start	end	text
0	3880	All righty, then we can go ahead and get rolling here. And I'll just again say,
3880	9000	welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining in today's session on the National Traffic System
9000	16740	and the radiogram that we use to move traffic, or in this case messages, across the country.
17160	23020	My fancy title is Section Traffic Manager, which is just a nice way of saying that I kind of
23020	31260	oversee traffic handling here in the North Texas section and look for opportunities to help
32240	37340	you folks learn more about traffic handling skills and keep an eye on the system to see
37340	41420	if there's any improvements or changes or anything like that that we could do.
41940	49760	So again, thank you so much for joining in. And I guess kind of a fun way to start things is
49760	55860	talk about how I got started in traffic handling. It was many years ago. I was in
55860	63240	Michigan at the time, and hence the eight in my call sign. And we were preparing with the county
63760	70680	ARIES-RACES group as a combined group to hold a simulated emergency test. And when they were
70680	75960	handing out assignments, they got to me and they said, okay, we need you to go to the hospital
75960	81960	and use this radiogram to send in a request to the emergency operations center. And I just
81960	88880	kind of said, I don't know what you're talking about. And so that started my journey into
89580	97320	what is the radiogram format and how does it fit in the way that we provide public service and
97320	103060	those types of things. And so from there, I've kind of built it up over time. And now I kind
103060	107840	of oversee things and again, try to pass the knowledge along. So again, thanks so much for
107840	115100	joining in. Let's see if this thing's going to move forward. There we go. So just to give kind
115100	120020	of a quick what we're going to do during this time. Just a quick high level overview of the
120020	125540	traffic system. I don't want to go into a ton of detail. It's boring. But I think if you have a
125540	131320	good 30,000 foot view, that'll help. Kind of the skills that you gain from participating in traffic
131320	135780	handling. And then we'll dive into the radiogram and its components. And then we'll have some
135780	139880	hands-on practice and kind of talk about how traffic nets work and things if you want to join
139880	146540	in on one of those. Again, if you have any questions at all while we're going through things,
146540	150720	even if it's a... hey, I remember you talked about that in the radiogram header, but could you
150720	154700	explain that one more time? Feel free to throw them in the chat and we'll kind of take those
154700	161840	questions as they come in. All righty. So a quick overview of the traffic system.
162680	169080	Essentially, we're an organized network of hams that move these messages across country and beyond
169080	177820	and started in 1914-1915 as the formal system for relaying traffic across the country. This is
177820	186680	the relay in American Radio Relay League. This is why the ARRL formed, was to move these messages
186680	193500	across the country. And so if you get that random Jeopardy question of what is the relay in ARRL,
193500	199220	I guess now you know the answer. But this is how the league got started. And since then,
199220	204000	we've been continuously moving traffic across country and beyond. The types of things that
204000	210960	we move, we'll start with the highest level of urgency, emergency traffic. And so these are the
210960	220240	life and death type things. I need a generator now, or I need diesel for the generator in five
220240	225500	hours, or the hospital is going to have a big problem, and I'm trying to summarize it. But
226080	231780	those types of things. Also specific instructions like evacuate the area or those types of things.
231780	236960	Thankfully, we don't get a lot of emergency traffic on the traffic system, but we can designate
236960	242360	items as emergency to make sure they push through the system quickly and effectively. Then we have
242360	248620	priority traffic. This is where time is important, but it's not quite the life and death. So maybe
248620	255840	notifications on number of injuries or shelter will be established at this address at this time,
255840	263480	those types of details. Then we go to welfare traffic. And during incidents, this is kind of
263480	269260	the general use of the traffic system. I want to let my family know I'm okay, or I have family in
269260	273960	that area, I want to know if they're okay. And so we'll move these welfare messages in and out of
273960	281480	affected areas. And so think Puerto Rico with the earthquake, you can think Houston with hurricanes,
281480	285680	and we just want to let family members know we're okay, that type of thing. We'll move those through
285680	292220	the system as welfare traffic. And then the general type of traffic that we have go through
292220	298040	the system, because thankfully, we're not in disasters all the time, is routine traffic.
298040	305020	So these are kind of the well wishes, sometimes the welcome to the hobby, or
306520	313600	happy birthday, Merry Christmas, those types of messages. And those messages help us test
313600	319660	the system to make sure that we're ready to go if something happens. And it helps new operators
319660	325400	build their skills. And it helps us keep practicing those skills to build that muscle memory so that
325400	330700	when we do get into an incident, we're ready to go. We've already been running and we're well
330700	336180	established. And we've got the rhythm and we can just kick into it and keep rolling in things.
336720	343420	NTS is primarily US and Canada. And we do have the ability to move traffic internationally through
343420	350520	the system overall. I know Peter dl4fn is in Germany, and he participates in traffic handling
350520	355400	and will send messages across. We'll get them here in North Texas. I know he sends them to other areas
355400	364300	to third party agreement supply. So you're not sending traffic to North Korea, as far as I know.
364720	370520	And you can, you can send traffic on behalf of third parties, you don't have to be a ham
370520	375060	to put traffic into the system or receive traffic from the system.
375120	379840	But if you're going international, then the third party rules apply on those.
380220	387340	Modes are generally what you would think voice, CW, so Morse code, and then digital, such as a
387340	392980	digital traffic network, which I know with the way the hand bands have the HF bands have been,
392980	395920	digital is really nice for punching through the conditions type of thing.
395920	404280	But thankfully, here in North Texas, we have a lot of traffic activity. So the 7290 traffic net,
404280	412640	which is a voice net, that's 7.290. Imagine that. A lot of activity, even with the way the bands are
412640	416840	sometimes they'll run into that we couldn't quite move it. And you know, you have to kind of get the
416840	422680	relay going between stations to make it happen. But thankfully, the conditions have been fair,
422680	428980	I guess. Here's how a message would generally move through this system. So the way we stack
428980	434480	this is we try to start things kind of the same way with when we handle disasters, we start and
434480	442420	end at the at the local level. And so let me see if I can get my fancy laser pointer to work. So
442420	449240	we'll start things here at the at the local net level. And then we'll work that traffic up to
449240	454200	either region or area nets depends on how far it's going to travel, and have it jump across
454200	462620	on those and then come back down and make its way back to a local net in the delivery area so that a
462620	469740	ham in that local area can make make that delivery. And let me see if I can maybe clarify that a
469740	474680	little bit better with an example of how something moves. And so let's say I want to send a message
474680	481700	to a family member in Michigan from here in Texas, I go to my local net. And I say I have
481700	487700	one piece of traffic that's headed to Michigan. And the net control station will work to find
487700	493860	another traffic handler that can move it towards Michigan. And I'll talk about how the net control
493860	500260	station kind of figures that out later. Once that person's identified, that other station will take
500260	505180	that traffic from me and then keep it moving towards Michigan. And so in this example, which
505180	510840	is a real world piece of traffic I sent, that station then relayed it over the digital traffic
510840	518560	network to a traffic handling node in Indiana that is set up, you could kind of think of it like an
518560	524020	email server, except there's no internet involved or anything. You're going over the air for all
524020	530280	this. It goes to that node, and then that node hangs on to it saying, okay, I have this message
530280	537700	stored that's on its way to Michigan. Station in Michigan connects to that node and checks, do I
537700	543740	have any traffic that I could take to my area for local delivery, finds that there, then says, okay,
543740	549560	I'll take it, it gets relayed to their station. And then in this case, that station happened to be
549560	555740	five miles from my family member up there in the thumb region. And so hop on the phone, and they
555740	561700	make that last mile delivery by phone. The vast majority of these are delivered by phone as the
561700	570820	last mile. Can you do email? Yeah, but we like to have the personal touch for these kinds of
570820	576420	messages, you know, the happy birthdays or things. Also gives a chance to explain, hi, I'm random
576420	580780	amateur radio operator, and I'm calling you with this message, you know, kind of email would kind
580780	587480	of get lost with that. And it also better reflects when we're in a disaster, and we're, you know, say
587480	592600	we're sending that welfare message, hi, I'm okay. If you're on the receiving end, how would you prefer
592600	598660	to get it? Would you like an email? Or would you like to have someone that calls and make sure that
598660	605380	they know and say, hey, I got this message from your family member, it says that they're okay,
605380	611220	they're at the shelter, you know, you have that personal touch and, and, and, and making sure that
611220	614860	that message actually reaches the recipient, because if the phone call, you know, you get a
614860	619540	busy signal or something, we try again, whereas with the email, we just kind of send it and,
619540	624240	you know, then we don't know after that, unless they're nice enough to reply.
624240	628120	So comment in the chat, that's why I got a call from a random ham when I got my license.
628120	637540	So there are some traffic handlers that monitor the FCC database for new hams, they also will
637540	643180	monitor for licenses, licenses that are about to expire, it just kind of depends on on how they
643180	646360	want to approach it. And then they'll send the traffic, whether it's, you know, the welcome to
646360	653800	the hobby, or your license expires on August 10, please be sure to renew if you haven't yet,
653800	660620	those types of things. Those types of messages are good, because it helps introduce new hams
660620	665280	to the hobby, to here's a whole nother facet of this hobby, right? There's a lot of different
665280	671980	things you can do with amateur radio, whether it's, you know, doing digital, or FT8, or Morse
671980	679000	code, or traffic handling, or, you know, emergency communications, Skywarn, or I just want to talk to
679000	683620	France and know that I made it, or, you know, there's a lot of different things that you can
683620	690060	do. And plus, I feel these messages help bring the personal touch to the hobby that, you know,
690060	696680	we're all kind of in this, and we're glad that, you know, we're making those connections as hams.
696680	700620	I know, you know, sometimes might only talk to another operator for a minute,
700620	705740	but it's just cool to make that connection with other folks. But yeah, that's why you'll sometimes
705740	710620	get that, you know, welcome to the hobbies and, you know, enjoy the fun and friendships you will
710620	714500	make. You know, I've seen that piece of traffic enough times, I can, you know, write it in my
714500	719700	sleep type of thing. If other questions or comments, again, feel free to throw them in the
719700	727980	chat. We'll keep rolling here, though. So how does traffic handling help build your skill set as a
727980	737720	ham? A lot of it is just how you interact on the air. Whether that you're on a traffic net, or a
737720	746520	SkyWarn net, social net, you know, information net, those types of things. With traffic handling,
746520	756440	well, we'll start at the top here. Slow is fast, right? We're trying to relay this message across.
756520	762520	And, you know, if we're in a real disaster scenario, and I could think like the awesome mud
762520	768300	slide up in Seattle, where a giant wall of mud comes sliding down the hillside and takes out
768300	774660	square miles of land, and now you have a big mud pile with houses and trees and cell antenna towers
774660	780120	and, you know, all that in it. And you're out there throwing a wire in a tree, hopefully, if
780120	784940	you've got one nearby, and you're doing things, probably doing it by pen and paper. And so if you
784940	789900	speak too fast, right, and I imagine you're trying to write it down on the other end. We need six
789900	794580	cases of water and 12 cots and five, you know, the other person is just gonna, okay, I give up.
