Hard to believe we’re half way through February already. We’re seeing more hours of daylight, we’re back to Daylight Saving time in less than a month and spring and warmer weather is just around the corner. Band conditions seem to be improving as well for evening traffic nets on 80 meters.
All our traffic nets continue to operate and message traffic continues to move smoothly throughout the commonwealth, the country and foreign countries as well, thanks to our dedicated group of traffic handlers.
Tim W1TCD, manager of CITN reports two new trainees who are already handling traffic on that net, and Tim credits Jon N1ILZ for his superb job of training. Congrats to both for sharing your knowledge and helping others to find the fun we all share in traffic handling and being prepared for public service as any need arises.
The future of NTS is always on our minds and we are encouraged by our new ARRL director Fred AB1OC in this regard. Last month I reported on his appointment of an Assistant Director for Emergency Communications and Public Service KU1U and the establishment of the ne-ecaps group on groups.io. This group will be meeting on February 19 and if you have thoughts on NTS, its future viability and suggestions for improvement, check out the above mentioned group and join in.
Also a reminder Director Fred will be conducting a Town Hall via Zoom on February 16 at 7PM to talk with New England hams about what’s on their minds. Info went out via email on Feb 9. Anyone who registered will be able to access this Town Hall. If you missed the email you might want to contact AB1OC@arrl.org.
I have been asked from time to time if the NTS can handle an ICS-213 formatted message. Today more and more emphasis is being placed on Emergency Communications and the potential role NTS might play, so I think this will be my traffic topic for this month. Most of you reading this report are well aware of the contents of a radiogram formatted message. The radiogram which had its roots in the telegram of the 19th and 20th centuries has been used globally particularly in emergency communications although it is primarily in the US and Canada where it has been used also for routine traffic, giving amateurs the training and experience in handling such messages before any real need occurs. The radiogram with its header or preamble provides a standardized record of a message which can easily be referenced, as well as providing an audit of transmission and delivery which can be used for tracking as needed. This is particularly important when a message may pass through one or more relays enroute to destination. The ICS-213 on the other hand contains no such information as found in the header and neither does it generally contain an address so that a recipient anywhere in the country can be located by a delivery station. It is more like an inter-office memo. However with the addition of a header as is included in a radiogram and with the addition of a more complete address there is no reason an ICS-213 message could not easily be handled by NTS and its cadre of message handlers. In the fall of 2020 NTS successfully participated with Army and Air Force MARS in relaying ICS-213 formatted messages from MARS members to Chief Army MARS via the NTS. I suspect we will see more of these types of messages in the future.
That’s it for this month. See the January STM report below and thanks to all for your support of the nets.
73, Marcia KW1U STM
| MASSACHUSETTS STM REPORTS FOR 2022 | Jan-22 | |||||||||
| NET | SESSIONS | QTC | QNI | QTR | NM | FREQ | Net Time | |||
| MARIPN | 26 | 87 | 154 | 449 | N1LAH | 3978 KHz | 1700 M-Sa | |||
| WMN | 20 | 3 | 150 | 92 | KD2JKV | 146.91 | 1800 M-F | |||
| MARI | 31 | 119 | 143 | 491 | KW1U | 3565 KHz | 1900 Daily | |||
| CITN | 16 | 13 | 60 | 225 | W1TCD | 147.375 | 1930 M,Tu,Th,F | |||
| EM2MN | 31 | 100 | 220 | 487 | KC1HHO | 145.23 | 2000 Daily | |||
| CM2MN | 14 | 6 | 85 | 115 | KK1X | 146.97 | 2100 Daily | |||
| HHTN | 26 | 84 | 226 | 670 | W1HAI | MMRA Rptrs | 2200 Su-F | |||
| WARPSN | 5 | 10 | 105 | NA | N1IQI | 147.225 | 0830 Su | |||
| WMEN/HF | 4 | 0 | 119 | 80 | N1CPE | 3944 KHz | 0830 Su | |||
| WMEN/VHF | 4 | 0 | 58 | 93 | N1PUA | 146.91 | 0900 Su | |||
| 151 | 335 | 1166 | 2253 | |||||||
| Note: HHTN accessible also via Plymouth and Mt Greylock rptrs and Echolink New-Eng2 Conf and IRLP 9127 | ||||||||||
| Note: WMEN Storm Sessions 1/29: 17 sessions 115 check-ins | ||||||||||
| SAR | ORG | REC | SENT | DEL | TOTAL | BPL | BPL = 500+ points | |||
| KW1U | 0 | 330 | 213 | 0 | 543 | X | ||||
| N1IQI | 0 | 154 | 298 | 4 | 456 | |||||
| KC1KVY | 0 | 94 | 161 | 4 | 259 | |||||
| KC1GSL | 1 | 54 | 54 | 2 | 111 | |||||
| W1RVY | 0 | 29 | 65 | 0 | 94 | |||||
| W1TCD | 0 | 35 | 36 | 7 | 78 | |||||
| KC1MSN | 0 | 29 | 37 | 0 | 66 | |||||
| N1LAH | 0 | 35 | 25 | 1 | 61 | |||||
| WA1LPM | 0 | 17 | 36 | 1 | 54 | |||||
| N1UMJ | 9 | 17 | 18 | 5 | 49 | |||||
| KC1HHO | 0 | 32 | 5 | 2 | 39 | |||||
| WA1VAB | 0 | 13 | 15 | 5 | 33 | |||||
| KD2JKV | 0 | 14 | 14 | 0 | 28 | |||||
| KE1ML | 0 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 17 | |||||
| AJ1DM | 1 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 14 | |||||
| KC1OIP | 4 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 13 | |||||
| KC1NBI | 0 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 8 | |||||
| NV1N | 0 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 | |||||
| W1PLK | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 6 | |||||
| KB1SYL | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 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 | 60 | 10 | 205 | |||
| W1RVY | 40 | 40 | 30 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 115 | |||
| N1IQI | 40 | 40 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 110 | |||
| KC1HHO | 29 | 39 | 20 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 93 | |||
| KC1KVY | 40 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 | |||
| WA1LPM | 40 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 90 | |||
| KD2JKV | 40 | 28 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 88 | |||
| N1LAH | 40 | 40 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 100 | |||
| KC1GSL | 40 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 80 | |||
| KC1MSN | 23 | 40 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 73 | |||
| DRS | RCV | FWD | TOTAL | |||||||
| KW1U | 657 | 588 | 1245 | |||||||
| N1IQI | 154 | 298 | 452 | |||||||
| KC1GSL | 20 | 33 | 53 | |||||||
| KC1MSN | 25 | 17 | 42 | |||||||
| N1UMJ | 6 | 16 | 22 | |||||||
| W1RVY | 1 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
| Marcia KW1U, STM | ||||||||||