What does that mean in practice? How can someone who is not an amateur radio operator communicate when there is a failure of communication infrastructure?

With the help of his son Thomas, the Central Ohio Traffic Net, and Chris KV8Z, Matthew KD8TTE was able to discuss this problem and demonstrate a solution to a Boy Scout troop yesterday evening. Presented via Google Meet, the scouts were able to see and hear Thomas talk with Matthew by FRS "walkie-talkie" radio, who was able to originate a radiogram, then the scouts saw Matthew relay the radiogram to a station that was out of the affected area but could be heard on Matthew's radio. Scouts then heard delivery of the message by phone to a concerned relative, played by a scoutmaster.

To lay some foundation and to provide visual aids to illustrate what was happening, the presenter used the following slide deck. We hope that this demonstration of the National SOS Network and the Neighborhood Hamwatch relates to the National Traffic System (NTS) and one means that NTS supports those who need to communicate "when all else fails."

Thank you to everyone who participated!

A break in thought—a "STOP" in the parlance of old timey telegrams—is written with a single initial X. For example,

could be interpreted as

or

His wife was close to delivering a child but with parents in town and prepared for the event he thought a little day trip only an hour or so away might be just what he needed. By the time the day arrived, so had the baby. No day trip was to be had but it did seem a good occasion for a congratulatory note. Naturally I thought the way to take care of that was with a radiogram.

Emergency and Priority traffic are to be handled with particular urgency, so the time of day in that case is generally quite sensible to include.

Finally, it's important also to remember that when using Time Filed, you need to ensure that the time is correct. Standard amateur practice is to use universal time (UTC, also known as Zulu time) to ensure that the time is unambiguous through timezones. Hence, something filed at 1200 APR 17 would be 8:00 A.M. eastern daylight time, which is four hours behind UTC. If local time is to be used, amateur practice is to use L at the end of time filed, e.g., 0800L. A timezone designator is also allowable, e.g., 0800EDT. UTC is preferable.

For additional information, please see Chapter 1 of the MPG, specifically 1.1.7, "Time Filed, [TIME], Optional."

Most VHF traffic nets are thought of as "local": the "first mile" or "last mile" of the system: involved in traffic relay only as needed to receive traffic to deliver, or to relay traffic originated. With a footprint of approximately 10 counties, VHF contact to EMA stations at the county and state level, as well as stations able to relay traffic to other radio services including MARS and SHARES, COTN has a good deal more relaying than many other "local" nets.

COTN net control stations and stations that can perform relay services therefore need to pay attention to traffic listed, and the capabilities of stations on frequency.

A good example of how this can work took place in the past week. We had routine precedence traffic listed for Hardin County, about 50 miles from our primary repeater's transmit site, about 30 miles from the nearest receive site for the repeater system. Normally traffic going that far would be outbound, headed to HF.

A station in Marion County, about 40 miles from our transmit site and 20 miles from the nearest receive site, volunteered to take the Hardin County traffic. He advised us that there as a weekly net in Marion County that evening that often had a Hardin County station check in. Though it is not an NTS or RRI affiliate, the net would handle the traffic under the care of the Marion County operator.

Thus, rather than waiting for the next cycle for HF and finding a station in or near Hardin County to take the traffic, the message got through and was delivered correctly by relaying through two nets in about 45 minutes. The attached image shows the relative positions of the sites in question.

We note that especially as we consider times where sunspot activity or other atmospheric conditions impede HF operations, the ability to employ relay to ensure timely delivery is an important part of providing a resilient and reliable message relay service.

There are several places you can go for good places to send radiograms. RadiogramCQ.com maintains several lists for people who are interested in receiving traffic. See the RadiogramCQ CQ Lists. Reach out to your local Section Traffic Manager, or Section Manager, to find out where there are people happy to take practice traffic. The ARRL has a list of sections and how to reach the leadership. Finally, there's COTN's own humble contribution to this effort; being a training net, we have plenty of our own operators with a need to direct traffic somewhere, and if we can help others in doing so, so much the better! If you'd like to join our list of practice traffic recipients, send a radiogram to our net manager with your name, city/state/zip, and phone number.

Central Ohio Traffic Net Practice Traffic Destinations. Send a radiogram to any of these at any time!

Here is traffic handling: a voluntary noncommercial communication service for the public. Since the earliest days of amateur radio, our technology and operating skill have been ready to serve. When one of the worst windstorms ever experienced by Ann Arbor, Michigan blew through on the night of March 21, 1913, toppling houses and telegraph lines. The situation worsened when by a week later, the city of Freemont, Ohio was under water and flooding was prevalent throughout central Ohio. During this time, amateur radio operators worked day and night to keep the communications flowing though other systems had failed. Lessons learned from this early event were clear. Amateurs should "Put [their] aerial up so it will stay up, no matter what happens, and learn to handle messages at commercial speeds, for [they] may be called on to handle emergency messages when [they] least expect it." Radio, "in the hands of the amateur, while it is used by some as a plaything, is capable of doing excellent service in time of need; and we hope the work done by these men who did all they could to maintain communication between the flood stricken cities and the rest of the world, will long be remembered." (Modern Electronics. "The Wireless Amateur in Times of Disaster." April 1913)

All FEMA independent studies can be accessed at https://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.aspx?page=all

Please note that a FEMA STUDENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBER will be required for any credit or documentation. (You can get one online if you do not have one.)

Once you have completed any FEMA course and have your EMI certificate, please send a copy of your certificate to the ARRL Ohio Section and Franklin County Emergency Management & Homeland Security, who keep the certificates to show evidence of completion. Please also advise our Personnel Officer by radiogram, who can update the roster. These qualifications will be needed for emergency deployments.

Sometimes, though, a session can be interrupted. Sometimes sessions get interrupted because the net control station disappears, as happens if working from emergency power and having batteries give out. In other cases, a repeater might stop working. In still other cases, interference require that the net move to an alternate frequency.

No matter what the cause, if a net session is interrupted and needs to be continued, the session ends with the interruption and an entirely new session is called on the alternate frequency. Net control will begin a completely new session, reading the script, and going through the process of checkins. Any traffic passed in the session that was interrupted still counts as having been passed in the previous session, so it is not to be listed again. Any traffic that was listed or has since come in to be passed will need to be listed for the new session. Net control will direct the traffic as usual. In such a case, the net control station of each session will create a session report: one for the session that was interrupted, and the next for the session that was called to take care of unfinished business from the interrupted session. In such a case, of course, the net session report for anything other than the 1915 ET net will have an extra word in it, indicating the time that the net was started.

For example, if the usual session on August 30 started at 1915, had eight stations checkin, passed one piece of traffic to the Section Net Liaison KD8TTE, and ran until 1921 before needing to restart, the session report would read:

A second session starting at 1925 to continue the net operation would also need to be filed, with its word two indicating the time that the net began. Suppose nine stations check in, KD8TTE as SNL, two pieces of traffic move, and the net completes at 1941. That session report would read:

Of course if on the same net WA3EZN also acted as SNL, the session report would read:

If your station checks into both nets, you will count two net checkins for SAR and PSHR purposes. If you check into only one then you will count only one. Despite the fact that the second session exists to complete unfinished business, it is a completely independent net session, just as if it were held on another day entirely.

Sometimes traffic handlers will have difficulty delivering traffic by telephone. FCC reports that these are happening frequently in some places as a result of some phone service providers using third-party call-routing services designed to reduce fees associated with completing calls. Sometimes those services fail to complete the call at all, which can be evident from conditions like:

For more information on the problem and what to do about it, see FCC's page on rural calling completion problems.