795760	803660	Slow is fast. I only have to say it once. If I go too fast, then you're gonna, I need you to say
803660	808480	that again, or could you say this again, or that, and we're gonna burn more time. And in the meantime,
808480	812840	you have all this other traffic that could be waiting to move, but it's having to sit there
812840	818120	and wait, because you're having to repeat the message a few times in order to get it across. So
819080	835280	whatever you think slow is, go slower than that. Also helps if you enunciate certain words,
835280	839080	just part of that speaking clearly, we want to try and get it across the first time
839080	846300	if we can. And then I like to view this lens under the lens of you're not reading it,
846300	851140	you're sending it. And I think that just puts a whole different context on what we're trying to
851140	859200	achieve with traffic handling. We want the radiogram as, you know, whether it's sloppily
859200	868880	as I've written it on here, we want it to arrive like almost a Xerox copy, like 99% of what's
868880	874700	filled out on this is what should appear at the other end when it gets there. We want it there
874700	880540	word for word and letter for letter. So again, when I think of it, I'm not reading it to the other
880540	886460	station, I'm sending it, I'm relaying it across to the other station. It also helps you build
886460	892840	familiarity with participating in NETS. I know one of the fun parts on some traffic NETS is
892840	898560	the NET control station will say, please check in with your call sign phonetically only.
899080	903580	And then you get, well this is Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel and my name's Aaron and I'm in North Dallas
903580	908740	and I have no traffic, you know. We just want you to check in with your call sign phonetically only.
908740	915180	So participating in these NETS, you start to tune in on what exactly are the instructions from
915180	919260	the NET control station. I mean, that applies with SkyWarn NETS. I don't know how many folks
919260	925120	have jumped in on SkyWarn NETS and you always get that one, that, you know, minimum reporting
925120	930920	criteria. I only want to know about half inch hail or cloud rotation. And then you get the
931500	937180	sirens are going off. No one cares, so to speak. You know, if they're going off, we already know
937180	941720	there's a tornado warning there. Thanks for telling us the sirens went off, but we want to
941720	948080	know about hail and we want to know about, you know, cloud rotation, right? And so, you know,
948080	953780	you get that, you get that feel from the NET control station by listening and Brennan's got a
953780	959060	great comment. Listen, listen, listen. I would even say that for any NET. Before you jump in and
959060	965200	participate, listen to it for a bit. Get a feel for how it operates before you jump in. It just
965200	969800	helps you get into the groove of it a lot faster if you get the feel for how that NET runs. And
969800	974960	we'll go over that a little bit more in the, in the, how the traffic NETs run. ITU Phonetics,
974960	980600	they're the gold standard. So Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Phosphorus. If you're on a
980600	985840	local NET that's, that's focused on, on, on training as well as moving traffic, like we have
985840	990680	here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, we have a two meter traffic NET happens twice a day.
990840	997580	If you come in with a dog or a cat, you know, we'll, we won't hate it. But we will in time
997580	1002840	want you to build those ITU Phonetics. And if you're jumping in on a traffic NET that's like
1002840	1007440	regional area, you're on HF and you're moving traffic, very much the gold standard. We're very
1007440	1012860	much looking for ITU Phonetics. So this is a good way to practice those ITU Phonetics. ProWords.
1014100	1024240	Say again, you're a traffic, or correction, or I Roger, you know, these types of ProWords
1025200	1030720	not only apply to traffic handling, but they're, they're used generally in on air
1030720	1035400	communications. So whether that's public safety dispatchers, if you've ever worked
1036560	1040600	with, you know, police or fire, that type of thing, it's the same things.
1040600	1046180	Can you repeat your traffic, please? Or, you know, that type of thing. Air traffic control.
1046180	1053800	It's a good way to build your skills on phonetics before you get into the disaster.
1054120	1060040	And we'll go over some of those ProWords in a bit. Alternate phonetics are frustrating.
1060900	1065940	Always fun when you're working with the PD and it's Adam Boy King. And if you say, you know,
1065940	1072320	Alpha Bravo Kilo, they kind of look at you. And they're like, sorry, I just used what everybody
1072320	1081540	else uses. But yeah, Alpha Bravo. But it's, yeah, just, just, yeah, it's just fun. All right,
1081540	1087700	let's keep going before I rattle on that any further. Brevity. So when we look at the blank
1089700	1097900	radiograms, there are 25 spaces. And we want you to be quick and to the point. It's the same thing
1097900	1102740	when you're, again, public safety, or if you're on a SkyWarnet, and you've got cloud rotation,
1102740	1106900	you know, it's not time for a start. Well, I'm outside and it's windy. So I looked up and I saw
1106900	1113620	the cloud spin funny. And I watched it, you know, get to the point. What is it? I'm at XYZ
1113620	1120420	intersection and the cloud rotation has started and there may be lowering. Yeah, that's the crux of
1120420	1126020	the message. And so same thing with radiograms. You know, if you can say it in five words rather
1126020	1132880	than 10, well, then say it in five words, you know, that type of thing. Okay, don't know how
1132880	1137720	many folks have dived into the Incident Command System, maybe as part of ARIES, Amateur Radio
1137720	1143880	Emergency Service. Fun fact, that's actually sister programs. So National Traffic System and
1143880	1151500	ARIES are our sister programs in ARL's public safety programs type of thing. If you're moving
1151500	1157600	213s over the air, the way I like to think of it is if I'm walking into the disaster, and I got to
1157600	1162360	have someone sit down at the radio and handle moving those 213s, and I've got two options,
1162360	1166840	I've got someone that's never moved anything ever, or I've got someone that's moved a bunch
1166840	1170940	of radiograms to the traffic system, you know, who am I going to pick? I'm going to pick the person
1170940	1177580	that's got the experience. And why is that? I love this quote at the top, when the disaster begins,
1177580	1184600	the time to prepare ends. It's really been interesting watching, you know, like with the
1184600	1190920	COVID-19 pandemic and folks, you know, what am I going to do to this? Like, well, we're in it now,
1190920	1199800	so you're not, you're not preparing anymore, you are reacting, right? And so for folks that,
1199800	1204820	you know, I know I get the tinfoil hat sometimes of why I have, you know, water and some, you know,
1204820	1211220	awful tasting food that if I had to eat it, I would, but, you know, how do you get, you know,
1211220	1216820	how do you prepare beforehand by practicing? Because once we're in the disaster, that's not
1216820	1223360	the time to learn, that's the time to go. And so build those skills up before you get in there,
1223360	1232300	if you can help it. Mistakes, we'll talk about that here. Any, any questions that you have,
1232300	1237900	again, throw them in the chat, feel free to throw them in there. We'll keep rolling here.
1238860	1241740	I like to say that smart mistakes are okay.
1244560	1246900	When you go to learn,
1248420	1252700	that's just part of it, you know, sometimes it's just, oh, I didn't quite understand that right,
1252700	1257900	or that type of thing. So if you're on a traffic net, and you make an error, and you know it,
1257900	1262500	then just correct it, you know, oh, correction, and that's a pro word, correction, and we'll go
1262500	1268060	over that. Or if someone gives you some feedback over the error, you know, well, first, hopefully
1268060	1275860	they're kind about it. But, you know, we're giving that feedback to help you tune your skills,
1275860	1282620	so that you can jump in and have those skills built before we get into the disaster.
1282840	1287740	And especially when I know there are new traffic handlers joining in on the traffic nets, and,
1287740	1292740	you know, sometimes look at that. Aaron is just being cranky, because, you know, I want to get
1292740	1300820	those habits built early. Because if you start to learn it wrong, and then we come back and try and
1300820	1306160	well, this is actually how it should go, it's a lot harder to unravel all of that muscle memory
1306160	1310640	you've built, versus if we catch it in the beginning. So when you, if you get started
1310640	1314720	on a traffic net, and it's like, well, here's some feedback, that type of thing, we want to
1314720	1319080	help you build that skill set right from the beginning, rather than having to come in later
1319080	1323060	and go, well, now you need to, you know, change it, and then you're going to be the, you know,
1323060	1326640	I keep forgetting, I keep forgetting. So we want to get that built right in the beginning as you
1326640	1333980	get rolling. If there's one thing that I can have you walk away with, from this talk, without going
1333980	1343540	too deep into the psychology world, you know, the biggest question I get is, I'm going to get on the
1343540	1347980	air, and I'm going to get on the traffic net, and I'm going to make a mistake, and I'm going to sound
1347980	1359680	stupid. We've all been there. I have been traffic handling for a bit, and I still make mistakes.
1359720	1365100	And I like to joke that, well, I'm putting the amateur in amateur radio today, I made a mistake,
1365100	1370760	right? And we just keep rolling with it. I acknowledge a mistake, and we keep rolling.
1370760	1375560	And it's the same thing, if someone else jumps in, and there's a mistake, it is not the end of
1375560	1382520	the world. This is how we learn and grow. We embrace something that's new. Hopefully, we try
1382520	1390260	and build our base knowledge before we jump in, rather than jumping in blind. But, you know, when
1390260	1396640	mistakes happen, that's when learning occurs, and that's how we build those skills. So, you know,
1396640	1402280	if you have folks that, you know, how do I overcome that fear? Jump in. You know, that's the best
1402280	1410420	advice I can give you is just roll with it. Okay, that's kind of the 30,000-foot view of the
1410420	1415880	traffic system and kind of the skills you can get. This is a really good kind of the meat part of it.
1415880	1421540	But I'll check with folks, any questions on that kind of 30,000-foot view? Again, I could go into
1421540	1431320	the different, you know, what are different traffic nets and regions and that type of thing. But, you
1431320	1435700	know, can be kind of boring as you're starting out. So, you know, I'll take an opportunity to
1435700	1447600	fuel for a bit. And then if no questions, we'll jump into the radiogram. Mistakes are always...
1448300	1452120	All right. So, the comment in the chat. So, for the recording that, you know, folks know. Our local
1452120	1457180	ADS is also training that mistakes are always welcome. Yeah, we try to help folks learn and
1457180	1462200	grow and that type of thing. And even, you know, maybe it's, let's just talk offline by email real
1462200	1468120	fast and let me help clarify type of thing. Yeah, it's always... Our goals with training nets is to
1468120	1472500	help folks build their skills. All right. We'll move into the radiograms. And again, any questions,
1472500	1478080	just throw them in there. So, why radiograms? It's still the same thing. Why ICS-213? It's the
1478080	1482880	general message form. It's the standardized message format that we're all using. So, whether the
1482880	1489980	radiograms here in the U.S. or it's up to Canada or it's across to Germany or whatnot, it's the same
1489980	1495980	form. And it allows us to effectively move the traffic across the board
1496700	1501780	in a way that's traceable. And this is the one thing I really like about the radiograms versus
1501780	1508540	the 213s. We have some things in the header and things to help track it and help to try and make
1508540	1513760	sure words aren't lost as it moves in transit or things like that. But if we do have a radiogram
1513760	1521520	that disappears into the ether, and it does happen, we can start to follow that message across.
