Spacer as Soldier

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Icelander

This still seems super weird to me. Modern TL8 shipboard radios on the trawler where I worked have a simple digital display to select radio frequency. I may not know anything about which one to select to cut through jamming or how to follow along a pre-arranged schedule of frequency hopping*, but even without any skill, I can look up a frequency on the table next to it and enter the number of it.

Hailing on a band, not a channel or freq. That means transmitting the same message across a wide variety of commonly used frequencies in rapid succession and possibly simultaneously if you have enough transmitters, and using the appropriate protocols for a hail, not just calling a single known party or sending a general "SOS." Real knowledge of the equipment and protocols is needed for that. For instance, if a bunch of Russian fighter jets are near my carrier group, and I have to warn them off without knowing their freq, I need to transmit on the most likely freqs, do so quickly enough that they aren't on top of me by the time I'm done, and in a way that won't trigger an incident even though I don't speak any Russian. Calling my own jets on a well-known freq would be a whole other ballgame, but that isn't hailing on a band.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Hailing on a band, not a channel or freq. That means transmitting the same message across a wide variety of commonly used frequencies in rapid succession and possibly simultaneously if you have enough transmitters, and using the appropriate protocols for a hail, not just calling a single known party or sending a general "SOS." Real knowledge of the equipment and protocols is needed for that. For instance, if a bunch of Russian fighter jets are near my carrier group, and I have to warn them off without knowing their freq, I need to transmit on the most likely freqs, do so quickly enough that they aren't on top of me by the time I'm done, and in a way that won't trigger an incident even though I don't speak any Russian. Calling my own jets on a well-known freq would be a whole other ballgame, but that isn't hailing on a band.

Fair enough.