Radio Etiquette Basics

Radio etiquette is not politeness; it is spectrum management. The habits in this page keep the shared band usable, and the beacon has its own etiquette built into its design.

The universal habits

Habit	Why
Listen before transmitting	The channel may be in use; your beacon burst overlaps someone else’s
Keep transmissions short	The band is shared; every second is someone else’s loss
Identify yourself	The beacon does this by design (see Callsign Identification)
Leave the channel when done	The beacon’s schedule stops when you do (see Mode Config)

The beacon’s built-in etiquette

The beacon is unusually polite by design:

• Its bursts are short (a payload takes seconds, see Firmware Payload Builder).
• Its gaps are long (the sleep interval, see Firmware TX Scheduler).
• It scans before you deploy it (see Scanning the Band), so it picks a quiet channel rather than fighting for a busy one.

The interference reality

Etiquette reduces but cannot eliminate collisions: the band is uncoordinated by law (see Urban RF Environment). When a collision happens, the beacon’s repeats cover it: the next burst arrives on schedule. That is the design compensating for a shared medium.

When etiquette changes

In an emergency, the Mayday vs Pan Pan protocol takes priority over ordinary courtesy: the beacon’s EMERGENCY mode transmits more often and longer because the situation warrants it (see Emergency Use Legal).

Related pages

• Band Plan Etiquette for the channel rules
• Simplex Communication for the direct mode
• Rescue Communication Basics for the rescue context