1521520	1526920	All right, who did you relay it to? And okay, you got it. And who did you send it to? And
1527860	1532440	sometimes we'll send that follow-up and then suddenly the message appears at its destination.
1532440	1535880	It's like, well, it got hung up somewhere and, you know, that type of thing. But
1535880	1543240	we can follow them through if we need to. So, this is the form. If you've printed it out,
1543760	1549260	we'll have you try and fill one out in a bit. But we'll walk through how this works first.
1549540	1556820	A little bit of animations in here. And it's sort of smooth when it goes over online. So,
1556820	1562780	hopefully, it's not jumping too bad. But, you know, for the conversation,
1562780	1569760	it won't affect things. But, you know, okay. So, we'll break the radiogram into these blocks.
1569760	1576420	And the first one is the roughest one. So, we'll spend a little extra time in it. And then the
1576420	1584440	rest of them will be easier. So, the header, overall, just is what helps us track that
1584440	1588120	message. You can think of it like the email header. Like, who's it from, who's it to,
1588120	1594620	so to speak. But two gets its own spot on a radiogram. But this is what helps us to track
1594620	1601860	these things. It starts with a number. And this number is assigned by whoever first fills out
1603080	1607800	the blank radiogram. So, if I have one of these and I start filling it out,
1608460	1614120	I would give it a unique number so that I can track it in my records. There's no standardized
1614120	1621280	way of doing this. I started with one. And then my second one was two. And my third one is three.
1621280	1626420	Some folks will go by the month. So, if it's March and it's their first one, they'll go 301 and the
1626420	1633720	next one will be 302. And then when, you know, it's July, so 701, 702. It's kind of however you
1633720	1640460	want to do it. And then you can reset them, you know, periodically if you want. So, maybe the
1640460	1645120	first of the year, you go back to one. Some stations do it by month. Again, it's just kind of
1645120	1650260	however you want to do it. I've been rolling with the same numbers for a few years. I'm at 390
1650260	1655320	something. And I might go back to one when I hit 500 or something like that. But again,
1655320	1660620	this is just for your own records. This and everything else that we're going to talk about,
1660620	1665780	aside from the little tracking items at the end, will all stay exactly the same as this moves
1665780	1669960	through the system. So, your number will stay attached to this all the way through. And then
1669960	1674940	if we have to come back and ask you a question, you know, we have a question about your number one,
1674940	1677620	then you know how to go back in your records and do that.
1680820	1683860	Precedence is... oh, here's a good question in the chat before I jump into precedence.
1683860	1689680	Are we required to archive our messages? It is a good practice to hang on to them.
1690620	1695580	And I would hang on to them for maybe one or two months. Now, this is for routine traffic.
1695580	1700940	I would hang on to them for a month or two. Just in case there's that odd question,
1700940	1704440	you know, one month is good. I think two is some extra insurance.
1705180	1711300	And then you can discard them however you want to do that. I keep mine electronically now.
1711320	1716720	I started with paper and I think that's a really great way to begin. I find that
1716720	1721400	by actually having the physical page and filling it out by hand and things,
1721400	1727420	I learn it better that way for me. And so, same thing with net controlling. When, you know,
1727420	1733260	I started it was written down and I get the feel for it. If you start with software and then
1733680	1737860	you wind up in the field and there are no computers and you're having to do it by paper
1737860	1741380	and you've never done it by hand before, you're going to have a big learning curve
1741380	1745120	versus if you build the skill with paper first and then transfer it.
1745120	1751200	So, I would start with written documents and then hang on to them for about a month,
1751200	1756240	maybe two, and then you can go ahead and, you know, recycle them, right? It's what you're
1756240	1760140	supposed to do or, you know, that type of thing. That's a good question. Again,
1760140	1764540	any others throw them in there. We'll continue precedence. This is back to that,
1764540	1768720	you know, what's the urgency of this thing? Emergency, priority, welfare, or routine.
1768960	1774340	When we fill out the radiogram, typically I'll just write R for routine. When I say it on the
1774340	1781120	air, I say routine, but I'll write R. The only word that always gets spelled out is emergency.
1781120	1786500	We want to call out the high level of importance of emergency traffic. So, the word emergency is
1786500	1792800	always written out, but the others like priority, welfare, or routine, we just write their initial
1792800	1800300	and we call it a day. Handling instruction. This provides some guidance on how the message
1800300	1808020	should be handled as it moves through the system and also about delivery. I'm going to put them on
1808020	1814960	screen. These are also in the handout if you happen to print it out. The most common one
1815760	1821020	that you're going to see is Hotel X-Ray Golf, the last one, which basically says,
1821940	1827060	please don't spend any money trying to deliver this. If you are going to have to spend money
1827060	1832860	to deliver it, well then just cancel the delivery, but let me know. And that's what we mean by
1832860	1838820	service originating station, is you send something back to whoever, you know, put that in the system
1838820	1844540	to say, you know, unable to deliver or whatever that reason is type of thing. We'll go into that
1844540	1851380	a little bit later. The one that is kind of despised in this list is Hotel X-Ray Delta,
1852200	1860180	which is essentially real-time tracing. So if I introduce something with a Hotel X-Ray Delta
1860180	1867700	instruction, what will happen is every time that message moves, those stations will need to send
1867700	1874500	me a report on that movement. So I send it to someone else, they then relay it to the next
1874500	1880620	station. At that point, that first station is supposed to say in a message back, okay, I relayed
1880620	1886440	it to XYZ station at this date and time. And that station is supposed to send me something that says,
1886440	1891880	okay, I got it from that first station at this date and time. And then when they move it on to
1891880	1896460	the next station, the same thing happens again. Okay, at this date and time, I sent it off to
1896460	1900920	that station. And then that station, same thing. At this date and time, I got it. And so every time
1900920	1907780	it hops, it generates two messages back to whoever introduced it. It's great for tracking emergency
1907780	1915320	things where you got to know that it's making progress. If it's a happy birthday, you know,
1915320	1920120	type of thing, do we need that level of tracking on it? It generates a lot of traffic. If everything
1920120	1923880	was sent with Hotel X-Ray Delta, there would be nothing but acknowledgements moving through the
1923880	1930540	system. And so we reserve Hotel X-Ray Delta for those really urgent things. Or I've tried sending
1930540	1934520	messages through and they're just not making it. I want to understand where the clog is.
1934520	1938140	So let me trace this one and see what's going on. So I would only use Delta
1938640	1944660	in extreme circumstances. So did I beat that horse? Good. Please don't use that one.
1945340	1950760	It was really fun when it was used during field day one year. There was a lot of feedback on that
1952040	1956960	group when they sent all their field day traffic with the tracer instruction on it.
1959160	1965660	Does the reply go back down the chain or acknowledge to the originator only? So
1967520	1971500	whether it's a Hotel X-Ray Delta, or let's say it's Hotel X-Ray Charlie,
1971500	1975020	and you can use more than one of these. It's not like you have to pick one. You could do a bunch
1975020	1981100	of them. Hotel X-Ray Charlie, report and date and time of delivery back to the originating station.
1982640	1991640	You would write a radiogram back to whoever that radiogram was from with that information.
1991680	1997400	And whether it goes back the same exact way that it came to you, or it goes through a completely
1997400	2003200	different part of the system, it doesn't matter. It just starts making its way back to whoever
2003200	2007740	introduced that piece of traffic. So yeah, it doesn't necessarily have to
2007740	2012360	flow exactly back the way it came. It can work through the system through another channel.
2014180	2021320	Okay, other questions? Throw them in the chat, please. Station of origin. This is effectively
2021320	2027480	who's filling out the radiogram for the first time. So if you are filling out a radiogram to
2027540	2036560	a family member, you are the station of origin. If you are filling out the radiogram on behalf
2036560	2043500	of someone else that wants to put a message into the system, you are the station of origin. You are
2043500	2050920	the first ham that is filling this in. So your call sign goes in the station of origin. And then
2050920	2056200	back to that, you know, was it delivered or did I have a question? I know to come back to you,
2056200	2061600	because you're the station of origin that brought this thing for the first time. And this station
2061600	2066980	of origin will stay there through the whole journey. It does not change. None of this changes.
2068720	2073100	Place of origin can be a little trickier. So we'll get to that in a sec. A station of origin
2073100	2077700	is whoever is filling out the very first radiogram for that for the first time.
2078520	2085400	The check is basically a way for us to see if any words disappeared or got added to the message.
2085400	2091100	So it's a count of how many words are in the text. There are some shorthands we can use,
2091100	2097760	and I'll go into those in a bit. If you use one or more shorthands, then we put A-R-L before the
2097760	2104040	number to signify we're using shorthands in the message. But if you don't have any shorthands,
2104040	2109040	then it's just, you know, count. You know, there are nine words in here. So the check is nine.
2109040	2113460	And I'll show the example of that when I get some real traffic up on the screen.
2113460	2120080	Place of origin. Okay, here's the curveball. This is the location of the person who authored the
2120080	2125620	message. So if this is you writing a message to a family member, then it is where you are,
2125620	2132340	city and state. If it's for you're on the phone with somebody, like I'm here in Dallas,
2132340	2136820	and let's say I'm on the phone with someone in Fort Worth that wants to send a message,
2136820	2142820	and I fill in the radiogram, the station of origin is who? It's me. I'm the one that's
2142820	2150500	filling in the radiogram for the first time. The place of origin is where? Fort Worth.
2150520	2156760	It's the location of the person who's authoring the text. So that's the fun curveball. Now,
2156760	2162060	if you put, like if I were to put Dallas instead of Fort Worth, like the system will not implode.
2162140	2168740	But the place of origin is whoever is is authoring the text. The station of origin
2168740	2172940	is the first ham that's that's filling out the radiogram.
2173960	2178520	Time filed is optional, just like the handling instruction is optional.
2178600	2184500	But you should you should put the time filed. If it's emergency or priority or welfare traffic,
2184500	2190580	we want to know the age of that in minutes. And also with the hotel x-ray Bravo instruction,
2190580	2195280	which says, just cancel this if it's not delivered within so many hours. Well,
2195280	2200080	I don't know how many hours went by. So definitely fill out the time filed for for those
2200080	2207500	types of things. The traffic system uses universal coordinated universal time. So UTC or Zulu.
2207800	2214160	If you don't indicate a time zone, then that's what's assumed. Universal time is what's assumed.
