A new year has begun and while much is a continuation of what has come before it is a time for reflection on what changes we may encounter or what fresh new ideas we may imagine to make our service even better.
Our new ARRL director for New England, Fred Kemmerer AB1OC has officially assumed his role and has already begun his “100 day plan”. Part of this plan was to appoint an assistant director whose focus will be Emergency Communications and Public Service which will include the National Traffic System as a means for transport and delivery of record traffic in emergencies and for public service. Cory Golub KU1U of Maine has been appointed to that role and has already begun to check into various HF traffic nets to introduce himself. He has also established a group called ne-ecaps@groups.io as a “Forum for ARRL Section Managers (SMs), Section Emergency Coordinators (SECs), Section Traffic Managers (STMs) and other interested parties to collaborate on EMCOMM and Public Service related matters in New England.” If you would like to contribute to this forum check it out and join us.
I would like to welcome one of our newer traffic handlers Marcus KC1GSL from North Billerica who has been quite active the past month on various nets and also operates an HF VARA station accessing the KW1U MBO on a regular basis. We appreciate his assistance in moving the traffic from the digital MBO to the traffic nets for delivery. We are also happy to see Bernie KC1MSN back on the air with his packet station after a move to his new QTH.
Many of you are now familiar with and are participating in the Trivia and Traffic Thursdays radiograms going to K8AMH in North Texas (NTX). The other day I received an email from Bill Novak KA9IKK who is assistant STM in South Texas (STX)and manager of a Houston local traffic net. His net has been growing and he is interested in a radiogram pen pal swap with folks in other parts of the country. Would anyone like to find a “pen pal” with whom to exchange radiograms? This could be a great way to make friends and put much needed traffic into the system for practice. Let me know at kw1u@arrl.net or communicate directly with Bill at ka9ikk@hotmail.com.
As a follow-up to last months report, the Western Mass net on the Mt Greylock 146.91 repeater is now operating Monday through Friday at 6:00 PM and is accessible via Echolink K1FFK repeater. It’s great to have that statewide connection, which is of course in addition to the Mass Rhode Island Phone net on 3978 Khz Monday through Saturday and Heavy Hitters Traffic Net on the MMRA repeater network which is linked to the Mt Greylock repeater at 10 PM Sunday through Friday.
I would like to include some “traffic tips” each month. This month I will comment on the use of introductory words and phrases as well as those not needed and which only take more time for transmission. A list of introductory words and phrases can be found on our section website at https://ema.arrl.org/prowords-and-introductory-words-phrases/. These are standardized throughout the NTS and promote accuracy and efficiency by giving the receiving station a heads up as to what is coming next, reducing the potential for errors or required fills.
There are however words and phrases we sometimes hear that are not necessary and actually slow down the transmission of a message. Remember the radiogram (the wireless version of a telegram) with all it’s four parts is standardized not only throughout the NTS but throughout the world. Having established that the receiving station is able and ready to copy, the first word should be “Number”, not “Please copy”. While I suppose it is a “nicety”, it does not add to the accurate copying of the message. “Number” is the only introductory word used in the preamble. This alerts the receiving station to start copying. The other parts of the preamble need no introduction as they are common to all messages.
The address does not need to be preceded by “going to”. The first word after the date in the preamble should be the name of the addressee. The word “figures” is generally not necessary in the address unless there can be confusion without it. For example, if there is no zip code given (which by the way is essential for forwarding of messages by the digital network), one would introduce the phone number with the phrase “phone figures” so the receiving station is not set to write a zip code.
At the end of the address portion we say “break” and pause a few seconds to see if any fills are required. It is not necessary to then say “how copy”. The pause gives the receiving station the opportunity to ask for fills if needed. If no response for fills, the next word after the break should be the first word of the text. Nor is it necessary to say “and the text is” before the text or “the signature is” before the signature. The copying station knows what is coming next. After the message is sent in it’s entirety the sending station says “End” followed by “more” or “no more”. It is not necessary for him/her to say “how copy”. The receiving station will simply say “Roger” or request fills as needed.
While this can seem like nit-picking, all these little things together can add to transmission time and affect the efficiency of a net. In an emergency this can be critical. Remember the ABC’s of traffic handling = Accuracy, Brevity, Clarity.
Thanks to all for your great support of the traffic nets. It has been a good year for traffic and traffic nets and we look forward to even better in 2022.
