Royal Army College

Lesson Overview

An operator gets a single radio working. A signals non-commissioned officer decides, before anyone keys a set, how the whole section will talk: who must reach whom, by what means, on what frequency, with what fall-back when the first means fails. That is communications planning, and it is the difference between a section that keeps a steady picture through a long task and one that goes silent the moment a repeater drops or a battery dies. The plan is built once, written down, briefed, checked, and carried, so that when a link breaks nobody has to invent a solution under pressure; they simply step to the next line that was agreed in advance.

The heart of the plan is the PACE plan: Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency, an ordered list of the means for each link so the team always knows what to fall back to. Around it sits the comms estimate, the short piece of thinking that decides who talks to whom, by what means, with what call signs and frequencies, on what schedule, and what happens when it fails. That estimate is then written into the communications paragraph of orders so the whole section carries the same plan, which is where this lesson joins hands with PME 210, Basic Staff Duties and Written Orders. Throughout, the planner matches the means to the task, the distance, the terrain, and to the training and licences of the people who will actually use it.

This is the knowledge layer. Reading will teach you how to build a PACE plan and a comms estimate and how to turn them into orders, but a plan only proves itself when it is rehearsed, when a link is deliberately failed and the section steps to the next means without a word from you. That rehearsal, and any live transmitting, is done in person and on airsoft milsim exercises, with radio actually transmitted only by licensed members on amateur bands or by anyone on licence-free, low-power sets. By the end you will be able to explain what a PACE plan is and build one for every link in a task, run a short comms estimate that decides means, call signs, frequencies, schedule, and fall-back, match a means to a task by distance, terrain, training, and licence, write a clean communications paragraph for orders, and brief and check the plan so the section can fall back without being told.

Key Terms

Communications plan (signals plan): the whole scheme for how a force will talk on a task, covering the links, the means for each, call signs, frequencies, schedule, and fall-back; the product of the comms estimate.
PACE plan: an ordered list of the communications means for a link, Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency, so everyone knows what to fall back to when one means fails.
Primary: the means you intend to use for normal traffic on a link; the one that should carry most of the work.
Alternate: a means almost as good as the primary, ready to take over with little loss, ideally working in a different way so the same fault cannot kill both.
Contingency: a means that is degraded or slower but will still get a message through when the better means are gone.
Emergency: the last-resort means that needs almost nothing to work, used to raise the alarm or pass the one message that cannot wait, even if it is slow.
Link: a talking relationship between two stations or groups that must exchange information, such as section to headquarters, or section commander to the team out front.
Comms estimate: the short, structured thinking that turns a task into a plan: who must talk to whom, by what means, with what call signs, frequencies, schedule, and fall-back.
Communications paragraph (signals paragraph): the part of written or verbal orders that gives the section its means, frequencies, call signs, and PACE plan; see PME 210.
Bearer: the physical means that actually carries the message, such as VHF voice, mobile data, the Meshtastic mesh, or a runner.
EMCON: emission control, the deliberate management of when and how much you transmit, including silence, to save battery and stay discreet.

Why plan, and what a good plan must answer

A radio net does not organise itself. Left to chance, two people will pick the same channel by luck and a third will be on the wrong one, the only set that can reach headquarters will be the one whose battery is flattest, and the first time anyone discovers that a hill blocks the repeater is the moment they need it most. Planning replaces that luck with a decision made calmly in advance, written down, and shared, so the section moves with a single agreed picture of how it will talk.

A good plan answers five plain questions, and you can hold them in your head as a checklist. Who must talk to whom: list the links, the talking relationships that the task actually requires, and no more, because a link you plan for is a link you must resource and check. By what means: choose a bearer for each link and, crucially, an order of fall-back, which is the PACE plan. With what identity: assign call signs so every station knows who is calling, and frequencies or channels so they meet on the same air. On what schedule: decide whether the net is open all the time or keeps timed check-ins, which saves battery and keeps the air clear. And what happens when it fails: the fall-back, which is built into PACE but must also include the rule of "lost comms", what a station does when it can reach nobody at all. A plan that answers those five is enough to brief; a plan that misses one will be discovered the hard way.

