73,
Phil, K9HI

Dave KI6BHB

73,

Dave KI6BHB

73,

Dave KI6BHB

Northwest Ohio ARES traffic net is at 147.375 MHz FM, PL 103.5, at 1830 ET daily. Net Manager is N8TNV. I am a net member and frequent rep to OSSBN and Buckeye Net.

The Buckeye Net early session is at 3580.0 KHz, CW, at 1845 ET daily. I, WB8YLO, am the net Manager for the early session. The Buckeye Net late session is at 3590.0 KHz, CW, at 2200 ET daily. Net manager is WB9LBI. I also frequent this session.

The Eighth Region CW net is on 3533.0 KHZ. Net manager is WB9LBI. I am a frequent NCS and rep to EAN on the 8RN.

The Eastern Area Net, CW, is at 3575.0 KHz. I am 8RN rep to EAN frequently.

73 - Eric KB1WXC

"Join this list if you would like to be a general recipient of radiograms. When receiving a radiogram you would simply log it and if receiving HXC handling instructions send a radiogram back reporting the date and time delivered."

I'm not sure if there is a better way for this list to work or if something like this should be sufficient. I'm also not sure if the person delivering the radiogram to it's final destination would respond to a HXC request or the amateur receiving it (as long as it wasn't a third-party non-amateur). Maybe this could be worked out between the last station relaying the message and the recipient when received.

Dave KI6BHB

(Sorry I can't add a link. When posting it says I don't have permissions to publish links on this site.)

Seth, KD8RBP

Dave KI6BHB

One is to give new users access only to a special "Activation CQ List" and their account would be activated once someone on that list receives a radiogram from them and then activates their account. The list would be made up of trusted amateurs that have been given special roles on the site to do this.

The other is just to have an administrator approve new accounts (after perhaps checking to make sure basic things like their name and callsign match-up). This would make it easier for people to sign up, but wouldn't be as good at preventing fake accounts.

I didn't know if anyone had any other suggestions, or if one of these two seemed the better approach.

Thanks for posting your thoughts on NTS Talk. As Kate mentioned, there is a database of operators interested in receiving radiograms on the Radiograms Yahoo group. The group has had discussions on various topics touching on several points in your proposal, such as international radiograms and contesting using the radiogram service. Scanning through the posting might be helpful for you.

On maintaining a point system, I had some experience with this for Trivia Traffic. Originally, the plan was to track sending and receiving of the radiograms and score them for accuracy. I wrote a simple system to enter and score things. But the scoring was too much to bother with. We went to tracking activity for a while, but just ended up listing the Trivia messages to promote traffic without the scoring or tracking aspect.. Perhaps an award system would work well for Radiogram QSOs.

73,

Dave KI6BHB

Join the group, then look in the Database section. You will find a Radiograms recipients data base. These are people looking for all sorts of contacts by radiogram - chess games, responses from grid squares, trivia questions, etc.

Kate K6HTN

Thanks and 73,

Dave

73,

Dave

NTS has always stressed the public relations aspect of final message delivery. This proposal morphs putting amateur radio's best foot forward to advertising. My impression is that the public sentiment toward email advertising has become just as strong as toward telemarketing. Perhaps the delivery can be presented in a manner which will avoid an association with unsolicited email advertising while providing information or link to information about amateur radio.

The main problem with email delivery has been that one cannot guarantee that the recipient has received the message or even that the message was sent to the correct addressee. Spam email filtering likely makes successful delivery even less certain. Ensuring delivery to the addressee is one of the advantages of the NTS. Is this issue the same for postal mail delivery which is an accepted practice? Is there a way to address the problems of email delivery?

In my view, NTS needs not so much a new mission as new ways to put the system to work. It won't be one thing but rather many things which catch the imagination of radio amateurs that will bring operators back to the NTS. While direct advertising of amateur radio may not be a motivating purpose for me, maybe it could be for others.

World Radio Online is available for download in PDF format. Jim's article appears in download part 3 of the April 2009 issue, available from the WRO Back Issues page.

73,

Dave

73,

Dave

73,

Dave

73,

Dave

For additional information, check in on the net or check out the net web page here on NTS Talk.

Coming January 1, 2009 (11 p.m. EST)!

The North American Traffic and Awards Net is returning to the hambands! Please join us for a rebirth of this classic WAS net! We've got a system of FREE awards for you based around the net's original premise of Worked All States.

We will also be handling formal message traffic at the outset of each net and welcome all stations with message traffic to be passed nationwide to join us nightly on 3905 kHz at 0400z. We even have an award to recognize stations for bringing and passing message traffic!

For more information: www.northamericantrafficandawards.net

As of November 1, 2008, the Second Region Net (2RN) of the ARRL National
Traffic System (NTS) expanded its reach, providing regular network nodes
for Canadian provinces in Eastern Canada
<http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/nts-mpg/>.

In a joint announcement last week, NTS Eastern Area Chair Marcia Forde,
KW1U, and Bill Thompson, W2MTA, NTS Second Region Net (2RN) Manager for
Cycles 2 and 3, invited those Canadian radio amateurs who handle traffic
to participate in Second Region Net operations as the Eastern Canada Net
(ECN) is no longer active. According to Radio Amateurs of Canada (RAC)
<http://www.rac.ca/>, the ECN, a CW Net, handled traffic for Ontario,
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Price Edward Island and Newfoundland
into the US for transcontinental transmission.

"This expansion of 2RN operations is intended to allow Section Nets in
the eastern provinces of Canada to have outlet to Eastern Area Net
operations and to allow inbound traffic to flow to those provinces of
Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes," Thompson said. "This is much the
same way as the more-western provinces in Canada currently interface
with the NTS RN7 (Seventh Region Net) and TEN (Tenth Region Net) nets."

Canadian operators are invited to participate in the 2RN operations in
addition to those of their provincial NTS Section Nets. The Second
Region Net operates four times daily on the 75 and 80 meter bands (3.925
and 3.576 MHz) in accordance with the NTS Four Cycle timetable using
Cycles 2, 3 and 4.

Thanks!

Dave