[00:00.000 --> 00:03.880]  All righty, then we can go ahead and get rolling here. And I'll just again say,
[00:03.880 --> 00:09.000]  welcome everybody. Thank you so much for joining in today's session on the National Traffic System
[00:09.000 --> 00:16.740]  and the radiogram that we use to move traffic, or in this case messages, across the country.
[00:17.160 --> 00:23.020]  My fancy title is Section Traffic Manager, which is just a nice way of saying that I kind of
[00:23.020 --> 00:31.260]  oversee traffic handling here in the North Texas section and look for opportunities to help
[00:32.240 --> 00:37.340]  you folks learn more about traffic handling skills and keep an eye on the system to see
[00:37.340 --> 00:41.420]  if there's any improvements or changes or anything like that that we could do.
[00:41.940 --> 00:49.760]  So again, thank you so much for joining in. And I guess kind of a fun way to start things is
[00:49.760 --> 00:55.860]  talk about how I got started in traffic handling. It was many years ago. I was in
[00:55.860 --> 01:03.240]  Michigan at the time, and hence the eight in my call sign. And we were preparing with the county
[01:03.760 --> 01:10.680]  ARIES-RACES group as a combined group to hold a simulated emergency test. And when they were
[01:10.680 --> 01:15.960]  handing out assignments, they got to me and they said, okay, we need you to go to the hospital
[01:15.960 --> 01:21.960]  and use this radiogram to send in a request to the emergency operations center. And I just
[01:21.960 --> 01:28.880]  kind of said, I don't know what you're talking about. And so that started my journey into
[01:29.580 --> 01:37.320]  what is the radiogram format and how does it fit in the way that we provide public service and
[01:37.320 --> 01:43.060]  those types of things. And so from there, I've kind of built it up over time. And now I kind
[01:43.060 --> 01:47.840]  of oversee things and again, try to pass the knowledge along. So again, thanks so much for
[01:47.840 --> 01:55.100]  joining in. Let's see if this thing's going to move forward. There we go. So just to give kind
[01:55.100 --> 02:00.020]  of a quick what we're going to do during this time. Just a quick high level overview of the
[02:00.020 --> 02:05.540]  traffic system. I don't want to go into a ton of detail. It's boring. But I think if you have a
[02:05.540 --> 02:11.320]  good 30,000 foot view, that'll help. Kind of the skills that you gain from participating in traffic
[02:11.320 --> 02:15.780]  handling. And then we'll dive into the radiogram and its components. And then we'll have some
[02:15.780 --> 02:19.880]  hands-on practice and kind of talk about how traffic nets work and things if you want to join
[02:19.880 --> 02:26.540]  in on one of those. Again, if you have any questions at all while we're going through things,
[02:26.540 --> 02:30.720]  even if it's a... hey, I remember you talked about that in the radiogram header, but could you
[02:30.720 --> 02:34.700]  explain that one more time? Feel free to throw them in the chat and we'll kind of take those
[02:34.700 --> 02:41.840]  questions as they come in. All righty. So a quick overview of the traffic system.
[02:42.680 --> 02:49.080]  Essentially, we're an organized network of hams that move these messages across country and beyond
[02:49.080 --> 02:57.820]  and started in 1914-1915 as the formal system for relaying traffic across the country. This is
[02:57.820 --> 03:06.680]  the relay in American Radio Relay League. This is why the ARRL formed, was to move these messages
[03:06.680 --> 03:13.500]  across the country. And so if you get that random Jeopardy question of what is the relay in ARRL,
[03:13.500 --> 03:19.220]  I guess now you know the answer. But this is how the league got started. And since then,
[03:19.220 --> 03:24.000]  we've been continuously moving traffic across country and beyond. The types of things that
[03:24.000 --> 03:30.960]  we move, we'll start with the highest level of urgency, emergency traffic. And so these are the
[03:30.960 --> 03:40.240]  life and death type things. I need a generator now, or I need diesel for the generator in five
[03:40.240 --> 03:45.500]  hours, or the hospital is going to have a big problem, and I'm trying to summarize it. But
[03:46.080 --> 03:51.780]  those types of things. Also specific instructions like evacuate the area or those types of things.
[03:51.780 --> 03:56.960]  Thankfully, we don't get a lot of emergency traffic on the traffic system, but we can designate
[03:56.960 --> 04:02.360]  items as emergency to make sure they push through the system quickly and effectively. Then we have
[04:02.360 --> 04:08.620]  priority traffic. This is where time is important, but it's not quite the life and death. So maybe
[04:08.620 --> 04:15.840]  notifications on number of injuries or shelter will be established at this address at this time,
[04:15.840 --> 04:23.480]  those types of details. Then we go to welfare traffic. And during incidents, this is kind of
[04:23.480 --> 04:29.260]  the general use of the traffic system. I want to let my family know I'm okay, or I have family in
[04:29.260 --> 04:33.960]  that area, I want to know if they're okay. And so we'll move these welfare messages in and out of
[04:33.960 --> 04:41.480]  affected areas. And so think Puerto Rico with the earthquake, you can think Houston with hurricanes,
[04:41.480 --> 04:45.680]  and we just want to let family members know we're okay, that type of thing. We'll move those through
[04:45.680 --> 04:52.220]  the system as welfare traffic. And then the general type of traffic that we have go through
[04:52.220 --> 04:58.040]  the system, because thankfully, we're not in disasters all the time, is routine traffic.
[04:58.040 --> 05:05.020]  So these are kind of the well wishes, sometimes the welcome to the hobby, or
[05:06.520 --> 05:13.600]  happy birthday, Merry Christmas, those types of messages. And those messages help us test
[05:13.600 --> 05:19.660]  the system to make sure that we're ready to go if something happens. And it helps new operators
[05:19.660 --> 05:25.400]  build their skills. And it helps us keep practicing those skills to build that muscle memory so that
[05:25.400 --> 05:30.700]  when we do get into an incident, we're ready to go. We've already been running and we're well
[05:30.700 --> 05:36.180]  established. And we've got the rhythm and we can just kick into it and keep rolling in things.
[05:36.720 --> 05:43.420]  NTS is primarily US and Canada. And we do have the ability to move traffic internationally through
[05:43.420 --> 05:50.520]  the system overall. I know Peter dl4fn is in Germany, and he participates in traffic handling
[05:50.520 --> 05:55.400]  and will send messages across. We'll get them here in North Texas. I know he sends them to other areas
[05:55.400 --> 06:04.300]  to third party agreement supply. So you're not sending traffic to North Korea, as far as I know.
[06:04.720 --> 06:10.520]  And you can, you can send traffic on behalf of third parties, you don't have to be a ham
[06:10.520 --> 06:15.060]  to put traffic into the system or receive traffic from the system.
[06:15.120 --> 06:19.840]  But if you're going international, then the third party rules apply on those.
[06:20.220 --> 06:27.340]  Modes are generally what you would think voice, CW, so Morse code, and then digital, such as a
[06:27.340 --> 06:32.980]  digital traffic network, which I know with the way the hand bands have the HF bands have been,
[06:32.980 --> 06:35.920]  digital is really nice for punching through the conditions type of thing.
