[hobos_delight]

Correct. I was in the Royal Australian Artillery corps for a number of years, and RATEL procedures (across all corps) drill this into you.

However it is unlikely to occur in practice - the artillery battery will (generally) be on a separate radio net, and the proword will only be applicable if you're in an active fire mission - though it's good to be safe. My wife still gets frustrated with my use of SAY AGAIN.

When you get a good sig on each end, the speed of fire mission comms is a thing of beauty - and once the mission is opened both ends will drop all callsigns.

[ronjouch]

What's "a good sig"? And what do you mean by "once the mission is opened " and "will drop all callsigns"?

[nippoo]

"a good signal" // "once the (firing) mission has begun" // "no longer address each other by name, and instead simply use keywords as the recipient / originator are obvious" (ie it's one person transmitting to a lot of receivers)

[hobos_delight]

Almost, "a good sig" is a good signaler - the operator of the radio. It takes a bit of skill and when you get one on each end that can get into a good rhythm it's fantastic.

Yes, the fire mission (FM) will be opened by the FO (Forward Observer), and then they'll drop the callsigns - so something like this:

2 this is 21, fire mission battery, over. 21 this is 2, fire mission battery, out. # from here they will go to abbreviated callsigns, so just stating theirs (it has been a while since I've done the FO's sequence of orders so it may be out a bit :)). 21, grid 12345678, range 1000, bearing 3759, over. # and now they drop them completely so 2 will respond with the readback: grid 12345678, range 1000, bearing 3759, out.