Here I take you through the process of creating your first radiogram for relay (to me!) and show how to prepare for transmission in both voice procedure and CW. Because it's coming to me and it's your message, we're able to avoid a lot of the more complex parts of the traffic system that make it both powerful and intimidating to some operators—even those who have been on the air for years. Perhaps the big takeaway here is the use of a crib sheet where the new operator prepares the entire transmission—prowords and all—before reporting into the net. If you're new, need a refresher, or just want the practice, follow along and actually send me a message! 73
There is the list of nets that ARRL maintains, and there's also a list of Radio Relay International (RRI) affiliates. RRI's list is more current and easier for browsing and finding traffic-specific operation. The current release is at http://radio-relay.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/TrafficNets.pdf ARRL directory requires that you enter some search parameters to find the right one. http://www.arrl.org/arrl-net-directory-search Looks like there are several state-wide and other nets that will serve where you are, though it also looks like if you're in Eastern Washington Section that you don't even have a Section Traffic Manager named. That's not good.
But do they actually handle traffic? Or is it one of the many nets where's it's really just a "check-in net" where everyone says "This is WX7XXX with no traffic - back to net"? I'm not trying to sound snarky - in fact, I think it would be fun to listen to an actual traffic net. It's been many many years since I "sent traffic" (I did it a few times in the late 1970s and maybe once in the early 80s) Dave W7UUU
It's a fair question! I can't tell you about nets in your area, but I can tell you that in the Ohio Section, the traffic nets are very active. Ohio Slow Net: slow CW (training) net even moves messages. Buckeye Net (CW early and late sessions, both NTS Cycle 4) move messages. Ohio Single Sideband Net (voice, Cycle 1, Cycle 3, and Cycle 4 sessions daily) move a bunch. Central Ohio Traffic Net (voice, Cycle 4 daily plus special operations) is a local (multi-county area, VHF training focused) net in the Ohio Section to which I have stats readily available. For the first 11 months of the year, we had: Sessions: 347 Check-In: 3,365 Messages moved: 895 Minutes of operation: 6,239 We've got annual reports for 2019 and 2018 available. (2020 will be released probably along with 2021; net manager was called away in December last year and that held up the release of the report.) We've also got an independent (agency AUXCOMM focused) net that started as a special session of Buckeye Net (mixed mode: voice, CW, and NBEMS). I've got another video on that, which also shows it working on 5 MHz, and U.S. government stations reporting into the net and using it. I'll be talking about various bits of this activity at the ARRL National Convention 2022 in Orlando on the Emergency Communications track along with a bunch of other people doing some great work in other Sections.