[06:35.920 --> 06:44.280]  But thankfully, here in North Texas, we have a lot of traffic activity. So the 7290 traffic net,
[06:44.280 --> 06:52.640]  which is a voice net, that's 7.290. Imagine that. A lot of activity, even with the way the bands are
[06:52.640 --> 06:56.840]  sometimes they'll run into that we couldn't quite move it. And you know, you have to kind of get the
[06:56.840 --> 07:02.680]  relay going between stations to make it happen. But thankfully, the conditions have been fair,
[07:02.680 --> 07:08.980]  I guess. Here's how a message would generally move through this system. So the way we stack
[07:08.980 --> 07:14.480]  this is we try to start things kind of the same way with when we handle disasters, we start and
[07:14.480 --> 07:22.420]  end at the at the local level. And so let me see if I can get my fancy laser pointer to work. So
[07:22.420 --> 07:29.240]  we'll start things here at the at the local net level. And then we'll work that traffic up to
[07:29.240 --> 07:34.200]  either region or area nets depends on how far it's going to travel, and have it jump across
[07:34.200 --> 07:42.620]  on those and then come back down and make its way back to a local net in the delivery area so that a
[07:42.620 --> 07:49.740]  ham in that local area can make make that delivery. And let me see if I can maybe clarify that a
[07:49.740 --> 07:54.680]  little bit better with an example of how something moves. And so let's say I want to send a message
[07:54.680 --> 08:01.700]  to a family member in Michigan from here in Texas, I go to my local net. And I say I have
[08:01.700 --> 08:07.700]  one piece of traffic that's headed to Michigan. And the net control station will work to find
[08:07.700 --> 08:13.860]  another traffic handler that can move it towards Michigan. And I'll talk about how the net control
[08:13.860 --> 08:20.260]  station kind of figures that out later. Once that person's identified, that other station will take
[08:20.260 --> 08:25.180]  that traffic from me and then keep it moving towards Michigan. And so in this example, which
[08:25.180 --> 08:30.840]  is a real world piece of traffic I sent, that station then relayed it over the digital traffic
[08:30.840 --> 08:38.560]  network to a traffic handling node in Indiana that is set up, you could kind of think of it like an
[08:38.560 --> 08:44.020]  email server, except there's no internet involved or anything. You're going over the air for all
[08:44.020 --> 08:50.280]  this. It goes to that node, and then that node hangs on to it saying, okay, I have this message
[08:50.280 --> 08:57.700]  stored that's on its way to Michigan. Station in Michigan connects to that node and checks, do I
[08:57.700 --> 09:03.740]  have any traffic that I could take to my area for local delivery, finds that there, then says, okay,
[09:03.740 --> 09:09.560]  I'll take it, it gets relayed to their station. And then in this case, that station happened to be
[09:09.560 --> 09:15.740]  five miles from my family member up there in the thumb region. And so hop on the phone, and they
[09:15.740 --> 09:21.700]  make that last mile delivery by phone. The vast majority of these are delivered by phone as the
[09:21.700 --> 09:30.820]  last mile. Can you do email? Yeah, but we like to have the personal touch for these kinds of
[09:30.820 --> 09:36.420]  messages, you know, the happy birthdays or things. Also gives a chance to explain, hi, I'm random
[09:36.420 --> 09:40.780]  amateur radio operator, and I'm calling you with this message, you know, kind of email would kind
[09:40.780 --> 09:47.480]  of get lost with that. And it also better reflects when we're in a disaster, and we're, you know, say
[09:47.480 --> 09:52.600]  we're sending that welfare message, hi, I'm okay. If you're on the receiving end, how would you prefer
[09:52.600 --> 09:58.660]  to get it? Would you like an email? Or would you like to have someone that calls and make sure that
[09:58.660 --> 10:05.380]  they know and say, hey, I got this message from your family member, it says that they're okay,
[10:05.380 --> 10:11.220]  they're at the shelter, you know, you have that personal touch and, and, and, and making sure that
[10:11.220 --> 10:14.860]  that message actually reaches the recipient, because if the phone call, you know, you get a
[10:14.860 --> 10:19.540]  busy signal or something, we try again, whereas with the email, we just kind of send it and,
[10:19.540 --> 10:24.240]  you know, then we don't know after that, unless they're nice enough to reply.
[10:24.240 --> 10:28.120]  So comment in the chat, that's why I got a call from a random ham when I got my license.
[10:28.120 --> 10:37.540]  So there are some traffic handlers that monitor the FCC database for new hams, they also will
[10:37.540 --> 10:43.180]  monitor for licenses, licenses that are about to expire, it just kind of depends on on how they
[10:43.180 --> 10:46.360]  want to approach it. And then they'll send the traffic, whether it's, you know, the welcome to
[10:46.360 --> 10:53.800]  the hobby, or your license expires on August 10, please be sure to renew if you haven't yet,
[10:53.800 --> 11:00.620]  those types of things. Those types of messages are good, because it helps introduce new hams
[11:00.620 --> 11:05.280]  to the hobby, to here's a whole nother facet of this hobby, right? There's a lot of different
[11:05.280 --> 11:11.980]  things you can do with amateur radio, whether it's, you know, doing digital, or FT8, or Morse
[11:11.980 --> 11:19.000]  code, or traffic handling, or, you know, emergency communications, Skywarn, or I just want to talk to
[11:19.000 --> 11:23.620]  France and know that I made it, or, you know, there's a lot of different things that you can
[11:23.620 --> 11:30.060]  do. And plus, I feel these messages help bring the personal touch to the hobby that, you know,
[11:30.060 --> 11:36.680]  we're all kind of in this, and we're glad that, you know, we're making those connections as hams.
[11:36.680 --> 11:40.620]  I know, you know, sometimes might only talk to another operator for a minute,
[11:40.620 --> 11:45.740]  but it's just cool to make that connection with other folks. But yeah, that's why you'll sometimes
[11:45.740 --> 11:50.620]  get that, you know, welcome to the hobbies and, you know, enjoy the fun and friendships you will
[11:50.620 --> 11:54.500]  make. You know, I've seen that piece of traffic enough times, I can, you know, write it in my
[11:54.500 --> 11:59.700]  sleep type of thing. If other questions or comments, again, feel free to throw them in the
[11:59.700 --> 12:07.980]  chat. We'll keep rolling here, though. So how does traffic handling help build your skill set as a
[12:07.980 --> 12:17.720]  ham? A lot of it is just how you interact on the air. Whether that you're on a traffic net, or a
[12:17.720 --> 12:26.520]  SkyWarn net, social net, you know, information net, those types of things. With traffic handling,
[12:26.520 --> 12:36.440]  well, we'll start at the top here. Slow is fast, right? We're trying to relay this message across.
[12:36.520 --> 12:42.520]  And, you know, if we're in a real disaster scenario, and I could think like the awesome mud
[12:42.520 --> 12:48.300]  slide up in Seattle, where a giant wall of mud comes sliding down the hillside and takes out
[12:48.300 --> 12:54.660]  square miles of land, and now you have a big mud pile with houses and trees and cell antenna towers
[12:54.660 --> 13:00.120]  and, you know, all that in it. And you're out there throwing a wire in a tree, hopefully, if
[13:00.120 --> 13:04.940]  you've got one nearby, and you're doing things, probably doing it by pen and paper. And so if you
[13:04.940 --> 13:09.900]  speak too fast, right, and I imagine you're trying to write it down on the other end. We need six
[13:09.900 --> 13:14.580]  cases of water and 12 cots and five, you know, the other person is just gonna, okay, I give up.