The PACE plan

PACE is the spine of the whole scheme. For each link you list the means in the order you will use them: Primary first, then Alternate, then Contingency, then Emergency. The point is not to own four radios for the sake of it; it is that when the first means fails, nobody freezes, because the next line was agreed before the task and everyone already knows to step to it.

Two ideas make a PACE plan strong rather than just long. The first is independence: each line should fail for a different reason than the one above it, so a single fault cannot take out two lines at once. If your primary is data over a mobile network, an alternate that also relies on that same network is no alternate at all, because the dead mast that killed the first kills the second. A good alternate works on a different bearer entirely, a radio wave instead of a phone network, so the fault that broke the primary leaves it standing. The second idea is descent: each line should ask less of the world than the one above. Primary can be rich and convenient because everything is working; emergency must work when almost nothing is, so it is allowed to be slow, plain, and minimal, a single text on a mesh or a person sent on foot, as long as it gets through.

Worked through with the means the Royal Kaharagian Army actually fields, a section-to-headquarters link reads naturally. Primary is the Team Awareness Kit over mobile data: the full shared map, positions and markers and chat, as long as a mobile network is up. Alternate is VHF voice through a repeater on high ground, which gives the section good range over a wide area on a different bearer, so a dead mobile mast does not touch it. Contingency is VHF simplex, radio to radio with no repeater, shorter ranged and dependent on terrain but needing no infrastructure at all, the means that still works when the repeater is gone. Emergency is a Meshtastic text on the mesh, a few words that ride the low-power LoRa network when nothing else is left, or, if even that fails, a runner on foot carrying a written message. Each line works for a different reason, and each asks less than the one before.

   FILLED-IN PACE TABLE  ·  Task: section task, section to HQ

   +-------+--------------------------+------------------+------------------+
   | LINE  | MEANS (BEARER)           | WHY IT SURVIVES  | TRADE-OFF        |
   +-------+--------------------------+------------------+------------------+
   |   P   | TAK over mobile data     | mobile network   | rich picture but |
   |       | (full map, chat, PLI)    | up               | needs a network  |
   +-------+--------------------------+------------------+------------------+
   |   A   | VHF voice via repeater   | radio wave, not  | voice only, but  |
   |       | (wide-area range)        | phone network    | wide range       |
   +-------+--------------------------+------------------+------------------+
   |   C   | VHF simplex (radio to    | no infrastructure| shorter, terrain |
   |       | radio, direct)           | needed at all    | limited          |
   +-------+--------------------------+------------------+------------------+
   |   E   | Meshtastic text on mesh; | almost nothing   | a few words, or  |
   |       | else runner on foot      | required to work | slow, but gets   |
   |       |                          |                  | through          |
   +-------+--------------------------+------------------+------------------+

   Rule: each line fails for a DIFFERENT reason than the one above it,
   and each asks LESS of the world than the one above it.

A section rarely has only one link, and each link can carry its own PACE. The link from the section commander to a small team pushed out front is short ranged and personal, so its primary might be VHF simplex on a section channel, with the alternate a hand signal or a whistle when the team is in sight, and the emergency a Meshtastic text or simply closing back together. You do not copy the headquarters PACE onto this link; you build the one the link needs. The skill the NCO brings is judging, for each link, what each of the four lines should be.

The comms estimate

The comms estimate is how you arrive at the PACE plan and the rest of the scheme. It is a short, ordered piece of thinking, not a long document, and on a quick task it lives mostly in your head and on a card. You work it in four moves.

First, list the links the task demands. Read the mission and ask who genuinely must exchange information with whom: section to headquarters, commander to the forward team, perhaps section to a neighbouring callsign or to a medic. Plan only the links the task needs, because every link you list is one you must give a means, a frequency, and a check.

