Everything you need to run a shift. Assumes somebody else has already built the system — this guide never asks you to configure anything.
Sitting down at a position, handling traffic, and handing over cleanly. Written for the person on the console, not the person who set it up.
Open the console in your browser and sign in. Positions are individually identified, so the system knows who is sitting where — that matters because more than one person can be on the console at once, and everybody needs to know who has the radio.
If you are relieving somebody, make sure they have released their position before you take it. Two people quietly holding the same seat is how doubled transmissions happen.
Every channel you monitor is a card on the screen. Learn two colours and the rest follows:
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Green | Somebody is talking to you on that channel. Traffic is coming in right now. |
| Red | You are transmitting on that channel. Your radio is keyed. |
| Quiet | The channel is connected and listening. Nothing is happening on it. |
Channels don't take turns. Several can be green at once, because you are genuinely monitoring several networks simultaneously. That is the point of the console — but it also means you must look at which card lit up, not just that something did.
There is more than one way to key up, and they all do the same thing. Use whichever suits how you work.
Confirm which channel is selected before you key. Talking on the wrong talkgroup is the most common mistake on a multi-channel position, and the fastest way to embarrass yourself in front of a whole network.
Press to talk, wait a beat, then speak. The extra beat matters more here than on a handheld — your audio travels over the network before it reaches a radio, and clipping the first syllable is the usual result of rushing.
Speak at a normal level and a normal distance from the microphone. Leaning in and shouting makes you harder to understand, not easier.
Watch the card drop out of transmit. If it stays red, you are still keyed — and holding a channel open blocks everyone else on it.
Transmit is always press‑and‑hold. You keep the on‑screen control, the foot pedal, or the Bluetooth PTT held for as long as you are speaking, and the channel drops the instant you let go. There is no latched or hands‑free transmit, so a channel can't be left keyed by accident.
A patch ties two channels so traffic on one is repeated onto the other. This is the tool for an event: bridge a local repeater to a talkgroup so a net on one is heard on the other, run it for the duration, then take it down.
The paging console sends two-tone alerts to groups that still run tone-out. Select the page you want and send it. Tone and gap timing are set by your administrator to match your receivers, so if pages are not opening squelch, that is a configuration question rather than something to solve at the position.
Announce immediately after the tones. People respond to the voice that follows the alert, not the alert itself.
Emergency has its own path rather than being one more button in a row. Use it for what it says — the value of an emergency channel is entirely destroyed by using it for urgent-but-routine traffic.
The DTMF pad sends tones to nodes and controllers that expect them — connecting or disconnecting a link, or driving a repeater controller. If you do not know what a particular sequence does, do not send it.
Two tools, and they answer different questions.
Get into the habit of checking the log at the end of a busy period rather than trusting memory. On a multi-channel position, memory is optimistic.
More than one operator can be on the console at the same time, and the system shows you who else is signed in. That is not a courtesy feature — it prevents two people transmitting on the same channel because each assumed the other was not there.
Some things can be held by one position at a time. If you find something locked by another operator, the right move is to ask them, not to take it. There is a way to force a release for when somebody's browser has crashed or they have gone home still signed in — treat it as the exception it is, and tell the other operator afterwards.
What is running, what is patched, what you are waiting on. A patch is the thing most often forgotten in a handover, and it is invisible to somebody who just sat down.
Sign out properly rather than closing the browser. An abandoned position looks occupied to everybody else.