73, Marcia KW1U
STM EMA / WMA
| MASSACHUSETTS STM REPORTS 2021 | Dec-21 | |||||||||
| NET | SESSIONS | QTC | QNI | QTR | NM | FREQ | Net Time | |||
| WMTN C1 | 4 | 0 | 27 | 25 | N1YCW | 146.91 | 1300 Daily | |||
| WMTN C2 | 20 | 3 | 136 | 260 | KD2JKV | 146.91 | 1630 Daily | |||
| MARIPN | 27 | 82 | 157 | 440 | N1LAH | 3978 KHz | 1700 M-Sa | |||
| MARI | 31 | 103 | 123 | 529 | KW1U | 3565 KHz | 1900 Daily | |||
| CITN | 17 | 10 | 39 | 140 | W1TCD | 147.375 | 1930 M,Tu,Th,F | |||
| EM2MN | 31 | 122 | 211 | 564 | KC1HHO | 145.23 | 2000 Daily | |||
| CM2MN | 15 | 5 | 83 | 105 | KK1X | 146.97 | 2100 Daily | |||
| HHTN | 27 | 97 | 238 | 808 | W1HAI | MMRA Rptrs | 2200 Su-F | |||
| WARPSN | 4 | 8 | 70 | NA | N1IQI | 147.225 | 0830 Su | |||
| WMEN/HF | 5 | 0 | 133 | 100 | N1CPE | 3944 KHz | 0830 Su | |||
| WMEN/VHF | 5 | 0 | 83 | 63 | N1PUA | 146.91 | 0900 Su | |||
| 186 | 430 | 1300 | 3034 | |||||||
| Note: HHTN accessible also via Plymouth and Mt Greylock rptrs and Echolink New-Eng2 Conf and IRLP 9127 | ||||||||||
| SAR | ORG | REC | SENT | DEL | TOTAL | BPL | BPL = 500+ points | |||
| KW1U | 2 | 363 | 268 | 3 | 636 | X | ||||
| N1IQI | 0 | 53 | 246 | 4 | 303 | |||||
| KC1KVY | 0 | 103 | 188 | 3 | 294 | |||||
| KC1GSL | 4 | 79 | 83 | 24 | 190 | |||||
| W1TCD | 0 | 35 | 26 | 15 | 76 | |||||
| N1TF | 0 | 29 | 43 | 1 | 73 | |||||
| W1RVY | 0 | 50 | 17 | 0 | 67 | |||||
| N1LAH | 1 | 35 | 26 | 4 | 66 | |||||
| WA1LPM | 0 | 23 | 31 | 1 | 55 | |||||
| KC1HHO | 1 | 30 | 13 | 1 | 45 | |||||
| KC1MSN | 0 | 16 | 26 | 0 | 42 | |||||
| KD2JKV | 0 | 20 | 20 | 0 | 40 | |||||
| N1UMJ | 7 | 10 | 16 | 1 | 34 | |||||
| WA1VAB | 0 | 8 | 16 | 9 | 33 | |||||
| KB1SYL | 3 | 7 | 10 | 7 | 27 | |||||
| AJ1DM | 0 | 11 | 2 | 11 | 24 | |||||
| KE1ML | 0 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 16 | |||||
| KC1OIP | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | |||||
| KC1NBI | 0 | 0 | 8 | 2 | 10 | |||||
| W1PLK | 0 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | |||||
| NV1N | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 6 | |||||
| PSHR (Min 70 Points) | ||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Total | ||||
| KW1U | 40 | 40 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 130 | |||
| N1UMJ | 40 | 40 | 10 | 45 | 0 | 10 | 379 | |||
| N1IQI | 40 | 40 | 10 | 19 | 0 | 10 | 119 | |||
| N1TF | 40 | 40 | 30 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 115 | |||
| W1RVY | 40 | 40 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 110 | |||
| N1LAH | 40 | 40 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | |||
| KD2JKV | 40 | 40 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | |||
| KC1KVY | 40 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 | |||
| KC1HHO | 23 | 40 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 83 | |||
| WA1LPM | 33 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 83 | |||
| KC1GSL | 40 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80 | |||
| KC1MSN | 22 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 72 | |||
| DRS | RCV | FWD | TOTAL | |||||||
| KW1U | 910 | 866 | 1776 | |||||||
| N1IQI | 53 | 246 | 299 | |||||||
| KC1GSL | 43 | 44 | 87 | |||||||
| KC1MSN | 23 | 16 | 39 | |||||||
| N1UMJ | 1 | 9 | 10 | |||||||
| W1RVY | 4 | 1 | 5 | |||||||
| Marcia KW1U, STM | ||||||||||