Voice comms protocol / tips & advice

[Mm1ut1]

I just got my first headset and hooked up to Discord. What are the “Do and don’ts “ when using voice comms? The headset I bought is a real cheap set (Hurts my ears after a while) and your input on them will be appreciated. Thanks !

[RedKestrel]

1 hour ago, Mm1ut1 said:

I just got my first headset and hooked up to Discord. What are the “Do and don’ts “ when using voice comms? The headset I bought is a real cheap set (Hurts my ears after a while) and your input on them will be appreciated. Thanks !

I am relatively new to voice comms too. The good news is I have found most people to be very friendly and civil so if you mess up a bit no one is going to bother you much. 

My tips:
1. Set it up as push to talk if you can. if you have a button available on your stick or near your hand that is free, this is good. That way you have more control over when you transmit, and people won't hear loud background noises, breathing, drinking/eating, etc. Its not always possible to do. If you can't do this, just be a little conscious of noises you make, etc. I once thought we were being bounced when a guy on comms shouted "down! Down!" so I dove for the deck, only to realize moments later he was scolding his dog.
 

2. Learn to concisely describe your location so that someone else can find you, including learning to reference the grid squares on the map as many people cannot pronounce or intuitively know what town you are talking about if you say it. That means maintaining a good awareness of your speed, altitude, heading, and location. If you are bounced and you say "I have a fighter on my six!" The first things people want to know is where you are. My troubles are almost always related to this - I find it difficult to relay the information under pressure. 

3. Some people like to idly chat, others don't. I just go with the flow of the channel I'm on. I'm usually fairly terse on comms but not always. When in doubt, maintain radio discipline and only give relevant information about your sortie. 

4. Obviously be polite and civil. Pretty easy as the people on comms are on your side. But best to avoid things like politics, religion, personal conflicts, and gripes about the sim on an open channel. 

[SAG]

I agree with Kestrel, in general, going with the flow and using push-to-talk are always good practices.

[-SF-Disarray]

Push to talk is nice but if you can't manage it at least tune your mic in Discord to pick up every little thing in the room; there is a slider that can be used to adjust the noise threshold. As Kestrel mentioned keep things short and to the point when conveying information. But you have to find a good balance there. Say enough to be useful but avoid blathering. If the people you are with are using slang or prowords that you don't understand, after things have calmed down ask what the term(s) mean. As a group of people play together this kind of short hand language is developed and people will often not realize they are using it after a while. Most of it is common enough across groups but it is always better to know for sure what people you are working with are talking about.

 

If you do find yourself in a more relaxed group where there is chatter on the comms, remember to shut up and fly when the action starts. The channel I play in most times is like this. We will be talking about this or that and in the middle of the conversation, often in the middle of a sentence, we will break off the conversation because some unknown plane is in the area or one of us gets in a fight. If someone cuts you off mid sentence for this kind of thing, don't take it personally.

 

If you find yourself in a smaller group cut out from a larger group, say as a wing-man pair from a group of six of you all in the same channel, use the name of the person you are talking to. This way they know you are talking to them and the others know that what you are saying isn't immediately important to them necessarily. Voice recognition can play into this, but that takes time and familiarity with people to develop.

 

Lastly: When in doubt, call it out. If you see an unknown contact call out the 3 D's - Distance, Direction and Description (This should include altitude if you can figure it.) Even if you don't have a good ID on what it is you are seeing give as accurate a description as you can; at longer ranges this can be as vague as 'contact  2 O'clock, long range, low, single engine' or 'I see something 3 O'clock, high. Might be a bomber at long range'. There is nothing worse than getting bounced by a plane you didn't see coming only to learn after the fact that someone you were talking to did see it but said nothing. Worse case scenario, you will call out a friendly contact, or something someone else had already seen, and they will ID it as friend or foe, or say that they saw it too.

[Guest deleted@134347]

6 hours ago, Mm1ut1 said:

I just got my first headset and hooked up to Discord. What are the “Do and don’ts “ when using voice comms? The headset I bought is a real cheap set (Hurts my ears after a while) and your input on them will be appreciated. Thanks !

 

It's a social affair.  Once you join a channel just ask for rules and they'll provide. Some are relaxed, some are more rigid. Don't overthink it.

[Feathered_IV]

Don't sing

[=621=Samikatz]

29 minutes ago, Feathered_IV said:

Don't sing

 

How else am I meant to keep up flight morale?!

[-SF-Disarray]

I think he meant don't sing badly. 

[pilotpierre]

No I think he meant what he said “don’t sing”, nes pa?

[BraveSirRobin]

59 minutes ago, =621=Samikatz said:

 

How else am I meant to keep up flight morale?!

 

Try farting very loudly.

[69th_Panp]

Ah yes the farting singalong?

[RedKestrel]

17 hours ago, Feathered_IV said:

Don't sing

But that will nerf our bards!!!!How am I supposed to get a bonus on my attack rolls?