Theorie Basiskurs

For a prospective pilot, it can be very difficult to find one's way through the murmur of radio messages and abbreviations.  But basically it's quite simple.  The radio traffic is actually nothing different than listening to the radio.  When someone says your name, it's about you and your plane and it's your turn.  However, aircraft registrations are used instead of names, such as D-4711EP.  So everybody knows which plane is meant.  And this is the first important lesson:

The first thing that is said in every radio message is always the recipient of the message.  The sender is always named directly after that and then the content of the message comes.

Example:

"Tower, D-4711EP, request taxi to active." - The pilot of D-4711EP is addressing the tower and wants permission to taxi to the currently active runway.  

"D-EP, Tower, clear taxi via taxiway A,B, D to hold south of runway 36." - The Tower allows the aircraft (which it responds to with the abbreviation of the registration) to taxi via taxiway A,B and D to stop south just before entering runway 36.

"Tower, D-EP, clear taxi via A,B,D to hold South for Runway 36." - The pilot and repeats the instruction to confirm that he has understood everything, and now also uses the abbreviation for his license plate number.

This sentence structure makes it much easier to filter out when you need to listen more closely, and you immediately hear who is talking to you.  A second matter of course is that every instruction is repeated to confirm receipt of the message.  

All this requires a lot of practice and routine.  In the basic courses nobody expects it to work perfectly.  

Private pilots have the advantage that they usually always have the same identification or call sign on their machine.  In many aircraft there is also a sticker or sign with the registration of the aircraft in the middle of the cockpit.  Airliners usually use the flight number, e.g. LH6325 (Lufthansa flight 6325).  In the military sector, there are also names in the form of coded names, numbers, etc. that are defined in the briefing.