2214200	2218220	If you are going to use the time zone, then make sure you put it in there. So whether that's
2218220	2222240	central daylight time or eastern daylight time or that type of thing,
2222240	2225040	then you'd put the time the time zone in there along with the time.
2226100	2232360	Very rarely, though, is the time filled in. The date, this is really easy. First three letters
2232360	2239800	of the month and then and the date. So, you know, January, I still say the whole word on the air,
2239800	2249080	January 1-5, March 3, July 2-2. And notice how I give each number individually. The year is never
2249080	2253980	included. If you got a piece of traffic that's a year old, then you know, probably, you know,
2253980	2258740	time to give up on it. But, you know, we don't need the year. You know, these messages aren't
2258740	2264760	that old. And it just burns time, right? We want to get these moved as efficiently as we can. So
2264760	2271080	the year doesn't add any value. So we don't bother with it. And again, UTC. And same story, if you
2271080	2278240	were to list a piece of traffic on a local traffic net, and, you know, it's 1030 p.m. here in Dallas,
2278240	2283500	it's technically the next day in UTC. But if I if I don't put tomorrow on it, the world, again,
2283500	2289880	does not end. But if we want to follow the rhythm of it, we would follow whatever universal time is.
2290500	2294460	Comment in there, thanks for clearing up place origin. Yeah, that's a good time, isn't it?
2295420	2301900	All right, so here's how I would read the header on the air. And again, this comes down to some net
2301900	2308260	personalities. And on the Dallas-Fort Worth two meter traffic nets, I'm going to read it like how
2308260	2313080	we would do it on there. You might find that your local traffic net is just a little bit different.
2313080	2319800	So again, listen to pick up that net personality is what I like to call that. But I would say this
2319800	2330100	header just like this, please copy message number 312, routine, Hotel X-Ray, Gulf, Kilo 8, Alpha
2330100	2345060	Mike Hotel, 1-2, Dallas, Texas, 2-1-4-5, January 1-5. Now notice I don't have to say, okay, the
2345060	2350020	number is 312, and the precedence is routine, and the station of origin is it. We're all using the
2350020	2355880	same template. So we all know the order of things. We don't need to say the subject over and over
2355880	2360080	again. Again, we're trying to move these efficiently, so we don't need to burn time on that.
2360100	2364280	I did mention that two items are optional, the handling instruction and the time.
2364420	2371100	So how would I read that if I didn't have those? I just skip them. Please copy number 312, routine,
2371100	2379000	Kilo 8, Alpha Mike Hotel, 1-2, Dallas, Texas, January 1-5. Again, the other station will know
2379680	2384140	that there is no handling instruction and there is no time filed. It's one of those rhythm of
2384140	2388340	the business type of things. We know that those are optional. And so if you don't mention it,
2388980	2393800	they're not there. And then we can keep moving with things. And comment, that's basically how
2393800	2400440	the header is read here in Northern Virginia. A lot of this is, if you're really bored someday,
2401160	2413500	there is a 400-plus page best practices PDF that I just hate. But if you really want to get in
2413500	2417840	there and read it, there's a lot of reading you can do on traffic. And it's all been built just
2417840	2424080	based on things learned over time. It's an excellent resource. But if I were to throw it at
2424080	2428160	you and say, go read this 400-page thing, you're going to get lost. So a lot of this is like the
2428160	2436800	80% what you're going to see the vast majority of the time. But there is a best practices guide
2436800	2445000	if you really want to get the big details on good traffic handling. That's the header.
2445000	2450300	So that's the hard part. We're through it. Any questions on the header?
2452460	2457260	I will keep moving into the address part next. But again, any questions, throw them in there.
2457880	2463120	The address is the destinations. There we go. Yeah, methods and practices guide. Yeah, that's
2463120	2470640	yeah, MPG. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. 400 pages of fun. This is essentially like sending
2470640	2475340	any letter. First last name, call sign if they have one. Again, they don't necessarily have to
2475340	2480320	have one. So if you want to send, you know, Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to a
2480320	2485520	family member that doesn't have a license, please do. But first last name, call sign if they have
2485520	2492880	one address, city, state, zip and phone number. The last mile delivery is very much done by phone.
2492880	2500620	So we ask that you include a phone number. If you include an email, that is an option.
2503200	2507380	It removes that personal touch, but you know, some folks just don't want their phone number
2507380	2513840	out there. We'll still deliver it by email. If you do include it, then you need to write it out.
2514360	2521760	So like for this example, if it was jane.doe at example.com, then it's jane.doe
2522520	2531460	at sign or at example.com. We spell all of those things out. We don't put, you know,
2531580	2535400	a period or anything like for that. Because again, you're relaying it on the air. So how do you read,
2535400	2541120	how do you, how do you say a period? You know, I mean, you would spell it out to indicate there
2541120	2550040	is a dot there. So here, let's send this one as an example to jane.doe, address and phone number.
2550700	2558860	And so I would read this like this. I would say that this is to jane. I'm gonna go a little faster
2558860	2563140	just for sake of time. I would pause to give the other person time to write. So this is going to
2563140	2570580	jane.doe, I spelled delta oscar echo, amateur call alpha romeo one tango, address figures one two
2570580	2579900	three, mixed group eight five tango hotel, street, direction southeast, some town wisconsin,
2579900	2588380	zip figures zero zero one two one, phone figures three three zero, five five five, four four two
2588380	2594500	four, break. And a break is one of those fun ones. We'll talk about that in a second. This is your
2594500	2600360	introduction to ProWords. And so in the reference guide, there's a whole list of these, but we'll
2600360	2607120	cover some of the more common ones here. I spell means you're about to spell something. Good
2607120	2611940	practice to do that with last names, because they can be fun. Also can be good to do that with first
2611940	2617360	names. If it's john, is it j-o-n? Is it j-o-h-n? You know, that type of thing. So if it makes sense
2617360	2622160	to spell it, go for it. But if you're going to spell it, make sure you kind of do that without
2622160	2630580	pausing. So instead of doe, I spell... the other person's probably already tried to write it down
2630580	2634260	at that point. So if you're going to spell it, then just go right into spelling it. So
2635040	2641740	going to Jane, doe, I spell, Delta, Oscar, Echo, you know, and then keep going with it. Amateur
2641740	2646580	call means you're about to give a call sign. Figures, whether address figures, or zip figures,
2646580	2651860	or phone figures, you're about to get some some numbers. Mixed group means you're about to give
2651960	2658320	a mixture of letters and numbers. Directions, really only used in the address. So it's just
2658320	2663280	there to, you know, Northeast 8th Street, or Southwest this, or that type of thing.
2663360	2668760	And then break. This usually throws a curveball, because I know a lot of Nets here in the
2668760	2675540	Metroplex will have in the preamble, if you have emergency or priority traffic, at any time,
2675540	2681780	say break, break, followed by your call sign. So sometimes it creates this,
2681780	2690040	well, in this case, break indicates you're pausing. And so you would, you know, read the,
2690040	2694720	you know, you'd relay the address and phone number and then break. And then you'd let up on push to
2694720	2701320	talk. And you wait for that other station to come back to you with whether they need any fills.
2701340	2707600	You know, I need you to repeat this or that type of thing. Or they will say go, or go ahead,
2707600	2712320	go text. That means you can continue with the radiogram. They have everything. In the comment,
2712320	2716500	we say break for text for clarity. And we'll have some folks do that here in the Metroplex,
2716500	2722180	too. They'll say break for text to let you know that they're pausing before they jump into the
2722180	2731480	text section. Op notes. And so this is not something that's commonly seen, but it can be,
2731480	2737000	so I'll just mention it. Two places for op notes that they can appear in these. This is the first
2737000	2743880	one. This one relates to handling or delivery. So in this example, I've put workday only. And so
2743880	2748840	maybe the phone number I've given is a work phone number. And so why bother calling on the weekend?
2748840	2754600	This helps that station that's about to do the delivery in this example, to have an idea of when
2754600	2759140	to try making the phone call. So they're not burning time on, you know, a weekend attempt
2759140	2763400	that's just, you know, going to lead to voicemail or something like that. Again, operational notes
2763400	2767900	or op notes are optional, but for this first one, it gives, you know, some help to that
2767900	2771980	delivering station or to those handling it if there's any extra information that that might
2771980	2779180	help them when relaying this along. That's the addressee part. If you have questions on that,
2779180	2783900	throw them in the chat. We'll go into this receiving station info part. This is really easy.
2784480	2791020	The only time I ever fill this out is if I'm dropping the radiogram in the mail.
2791800	2798700	This is your station information. And this can be helpful if you're putting it in the mail
2798700	2803640	and you want that person to know how to get ahold of you if they have any questions or anything like
2803640	2810840	that. Or if you're in an emergency or something like that, who filled in this radiogram? Then
2810840	2814080	you put your information there and then that way if there are any follow-up questions,
2814080	2819040	they know how to get ahold of you. Maybe it's a, we can't read this one word, can you read it for
2819040	2825740	us? Or, you know, that type of thing. Otherwise, I know my name and my phone number and stuff. I
2825740	2830060	don't need to fill it in. It's only helpful if I'm going to put it in the mail or something like
2830060	2833380	that and, you know, someone else is going to be looking at it and if they have questions,
2833380	2837720	they know how to get ahold of me. So that is virtually always blank for me.
2839160	2848240	The text is the heart of the message. There are 25 spaces or 25 groups. I like to think of it as
2848240	2855760	five dollars a word. Going back to that brevity and be concise and to the point,
2856560	2862300	we want to very effectively relay these through the system and so the longer they are, the more
2862300	2868780	time they take. If it's worth the extra five or ten dollars, then it's worth it. But if there's
2868920	2874360	a way to be more concise and still get the message across clearly and effectively, then go for it.
2875180	2880360	So let's say I wanted to send this. Great seeing you yesterday. Hope to get together again soon,
2880360	2891200	73. So in radiograms, punctuation, just like in the email, is spelled out. So periods are
2891200	2896160	written as either the letter x, which we say is initial x-ray, or the whole word x-ray. Both
2896160	2901980	will work. Others that you might see that aren't too common but they are used on occasion is if
2901980	2906800	you have a question, the question mark is written as the word query. Exclamation points are written
2906800	2912280	as exclamation. Not too often, but you're going to see a lot of x-rays in things. That's the
2912280	2919280	most common one. And so here's how this would translate. Great seeing you yesterday, initial
2919280	2927860	x-ray. Hope to get together again soon, figures 73. Now I didn't need to put an x-ray between soon
2927860	2935820	and 73. I can kind of gather that that was the end of the sentence. And so why spend the five bucks
2935820	2942660	to put a period there when I don't need it? And sometimes I'll still do it and I'm
2942660	2947520	reading it on the traffic net and I say x-ray figures that I laugh at myself and I'm like,
2947520	2951880	well that's how I read it, so go for it. But it's like, I guess I had extra five dollars in my
2951880	2957560	pocket and let's go for it. But if you don't need that x-ray there, then no need to spend
2957560	2964180	the five bucks type of thing. If it helps clarify things, I would include it. So if it was like a
2964180	2972220	date, right, if it was on August 10, 73, then I would put an x-ray there. I'd spend the five bucks
2972220	2979420	to make sure there's some clarity. On August, figures 1-0, initial x-ray, figures 7-3.
