New England " Rag Chew " Ham Radio Nets (local time)
1.945 8 PM AM Directed Tues Web > Gray Hair Net
1.945 8 PM SSB Directed Wed Web > Top Band SSB Net
3.834 7 AM SSB Free, VOX Daily E-Mail> Do It Yourself Net
3.890 8 AM AM Directed Sat E-Mail > Lonely Guys Net
3.922 4 PM SSB Directed M - S E-Mail> 4PMer Net
3.933 5 PM SSB Directed M - S Web > Green Mountain Net
3.945 10 AM AM Round Table Daily E-Mail> Old Buzzards Net
3.955 6:30 AM SSB Directed M - S E-Mail> Central New England Net
Ham Operating Styles by K1DEU Also see More Opinions below mine; by W1ZZZ & N1HXC
Ham Radio is all about talking to others (IE QSO's). In Ham Radio only one person can transmit at a time (half duplex) while the other person or persons are forced to listen (receive). Many of us Shy types just love this " having absolute control, and being the only house speaker, with the one microphone". Just about everyone starts their ham career with the Safest, easiest , non embarrassing, non confrontational methods which never force us to say "I don't know!" in front of a group listening. Sometimes when forced by mistake, the questioned, replies with a lame, made up, excuse to leave in a emergency, etc. and the excuses can be hilarious. When starting out as a youngster of 12 in the mid 50's and operating as KN1DEU, as a "Johnny Novice" with my pre puberty, high pitched voice. I Always had my excuse list compiled, and at the ready, for emergency use by me just in case I was asked a question I couldn't answer. My ham shack was 20 feet up in my homebrew tree house, on 2 meter AM with my one tube 3A5, battery operated transceiver and homebrew 4 element yagi antenna . I'll never forget calling my first 2 meter AM CQ with a actual reply. It was Forest, W1NH, a real Old Timer with a real, no vanity calls then, 2 letter call, in South Bennington, Vermont a big 20 miles north of me who Announced for all listening that he was more than honored to be the first in the Berkshire, Bennington county area to work (QSO) not a home station, mobile, or a hill topper but that I was his first portable / Tree House QSO in all his 40 some Ham Radio Years. He was chuckling a little but he also seemed serious and made it seem to this little squeaky kid that talking to me made him feel very honored and famous. Needless to say I was floating in Air ! Later, as he was attracting a lot of attention running his Kilowatt, many more stations called and also worked their first portable / tree house station following our QSO. Of course my dad drove me up to meet W1NH several days later, and I was amazed by his Ham History especially including all his home brew Kilowatt AM transmitters and massive hundred element 2 meter broadside collinear antenna arrays. PS Wish I still had my little transceiver and excuse list , now in later life.
Nets; the first safe house for beginners to join, where Large groups of people are all directed by one boss. Having no chance for doubling by mistake. Each person only talks to net control, and net control replies to check-ins and comments with their own life's replies about the subjects initiated by the participants. Net controls also know, to never confront or embarrass anyone by asking a question the participants couldn't answer, or the check-in list will become very small. Early on I had a long talk with myself and quickly decided that using my excuse list was a guaranteed way to never learn anything. Hearing questions asked with no answers in groups, I wanted to hear to learn, set out to learn how to speak up and say "I don't know!" in the hope that another would pop in with the answer. I also quickly found that others respected me more for Being the Stupid Guy, as they were often interested in hearing a answer prompted by someone else (ME). The Jewish say it takes a mensche to say, "I don't know!" In case you wondered I'm a orthodox Christian. To this day I teach youngsters that one of the most important, yet hardest thing for them to learn is to ask good questions and be able to say "I don't know!" to learn more. As the easiest way is to be SHY or non confrontational, many of us sadly spend their entire life learning very little. In a group larger than 6 or so , a net control is needed where the net control station assigns each person a short time period to make his transmission. A good net control should make an abbreviated response to each person's transmission and encourage participants to interact, (contact) and talk to all, instead of net control only. Only a few net controls have the charisma to let a long line wait to have conversation with them, somewhat like an open priest's confessional without boring all. A good net control gives participants some warning, ( as many listen from the next room ) before their transmission comes up. I.E. "Saying XYZ, ABC, and XXX will be next". A few control stations actually use up half or more of the net's total time, venting their own personal weeks vendetta. These long responses from net controls to each person encourage people to talk to net control and forget to address the group. Although addressing a group is much harder for individuals to learn than addressing one person, it makes the net less boring.
