Talking to air/ground radio
For the humble air/ground radio service, Gertrude and 1800 have it right.
In my yoof I spent many an hour sat at the controls of a very busy air/ground radio, listening to 5-minute soliloquies from inbound traffic. At weekends I would regularly be working more than 10 aircraft at a time, most of whom wanted to tell me their inside leg measurement and what they had for breakfast.
More often than not, inbound or transiting traffic would switch to our frequency and start transmitting without first having the courtesy to listen out for other traffic.
In my time I had two Mayday calls stamped on by other traffic and many other instances of stuck PTT switches jamming the frequency.
Flying legend and all-round gentleman Neville Duke, and his delightful wife Mary, used to fly in for lunch most Sundays:
"Good morning, fox-whisky inbound"
"Roger, fox-whisky, 26 right, QFE 994"
"Roger, fox-whisky"
"Fox-whisky final, number two"
"Roger, surface wind 210 10 knots"
"Roger"
Compare with the average PPL holder we used to get round our parts:
"*-* radio this is GOLF-ALPHA-BRAVO-CHARLIE-DELTA, six dayseemal one fife nautical miles (GPS owner, obviously), north, north east of airfield at two thousand 700 feet. Request joining instructions for a full stop landing. Request traffic information. Request right hand base join, Request clearance to taxi to fuel pump on landing, etc, ad nauseum..."
I'm sure confidence (and experience, obviously) has a big impact on radio usage, but the adage 'less is more' is most relevant when making initial calls to air/ground radio.
Remember, air/ground radio only provides basic airfield information - runway in use, pressure, wind speed and direction - that's about it. They cannot give you clearance, or traffic information. The Mark I eyeball is what you should rely on.
Regards, jez