2979420	2984120	Just gives that extra clarity that the 73 is not part of the year or that, you know, whatever might
2984120	2989180	be next to it type of thing. Question in the chat, your responsibility to help format the message.
2989180	2997900	So whether I'm filling it out for myself or on behalf of someone else, I own filling in the
2997900	3003580	radiogram. I'm the one that's introducing it and making it for the first time. So I own whatever
3003580	3009180	words get in there because as soon as I relay it on the air, ideally that's exactly how it's going
3009180	3014460	to arrive on the other end. So when you're putting the message together, you know, go for brevity
3014460	3021640	and things to, you know, to make sure the message moves effectively through the system. And, you
3021640	3027300	know, if you have a word, if you were to send supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on a radiogram,
3027300	3034640	I would really look at you like, why? You know, but in other words, you know, go for simplicity,
3034640	3039860	but still get the point across. If you're moving a radiogram that says we need
3040780	3046440	methotrexate like a medication, well, then that's worth it to say methotrexate. You're not going to
3046440	3051600	simplify it any further than that as a medication, right? But, you know, again, try and be, you know,
3051600	3057520	concise and efficient with your traffic when you go to author it before you bring it to the system.
3058080	3069680	Questions on 73. Is it figure 73 or 73? When we have numbers in the text like this, we use the
3069680	3076660	pro word figures to indicate that it's a number. And then we say each digit individually. So it's
3076660	3085900	figures 73. We give each number individually. I mean, otherwise, you could you could get the,
3085900	3093240	you know, if you say, you know, 146, or, you know, 146, or what, we want to standardize how
3093240	3097120	we do that. And we want to do it in a way where we're going to make sure each number gets there
3097120	3103420	clearly. So we give them one at a time, each digit individually. Do you have to get the sender's
3103420	3109760	approval of the message? If it was an ICS 213, and you're working in an emergency operations center
3109760	3113820	or something, then yeah, there's going to be someone that signs off on it. If you are authoring
3113820	3117760	your own message, then you approve your own message type of thing. If you're on the phone
3117760	3122300	with somebody and they want to send, you know, happy birthday, you know, type of thing, and you
3122300	3126820	decide that you could say that in the shorthand, or, you know, that type of thing, you don't
3126820	3131260	necessarily need to get their okay to say, well, I'm going to take that period out because we don't
3131260	3136580	need it or, you know, that type of thing. You know, a lot of this is just, you know, good judgment
3137200	3143860	on, you know, if someone's telling you, tell them, you know, tell them I'm glad to hear from them,
3143860	3149840	and that I hope they're doing well. Well, you know, you can, you know, put that in the message
3149840	3155200	right along those lines. You know, I am glad to hear from you. I am doing well. You know,
3155200	3159460	I wouldn't cut it in half or anything like that. You know, try and follow what they're giving you.
3159460	3165100	But the way I would do it on the phone is they'll tell me kind of what it is they want to say.
3165100	3168640	And sometimes they're making it up as they say it. So it's not, you know, exactly ready, but
3168640	3173760	I will type it out. And then when they're done, I'll say, okay, here's what I'm going to send.
3175300	3180180	And then they'll go, okay, great. Or, well, can you add or, you know, that's kind of their sign
3180180	3185280	off type of thing, just to verify that I've got everything that they wanted to say in that. So
3185280	3191560	hopefully that gives you a good answer there. We'll keep moving. When you're putting the check
3191560	3196640	together, things like x-ray and query count as a word when you're filling in the check. So if you
3196640	3205880	look at what we've got on the text here, it's 12. Great seeing you yesterday. Initial x-ray are the
3205880	3211280	first five. Hope to get together again are the next five. Soon figure 73 are the last two. So
3211280	3217860	the check here is 12. And when I read that as part of the header, I would say one, two.
3220080	3224320	And we'll put this all in the radiogram so you can see it all as a big picture.
3224740	3229700	Again, I would pause between words, but, you know, for sake of time. Great seeing you yesterday.
3229700	3236300	Initial x-ray. Hope to get together again soon. Figures 73. Break. So some more pro words that
3236300	3242700	we can have here. Initials, or some say letter group, means you're about to give initials.
3242700	3249100	Break. Break for a signature, because the signature is next. Again, we're giving that
3249100	3257700	pause to see if that other station needs any fills. I need you to say again word after hope,
3258460	3265620	or please spell yesterday, or, you know, things like that. If you get the please say all again
3265620	3271100	after yesterday, that's a good sign you might have went a little too fast, and they just gave
3271100	3276740	up. So slow down the next time. Affirmative or negative is much better than yes or no,
3276740	3281260	because it's longer, so we have less chance of misinterpreting it type of thing. So affirmative
3281260	3288000	or negative. And then correction, if you did make a mistake, then you can just say correction,
3288000	3294080	and then whatever the correction is. You know, so great seeing you initial x-ray. Correction.
3294080	3300500	Yesterday. I say again great seeing you yesterday. Initial x-ray. It gets you into that rhythm of
3300500	3309000	putting that correction in and keeping things following. So the last part now, what if I'm a
3309000	3315160	bad speller? Well, when you read it over the air, we won't know how you spelled it. We'll just know
3315160	3321840	how you said it. But if someone asks you to spell something like methotrexate, right, try and get it
3321840	3327440	right. But if something is introduced with a misspelling, and that's how it's handed to you
3327440	3333540	as it's in transit, then relay it exactly as you got it. We're not in the middle of this
3333540	3337500	to change the message while it's in transit, right? This is not the time for the telephone game
3337500	3345280	where I start with, you know, I need two cases of bottled water, and it ends with I need five
3345280	3350340	one-gallon jugs of iced tea or, you know, something. So if it has a mistake in it or things,
3350340	3356860	move it along just as you got it. I wouldn't change anything like that. So if something comes
3356860	3360660	in with a spelling mistake, it'll move through the system like that. As long as we know what
3360660	3368840	it's saying, then we're okay. The signature. So this is the last part that would generally
3368840	3373760	be filled out. It's below the text and above the sent and received info with no label.
3374720	3377980	So it's just kind of one of those we-know-it-goes-there types of things.
3377980	3384920	Generally, it's your name and your call sign if you have one. So in my case, it's Aaron K8AMH.
3385860	3391340	This is how I would finish this message on the air. I would say,
3391340	3398100	signed. So I've read the text, I break, the other station says, go ahead. I would say,
3398100	3408500	signed, Aaron, amateur call, Kilo 8, Alpha Mike Hotel, end, number 312, no more, how copy?
3410220	3418300	So, end means that's the end of the radiogram. Book traffic, we'll talk about in a second.
3419520	3424380	No more is just how many you have left to relay to that station. So if you're like, I have three
3424380	3429320	that are going to Michigan, then I would read the first one, I would say, end, number whatever that
3429320	3434080	was, two more, how copy this one? And then the other station knows we still have some more to go.
3434720	3440780	How copy, so did you copy it successfully? And then, you know, Roger, I Roger your number 312,
3441420	3446080	good copy on 312, something like that, is how you'd know the other station
3447420	3452520	has everything successfully. Now, this is the second place where op notes can appear.
3452940	3459580	This is more commonly used, this is related to replies or servicing. And so for example,
3459580	3466760	could have Aaron, Kiloweight Alpha Mike Hotel, op note, reply or service to KE5YTA.
3467120	3473380	Effectively, what this is saying is, if you have a reply that you need to send to me,
3473380	3484360	send it to me via KE5YTA, and his name's Roger. So the message would go to Roger. And I'll show
3484360	3489580	this in a real radiogram of how this works. This is good for, like for Peter in Germany,
3489580	3497160	how we get the messages back to him. So the last part of this is your tracking. So everything we've
3497160	3502200	talked about so far, aside from the receiving station info, will not change in the radiogram
3502200	3507700	ever. This will stay the same as it moves through the system. The received and sent info, this is
3507700	3514160	for your tracking. Who did you get it from and who did you send it to? And so let's say I sent
3514160	3521860	to Roger. I would put KE5YTA. I like to track what net I was on when I did that. That's optional,
3521860	3527460	but that's just a little piece of extra info for me. And again, I use UTC here, you know,
3527460	3533040	with the date and the time that I relayed it. And that way, if I need to go back and try and follow
3533040	3537960	its journey, I have my records. Roger will have his records, and we can start tracing it
3537960	3546980	through the system. So this is how this radiogram looks from everything that we've built up. So let
3546980	3553260	me zoom in on it so we have a little bit better view. So the number precedence, we had no handling
3553260	3561820	instructions, so that's blank. The origin is me, check of 12 Dallas, where it's headed, the message,
3561820	3567280	signature, and then who I relayed it to after, you know, I moved it on the traffic net.
3567280	3583960	Are there any questions on this example? And I'll buy you some time. I did not receive an
3583960	3591380	email with the radiogram download or print. Okay, so if you go to k8amh.com forward slash
3592460	3597860	handouts. Oh, is that plural? Let me go find out because I don't remember.
3597860	3601900	Um, if the browser will open.
3603460	3607760	I think it's plural. Yeah, okay. Thanks, Sean. Yeah.
3609240	3613000	So I'll go ahead and let this open slowly for some reason.
3615940	3619980	Come on, internet. There we go. You'll find the reference guide here on the left, and then I've
3619980	3627140	got two copies of the radiogram forms. One that is not fillable, the other one that is. So if
3627140	3634160	you prefer to fill it out on screen, then you've got it. Great. Any other questions or anything,
3634160	3640140	feel free to throw them in there. What if we have the same message going to more than one person?
3640140	3644320	So let's say it's, you know, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And I'm sending it to three
3644320	3649240	different people. We call that book traffic. It's just a nice way of saying that, well,
3649240	3654860	the message itself is the same. I just have it going to different people. And then when I go to
3654860	3663180	relay it on the air, I only need to read the text once. And then I just give the destination
3663620	3670060	separately. Each radiogram still has its own number. So if I had, you know, three going to
3670060	3674600	family members in Michigan, then, you know, if it was 312 is the first one, then the second one is
3674600	3680120	313, and the next one is 314. And then the address information would change, right, different
3680120	3686280	destination, but the rest of it's the same. So I would relay this. There's two ways you could do
3686280	3690800	it. One is where you just give the common parts, the parts that appear the same in all of them.
