As you might have guessed, there's more to using a radio than simply talking into it. Callsign variations are one way to separate flights and make the whole mess a lot more understandable. Most people do this already in the form of personal handles. For smaller flights of between two and six individual groups, things begin to get a little complex. Granted, you can always just form up with the bunch that is flying the same rid you are. But how will you know that it's your squad? Say there's two groups flying the same plane, what then? Here is where you can use a trick that's been around since WW2.

Turkey lead, Viper, tally two bandits your 6!
Turkeys, scatter!

    Can you guess who's who? No? Then here's an explanation. A viper is a type of venomous snake, and the nickname for the F-16, so anyone using Viper as a flight callsign is obviously a bunch of fighter jocks. A turkey, on the other hand, is a big bird that can't fly very far or high; just like a loaded-up P47. Make sense now? You can take this as far as you want, really. Though it pays to KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) so folks don't get too confused. An easy way to pull this off would be to assign group callsigns based on every-day objects. Fighter groups could be called cities (Oakland, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Miami) while BUFFs could go by tools (Hammer, Chisel, Saw) and any FAC can use cars (Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Pontiac). By simply hearing the group callsign you'd know exactly what type of aircraft that was and what his job is. Keeping those in mind, try following this little conversation.

Dallas, Chevy, tally one bandit my right three, high. Where are you guys?
Chevy, Dallas, roger we got 'em. Hold five mikes south until he's toast
Roger Dallas, we gotta hurry cause Jackhammer is inbound
Copy Chevy, wait one. Dallas flight, button three, pogo, button six
Chevy, Jackhammer lead, lookin for words
Roger Jackhammer. Dallas just nailed the only bandit, and you're cleared to commence drop on target
Copy Chevy, we'll be dropping in two mikes

    More than once this little trick has proven to work. It's simple, easy to follow, and like brevity can convey a lot of information quickly. Chevy doesn't have to ask Jackhammer what his load is; he already knows any "tool" in the area is a bomber flight. Should Jackhammer need fighters, he knows which "city" is hanging around to give assistance. Dallas knows not to stray around Jackhammer's flight path for fear of getting a bomb in his lap. And if Dallas needs more info, he can ask Chevy for words. You can do this with ducks, cats, dogs, birds, snakes, fish, cars, cities, countries, vegetables, desserts, tools, colors, and any other topics that broadly cover a range of items. Computer parts will work, and so will aircraft manufacturer names. While handy for smaller flights, this trick really pays off well during special events or other large flights. The more aircraft you stick in a given area, the more you're likely to get confused by the randomness of the callsigns flying through the air. Having a clear idea of what each group does, just by hearing a distinct name, can give you an edge. Confusion will be lower, the airwaves won't be jammed up with calls asking who's doing what. And if more than one group with the same job is around, you'd be able to keep 'em sorted because their names are alike (bulldog and wolf, chicago and norfolk, pintail and mallard, etc).
    Briefing cards (or a post-it on the bottom of your monitor) work wonders here. With a little shorthand, you can easily separate out all the briefing notes and quickly understand them at a glance. Forget the callsign for the bomber group? Glance at that post-it and you'd instantly have the info; even software can't replace 'em! Combine a shorthand notes on a post-it with the above naming trick and you'll never forget who's assigned to each part of the mission. To delve briefly into another shorthand trick, here's a target to hit "rdr 3-20.5 @ 6k". Naturally that makes zero sense to you, but it will in a second. "rdr 3-20.5 @ 6k" translated means "radar factory in grid 3-20, subgrid 5, at an altitude of 6,000 feet". You can come up with a whole list of shorthand to simplify target assignments, or just make your own so you don't get lost. Either way, it helps immensely.

    Another trick is to assign callsigns to each flight based on their target. Dogs and cats would hit port-71, birds and fish are plastering field-33, while veggies and desserts let the enemy tanks at vfield-21 know they aren't candy-asses. Your only challenge in pulling this off is to keep the group callsigns enough alike so people don't get completely confused. Some birds eat fish, so that makes sense. Dogs and cats rarely get along, which works perfectly. While veggies and desserts are always two things you constantly wanted less (and more) of as a kid. Doing the groups in twos only makes more sense, as it takes an age and a day for any fighter to level a field while a jabo can do it in under ten minutes. If you can keep it simple only the dimmest pilot will get confused by this. Information can be swapped quickly too, so the over-all CO can find out rather fast what's going on and where. Should any back-up need to be sent in for a given group, assign 'em a similar callsign as the groups already over the area. Say Puma and Pooch need a hand at port-71, so you send in Hound-dog or Cougar as back-up.