[13:15.760 --> 13:23.660]  Slow is fast. I only have to say it once. If I go too fast, then you're gonna, I need you to say
[13:23.660 --> 13:28.480]  that again, or could you say this again, or that, and we're gonna burn more time. And in the meantime,
[13:28.480 --> 13:32.840]  you have all this other traffic that could be waiting to move, but it's having to sit there
[13:32.840 --> 13:38.120]  and wait, because you're having to repeat the message a few times in order to get it across. So
[13:39.080 --> 13:55.280]  whatever you think slow is, go slower than that. Also helps if you enunciate certain words,
[13:55.280 --> 13:59.080]  just part of that speaking clearly, we want to try and get it across the first time
[13:59.080 --> 14:06.300]  if we can. And then I like to view this lens under the lens of you're not reading it,
[14:06.300 --> 14:11.140]  you're sending it. And I think that just puts a whole different context on what we're trying to
[14:11.140 --> 14:19.200]  achieve with traffic handling. We want the radiogram as, you know, whether it's sloppily
[14:19.200 --> 14:28.880]  as I've written it on here, we want it to arrive like almost a Xerox copy, like 99% of what's
[14:28.880 --> 14:34.700]  filled out on this is what should appear at the other end when it gets there. We want it there
[14:34.700 --> 14:40.540]  word for word and letter for letter. So again, when I think of it, I'm not reading it to the other
[14:40.540 --> 14:46.460]  station, I'm sending it, I'm relaying it across to the other station. It also helps you build
[14:46.460 --> 14:52.840]  familiarity with participating in NETS. I know one of the fun parts on some traffic NETS is
[14:52.840 --> 14:58.560]  the NET control station will say, please check in with your call sign phonetically only.
[14:59.080 --> 15:03.580]  And then you get, well this is Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel and my name's Aaron and I'm in North Dallas
[15:03.580 --> 15:08.740]  and I have no traffic, you know. We just want you to check in with your call sign phonetically only.
[15:08.740 --> 15:15.180]  So participating in these NETS, you start to tune in on what exactly are the instructions from
[15:15.180 --> 15:19.260]  the NET control station. I mean, that applies with SkyWarn NETS. I don't know how many folks
[15:19.260 --> 15:25.120]  have jumped in on SkyWarn NETS and you always get that one, that, you know, minimum reporting
[15:25.120 --> 15:30.920]  criteria. I only want to know about half inch hail or cloud rotation. And then you get the
[15:31.500 --> 15:37.180]  sirens are going off. No one cares, so to speak. You know, if they're going off, we already know
[15:37.180 --> 15:41.720]  there's a tornado warning there. Thanks for telling us the sirens went off, but we want to
[15:41.720 --> 15:48.080]  know about hail and we want to know about, you know, cloud rotation, right? And so, you know,
[15:48.080 --> 15:53.780]  you get that, you get that feel from the NET control station by listening and Brennan's got a
[15:53.780 --> 15:59.060]  great comment. Listen, listen, listen. I would even say that for any NET. Before you jump in and
[15:59.060 --> 16:05.200]  participate, listen to it for a bit. Get a feel for how it operates before you jump in. It just
[16:05.200 --> 16:09.800]  helps you get into the groove of it a lot faster if you get the feel for how that NET runs. And
[16:09.800 --> 16:14.960]  we'll go over that a little bit more in the, in the, how the traffic NETs run. ITU Phonetics,
[16:14.960 --> 16:20.600]  they're the gold standard. So Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Phosphorus. If you're on a
[16:20.600 --> 16:25.840]  local NET that's, that's focused on, on, on training as well as moving traffic, like we have
[16:25.840 --> 16:30.680]  here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, we have a two meter traffic NET happens twice a day.
[16:30.840 --> 16:37.580]  If you come in with a dog or a cat, you know, we'll, we won't hate it. But we will in time
[16:37.580 --> 16:42.840]  want you to build those ITU Phonetics. And if you're jumping in on a traffic NET that's like
[16:42.840 --> 16:47.440]  regional area, you're on HF and you're moving traffic, very much the gold standard. We're very
[16:47.440 --> 16:52.860]  much looking for ITU Phonetics. So this is a good way to practice those ITU Phonetics. ProWords.
[16:54.100 --> 17:04.240]  Say again, you're a traffic, or correction, or I Roger, you know, these types of ProWords
[17:05.200 --> 17:10.720]  not only apply to traffic handling, but they're, they're used generally in on air
[17:10.720 --> 17:15.400]  communications. So whether that's public safety dispatchers, if you've ever worked
[17:16.560 --> 17:20.600]  with, you know, police or fire, that type of thing, it's the same things.
[17:20.600 --> 17:26.180]  Can you repeat your traffic, please? Or, you know, that type of thing. Air traffic control.
[17:26.180 --> 17:33.800]  It's a good way to build your skills on phonetics before you get into the disaster.
[17:34.120 --> 17:40.040]  And we'll go over some of those ProWords in a bit. Alternate phonetics are frustrating.
[17:40.900 --> 17:45.940]  Always fun when you're working with the PD and it's Adam Boy King. And if you say, you know,
[17:45.940 --> 17:52.320]  Alpha Bravo Kilo, they kind of look at you. And they're like, sorry, I just used what everybody
[17:52.320 --> 18:01.540]  else uses. But yeah, Alpha Bravo. But it's, yeah, just, just, yeah, it's just fun. All right,
[18:01.540 --> 18:07.700]  let's keep going before I rattle on that any further. Brevity. So when we look at the blank
[18:09.700 --> 18:17.900]  radiograms, there are 25 spaces. And we want you to be quick and to the point. It's the same thing
[18:17.900 --> 18:22.740]  when you're, again, public safety, or if you're on a SkyWarnet, and you've got cloud rotation,
[18:22.740 --> 18:26.900]  you know, it's not time for a start. Well, I'm outside and it's windy. So I looked up and I saw
[18:26.900 --> 18:33.620]  the cloud spin funny. And I watched it, you know, get to the point. What is it? I'm at XYZ
[18:33.620 --> 18:40.420]  intersection and the cloud rotation has started and there may be lowering. Yeah, that's the crux of
[18:40.420 --> 18:46.020]  the message. And so same thing with radiograms. You know, if you can say it in five words rather
[18:46.020 --> 18:52.880]  than 10, well, then say it in five words, you know, that type of thing. Okay, don't know how
[18:52.880 --> 18:57.720]  many folks have dived into the Incident Command System, maybe as part of ARIES, Amateur Radio
[18:57.720 --> 19:03.880]  Emergency Service. Fun fact, that's actually sister programs. So National Traffic System and
[19:03.880 --> 19:11.500]  ARIES are our sister programs in ARL's public safety programs type of thing. If you're moving
[19:11.500 --> 19:17.600]  213s over the air, the way I like to think of it is if I'm walking into the disaster, and I got to
[19:17.600 --> 19:22.360]  have someone sit down at the radio and handle moving those 213s, and I've got two options,
[19:22.360 --> 19:26.840]  I've got someone that's never moved anything ever, or I've got someone that's moved a bunch
[19:26.840 --> 19:30.940]  of radiograms to the traffic system, you know, who am I going to pick? I'm going to pick the person
[19:30.940 --> 19:37.580]  that's got the experience. And why is that? I love this quote at the top, when the disaster begins,
[19:37.580 --> 19:44.600]  the time to prepare ends. It's really been interesting watching, you know, like with the
[19:44.600 --> 19:50.920]  COVID-19 pandemic and folks, you know, what am I going to do to this? Like, well, we're in it now,
[19:50.920 --> 19:59.800]  so you're not, you're not preparing anymore, you are reacting, right? And so for folks that,
[19:59.800 --> 20:04.820]  you know, I know I get the tinfoil hat sometimes of why I have, you know, water and some, you know,
[20:04.820 --> 20:11.220]  awful tasting food that if I had to eat it, I would, but, you know, how do you get, you know,
[20:11.220 --> 20:16.820]  how do you prepare beforehand by practicing? Because once we're in the disaster, that's not
[20:16.820 --> 20:23.360]  the time to learn, that's the time to go. And so build those skills up before you get in there,
[20:23.360 --> 20:32.300]  if you can help it. Mistakes, we'll talk about that here. Any, any questions that you have,
[20:32.300 --> 20:37.900]  again, throw them in the chat, feel free to throw them in there. We'll keep rolling here.