3693760	3700380	In Dallas, we read the first radiogram all the way through the first time. So we start with
3700380	3707380	number 312, routine, kilo-weight albumin, 2, Jane Doe, great seeing you, sign. And then the next one,
3707380	3713060	we would say, okay, the next one in the book is number 313, and it's going to John Smith,
3713060	3718900	123 Fake Street, and number 313, one more in the book, a copy. And then the next one would be 314
3718900	3725580	going to, you know, Jane Smith, you know, type of thing. So again, listen to that net personality.
3725600	3728900	But we don't need to read the whole header. We don't need to read the text over again or things
3728900	3732940	in the comment, great for your field day traffic, book of 10. Yeah, it's just more, you know, speedy
3732940	3740720	type of thing. It helps speed up moving things. And you think about the, you know, ARL 56,
3740720	3744720	new amateur radio license, welcome to the hobby, enjoy the fun and friendships you will make,
3744720	3750100	right? If, you know, someone like Lauren, November 1, India, Quebec, India, or Chris,
3750100	3757060	November X-ray 9 kilo, and Jim, you know, are sending the same greetings that we just put that
3757060	3760600	through as book traffic, only have to read the message once, and then we can go through all the
3760600	3767520	destinations type of thing. Okay, I talked about shorthands. So we'll dive in these in a bit.
3767520	3777260	Here's an example of where a shorthand is used. And so this is real, I just, I took out the name.
3778040	3781700	ARL 56, new amateur radio license, welcome to the hobby, enjoy the fun and friendships you will
3781700	3790700	make, 73. Fun how you just memorize those over time. We're using a shorthand here,
3790700	3798820	because this does mean something, and it's in your handout, the ARL numbered radiograms.
3800140	3806480	They provide a way for us to send common phrases very quickly. When you deliver it to the other
3806480	3809940	end, of course, you're going to say what it means. Like I wouldn't say, okay, you got a message,
3809940	3814880	this is ARL 50. You know, they're not going to know what that means, so tell them what it means.
3815020	3820680	And then in the check, we indicate that we have a shorthand in use. And so the check of 1-2,
3820680	3826660	you know, example would become Alpha Romeo Lima 1-2. Again, to flag the fact that we've used
3827440	3831480	a shorthand. Here are some common ones. You have the full list of them in the handout.
3832260	3838480	ARL 50, greetings by amateur radio. 56, congratulations on your, and then whatever,
3838480	3845600	most worthy and deserved achievement. For servicing, if we want to tell a station we
3845600	3850640	delivered their message, then it's ARL 47, and then we give the number and the destination and
3850640	3856160	the date and time of delivery. If we couldn't deliver it, then ARL 67, and then we give the
3856160	3860400	message number and maybe some other details, and then we explain why. You know, phone number,
3860400	3866540	out of service, or no answer, you know, that type of thing. So when we look at this example,
3866540	3874520	ARL 56, new amateur radio license, becomes congratulations on your, and this is the blank,
3874520	3879700	so what follows this shorthand here, you know, new amateur radio license, initial x-ray,
3879700	3885080	that's what goes in the blank. So congratulations on your new amateur radio license, a most worthy
3885080	3890980	and deserved achievement. Welcome to the hobby. Enjoy the fun and friendships you will make.
3890980	3896600	73. That would be how I would deliver it to its destination.
3898520	3903040	We spell out the numbers in these shorthands, and this is to help clarify that
3903040	3909820	this is part of the shorthand. So I would read this as initials, Alpha, Romeo, Lima,
3910380	3917560	50, I spell, Foxtrot, India, Foxtrot, Tango, Yankee, six, I spell, Sierra, India, x-ray.
3917560	3924600	We're spelling them to call out the fact that they are spelled out words rather than like
3924600	3930560	figure 7-3, right? We want to clarify that these are written out words rather than
3930560	3934900	some digits, and so that's why we spell them out like that.
3936440	3942220	Some other quick examples, and then we can do maybe a little bit of hands-on.
3942220	3950140	Let me zoom in on this just for fun. So ARL50, John, and congrats on new amateur radio license.
3950140	3958140	X-ray, enjoy all that the radio community offers. X-ray, best regards. ARL50,
3958140	3964720	remember what that is? It's greetings by amateur radio. And so that's how greetings by amateur
3964720	3971600	radio, John, and congrats on it. Here we have the op note that Peter includes.
3972140	3980060	So he signs it, Peter, DL4FN, op note reply or service message to him through Roger in Richardson,
3980060	3987460	Texas. And so what this means, I see someone recognizes Peter's messages in the chat. What
3987460	3993500	this means is that to send something back to Peter, so like if that other station wants to
3993500	3999980	say thank you and hope to hear you on the air or whatever their reply is, or if it's I couldn't
3999980	4006940	deliver it because the phone number is disconnected, I would send the reply to Peter, DL4FN,
4006940	4014660	care of Roger, K-E-5-Y-T-A, in Richardson, Texas. So I won't send it to Germany. I'm going to route
4014660	4021000	it to Roger here in Dallas, because Peter has asked Roger here in Dallas to act as kind of
4021000	4026420	his liaison to get the messages back to him in Germany. So I'm going to send it back to
4027000	4032680	Roger, and then Roger will relay it across to Peter. If that makes sense, how this op note
4032680	4038360	works at the end. Again, this is relating to, you know, the replies or service messages.
4038380	4042840	We're going to still send this reply to Peter, but we're going to route it to Roger, because
4042840	4048800	that's who Peter's designated here in the U.S. for receiving, for working, you know, those replies
4048800	4057320	back to him in Germany. Same thing here on this one. Peter's got the op note, you know,
4057320	4062580	hello Gary, congrats on your new amateur license, you know, that type of thing. And these are ones
4062580	4068700	I put in the mail, because I choose if I can't get a hold of them on the phone, then I mail them.
4068700	4073320	It's a personal choice. And I fill out these details here in the, you know, the receive box,
4073320	4077180	so that if they have any questions, they know how to get a hold of me. And I put a little
4077180	4081400	letter with an explanation to just saying, you know, this is part of traffic handling,
4081400	4086860	and here's what the message says, and that type of thing. All right, so we'll do a little hands-on.
4087300	4093240	Let's say you're going to send something to me. There's my address and phone number,
4093240	4100100	and you're going to send, hope to hear you on the band soon, and 73. So go ahead and take some time,
4100100	4104940	if you've got your blank radiogram printed out. And if it's, you can make up the number,
4104940	4111480	one or 500, or however you want to do that. But I'll give you a couple minutes. And in the meantime,
4111480	4128170	if folks have questions, feel free to throw them in the chat. Again, more fuel, getting a little
4128170	4183640	cooler, but I'll still work on it. Okay, we'll give you another minute here. So again, any questions,
4183640	4197360	feel free to throw them in the chat. The handling instructions definitions list,
4197360	4203020	excuse me, so that is also in the handout. So why don't I open it here,
4203020	4208940	and we'll kind of walk through it very, very quickly. So at the beginning of this phonetic
4208940	4216040	alphabet, because again, the gold standard, and then the handling instructions, and what they all
4216040	4226800	mean. Precedences, so again, priority welfare emergency, and then common prosigns that are used
4227650	4236420	in traffic handling. And then that's followed by the ARL shorthands. And there are two blocks of
4236420	4241740	these. The first group is generally emergency related, you know, like supplies requests or
4242440	4247980	comments on damage to the area or things. Group two is more for the routine-y things.
4249700	4252520	You know, greetings by amateur radio, greetings on your birthday,
4253680	4277530	you know, holiday greetings, and things like that. Other questions? So from a big picture,
4277530	4282490	how do I initiate a message from a local level and get it to a regional relay? So the way it'll
4282490	4290430	work, we'll go through this in the net discussion, is you'll bring it to a local traffic net,
4290430	4295750	and then someone else that's also checked into that traffic net will be able to act as that bridge
4295750	4300750	to a regional or area net, and then they'll take that there and move it there. And that's how it'll
4300750	4306090	jump across. I think it'll become a little bit clearer when we get into the... pardon me,
4306090	4313150	get into the... how the traffic nets work here in just a second. But that's kind of a quick answer,
4313610	4317110	is when you bring it to the local level, you'll have folks that can take things to
4317110	4321950	the regional area or things, and that's how it'll keep going. Yeah, there'll be liaisons to other
4321950	4326510	nets. Yeah, we're going to walk through that. Yeah. All right. So let's keep moving. If you
4326510	4331490	don't have it quite filled out, that's okay. This is effectively how it should look.
4331490	4339570	So whatever number you put, and then routine, your call sign, a check of nine or a niner,
4339970	4345730	your city and state, today's date, then my address and phone number, and then one word in each blank,
4345730	4350650	hope to hear you on the band soon, figure seven three, and then your name and your call sign here
4350650	4358470	in this little tiny spot. Anybody have any questions on how we filled it out this way,
4358470	4363150	or if you had something a little different, or anything that I can clarify on this?
4363910	4369070	I'll give you about 30 seconds, and then we'll jump in a little bit. We got a little bit more
4369070	4374410	to go. We're not doing horrible on time. We've got maybe another 10, maybe 15 minutes. I added
4374410	4380930	an initial x-ray. So again, so that's the comment. I added an initial x-ray in the chat.
4380930	4392630	So if you put an x-ray between soon and 73, you can do that. Is it necessary? Not necessarily. I
4392630	4398430	know the sentence ended here at soon. If you put it, you can put it. But I personally like to save
4398430	4406570	the five dollars, and so I don't put an x-ray there for a period. Another question, what's the
4406570	4416710	rationale for place of origin? So again on this, this is the location of whoever authored this
4416710	4428050	text. The rationale for that, yeah. So this is so that we know where the message came from.
4428190	4434470	Because again, if you are the station of origin, like if I'm filling it out, and I'm in Dallas,
4434470	4442370	the people that are authoring that message are in Fort Worth. And if I say, I need five
4442370	4450350	cots at Mercy Hospital, Mercy Hospital in Fort Worth, or Mercy Hospital in Dallas, or Mercy
4450350	4459090	Hospital. It just helps provide some of that clarity, first off. And then also, as Darwin's
4459090	4463870	put in there, I think it's to help replies go back to the proper local net. It does help with
4463870	4471370	routing, because we've got that clue in there of where we can head it back to for its destination.
4471890	4476450	But when we think about emergency traffic or things, just, you know, where did this come from?
4477250	4481510	You know, Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel, that's an 8. So this must have come from Michigan or West
4481510	4486810	Virginia or something, right? No, it's coming from Dallas, Texas. And so, you know, if I don't have
4486810	4494030	access to the FCC ULS, the, you know, Universal Licensing System, or things like QRZ to look up
4494030	4499070	addresses, then this is my clue. Place of origin, at least for me, when I sent it,
4499070	4503530	would be Dallas, Texas. And that's how you'd know how to route it back to me type of thing.
