Good grief, is it really 30 years? Seems like only yesterday (or maybe the day before...)
Has anything really changed - apart from a handful of suspect 'phraseologies'.
Yes. The quality and procedures in radio communications has been absolutely transformed, at least in the UK.
I well recall an interim sheet of changes in phraseologies coming out soon after the disaster. We all studied the list and understood the implications behind the changes. Sadly, some folk (who I suppose are too young or inexperienced to remember the reasoning behind the changes) are backsliding. I'm starting to hear people reporting 'runway clear' instead of 'runway vacated' and 'go ahead' instead of 'pass your message' and 'takeoff' instead of 'departure'. When I teach my trainees RTF I not only tell them about the appropriate phraseology, but also the circumstances that led up to the changes being made. This reinforces the lesson.
We have also developed the principle of readback into a sophisticated error trapping and correction procedure. This goes a long way to mitigate the admitted limitations of our old-fashioned VHF system. So no, we don't have just a 'handful of suspect phraseologies', we have a vast improvement in communication safety as a result of this tragedy.
Cheers,
TheOddOne