Second, for each link decide the bearer and build its PACE, applying the test of distance and terrain. How far must the link reach, and what is in the way? VHF and UHF are essentially line of sight, so a hill or a building between the two stations will block them, and the answer is height, an antenna or a position with a clearer path, or a repeater on high ground, far more than it is power; this is taught in Lesson 03. A link that must reach over a ridge where no repeater helps points you towards HF, which can refract off the ionosphere and reach behind terrain, while a tiny position report that must cross dead ground points you towards the Meshtastic mesh, whose nodes relay for each other. Match the bearer to the reach you actually need.

Third, weigh the people. The cleanest plan on paper fails if the section cannot run it. Who is amateur-licensed and may lawfully transmit on the amateur bands, and who is not and must therefore stay on licence-free, low-power sets such as PMR446 or FRS, or on receive only? How well trained are the operators on each means, and how many sets and batteries does the section actually hold? You plan for the section you have, not the one you wish you had, and you keep the whole scheme lawful: real transmitting by licensed members on amateur bands, everyone else on licence-free sets, and listening, which needs no licence, open to all.

Fourth, set identity, schedule, and the lost-comms rule. Assign call signs and frequencies or channels, and write them on a simple frequency and call-sign card the section can carry. Decide the schedule: a net held open continuously, or timed check-ins every set number of minutes, which saves battery and keeps the air clear under EMCON. And fix the lost-comms rule, the single instruction for a station that can reach nobody on any line: where to go, when to try again, when to fall back to a runner or a rendezvous. Capture the whole estimate on one worksheet.

   COMMS ESTIMATE WORKSHEET  ·  fill one per task

   TASK / MISSION: ______________________________   DATE-TIME: __________

   1) LINKS (who must talk to whom)
      [ ] Sect -> HQ        [ ] Comd -> fwd team
      [ ] Sect -> medic     [ ] Sect -> neighbour c/s   [ ] ____________

   2) FOR EACH LINK  (means + PACE, by distance / terrain)
      LINK: Sect -> HQ          reach: ~____ km   terrain: __________
        P __________________  A __________________
        C __________________  E __________________
      LINK: Comd -> fwd team    reach: ~____ km   terrain: __________
        P __________________  A __________________
        C __________________  E __________________

   3) PEOPLE  (training + licence + kit)
      amateur-licensed members: _______   on licence-free sets: _______
      sets held: ____   spare batteries: ____   weak point: __________

   4) IDENTITY · SCHEDULE · FALL-BACK
      call signs: ________________   freqs / channels: ______________
      schedule:  [ ] open net   [ ] check-in every ____ min
      LOST-COMMS RULE: if no line works -> ____________________________

   CHECK BEFORE MOVING: radio check every link [ ]  PACE confirmed [ ]
                        TAK picture confirmed [ ]

Turning the plan into orders

A plan that lives only in the NCO's head is not a plan the section can use. The estimate becomes orders so that everyone carries the same scheme, and in written or verbal orders it lands in the communications paragraph, the signals paragraph, which sits in the service-support part of orders. PME 210, Basic Staff Duties and Written Orders, teaches the full structure; here you need to fill the paragraph cleanly.

A good communications paragraph is short and gives the section exactly what it needs to talk: the means and the PACE plan for each link, the call signs, the frequencies or channels, the schedule, and the lost-comms rule. It does not retell the radio physics or the reasoning behind the choices; the estimate did that work, and orders state the result. The section does not need to know why simplex is the contingency, only that it is, and on which channel. Keep the language the same plain, fixed style used across the rest of orders so it can be read out and copied onto a card without confusion, and end with the instruction to carry out a communications check before moving, because comms that are not checked before the task are assumed broken until proven otherwise. Brief it, have it read back, and confirm that every operator can state their own call sign and the next line of PACE without looking it up.