[20:38.860 --> 20:41.740]  I like to say that smart mistakes are okay.
[20:44.560 --> 20:46.900]  When you go to learn,
[20:48.420 --> 20:52.700]  that's just part of it, you know, sometimes it's just, oh, I didn't quite understand that right,
[20:52.700 --> 20:57.900]  or that type of thing. So if you're on a traffic net, and you make an error, and you know it,
[20:57.900 --> 21:02.500]  then just correct it, you know, oh, correction, and that's a pro word, correction, and we'll go
[21:02.500 --> 21:08.060]  over that. Or if someone gives you some feedback over the error, you know, well, first, hopefully
[21:08.060 --> 21:15.860]  they're kind about it. But, you know, we're giving that feedback to help you tune your skills,
[21:15.860 --> 21:22.620]  so that you can jump in and have those skills built before we get into the disaster.
[21:22.840 --> 21:27.740]  And especially when I know there are new traffic handlers joining in on the traffic nets, and,
[21:27.740 --> 21:32.740]  you know, sometimes look at that. Aaron is just being cranky, because, you know, I want to get
[21:32.740 --> 21:40.820]  those habits built early. Because if you start to learn it wrong, and then we come back and try and
[21:40.820 --> 21:46.160]  well, this is actually how it should go, it's a lot harder to unravel all of that muscle memory
[21:46.160 --> 21:50.640]  you've built, versus if we catch it in the beginning. So when you, if you get started
[21:50.640 --> 21:54.720]  on a traffic net, and it's like, well, here's some feedback, that type of thing, we want to
[21:54.720 --> 21:59.080]  help you build that skill set right from the beginning, rather than having to come in later
[21:59.080 --> 22:03.060]  and go, well, now you need to, you know, change it, and then you're going to be the, you know,
[22:03.060 --> 22:06.640]  I keep forgetting, I keep forgetting. So we want to get that built right in the beginning as you
[22:06.640 --> 22:13.980]  get rolling. If there's one thing that I can have you walk away with, from this talk, without going
[22:13.980 --> 22:23.540]  too deep into the psychology world, you know, the biggest question I get is, I'm going to get on the
[22:23.540 --> 22:27.980]  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
[22:27.980 --> 22:39.680]  stupid. We've all been there. I have been traffic handling for a bit, and I still make mistakes.
[22:39.720 --> 22:45.100]  And I like to joke that, well, I'm putting the amateur in amateur radio today, I made a mistake,
[22:45.100 --> 22:50.760]  right? And we just keep rolling with it. I acknowledge a mistake, and we keep rolling.
[22:50.760 --> 22:55.560]  And it's the same thing, if someone else jumps in, and there's a mistake, it is not the end of
[22:55.560 --> 23:02.520]  the world. This is how we learn and grow. We embrace something that's new. Hopefully, we try
[23:02.520 --> 23:10.260]  and build our base knowledge before we jump in, rather than jumping in blind. But, you know, when
[23:10.260 --> 23:16.640]  mistakes happen, that's when learning occurs, and that's how we build those skills. So, you know,
[23:16.640 --> 23:22.280]  if you have folks that, you know, how do I overcome that fear? Jump in. You know, that's the best
[23:22.280 --> 23:30.420]  advice I can give you is just roll with it. Okay, that's kind of the 30,000-foot view of the
[23:30.420 --> 23:35.880]  traffic system and kind of the skills you can get. This is a really good kind of the meat part of it.
[23:35.880 --> 23:41.540]  But I'll check with folks, any questions on that kind of 30,000-foot view? Again, I could go into
[23:41.540 --> 23:51.320]  the different, you know, what are different traffic nets and regions and that type of thing. But, you
[23:51.320 --> 23:55.700]  know, can be kind of boring as you're starting out. So, you know, I'll take an opportunity to
[23:55.700 --> 24:07.600]  fuel for a bit. And then if no questions, we'll jump into the radiogram. Mistakes are always...
[24:08.300 --> 24:12.120]  All right. So, the comment in the chat. So, for the recording that, you know, folks know. Our local
[24:12.120 --> 24:17.180]  ADS is also training that mistakes are always welcome. Yeah, we try to help folks learn and
[24:17.180 --> 24:22.200]  grow and that type of thing. And even, you know, maybe it's, let's just talk offline by email real
[24:22.200 --> 24:28.120]  fast and let me help clarify type of thing. Yeah, it's always... Our goals with training nets is to
[24:28.120 --> 24:32.500]  help folks build their skills. All right. We'll move into the radiograms. And again, any questions,
[24:32.500 --> 24:38.080]  just throw them in there. So, why radiograms? It's still the same thing. Why ICS-213? It's the
[24:38.080 --> 24:42.880]  general message form. It's the standardized message format that we're all using. So, whether the
[24:42.880 --> 24:49.980]  radiograms here in the U.S. or it's up to Canada or it's across to Germany or whatnot, it's the same
[24:49.980 --> 24:55.980]  form. And it allows us to effectively move the traffic across the board
[24:56.700 --> 25:01.780]  in a way that's traceable. And this is the one thing I really like about the radiograms versus
[25:01.780 --> 25:08.540]  the 213s. We have some things in the header and things to help track it and help to try and make
[25:08.540 --> 25:13.760]  sure words aren't lost as it moves in transit or things like that. But if we do have a radiogram
[25:13.760 --> 25:21.520]  that disappears into the ether, and it does happen, we can start to follow that message across.
[25:21.520 --> 25:26.920]  All right, who did you relay it to? And okay, you got it. And who did you send it to? And
[25:27.860 --> 25:32.440]  sometimes we'll send that follow-up and then suddenly the message appears at its destination.
[25:32.440 --> 25:35.880]  It's like, well, it got hung up somewhere and, you know, that type of thing. But
[25:35.880 --> 25:43.240]  we can follow them through if we need to. So, this is the form. If you've printed it out,
[25:43.760 --> 25:49.260]  we'll have you try and fill one out in a bit. But we'll walk through how this works first.
[25:49.540 --> 25:56.820]  A little bit of animations in here. And it's sort of smooth when it goes over online. So,
[25:56.820 --> 26:02.780]  hopefully, it's not jumping too bad. But, you know, for the conversation,
[26:02.780 --> 26:09.760]  it won't affect things. But, you know, okay. So, we'll break the radiogram into these blocks.
[26:09.760 --> 26:16.420]  And the first one is the roughest one. So, we'll spend a little extra time in it. And then the
[26:16.420 --> 26:24.440]  rest of them will be easier. So, the header, overall, just is what helps us track that
[26:24.440 --> 26:28.120]  message. You can think of it like the email header. Like, who's it from, who's it to,
[26:28.120 --> 26:34.620]  so to speak. But two gets its own spot on a radiogram. But this is what helps us to track
[26:34.620 --> 26:41.860]  these things. It starts with a number. And this number is assigned by whoever first fills out
[26:43.080 --> 26:47.800]  the blank radiogram. So, if I have one of these and I start filling it out,
[26:48.460 --> 26:54.120]  I would give it a unique number so that I can track it in my records. There's no standardized
[26:54.120 --> 27:01.280]  way of doing this. I started with one. And then my second one was two. And my third one is three.