Round
Tables; the second safe house for beginners to join, where each
person takes their separate turn making long, broadcast essays to
each other, having no chance for doubling by mistake and little interactive conservation. Interest wanes quickly when
the recipients are interrupted by the phone, someone at their door or signal
fading (QSB) with poor copy by the receiver, or by long dual, simultaneous
transmissions. Sometimes a tedious repeat of the entire transmission is
required when those receiving cannot interrupt you by asking you to standby or
repeat the missing sentence. This style eventually encourages each person to
make long, rambling essay-like speeches, often with little interesting,
Repetitious
content. Quite often there isn't even a response when One
questions another, which is good safety net for those who can't say say, "I
don't know!" in public. Limiting your entire ham life to broadcasting
essays to each other, or net control stations, without interactive conversation
is safe for those who can't overcome the fear of being embarrassed,
interrupted, or asked a direct question that they might not be able to answer.
One on Ones; are my favorite QSO's where two people go back and forth with very short 3 to 7 minute transmissions.
VOX
or Fast break-ins; are my second most favorite QSO's where small groups of 3 to 10 persons
congregate. This is
unequivocally the most difficult of all operating
styles to learn because at first it will require us to operate, nervously on the
edge being afraid we will double or triple with others. Most of us dread the
thought of transmitting without some one turning it to us. As no one
formally turns it over to anyone else ( saying "W1XXX from W1YYY, go ahead) a
lot of practice is required, not to double. Such as when keying the mike
Immediately uttering a loud phrase or sentence immediately, so no one else also
picks it up doubling with you. Sometimes a pause is good before jumping in,
sometimes not. Listing to other groups that don't double or triple and noticing
why helps. If you pause even for a half second, unkey. Its hard but preview
everything before saying it. VOX also
requires you to ignore the click of relays, various noises on the frequency, and
the natural tendency to fill in your composition with ah's instead of letting
the transmitter drop. Wearing headphones helps. It's also very hard to learn to
relax and let the frequency go dead for 10 or more seconds, as most are insecure
and think we will will loose the frequency. PTT, fast break in is a little
easier and requires you to train your brain to key a light finger actuated
switch, pausing transmission between sentences. Next you must learn more about
your receiver settings and change them and or modify a poorly designed receiver
to instantly recover after transmitting. Usually with break-in you need a
medium to fast recovery setting (medium to fast AGC) to allow you to
properly hear during short pauses, along with some attenuation and reduced RF
gain setting. Yes a lot of learning and work but, It also allows you the joy of
experiencing a one-on-one QSO (contact), which is almost like a normal non
radio, in person, conversation (full duplex).
So if you don't want to be an SWL (
short wave listener) all your ham life, or be known as
"blown away (long transmission) W9XXX" , or a shy " Traffic Net
or Net Only Person" missing the fun of conversation in public; take a risk, learn VOX, or fast break-ins, and
start the lengthy practice of learning it. I believe and was
<<
taught by my mentors >> that a real good operator
should strive to learn to be able, at any time, to put on and switch any of
these operating shirts and even mix them together at will.
Calling CQ; is my third favorite. Without this general invitation for most anyone to answer us to start conservation, many interesting new friends will never be made. The CQ is very short If you only want one person to answer. Or very long may produce a Round Table with many. Sometimes the CQ is geography directional or sometimes limited to a favorite topic.
Follows; from Peter, W1ZZZ Net Manager of the Lonely Guys Net, Sat. 3890 KHz.
I think my role as net control is to be like a talk show host and get each person on the show to do his or her thing. For example, viewers would expect a guest like Robin Williams to come on a talk show and do a brief "shtick" or routine -- that is why he is a comedian and people want him to still be a comedian; that is his core personality. Now if Tony Bennett comes on, viewers would love to have him sing something. The best talk show host would get Robin Williams and Tony Bennett to sing a humorous duet together. That's the role I try to play as a net control. Get people to interact with each other and have some content threads or themes. Sometimes it succeeds; sometimes it just doesn't happen. Anyway, 73, Peter, W1ZZZ
Follows; from Scotty, N1HXC Net Manager of the Green Mountain Net, Mon-Sat 3933 KHz.
Using VOX is all right if you want to use it, however there should be no noise to activate the VOX when you are not talking. If not you might as well use PTT. 73, Scotty, N1HXC