Weekends Include Radio Time

One of the fun things about weekends is that there are a number of ham radio nets that I regularly check into. It is fun to see how the atmosphere is working on a given day and when you have friends with a common interest doing the same thing it helps build an understanding of how to operate in any situation.

There are two nets, one on HF (high frequency voice, 75 and 40 meters) and one on 2 meters. The HF nets are early saturday morning at 7:30 am central time, and the 2 meter net is sunday evening at 8:45 pm.

The saturday hf net is conducted out of Atlanta GA and includes hams from all over the southeastern united states, NC,SC,TN,GA,AL,FL,MS,AR,LA,TX you get the picture. HF can be very tempremental as some days are much better than others. There is a great excitement after turning on the equipment to hear the call from the net control station to start the net.

The Sunday evening 2 meter net is on our local repeater, we have a group of repeaters that have been linked together that cover north Alabama and central southern Tennessee. We also have a connection into echolink so any ham anywhere in the world can check into our net from their computer using the internet. Since it is a training net, each person who checks in over time will get an opportunity to serve as the net control station which is important because when disaster strikes its too late to figure out how to run a net.

The purpose of weekly nets is to make sure everyone remembers how to do everything, make sure the equipment is working properly, and to practice net operations. The best way to do all of these things and have fun at the same time is to have weekly nets. The nets allow everyone to make a few comments after going through the checkin process. Net business is conducted if there is any and we get a status of system links operations. We have almost 100 licensed hams who have checked in but only about 20 or so check in each week.

These nets are to be prepared for a time of emergency and we specifically support the needs of the leadership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then any other group who needs our services. The local 2 meter net links people from our local stake and we have many non member hams who participate weekly. The saturday HF nets tie everyone into the storehouse in Atlanta where area spearhead units are standing by in case of an emergency.

The hurricanes in the Gulf that hit Lousinana and Texas were in areas supported by the Dallas TX store house so we had a secondary role but still supported with jump teams traveling to be on the ground so that communications could be opened up to get orders into the bishops storehouse for those in need.

I have had some good mentors in my ham radio experience, the most influential being Black Bart (KK4AI) who spearheads our local stake radio activities. When we have work days like we did last fall to put a new antenna on our repeater tower on brindley mountain, we have fun working to meet a common objective. We all learn more by doing.

So it looks like net time is approaching. Even when we get home from our assignment in Birmingham at the temple at 11:30 pm, I look forward to being up in time for the HF net at 7:30 Saturday morning. Since Joseph upgraded his license to general class, he is also able to join in on the fun on the HF net.

Its about time for Net.