Resource
Radio check call procedure
A workable check call routine for an event control room: intervals, wording, what counts as a miss, and what happens next.
Details
- Last revised
- 10/02/2026
- Reading time
- 5 min
- Cost
- Free, no email required
A check call round exists to prove people are where they should be and able to answer. It fails when the interval is aspirational and the misses are not recorded.
Setting the interval
Pick an interval you will actually hold for the whole event, then hold it. Hourly is common; thirty minutes is realistic only with a dedicated operator. An interval you miss half the time is worse than a longer one you keep.
The round
- Call each call sign in a fixed order so a gap is obvious.
- Record answered, missed, or answered with an issue — three states, not two.
- A miss is retried once, then escalated. Both attempts are in the record.
- An issue raised on a check call becomes a log entry with its own reference.
What a miss means
A single miss is a radio problem until proved otherwise. Two consecutive misses from the same call sign is a welfare concern and is escalated to a supervisor with someone physically sent. Write the rule down before the event so nobody has to judge it at 01:40.
Read next
Or see it running
Vantra Control Room does all of this as a by-product of the shift, rather than as a document written afterwards.