lighting department for some reason.
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Maybe they need to find out, you know, which electrical sockets are being used, are being
|
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claimed by the lighting department versus which one they're allowed to use for their, for
|
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their on set, on set lighting.
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So if they want to switch over to channel three, and talk to someone on the lighting department,
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that's fine, they can do that.
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But for their everyday, menial tasks focused upon their, their usual job as an art department
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person, they would be on channel four, quite happily isolated from all the other chatter
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that's going on on all the other channels.
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Now on any channel, regardless of which channel you would, you set a certain group to, there's
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the option to always switch to a different channel.
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So if, if two people, you know, on the admin group, at a Linux Fest, are talking and
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trying to figure something out, and they can't figure it out within, I don't know, say
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three or four or five sentences or exchanges, then that probably starts to get classified
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as noise rather than, than useful information in everyone's ear.
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And at that point, one of the two people trying to figure something out would want to say,
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hey, let's switch over to channel seven and continue this conversation there.
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That way they leave the channel open to anyone else who needs to talk about something.
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And they also stop bugging the people who are going to be, who have the walkie, you
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know, stuck in their ear all day, you don't necessarily want to hear every single conversation
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going on and on and on and on and on.
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So it's kind of a courtesy as well.
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And so to do that, you just say switch to seven and you go to seven and you pick up the
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conversation, figure out whatever it was that, you know, you couldn't figure out, and
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then you can go back to your original channel and make sure that you're not missing out
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or anything exciting or important.
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But that is the kind of a layout of the channels.
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You should designate groups within your organization unless this is just a very small production,
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but usually it's not.
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Usually even in a fairly small production, there's two or three different subgroups within
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that.
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So each subgroup can take their own little channel and all their important information
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can go on on that channel.
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If there's anything that they just really can't figure out after a couple of exchanges,
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they can go to a private channel and talk and then return to the main channel afterwards.
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If it is a small production and you only need one channel for everyone, then keep in
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mind the ability to switch to a different channel for the private conversations because
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again, even though it's a main channel and everyone might be on it and yes, it might
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not be a lot of activity right now, but you guys talking about where did I put that little
|
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paper that I showed you earlier today.
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I don't know.
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I last saw it on the stairs, okay, well, I thought I gave it to you.
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No, you have.
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Give me a break.
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I mean, just switch to a different channel, stop chattering in my ear because I've got this
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walkie-stuck in my ear all day long and I don't need to be hearing every little detail
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of how you can't keep track of your paperwork or whatever it might be.
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And it's just a very real courtesy to keep that kind of conversation out of people's
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ears who don't need to hear it.
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So that's what you want to do.
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If it's a slightly larger organization and you do feel it there are subgroups and you
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feel that it would be beneficial to have different channels for each group, then tell them,
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okay, guys, you're the volunteer group, you know, there's my volunteer coordinator.
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I've got my key volunteers or my key production assistants, whatever, and you each have a walkie
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and so go to this channel and make it your own and figure out everything that you need
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to figure out among yourselves.
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And that's fine.
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It kind of consolidates things and keeps the main channel a lot quieter.
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Who should have a walkie?
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Well, people are, I mean, this is going to be a function of both how many walkies you
|
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could afford as well as who really needs a walkie.
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Like if you've got, let's say, four different volunteers in one room or in one very, very
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close area, do every one of those volunteers need a walkie?
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No, probably not.
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You know, just give one volunteer a walkie and tell them, okay, you're the walkie volunteer.
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And if you need to absolutely contact some particular volunteer, then he can walk over
|
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to that volunteer and talk to them or you simply say, you're the walkie volunteer.
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When I shout out over the walkie that I need to volunteer over at the concession stand
|
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pronto, you know, I send someone over.
|
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So that volunteer becomes kind of the key volunteer where the key PA, key production assistant,
|
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and they divvy out the tasks as dictated to them via the walkie or they take on the tasks
|
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themselves, although typically you'd probably better divvy it out because that way they
|
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can stay on walkie and be accessible to assign tasks.
|
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Again, it all depends on the size of your organization, depends on how complex the event is
|
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going to be and stuff like that.
|
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But that would be sort of some ideas to take into consideration when you are trying to
|
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put something together like that.
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Now as you can expect, there is a certain protocol for walkies that is kind of developed.
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And I'm sure that there is different jargon and different idioms among different groups
|
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of people who use walkies.
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The trucking community has their own sort of lingo for their CV radio chatter.
|
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I don't know what that is.
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I have never used a CV radio while driving a big rig.
|
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In fact, I've never driven a big rig.
|
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But the film community, the film and video community independent and otherwise has sort
|
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of a protocol of walkies that I find pretty effective.
|
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So we will talk a little bit about some of the things that they do and the things that
|
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they don't do.
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So before we get into the specific jargon and things, we will talk about some of the
|
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dos and don'ts.
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So do not fill a channel with chatter.
|
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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.
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You use appropriate language and do be professional.
|
||||
Remember that walkies are not, by any means, a secure method of communication.
|
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It's very easy to pick up walkie signals.
|
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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.
|
||||
Reference in New Issue
Block a user