[27:01.280 --> 27:06.420]  Some folks will go by the month. So, if it's March and it's their first one, they'll go 301 and the
[27:06.420 --> 27:13.720]  next one will be 302. And then when, you know, it's July, so 701, 702. It's kind of however you
[27:13.720 --> 27:20.460]  want to do it. And then you can reset them, you know, periodically if you want. So, maybe the
[27:20.460 --> 27:25.120]  first of the year, you go back to one. Some stations do it by month. Again, it's just kind of
[27:25.120 --> 27:30.260]  however you want to do it. I've been rolling with the same numbers for a few years. I'm at 390
[27:30.260 --> 27:35.320]  something. And I might go back to one when I hit 500 or something like that. But again,
[27:35.320 --> 27:40.620]  this is just for your own records. This and everything else that we're going to talk about,
[27:40.620 --> 27:45.780]  aside from the little tracking items at the end, will all stay exactly the same as this moves
[27:45.780 --> 27:49.960]  through the system. So, your number will stay attached to this all the way through. And then
[27:49.960 --> 27:54.940]  if we have to come back and ask you a question, you know, we have a question about your number one,
[27:54.940 --> 27:57.620]  then you know how to go back in your records and do that.
[28:00.820 --> 28:03.860]  Precedence is... oh, here's a good question in the chat before I jump into precedence.
[28:03.860 --> 28:09.680]  Are we required to archive our messages? It is a good practice to hang on to them.
[28:10.620 --> 28:15.580]  And I would hang on to them for maybe one or two months. Now, this is for routine traffic.
[28:15.580 --> 28:20.940]  I would hang on to them for a month or two. Just in case there's that odd question,
[28:20.940 --> 28:24.440]  you know, one month is good. I think two is some extra insurance.
[28:25.180 --> 28:31.300]  And then you can discard them however you want to do that. I keep mine electronically now.
[28:31.320 --> 28:36.720]  I started with paper and I think that's a really great way to begin. I find that
[28:36.720 --> 28:41.400]  by actually having the physical page and filling it out by hand and things,
[28:41.400 --> 28:47.420]  I learn it better that way for me. And so, same thing with net controlling. When, you know,
[28:47.420 --> 28:53.260]  I started it was written down and I get the feel for it. If you start with software and then
[28:53.680 --> 28:57.860]  you wind up in the field and there are no computers and you're having to do it by paper
[28:57.860 --> 29:01.380]  and you've never done it by hand before, you're going to have a big learning curve
[29:01.380 --> 29:05.120]  versus if you build the skill with paper first and then transfer it.
[29:05.120 --> 29:11.200]  So, I would start with written documents and then hang on to them for about a month,
[29:11.200 --> 29:16.240]  maybe two, and then you can go ahead and, you know, recycle them, right? It's what you're
[29:16.240 --> 29:20.140]  supposed to do or, you know, that type of thing. That's a good question. Again,
[29:20.140 --> 29:24.540]  any others throw them in there. We'll continue precedence. This is back to that,
[29:24.540 --> 29:28.720]  you know, what's the urgency of this thing? Emergency, priority, welfare, or routine.
[29:28.960 --> 29:34.340]  When we fill out the radiogram, typically I'll just write R for routine. When I say it on the
[29:34.340 --> 29:41.120]  air, I say routine, but I'll write R. The only word that always gets spelled out is emergency.
[29:41.120 --> 29:46.500]  We want to call out the high level of importance of emergency traffic. So, the word emergency is
[29:46.500 --> 29:52.800]  always written out, but the others like priority, welfare, or routine, we just write their initial
[29:52.800 --> 30:00.300]  and we call it a day. Handling instruction. This provides some guidance on how the message
[30:00.300 --> 30:08.020]  should be handled as it moves through the system and also about delivery. I'm going to put them on
[30:08.020 --> 30:14.960]  screen. These are also in the handout if you happen to print it out. The most common one
[30:15.760 --> 30:21.020]  that you're going to see is Hotel X-Ray Golf, the last one, which basically says,
[30:21.940 --> 30:27.060]  please don't spend any money trying to deliver this. If you are going to have to spend money
[30:27.060 --> 30:32.860]  to deliver it, well then just cancel the delivery, but let me know. And that's what we mean by
[30:32.860 --> 30:38.820]  service originating station, is you send something back to whoever, you know, put that in the system
[30:38.820 --> 30:44.540]  to say, you know, unable to deliver or whatever that reason is type of thing. We'll go into that
[30:44.540 --> 30:51.380]  a little bit later. The one that is kind of despised in this list is Hotel X-Ray Delta,
[30:52.200 --> 31:00.180]  which is essentially real-time tracing. So if I introduce something with a Hotel X-Ray Delta
[31:00.180 --> 31:07.700]  instruction, what will happen is every time that message moves, those stations will need to send
[31:07.700 --> 31:14.500]  me a report on that movement. So I send it to someone else, they then relay it to the next
[31:14.500 --> 31:20.620]  station. At that point, that first station is supposed to say in a message back, okay, I relayed
[31:20.620 --> 31:26.440]  it to XYZ station at this date and time. And that station is supposed to send me something that says,
[31:26.440 --> 31:31.880]  okay, I got it from that first station at this date and time. And then when they move it on to
[31:31.880 --> 31:36.460]  the next station, the same thing happens again. Okay, at this date and time, I sent it off to
[31:36.460 --> 31:40.920]  that station. And then that station, same thing. At this date and time, I got it. And so every time
[31:40.920 --> 31:47.780]  it hops, it generates two messages back to whoever introduced it. It's great for tracking emergency
[31:47.780 --> 31:55.320]  things where you got to know that it's making progress. If it's a happy birthday, you know,
[31:55.320 --> 32:00.120]  type of thing, do we need that level of tracking on it? It generates a lot of traffic. If everything
[32:00.120 --> 32:03.880]  was sent with Hotel X-Ray Delta, there would be nothing but acknowledgements moving through the
[32:03.880 --> 32:10.540]  system. And so we reserve Hotel X-Ray Delta for those really urgent things. Or I've tried sending
[32:10.540 --> 32:14.520]  messages through and they're just not making it. I want to understand where the clog is.
[32:14.520 --> 32:18.140]  So let me trace this one and see what's going on. So I would only use Delta
[32:18.640 --> 32:24.660]  in extreme circumstances. So did I beat that horse? Good. Please don't use that one.
[32:25.340 --> 32:30.760]  It was really fun when it was used during field day one year. There was a lot of feedback on that
[32:32.040 --> 32:36.960]  group when they sent all their field day traffic with the tracer instruction on it.
[32:39.160 --> 32:45.660]  Does the reply go back down the chain or acknowledge to the originator only? So
[32:47.520 --> 32:51.500]  whether it's a Hotel X-Ray Delta, or let's say it's Hotel X-Ray Charlie,
[32:51.500 --> 32:55.020]  and you can use more than one of these. It's not like you have to pick one. You could do a bunch
[32:55.020 --> 33:01.100]  of them. Hotel X-Ray Charlie, report and date and time of delivery back to the originating station.
[33:02.640 --> 33:11.640]  You would write a radiogram back to whoever that radiogram was from with that information.
[33:11.680 --> 33:17.400]  And whether it goes back the same exact way that it came to you, or it goes through a completely
[33:17.400 --> 33:23.200]  different part of the system, it doesn't matter. It just starts making its way back to whoever
[33:23.200 --> 33:27.740]  introduced that piece of traffic. So yeah, it doesn't necessarily have to
[33:27.740 --> 33:32.360]  flow exactly back the way it came. It can work through the system through another channel.
[33:34.180 --> 33:41.320]  Okay, other questions? Throw them in the chat, please. Station of origin. This is effectively
[33:41.320 --> 33:47.480]  who's filling out the radiogram for the first time. So if you are filling out a radiogram to
[33:47.540 --> 33:56.560]  a family member, you are the station of origin. If you are filling out the radiogram on behalf
[33:56.560 --> 34:03.500]  of someone else that wants to put a message into the system, you are the station of origin. You are
[34:03.500 --> 34:10.920]  the first ham that is filling this in. So your call sign goes in the station of origin. And then
[34:10.920 --> 34:16.200]  back to that, you know, was it delivered or did I have a question? I know to come back to you,
[34:16.200 --> 34:21.600]  because you're the station of origin that brought this thing for the first time. And this station
[34:21.600 --> 34:26.980]  of origin will stay there through the whole journey. It does not change. None of this changes.
