The Air Cadets teaches you to use radios right at the start of the first class course. Unfortunately most people leave it there and never use it. This is a shame. We do occasionally get tested on this stuff and we do use radios to communicate on exercise. Most importantly, radio comms is part of learning to fly – either as front seat aircrew (pilot) or as back seat aircrew (load master). Obviously air traffic controllers also need radio skills in order to do their job. Not content with their first class training Cdts Ruffell and Witchalls went off to do the first of two courses that lead to the radio operator’s badge. (Ed.)
Cadets Witchalls and Ruffell attended the basic radio operator’s course, covering HF (High Frequency) and VHF (Very high frequency) transmitters at Bicester. We covered lots of various different sectors about radios to work towards our radio operator’s badge. Over a two day period we learnt all about phonetics and language over the radio, how to communicate with others in a correct and proper manor, all about radios and how they work, keeping log books, and lots more. Even though the course was challenging in areas, overall it was a very enjoyable. We learned loads, made new friends and would definitely recommend to anyone wanting to improve the radios skills and knowledge. We cannot wait for the advanced course to improve ourselves further.