Don Rolph-AB1PH – Walpole Area ARES Emergency Coordinator writes:
We held an NCEP Digital training net on Sat Feb. 18 at 10 AM EST.
The purpose of this net was to try to smooth out some issues which surfaced during the Feb SET.
The participants were:
AB1PH Don Walpole MA NCS
WZ0C Michale Maynard MA
K1HRV Dave Millis MA
KF1D Bryan Blackstone, MA
The net was called at 10 AM EST and closed at 10:25 AM EST
We were a strictly directed net: no station transmitted unless called on. This appeared to work smoothly and appears to address some of the race conditions we saw during the Feb 4 SET NBEMS net.
We will continue with the formal directed net with stations only responding when called on for a bit and ensure that it is stable.
We passed an original message and three replies during the 25 minute net. The messages took about 1 1/2 minutes each to send.
We had a round of comments.
In addition to the four direct attendees, the following had their station on frequency but unattended and successfully copied the messages:
– Alan WA1AR
– Phil KB1CYO
The ability of the digital systems to receive messages while unattended provides a flexibility for the FLDIGI stations which we dont have with voice nets
My thanks to all who participated in this training session. I believe it clarified the situation regarding the need for strictly directed nets.
Have a great weekend, and a great holiday!
—
73,
AB1PH
Don Rolph