[34:28.720 --> 34:33.100]  Place of origin can be a little trickier. So we'll get to that in a sec. A station of origin
[34:33.100 --> 34:37.700]  is whoever is filling out the very first radiogram for that for the first time.
[34:38.520 --> 34:45.400]  The check is basically a way for us to see if any words disappeared or got added to the message.
[34:45.400 --> 34:51.100]  So it's a count of how many words are in the text. There are some shorthands we can use,
[34:51.100 --> 34:57.760]  and I'll go into those in a bit. If you use one or more shorthands, then we put A-R-L before the
[34:57.760 --> 35:04.040]  number to signify we're using shorthands in the message. But if you don't have any shorthands,
[35:04.040 --> 35:09.040]  then it's just, you know, count. You know, there are nine words in here. So the check is nine.
[35:09.040 --> 35:13.460]  And I'll show the example of that when I get some real traffic up on the screen.
[35:13.460 --> 35:20.080]  Place of origin. Okay, here's the curveball. This is the location of the person who authored the
[35:20.080 --> 35:25.620]  message. So if this is you writing a message to a family member, then it is where you are,
[35:25.620 --> 35:32.340]  city and state. If it's for you're on the phone with somebody, like I'm here in Dallas,
[35:32.340 --> 35:36.820]  and let's say I'm on the phone with someone in Fort Worth that wants to send a message,
[35:36.820 --> 35:42.820]  and I fill in the radiogram, the station of origin is who? It's me. I'm the one that's
[35:42.820 --> 35:50.500]  filling in the radiogram for the first time. The place of origin is where? Fort Worth.
[35:50.520 --> 35:56.760]  It's the location of the person who's authoring the text. So that's the fun curveball. Now,
[35:56.760 --> 36:02.060]  if you put, like if I were to put Dallas instead of Fort Worth, like the system will not implode.
[36:02.140 --> 36:08.740]  But the place of origin is whoever is is authoring the text. The station of origin
[36:08.740 --> 36:12.940]  is the first ham that's that's filling out the radiogram.
[36:13.960 --> 36:18.520]  Time filed is optional, just like the handling instruction is optional.
[36:18.600 --> 36:24.500]  But you should you should put the time filed. If it's emergency or priority or welfare traffic,
[36:24.500 --> 36:30.580]  we want to know the age of that in minutes. And also with the hotel x-ray Bravo instruction,
[36:30.580 --> 36:35.280]  which says, just cancel this if it's not delivered within so many hours. Well,
[36:35.280 --> 36:40.080]  I don't know how many hours went by. So definitely fill out the time filed for for those
[36:40.080 --> 36:47.500]  types of things. The traffic system uses universal coordinated universal time. So UTC or Zulu.
[36:47.800 --> 36:54.160]  If you don't indicate a time zone, then that's what's assumed. Universal time is what's assumed.
[36:54.200 --> 36:58.220]  If you are going to use the time zone, then make sure you put it in there. So whether that's
[36:58.220 --> 37:02.240]  central daylight time or eastern daylight time or that type of thing,
[37:02.240 --> 37:05.040]  then you'd put the time the time zone in there along with the time.
[37:06.100 --> 37:12.360]  Very rarely, though, is the time filled in. The date, this is really easy. First three letters
[37:12.360 --> 37:19.800]  of the month and then and the date. So, you know, January, I still say the whole word on the air,
[37:19.800 --> 37:29.080]  January 1-5, March 3, July 2-2. And notice how I give each number individually. The year is never
[37:29.080 --> 37:33.980]  included. If you got a piece of traffic that's a year old, then you know, probably, you know,
[37:33.980 --> 37:38.740]  time to give up on it. But, you know, we don't need the year. You know, these messages aren't
[37:38.740 --> 37:44.760]  that old. And it just burns time, right? We want to get these moved as efficiently as we can. So
[37:44.760 --> 37:51.080]  the year doesn't add any value. So we don't bother with it. And again, UTC. And same story, if you
[37:51.080 --> 37:58.240]  were to list a piece of traffic on a local traffic net, and, you know, it's 1030 p.m. here in Dallas,
[37:58.240 --> 38:03.500]  it's technically the next day in UTC. But if I if I don't put tomorrow on it, the world, again,
[38:03.500 --> 38:09.880]  does not end. But if we want to follow the rhythm of it, we would follow whatever universal time is.
[38:10.500 --> 38:14.460]  Comment in there, thanks for clearing up place origin. Yeah, that's a good time, isn't it?
[38:15.420 --> 38:21.900]  All right, so here's how I would read the header on the air. And again, this comes down to some net
[38:21.900 --> 38:28.260]  personalities. And on the Dallas-Fort Worth two meter traffic nets, I'm going to read it like how
[38:28.260 --> 38:33.080]  we would do it on there. You might find that your local traffic net is just a little bit different.
[38:33.080 --> 38:39.800]  So again, listen to pick up that net personality is what I like to call that. But I would say this
[38:39.800 --> 38:50.100]  header just like this, please copy message number 312, routine, Hotel X-Ray, Gulf, Kilo 8, Alpha
[38:50.100 --> 39:05.060]  Mike Hotel, 1-2, Dallas, Texas, 2-1-4-5, January 1-5. Now notice I don't have to say, okay, the
[39:05.060 --> 39:10.020]  number is 312, and the precedence is routine, and the station of origin is it. We're all using the
[39:10.020 --> 39:15.880]  same template. So we all know the order of things. We don't need to say the subject over and over
[39:15.880 --> 39:20.080]  again. Again, we're trying to move these efficiently, so we don't need to burn time on that.
[39:20.100 --> 39:24.280]  I did mention that two items are optional, the handling instruction and the time.
[39:24.420 --> 39:31.100]  So how would I read that if I didn't have those? I just skip them. Please copy number 312, routine,
[39:31.100 --> 39:39.000]  Kilo 8, Alpha Mike Hotel, 1-2, Dallas, Texas, January 1-5. Again, the other station will know
[39:39.680 --> 39:44.140]  that there is no handling instruction and there is no time filed. It's one of those rhythm of
[39:44.140 --> 39:48.340]  the business type of things. We know that those are optional. And so if you don't mention it,
[39:48.980 --> 39:53.800]  they're not there. And then we can keep moving with things. And comment, that's basically how
[39:53.800 --> 40:00.440]  the header is read here in Northern Virginia. A lot of this is, if you're really bored someday,
[40:01.160 --> 40:13.500]  there is a 400-plus page best practices PDF that I just hate. But if you really want to get in
[40:13.500 --> 40:17.840]  there and read it, there's a lot of reading you can do on traffic. And it's all been built just
[40:17.840 --> 40:24.080]  based on things learned over time. It's an excellent resource. But if I were to throw it at
[40:24.080 --> 40:28.160]  you and say, go read this 400-page thing, you're going to get lost. So a lot of this is like the
[40:28.160 --> 40:36.800]  80% what you're going to see the vast majority of the time. But there is a best practices guide
[40:36.800 --> 40:45.000]  if you really want to get the big details on good traffic handling. That's the header.
[40:45.000 --> 40:50.300]  So that's the hard part. We're through it. Any questions on the header?
[40:52.460 --> 40:57.260]  I will keep moving into the address part next. But again, any questions, throw them in there.