4505030	4509510	Yeah, other questions on this? Feel free to throw them in the chat. I'm gonna
4509510	4513950	keep rolling just to try and keep conscious of time here.
4514770	4520490	So now on traffic nets, I won't dive into this too much. It's pretty much like any other net you've
4520490	4525130	hopefully joined where you get the preamble, you know, welcome to the traffic net. My name is and
4525130	4530110	I'm your net control station. And I will now take check-ins from stations with traffic, which means
4530110	4536350	you're bringing a radiogram that you want to introduce into the system or relay through the
4536350	4541430	system. And then you can take check-ins from stations without traffic, which means I don't
4541430	4546970	have any radiograms to relay, but I'm here if you need help relaying things. And then after that,
4546970	4552010	the relaying begins. Two stations will connect together on the air. And then this is... I'm
4552010	4556950	doing this as a voice net because that's how many folks here at Dallas get started on traffic nets
4556950	4562430	is at the local level. You know, if it's a CW net or things, you know, you follow similar.
4563210	4568590	Here's how a net control could log things. For this one, I was the one that was running the net.
4569950	4576210	And so, of course, I tracked myself as the as the net control station. Next, we had Calvin
4576210	4584310	check in. He brought a piece of traffic for Bowie, Texas. Then Don, W9BE, checked in. He acted as a
4584310	4591950	liaison for TEX, the Texas Traffic Net, which that for me as a net control station tells me
4591950	4600810	an option on how to route traffic out of Dallas-Fort Worth. I have this option for moving
4600810	4607650	traffic out of the area. Same thing with Roger, K85YATA. He interfaces with the digital traffic
4607650	4614210	net. And if I have to send something Michigan, Wisconsin, you know, Washington State, something,
4614210	4619850	then I know that Roger is an option to move things out of the area through the digital traffic net.
4619850	4625370	Same with John. Roger, in this case, brought a book of five. So it's the same text and things
4626350	4631630	going to five different destinations. Two of those were in Dallas, one in Plano, one in Prosper,
4631630	4637070	one in Melissa. And then John also had his a book of three, separate book, but book of three.
4637110	4641810	And then he had one and another one that's not part of the book.
4642670	4649010	And then last, Corky checked in with a net report, which is how we turn in our statistics
4649770	4654210	and they get reported to me and then I report them to our headquarters. But how do we turn
4654210	4661270	in those net reports? Well, through a radiogram. So, okay, let me turn off the pointer and we'll
4661270	4667350	keep moving. So the way this would work is after figuring out who can route what,
4667350	4678990	the net control station would have those two stations connect, you know, and say, okay, I'm,
4678990	4683250	they would read the header and the address and phone number and then break.
4683350	4687190	And then I would either say, please say again, phone number, or please say again,
4687190	4692790	city, or please spell city. Or when I'm ready to go, I would say, go, go text, go ahead.
4693610	4701030	Other station would then read the text section one word at a time, and then break. And then I
4701030	4707090	would say, you know, please say again, word after blah, or go, go ahead, go signature,
4707090	4712690	then they would read the signature, you know, sign some da da da, end number, whatever,
4712690	4718110	no more or one more, how copy, I Roger your number, whatever, you know, thanks for the traffic
4718110	4722950	and then K8AMH, and they, you know, thank you for taking that and ID and then turn it back to net
4722950	4729890	control. That's how, that's how you would flow. I see the questions on how to get involved. I'll
4729890	4735150	jump into that in just a second. So the way I would move this is I would say, please copy my
4735150	4741730	number three, and I'm going to go fast. Please copy my number 312, routine, K8AMH, 1-2, Dallas,
4741730	4752030	Texas, January 1-5, to Jane Doe, amateur call, Alfa Romeo 1-Tango, address figures 1-2-3,
4752030	4759810	mixed group 8-5 Tango Hotel, street, direction southeast, some town Wisconsin, zip figures
4759810	4769550	0-0-1-2-1, phone figures 3-3-0-5-5-5-4-4-2-4, break, and the other station go ahead, great
4769550	4778750	seeing you yesterday, initial x-ray, hope to get together again soon, figures 7-3, break,
4778750	4783770	and the other station would say go, signed Aaron, amateur call, Kilo 8, Alfa Mike Hotel,
4783770	4789570	number 312, and no more, I'll copy. And the other, I copy, Roger, you're 312,
4789570	4794430	thanks for the traffic, thanks for taking K8AMH back to NET. So that's how we would
4794430	4801330	move that on the air. How do you get involved in the traffic nets? I would recommend finding,
4801330	4811010	if possible, a local traffic net in your area. The ARRL, main webpage, ARRL.org,
4811010	4818230	has a NET database that you can search. And let me make a note, I will put that in my follow-up email,
4819410	4827170	how to search local NETs. And you can find local NETs and regional NETs and things,
4827170	4833990	and then get involved that way. Find the NET at your local level, or if not available, find a
4833990	4839590	regional or area NET on HF. Again, listen, I recommend you listen in the beginning, get a feel
4839590	4845490	for that NET and how it flows, and then you can start jumping in and participating. I know, like,
4845490	4851350	for example, here at the 7290 traffic net, the first time you check in and, you know, participate
4851350	4856490	in the NET, even if you don't move any traffic, they send you a radiogram thanking you for finding
4856490	4861090	them and for jumping in on the NET. They're very happy to hear from folks that join in.
4861410	4866490	Lots of good NETs and lots of excitement when folks want to jump in type of thing.
4872340	4881580	Okay, great presentation. We got Aaron and Justin here in Discord to do a demo for us.
4881580	4889100	So I'll let you guys take it from here, and we'll do some questions afterwards. Go ahead.
4892320	4898240	All right, I'll take it, I guess. Everybody, thanks for jumping in. We'll do a couple of
4898240	4906400	practice radiograms here. If you've printed them out from the handouts page, and I promise I'll go
4906400	4915580	nice and slow. You could give this a spin to see how it flows for you when filling out the radiogram,
4915580	4921500	and then if there's any questions on, well, what happened there, or what did that mean,
4921500	4926520	or those types of things, we've got some time here to take questions. So hopefully I've bought
4926520	4931360	enough time for folks to get their blank radiograms handy. I'll just go ahead and start
4932460	4936660	doing this. If this works, or do you want to do questions first, let me double check
4937780	4942360	to make sure I'm good to go with the relaying. Let's go ahead. All righty, then we'll go ahead
4942360	4953920	and get started. And this will be number 809-routine, Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel,
4953920	4966260	1-4, Dallas, Texas, August 9-r, to your station. That's how we would do that on the air
4966260	4971520	when it's going to the recipient is the same ham. So going to your station,
4971520	4984400	break. This is where somebody would say go. So I'll assume I gotta go. Thank you for attending
4986110	4995600	today. Hope to get some traffic
4999440	5010580	from you soon. Figures 7-3, break. And again, I, you know, say again or something, but you know,
5010580	5018360	go, you know, we'll do go signature. That's signed Aaron Amateur Call, Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel.
5018360	5022800	End number 809-r, and no more. I'll copy.
5024540	5031720	And so hopefully that first, hopefully I was slow enough. So yeah, I learned with some stations,
5031720	5036160	I can go faster than with others. And so I try to adjust the speed based on that.
5038060	5041120	I don't know if we can throw that one up on the screen.
5041120	5042480	Yeah, you're ready for the reveal?
5042700	5048360	Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure thing. And then if any questions on, well, why did that go there? Or
5049360	5052540	that was really confusing. How come this? Or, you know, that type of thing.
5054140	5060660	Yeah, definitely wanted to give that clarity type of thing. Or if you're experts, then you
5060660	5066480	could take Justin. And, you know, we'll double check that, you know, things are good. And then
5066480	5072280	we had some questions during the presentation part. I want to jump in on those as well. And
5073020	5080560	if any other questions type of thing. Otherwise, silence is acceptance.
5080560	5083720	Let's go to Justin's demo here.
5083720	5089220	Sure. All right. Well, yep, I have one more if you want to try it again. And again, as they say,
5089220	5093040	every NAT usually has their own personality. So mine might sound a little bit different.
5093100	5100380	So I'll go ahead and get started. Please copy message number one, three, routine,
5100380	5111120	kilo, echo, eight, Mike, Yankee, Foxtrot, one, eight, Grand Rapids, I spell Romeo, Alpha, Papa,
5111120	5122540	India, Delta, Sierra, Michigan, August 9. Going to your station. Break.
5123500	5125360	Go.
5125820	5127600	All right.
5127800	5128960	Thanks
5129500	5130940	for
5131500	5132520	attending
5133500	5134480	this
5135500	5137680	talk.
5137760	5138340	And
5139400	5139980	hope
5141000	5144920	to, I spell Tango Oscar,
5144920	5145600	C,
5145600	5149080	I spell Sierra, Echo, Echo,
5149080	5150720	U,
5150720	5151600	all
5151600	5153220	at
5153220	5155740	mixed group,
5155740	5157620	Delta, Charlie,
5157620	5160100	two, niner,
5160100	5161600	initial X-ray,
5162680	5164060	hack,
5164060	5164800	the
5165780	5167440	planet,
5167440	5169860	figures 73. Break.
5171140	5172740	Go ahead.
5172840	5173740	Signed
5173740	5176080	Justin, amateur call,
5176080	5177680	kilo, echo, eight, Mike,
5177680	5179620	Yankee, Foxtrot, end message number
5179620	5181560	one, three, no more, how copy?
5181880	5184020	Roger, one, three, thanks for the traffic.
5184260	5186040	It's that, Debbie, we do it here.
5186600	5187120	Yeah.
5187680	5189600	Very good, let's do a reveal
5189600	5190480	on that.
5192800	5193680	Here we go, that's what
5193680	5194860	it should look like.
5202260	5203360	All right, yeah, so on that one, we
5203360	5205300	also had a mixed group in there with a
5205300	5207500	DC-29, that's another thing to keep
5207500	5209520	out. And when I mentioned
5209520	5211440	the word two, I made sure to spell
5211440	5213560	it out, just so it's 100%
5213560	5214980	accurate, and someone didn't write
5215440	5217760	Tango Oscar Oscar on accident,
5217760	5219580	they would spell Tango Oscar.
5219760	5221640	So that's, when there's words like that,
5221640	5224080	it's always important to make sure you spell those out.
5226780	5227260	Very
5227260	5229340	good, we'll leave this up here for a few seconds
5229340	5231580	and go to Q&A.
5231800	5233200	I guess let's go
5233200	5235300	there now. So, let's
5235300	5236600	go to the chats.
5237480	5239600	Hit up Discord,
5239600	5241000	Presentation Chat, or
5241000	5243600	Twitch, and we'll get some questions.
5243600	5245240	But I guess first,
5245240	5247380	you wanted to go over questions from the
5247380	5249720	video, so go ahead, Aaron.