In Practice: Corporal Adeyemi plans the comms for a search task

Corporal Adeyemi, OR-3 and the signals NCO for a humanitarian search task across broken, partly wooded ground, sits down with the warning order and works a comms estimate before writing a word of the signals paragraph. She lists her links honestly: section to the task headquarters, and herself to the two-person team she will push ahead to check a far treeline. Two links, no more.

For the section-to-headquarters link she judges the reach at several kilometres over a low ridge. A mobile network covers the area, so her primary is TAK over mobile data, which gives headquarters a live map of every position. Knowing a single dead mast would kill that, she sets the alternate as VHF voice through the repeater on the high ground to the north, a different bearer that the ridge does not block. Contingency is VHF simplex for when the repeater is unreachable, shorter but needing nothing, and emergency is a Meshtastic text on the section mesh, with a runner as the final line if even the mesh is gone. For the commander-to-forward-team link, short ranged and within earshot at times, primary is VHF simplex on the section channel, alternate is hand and whistle signals when the team is visible, and emergency is a Meshtastic text or closing back together.

Then she weighs her people, and the plan bends to fit them. Two of her operators hold amateur licences and may work the VHF and the repeater lawfully; the third does not, so Adeyemi puts that national on a licence-free PMR446 set for the short forward link and on receive for the rest, keeping the section inside the law. She counts four sets and three spare batteries, marks the forward team's set as her weak point because it cannot be recharged on the move, and so writes a thirty-minute check-in schedule rather than an open net to spare its battery. She fixes the lost-comms rule: a station that can raise nobody returns to the last known good position, tries again on the hour, and after that sends a runner to the rally point. All of it goes onto one card and into a four-line communications paragraph in her orders. Before the section steps off she runs a radio check on every link, confirms the PACE plan aloud with each operator, and confirms the TAK picture is live. Comms checked, the section moves.

Check Your Understanding

A section's primary means for the link to headquarters is TAK over mobile data. A fellow NCO proposes the alternate be "TAK over a second mobile SIM on another carrier". Explain, using the principle of independence, why this is a weak alternate, and give a stronger one from the means the RKA fields.
You are building the PACE plan for a short link from the section commander to a two-person team pushed out front, mostly within sight over open ground. Propose a Primary, Alternate, Contingency, and Emergency for that link, and say in one line why your Emergency line will work when almost nothing else does.
List the five questions a good communications plan must answer, and state which part of written orders, per PME 210, the answers are written into.

Reflection (write a short paragraph): Think of a time, on an exercise or in ordinary life, when a single means of communication failed and there was no agreed fall-back ready. What did people do in the gap, how long did it cost, and how would a PACE plan agreed in advance have changed what happened?

Summary

Communications planning replaces luck with a decision made in advance: who talks to whom, by what means, with what call signs and frequencies, on what schedule, and what happens when it fails.
The PACE plan, Primary, Alternate, Contingency, Emergency, is an ordered list of means per link; each line should fail for a different reason than the one above it and ask less of the world than the one above it.
The RKA's worked example for a section-to-HQ link is P = TAK over mobile data, A = VHF voice via repeater, C = VHF simplex, E = Meshtastic text or a runner.
The comms estimate is the short thinking that builds the plan in four moves: list the links, set means and PACE by distance and terrain, weigh the people's training and licences and kit, then fix identity, schedule, and the lost-comms rule.
Match the means to the task: VHF and UHF are line of sight and answered by height and repeaters; HF can reach behind terrain; the Meshtastic mesh carries tiny data across dead ground; and the plan must stay lawful, with amateur transmitting by licensed members and everyone else on licence-free, low-power sets.
The estimate becomes the communications paragraph of orders, short and exact, ending in a communications check before moving, because unchecked comms are assumed broken.
Builds on SIG 201 (Radio Communications and Message Handling) and SIG 220 (Communications Security and Digital Discipline); the orders structure comes from PME 210 (Basic Staff Duties and Written Orders); the radio physics behind the choices is Lesson 03; the net on operations is FLD 230 (Patrolling and Tactical Movement) and HCR 220 (Emergency Preparedness).

Communications Planning and the PACE Plan