[40:57.880 --> 41:03.120]  The address is the destinations. There we go. Yeah, methods and practices guide. Yeah, that's
[41:03.120 --> 41:10.640]  yeah, MPG. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. 400 pages of fun. This is essentially like sending
[41:10.640 --> 41:15.340]  any letter. First last name, call sign if they have one. Again, they don't necessarily have to
[41:15.340 --> 41:20.320]  have one. So if you want to send, you know, Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday to a
[41:20.320 --> 41:25.520]  family member that doesn't have a license, please do. But first last name, call sign if they have
[41:25.520 --> 41:32.880]  one address, city, state, zip and phone number. The last mile delivery is very much done by phone.
[41:32.880 --> 41:40.620]  So we ask that you include a phone number. If you include an email, that is an option.
[41:43.200 --> 41:47.380]  It removes that personal touch, but you know, some folks just don't want their phone number
[41:47.380 --> 41:53.840]  out there. We'll still deliver it by email. If you do include it, then you need to write it out.
[41:54.360 --> 42:01.760]  So like for this example, if it was jane.doe at example.com, then it's jane.doe
[42:02.520 --> 42:11.460]  at sign or at example.com. We spell all of those things out. We don't put, you know,
[42:11.580 --> 42:15.400]  a period or anything like for that. Because again, you're relaying it on the air. So how do you read,
[42:15.400 --> 42:21.120]  how do you, how do you say a period? You know, I mean, you would spell it out to indicate there
[42:21.120 --> 42:30.040]  is a dot there. So here, let's send this one as an example to jane.doe, address and phone number.
[42:30.700 --> 42:38.860]  And so I would read this like this. I would say that this is to jane. I'm gonna go a little faster
[42:38.860 --> 42:43.140]  just for sake of time. I would pause to give the other person time to write. So this is going to
[42:43.140 --> 42:50.580]  jane.doe, I spelled delta oscar echo, amateur call alpha romeo one tango, address figures one two
[42:50.580 --> 42:59.900]  three, mixed group eight five tango hotel, street, direction southeast, some town wisconsin,
[42:59.900 --> 43:08.380]  zip figures zero zero one two one, phone figures three three zero, five five five, four four two
[43:08.380 --> 43:14.500]  four, break. And a break is one of those fun ones. We'll talk about that in a second. This is your
[43:14.500 --> 43:20.360]  introduction to ProWords. And so in the reference guide, there's a whole list of these, but we'll
[43:20.360 --> 43:27.120]  cover some of the more common ones here. I spell means you're about to spell something. Good
[43:27.120 --> 43:31.940]  practice to do that with last names, because they can be fun. Also can be good to do that with first
[43:31.940 --> 43:37.360]  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
[43:37.360 --> 43:42.160]  to spell it, go for it. But if you're going to spell it, make sure you kind of do that without
[43:42.160 --> 43:50.580]  pausing. So instead of doe, I spell... the other person's probably already tried to write it down
[43:50.580 --> 43:54.260]  at that point. So if you're going to spell it, then just go right into spelling it. So
[43:55.040 --> 44:01.740]  going to Jane, doe, I spell, Delta, Oscar, Echo, you know, and then keep going with it. Amateur
[44:01.740 --> 44:06.580]  call means you're about to give a call sign. Figures, whether address figures, or zip figures,
[44:06.580 --> 44:11.860]  or phone figures, you're about to get some some numbers. Mixed group means you're about to give
[44:11.960 --> 44:18.320]  a mixture of letters and numbers. Directions, really only used in the address. So it's just
[44:18.320 --> 44:23.280]  there to, you know, Northeast 8th Street, or Southwest this, or that type of thing.
[44:23.360 --> 44:28.760]  And then break. This usually throws a curveball, because I know a lot of Nets here in the
[44:28.760 --> 44:35.540]  Metroplex will have in the preamble, if you have emergency or priority traffic, at any time,
[44:35.540 --> 44:41.780]  say break, break, followed by your call sign. So sometimes it creates this,
[44:41.780 --> 44:50.040]  well, in this case, break indicates you're pausing. And so you would, you know, read the,
[44:50.040 --> 44:54.720]  you know, you'd relay the address and phone number and then break. And then you'd let up on push to
[44:54.720 --> 45:01.320]  talk. And you wait for that other station to come back to you with whether they need any fills.
[45:01.340 --> 45:07.600]  You know, I need you to repeat this or that type of thing. Or they will say go, or go ahead,
[45:07.600 --> 45:12.320]  go text. That means you can continue with the radiogram. They have everything. In the comment,
[45:12.320 --> 45:16.500]  we say break for text for clarity. And we'll have some folks do that here in the Metroplex,
[45:16.500 --> 45:22.180]  too. They'll say break for text to let you know that they're pausing before they jump into the
[45:22.180 --> 45:31.480]  text section. Op notes. And so this is not something that's commonly seen, but it can be,
[45:31.480 --> 45:37.000]  so I'll just mention it. Two places for op notes that they can appear in these. This is the first
[45:37.000 --> 45:43.880]  one. This one relates to handling or delivery. So in this example, I've put workday only. And so
[45:43.880 --> 45:48.840]  maybe the phone number I've given is a work phone number. And so why bother calling on the weekend?
[45:48.840 --> 45:54.600]  This helps that station that's about to do the delivery in this example, to have an idea of when
[45:54.600 --> 45:59.140]  to try making the phone call. So they're not burning time on, you know, a weekend attempt
[45:59.140 --> 46:03.400]  that's just, you know, going to lead to voicemail or something like that. Again, operational notes
[46:03.400 --> 46:07.900]  or op notes are optional, but for this first one, it gives, you know, some help to that
[46:07.900 --> 46:11.980]  delivering station or to those handling it if there's any extra information that that might
[46:11.980 --> 46:19.180]  help them when relaying this along. That's the addressee part. If you have questions on that,
[46:19.180 --> 46:23.900]  throw them in the chat. We'll go into this receiving station info part. This is really easy.
[46:24.480 --> 46:31.020]  The only time I ever fill this out is if I'm dropping the radiogram in the mail.
[46:31.800 --> 46:38.700]  This is your station information. And this can be helpful if you're putting it in the mail
[46:38.700 --> 46:43.640]  and you want that person to know how to get ahold of you if they have any questions or anything like
[46:43.640 --> 46:50.840]  that. Or if you're in an emergency or something like that, who filled in this radiogram? Then
[46:50.840 --> 46:54.080]  you put your information there and then that way if there are any follow-up questions,
[46:54.080 --> 46:59.040]  they know how to get ahold of you. Maybe it's a, we can't read this one word, can you read it for
[46:59.040 --> 47:05.740]  us? Or, you know, that type of thing. Otherwise, I know my name and my phone number and stuff. I
[47:05.740 --> 47:10.060]  don't need to fill it in. It's only helpful if I'm going to put it in the mail or something like
[47:10.060 --> 47:13.380]  that and, you know, someone else is going to be looking at it and if they have questions,
[47:13.380 --> 47:17.720]  they know how to get ahold of me. So that is virtually always blank for me.
[47:19.160 --> 47:28.240]  The text is the heart of the message. There are 25 spaces or 25 groups. I like to think of it as
[47:28.240 --> 47:35.760]  five dollars a word. Going back to that brevity and be concise and to the point,
[47:36.560 --> 47:42.300]  we want to very effectively relay these through the system and so the longer they are, the more
[47:42.300 --> 47:48.780]  time they take. If it's worth the extra five or ten dollars, then it's worth it. But if there's
[47:48.920 --> 47:54.360]  a way to be more concise and still get the message across clearly and effectively, then go for it.
