I'm off on a bit of a tangent but it is somewhat related to avoiding collisions in the circuit area
In addition to what is already being discussed, I would like to see more pilots and, in particular, instructors of student pilots, doing a tiny bit of revision and reminding themselves where the various 'radio points' are in the circuit.
Why is the silly fat bloke asking this in a MAC/airprox thread, I hear you ask
Well, just the other day I was rejoining the circuit to land at my home base. It was very quiet and only one other aircraft was in the area; a student practicing his circuits. I listened to his calls and decided a downwind join was both expeditious, sensible and entirely practical. I did so and called 'downwind' when directly abeam the upwind threshold. Shortly thereafter the other pilot called 'downwind'. That was a bit of a shock to me as my mental model, based on his previous calls, had him nowhere near downwind. No EC in the other aircraft but I eventually found him very late downwind, in fact he turned onto the base leg about 3 or 4 seconds after I saw him. Clearly his version of 'Downwind' is non-standard and pretty much negates the point of having standard positions, where one can look and expect to see.
Of course, apart from the 'WTF' moment there was no harm done but it does raise the point about claiming you're in a particular place when you're nowhere near it. I absolutely accept the student pilot may have been too busy doing his checks etc to call earlier (in the correct place) and 'communicate' is last on the list but it does seem to me this is a concern that needs a bit of promulgation as I have certainly seen an increase of people who either have no idea where they are or just do not know where they are supposed to make the standard position calls. This latest one just highlighted the point that has become more of a bug-bear as time passes.
Hopefully the 'professional' nature in us will cause some to think, "Hmmm, he might have a bit of a point, so I'll go and have a squint at the books. Should only take 1/2 a glass worth of time". Even more hopefully, some instructors will (a)do the same to make sure they're squeaky clean and (b)make sure their students get the info passed on.
Back to the thread; I would have seen him earlier if he had some sort of EC. I know the machine and I know it doesn't.