5249720	5251420	Oh, okay. All right, we had
5251420	5252940	two that came up during that.
5253640	5255100	First one,
5255100	5257080	do you know if and how other local
5257080	5259120	and section traffic nets discourage
5259120	5260920	use of the Internet or
5260920	5262760	national traffic system relay? So
5262760	5265120	the heart of that question really is
5265120	5266840	how does the Internet play
5267520	5269600	in with relaying
5269600	5271140	traffic? And I mean,
5271140	5272520	you could think of that as
5273140	5274680	Echo Link, or
5274680	5276840	maybe if you're on All Star, or
5276840	5279120	something like that, where you're leveraging
5279120	5281240	the Internet for moving things.
5281360	5283100	From the national traffic system
5283100	5285220	side, we really want things
5285220	5286800	to go over the air.
5286800	5288600	We are preparing for
5289620	5290820	when infrastructure
5290820	5293300	is not available.
5293520	5295320	And sometimes you get the pushback
5295320	5297780	of, well, when will that really happen?
5298020	5301120	And you know,
5302400	5303300	T-Mobile,
5303300	5304520	third party,
5305000	5307080	had an issue on their end, and it disrupted
5307780	5309380	cellular communications, essentially
5309380	5310740	across the board.
5312080	5313300	That's the scenario
5313300	5315160	we're preparing for. And so
5315160	5317280	if we get into the habit of,
5317840	5319220	well, I've got to relay this traffic
5319220	5321340	from Dallas to, you know,
5321340	5323580	I don't know, Washington, or California, or
5323580	5325200	Massachusetts, or something. And it's, well,
5325200	5327880	I'll just hop on Echo Link and go over the Internet and do that.
5328040	5329320	And we built that
5329320	5331180	habit of, we're just going to use the Internet.
5331180	5333580	And when things really do hit the fan,
5333580	5335320	and we've got to go over the air,
5336840	5337460	you kind
5337460	5339300	of have to now start
5339300	5340960	getting into that over-the-air
5340960	5343320	HF handling. That's not the time we want
5343320	5345480	to do that. We want to practice that now
5345480	5347580	and build that muscle memory now
5347580	5349420	so that when the event
5349420	5351360	does happen, we can just flow
5351360	5353540	into it and run with it.
5353540	5355360	And by using HF now,
5355360	5357400	if there is a
5357400	5359120	piece of traffic that stalls or
5359120	5360960	something like that,
5360960	5362940	we can investigate and understand
5362940	5365020	and improve the traffic system so that
5365020	5367160	we're ready
5367160	5369140	to roll when something does happen. If we
5369140	5371240	try to shortcut that and use the Internet, well,
5371240	5373200	I couldn't get over HF, so I just dived on the
5373200	5375100	Internet. And we haven't really
5375100	5376780	addressed what's going on.
5377560	5379120	Internet, some
5379120	5380740	independent traffic nets
5381340	5383280	use Echo Link or things,
5383280	5385020	but from the ARL side,
5385020	5386940	we really wanted to move over the air to reflect
5387220	5389020	a real-world situation type
5389020	5389860	of thing.
5390880	5393100	If that hopefully provides the clarity there,
5393100	5394440	if there's something I can
5395240	5397140	clarify a little further, feel free to
5397140	5399180	throw it in the discussion.
5399660	5400940	The other question we had
5400940	5403000	was, international radiograms
5403000	5404380	are always in English.
5405440	5407060	For traffic originating
5407060	5409020	in the U.S.,
5410320	5410840	the
5410840	5412920	common language that's over the air for us
5412920	5414760	is English, because that's one of the
5414760	5416940	common languages here in the U.S.
5416940	5418600	If I had something that
5418600	5421180	entered the system,
5421180	5422760	let's say in Spanish, I'm in
5422760	5424740	Dallas, that would be a good candidate
5424740	5426520	for another language I might have.
5426720	5428880	If I had no other option,
5428880	5430740	I had no interpreters of
5430740	5432700	things, and my
5432700	5434780	quasi-Spanish skills could make it
5434780	5436160	work, then
5437100	5438760	I would try my
5438760	5440840	best to try and make that move.
5440840	5442180	Now, there's some
5442840	5444360	assumptions that happen with that,
5444360	5446440	that the people that get that along the way
5446440	5448040	are going to be able to do the same thing.
5448040	5450320	That's the risk when you
5450840	5452040	start taking traffic
5453120	5454560	in a language other
5454560	5456180	than English.
5457880	5458520	The thing
5458520	5460360	has got to keep moving, and you have
5460360	5462420	to move it within the system that really
5463600	5464360	the majority
5464360	5466300	of us are all speaking English.
5466940	5468380	If you want to amplify that
5468380	5470060	example even further, what if it was
5470880	5472360	Chinese or Japanese
5472360	5473960	or something, right?
5474820	5476480	That just adds even more
5476480	5477940	complexity to things.
5478360	5480420	When we're moving traffic here
5480420	5482560	in the U.S., and the national traffic system
5482560	5484200	against U.S. and Canada,
5484200	5486220	English is the language
5486220	5488220	that's commonly used for that,
5488220	5489000	and drives
5489000	5492340	the very, very, very, very, very vast
5492340	5494420	majority of traffic. I have not encountered
5494420	5496600	anything that wasn't in English.
5496600	5497540	And if it's headed to
5498160	5499880	Peter in Germany,
5499880	5502140	I know I've had some traffic from
5502140	5504400	Great Britain, so it'll be English.
5504580	5506440	But things moving in and out, it's
5506440	5507260	English.
5509560	5510960	Very good.
5511700	5512380	Let's go
5512380	5514260	to the chats. Twitch
5514260	5516560	and Discord, everybody, throw your questions
5516560	5518360	out there. We'll get
5518360	5519880	Aaron to answer for us.
5523600	5524960	I think the talk was so
5524960	5526680	good, everything was answered.
5528540	5529440	And then I think
5529440	5531280	you had the two big questions just there, so
5532340	5533440	we'll keep it open here
5533440	5536060	for a minute. It is very...
5536060	5537460	it's kind of like, okay,
5537460	5539120	here's the fire hose, and
5539120	5540380	enjoy.
5540780	5542860	So I
5542860	5544300	give this talk
5545100	5547480	once a month. My next one is
5547480	5549080	this coming
5549080	5550400	Saturday.
5552720	5553680	K8AMH.com
5553680	5555320	forward slash events. I have
5555320	5556980	some folks that take it a couple of times
5558980	5559380	where
5559380	5561260	the first time is,
5561260	5563180	all right, I'm ready to be overwhelmed.
5563460	5565740	And then you kind of have some time
5565740	5567780	to kind of digest.
5568060	5569460	But then come back
5569460	5571340	to the next one, and you go, oh, yeah,
5571340	5573280	I remember that. Or, oh, okay.
5573280	5575580	It's just kind of the frame of reference changes.
5578000	5579520	if this is kind of
5579940	5581060	like, oh, my,
5581060	5582800	holy crap, this is a bunch.
5584120	5584900	You're welcome
5584900	5587440	to jump back in again, of course, type of thing.
5587880	5588900	There's definitely
5589140	5590620	a lot to absorb.
5591840	5592780	It's not something
5592780	5594880	that's learned in 10 minutes. It's
5594880	5596900	something that's built in time. That muscle memory
5596900	5599040	gets built with time.
5600060	5600800	Does this
5600800	5602720	system get used for QSL
5602720	5604360	card equivalent sometimes?
5604740	5607040	Yes. We'll get traffic sometimes
5607040	5608460	that, you know,
5608460	5610820	great hearing you on HF
5610820	5613100	or something along that line type of thing.
5613880	5614800	Hope to hear from you
5614800	5616180	again or those types of things.
5616180	5618680	It's something
5618680	5621220	that moves across the traffic system.
5622220	5622600	We get
5623580	5624880	those types of
5624880	5626200	radiograms. We get the
5626200	5628360	happy birthday, merry Christmas. We get the
5628360	5630780	welcome to the hobbies or
5631800	5632660	ask about
5632660	5634720	areas in your area or those types
5634720	5635720	of things.
5636480	5638480	We've had a couple of things that we're doing here
5638920	5640620	to help with generating
5640620	5642680	some variety in traffic too that
5643240	5645020	I can quickly mention. One's a
5645020	5647380	trivia program where once a week
5647460	5650840	there's a new question that comes up.
5650840	5652000	And you
5652000	5653200	can send in your answer for
5653200	5655080	points and the points are just
5655080	5657600	kind of, you know, why not? I'll get some statistics.
5657600	5659100	But, you know, say
5659100	5661420	you got five right in the last
5661420	5664380	couple months or that type of thing.
5664380	5666120	But you send your answers
5666120	5667160	as radiograms to the traffic system.
5667160	5669660	And I get
5669660	5671500	to see how long it takes too. So it gives me some
5671500	5673400	data points to say, well, how is this system working
5673400	5675360	and did that take, you know, one day or
5675360	5677420	two days? And on average it takes two days for things
5677420	5679040	to move across the country.
5679480	5681400	But if you get that occasional, why did that take
5681400	5683500	two weeks? Then you have the opportunity
5683500	5685020	to understand and
5685600	5687100	try and improve things to
5687720	5689860	make it better for next time type of thing.
5692380	5693480	ntstrivia.com is the place
5693480	5695040	for that one. And
5695040	5697260	I also have a pen pal program
5697260	5699180	where I kind of hook you up with another
5699180	5701200	traffic handler and you kind of
5701200	5703200	start the conversation of getting to
5703200	5705180	know each other through radiograms
5705180	5706960	type of thing. So it's exactly pen pals, except
5706960	5709000	instead of letters in the mail, it's traffic
5709000	5710300	through the traffic system. And
5710900	5713300	that's at ntspenpal.com.
5713300	5715240	I should probably put those
5715240	5717400	addresses in the chat areas.
5717720	5719700	Might be helpful.
5720580	5721200	So why
5721200	5723180	don't I do that? We'll throw that in chat
5723180	5725120	and definitely include it in
5725120	5726980	the metadata for the video.
5727160	5729280	Thank you, Aaron. Thank you,
5729280	5731540	Justin. I think we're out of time.
5732060	5732620	Let's
5733380	5735160	give a virtual round
5735160	5737800	of applause. That was an amazing presentation.
5737800	5739840	Definitely a lot to absorb.
5740220	5741260	I hope this
5741260	5743120	system gets used more. I'd definitely
5743120	5745160	like to see some more radiograms
5745160	5747000	in my local area.
5747060	5749540	That's very great. Thank you.
5749540	5751140	Perfect. Thanks, everybody. And if you have
5751140	5752340	any questions, k8mh
5752340	5754300	at arl.net. Feel free.
5754480	5756460	Everyone have a great day.
5756600	5757020	Thank you.