It is great to see spring finally arrive. Daffodils, forsythia and flowering trees abound with color and tree leaves begin to sprout green. While winter has yet to give up entirely, as evidenced by recently reported snow in the western part of the state, I’m reminded to make note on my calendar of upcoming ham radio events this summer, and I encourage you to do the same before those calendars become filled with other activities.
The annual traffic handlers picnic will again be held in Concord MA on Sunday afternoon, August 2. More details will be forthcoming as the date draws nearer.
Also make note that the annual Northeast HamXposition will be held a week earlier this year, returning to Marlboro MA August 14-16. Among the activities will be our usual Traffic Handlers Meet and Greet, an opportunity to see traffic handlers from all over the Northeast and possibly beyond.
Meanwhile all our traffic nets have kept busy, handling traffic and training in the skills of message handling and net operation. Of particular note is the Central Mass 2 Meter Net (CM2MN) on the Paxton repeater at 9 PM. Thanks to Corwyn, KN1OBI for helping to fill NCS slots so the net can now meet nightly. They do need traffic as well as operators to handle it so that the folks in central Mass can get some training and practice in message handling and net operation.
We are fortunate to have in our midst some creative folks with expertise in software/app development. Dave Marcucci, KC1TLF, is one who has been working on a web-based app for traffic handlers for logging and radiogram management. He posted information on the MA-NTS group at groups.io, and has been looking for others to help him test this app he has named Radiogram Register. If you are interested check it out at https://RadiogramRegister.com, or https://rgreg.app (a short URL, easier to type on a mobile phone), or contact Dave at dmarcucci@gmail.com.
My traffic tip of the month is a refresher on the use of prowords and introductory phrases. Our traffic handlers do quite well with these thanks to our excellent trainers, but I have noticed on occasion an absence of important ones as well as use of some unnecessary and time-wasting ones.
Why do we use prowords or introductory words? The Methods and Practices Guidelines (MPG) states “doing what the receiving station expects minimizes errors and confusion”, saving time and providing better accuracy. (Remember the ABC’s of traffic handling are Accuracy, Brevity, and Clarity.)
The only proword to be used in the preamble is NUMBER which is important to alert the receiving station the next word is the beginning of the radiogram they are to copy. He/she knows what comes next in the preamble so no need to introduce the other fields (think brevity).
In the address, there is NO need to point out “To” or “Going To” as once the date has been given in the preamble, the receiving station understands the next thing he/she will hear (outside of a possible “OP NOTE”) is the addressee and contact information. If you need to spell unusual names always introduce the spelling with the words, I SPELL. This alerts the receiving station that what is coming next is a clarification and not a continuation of the radiogram. This phrase applies to all parts of the radiogram where spelling is recommended.
The proword “BREAK” is always used immediately before and immediately after the text. This not only gives the receiving station a chance to ask for a needed fill, but also alerts him/her to the beginning and the ending of the text or the originator’s desired message . This could be compared to stuffing a letter into an envelope.
The proword “FIGURE(S)”, and not the proword NUMBER, introduces numbers appearing in the text (not the preamble or address, as noted above). The word NUMBER, as a proword, is used only in the preamble. If the proword FIGURES is not heard, the receiving station will assume those numbers you are sending should be spelled out. For example, if you are sending the figures 123 but forget the word “FIGURES” the receiving station will copy “one two three” thus changing the number of word groups in the text. Similarly introduce a non-word group, such as ARRL, as “INITIALS” or “LETTER GROUP”, Alpha Romeo Romeo Lima.
At the end of the signature (or OP NOTE if there is one), the next word is END followed by MORE or NO MORE. The receiving station then knows to either respond with “ROGER” (I copied 100%) or request needed fills or confirmation.
To recap, here are ten of the most commonly used prowords or introductory phrases used in voicing radiograms, all designed to minimize error or confusion: NUMBER, I SPELL, BREAK, FIGURES, INITIALS or LETTER GROUP, END, MORE or NO MORE, and ROGER. Leave out “Message number”, “handling instruction is”, “the check is”, “going to”, “zip code is”, “break and the text”, “break and the signature”, all unnecessary and time-wasting as the receiving station knows what is next. One exception: “phone figures” should be used to introduce the phone number only if there is no zip code given, so the receiving station doesn’t think the numbers following the state are part of the zip code.)
Thanks to all for a great job, and for your participation and support. The March report follows:
Massachusetts - Rhode Island STM Report for Mar 2026