Behind the Scenes at Net Control

See behind the scenes of Central Ohio Traffic Net (COTN) in the regular daily session held 31 October 2021. COTN is a training net operating almost entirely on VHF, helping even the newest of amateur radio licensees to learn the art of originating, relaying, and delivering messages for third parties. This net is highly structured but less formal and rigorous than HF nets we demonstrate here like BLACK SWAN Net (or the Buckeye Net Mixed that predated it).

Get the COTN Net Control Station (NCS) script yourself and follow along! https://www.cotn.us/ncs-script

00:00 Introduction
00:17 What we will demonstrate
01:13 Starting the net: prepare log and read from the script
02:30 First sign of trouble
03:30 First stations in
03:53 Directing stations to secondary channel to relay reporting into the net
05:08 Stations returning to control channel
05:44 Station reporting in with traffic (messages to send)
06:48 Sending stations to secondary channel for message relay
07:42 Stations reporting into the net on control channel as messages relay on secondary
08:53 End of call-up on control channel
09:11 Stations returning to control channel (acknowledgement edited out for brevity)
09:47 Closing the net
10:15 Time-lapse of after-net session reporting
10:34 Conclusion: You can do it!

Thanks go to many:

* All participants (who did not have warning that the session would be recorded): W8SGM, KD8KBX, KD8UUB, K3AUX, KV8Z, AD8CM, and KJ8AM.
* W8RIH for the audio of the 76 machine used to show secondary channel operation.
* Central Ohio Radio Club (CORC) for the '97 and '76 repeaters used in the session. http://www.corc.us/