[47:55.180 --> 48:00.360]  So let's say I wanted to send this. Great seeing you yesterday. Hope to get together again soon,
[48:00.360 --> 48:11.200]  73. So in radiograms, punctuation, just like in the email, is spelled out. So periods are
[48:11.200 --> 48:16.160]  written as either the letter x, which we say is initial x-ray, or the whole word x-ray. Both
[48:16.160 --> 48:21.980]  will work. Others that you might see that aren't too common but they are used on occasion is if
[48:21.980 --> 48:26.800]  you have a question, the question mark is written as the word query. Exclamation points are written
[48:26.800 --> 48:32.280]  as exclamation. Not too often, but you're going to see a lot of x-rays in things. That's the
[48:32.280 --> 48:39.280]  most common one. And so here's how this would translate. Great seeing you yesterday, initial
[48:39.280 --> 48:47.860]  x-ray. Hope to get together again soon, figures 73. Now I didn't need to put an x-ray between soon
[48:47.860 --> 48:55.820]  and 73. I can kind of gather that that was the end of the sentence. And so why spend the five bucks
[48:55.820 --> 49:02.660]  to put a period there when I don't need it? And sometimes I'll still do it and I'm
[49:02.660 --> 49:07.520]  reading it on the traffic net and I say x-ray figures that I laugh at myself and I'm like,
[49:07.520 --> 49:11.880]  well that's how I read it, so go for it. But it's like, I guess I had extra five dollars in my
[49:11.880 --> 49:17.560]  pocket and let's go for it. But if you don't need that x-ray there, then no need to spend
[49:17.560 --> 49:24.180]  the five bucks type of thing. If it helps clarify things, I would include it. So if it was like a
[49:24.180 --> 49:32.220]  date, right, if it was on August 10, 73, then I would put an x-ray there. I'd spend the five bucks
[49:32.220 --> 49:39.420]  to make sure there's some clarity. On August, figures 1-0, initial x-ray, figures 7-3.
[49:39.420 --> 49:44.120]  Just gives that extra clarity that the 73 is not part of the year or that, you know, whatever might
[49:44.120 --> 49:49.180]  be next to it type of thing. Question in the chat, your responsibility to help format the message.
[49:49.180 --> 49:57.900]  So whether I'm filling it out for myself or on behalf of someone else, I own filling in the
[49:57.900 --> 50:03.580]  radiogram. I'm the one that's introducing it and making it for the first time. So I own whatever
[50:03.580 --> 50:09.180]  words get in there because as soon as I relay it on the air, ideally that's exactly how it's going
[50:09.180 --> 50:14.460]  to arrive on the other end. So when you're putting the message together, you know, go for brevity
[50:14.460 --> 50:21.640]  and things to, you know, to make sure the message moves effectively through the system. And, you
[50:21.640 --> 50:27.300]  know, if you have a word, if you were to send supercalifragilisticexpialidocious on a radiogram,
[50:27.300 --> 50:34.640]  I would really look at you like, why? You know, but in other words, you know, go for simplicity,
[50:34.640 --> 50:39.860]  but still get the point across. If you're moving a radiogram that says we need
[50:40.780 --> 50:46.440]  methotrexate like a medication, well, then that's worth it to say methotrexate. You're not going to
[50:46.440 --> 50:51.600]  simplify it any further than that as a medication, right? But, you know, again, try and be, you know,
[50:51.600 --> 50:57.520]  concise and efficient with your traffic when you go to author it before you bring it to the system.
[50:58.080 --> 51:09.680]  Questions on 73. Is it figure 73 or 73? When we have numbers in the text like this, we use the
[51:09.680 --> 51:16.660]  pro word figures to indicate that it's a number. And then we say each digit individually. So it's
[51:16.660 --> 51:25.900]  figures 73. We give each number individually. I mean, otherwise, you could you could get the,
[51:25.900 --> 51:33.240]  you know, if you say, you know, 146, or, you know, 146, or what, we want to standardize how
[51:33.240 --> 51:37.120]  we do that. And we want to do it in a way where we're going to make sure each number gets there
[51:37.120 --> 51:43.420]  clearly. So we give them one at a time, each digit individually. Do you have to get the sender's
[51:43.420 --> 51:49.760]  approval of the message? If it was an ICS 213, and you're working in an emergency operations center
[51:49.760 --> 51:53.820]  or something, then yeah, there's going to be someone that signs off on it. If you are authoring
[51:53.820 --> 51:57.760]  your own message, then you approve your own message type of thing. If you're on the phone
[51:57.760 --> 52:02.300]  with somebody and they want to send, you know, happy birthday, you know, type of thing, and you
[52:02.300 --> 52:06.820]  decide that you could say that in the shorthand, or, you know, that type of thing, you don't
[52:06.820 --> 52:11.260]  necessarily need to get their okay to say, well, I'm going to take that period out because we don't
[52:11.260 --> 52:16.580]  need it or, you know, that type of thing. You know, a lot of this is just, you know, good judgment
[52:17.200 --> 52:23.860]  on, you know, if someone's telling you, tell them, you know, tell them I'm glad to hear from them,
[52:23.860 --> 52:29.840]  and that I hope they're doing well. Well, you know, you can, you know, put that in the message
[52:29.840 --> 52:35.200]  right along those lines. You know, I am glad to hear from you. I am doing well. You know,
[52:35.200 --> 52:39.460]  I wouldn't cut it in half or anything like that. You know, try and follow what they're giving you.
[52:39.460 --> 52:45.100]  But the way I would do it on the phone is they'll tell me kind of what it is they want to say.
[52:45.100 --> 52:48.640]  And sometimes they're making it up as they say it. So it's not, you know, exactly ready, but
[52:48.640 --> 52:53.760]  I will type it out. And then when they're done, I'll say, okay, here's what I'm going to send.
[52:55.300 --> 53:00.180]  And then they'll go, okay, great. Or, well, can you add or, you know, that's kind of their sign
[53:00.180 --> 53:05.280]  off type of thing, just to verify that I've got everything that they wanted to say in that. So
[53:05.280 --> 53:11.560]  hopefully that gives you a good answer there. We'll keep moving. When you're putting the check
[53:11.560 --> 53:16.640]  together, things like x-ray and query count as a word when you're filling in the check. So if you
[53:16.640 --> 53:25.880]  look at what we've got on the text here, it's 12. Great seeing you yesterday. Initial x-ray are the
[53:25.880 --> 53:31.280]  first five. Hope to get together again are the next five. Soon figure 73 are the last two. So
[53:31.280 --> 53:37.860]  the check here is 12. And when I read that as part of the header, I would say one, two.
[53:40.080 --> 53:44.320]  And we'll put this all in the radiogram so you can see it all as a big picture.
[53:44.740 --> 53:49.700]  Again, I would pause between words, but, you know, for sake of time. Great seeing you yesterday.
[53:49.700 --> 53:56.300]  Initial x-ray. Hope to get together again soon. Figures 73. Break. So some more pro words that
[53:56.300 --> 54:02.700]  we can have here. Initials, or some say letter group, means you're about to give initials.
[54:02.700 --> 54:09.100]  Break. Break for a signature, because the signature is next. Again, we're giving that
[54:09.100 --> 54:17.700]  pause to see if that other station needs any fills. I need you to say again word after hope,
[54:18.460 --> 54:25.620]  or please spell yesterday, or, you know, things like that. If you get the please say all again
[54:25.620 --> 54:31.100]  after yesterday, that's a good sign you might have went a little too fast, and they just gave
[54:31.100 --> 54:36.740]  up. So slow down the next time. Affirmative or negative is much better than yes or no,
[54:36.740 --> 54:41.260]  because it's longer, so we have less chance of misinterpreting it type of thing. So affirmative
[54:41.260 --> 54:48.000]  or negative. And then correction, if you did make a mistake, then you can just say correction,
[54:48.000 --> 54:54.080]  and then whatever the correction is. You know, so great seeing you initial x-ray. Correction.
[54:54.080 --> 55:00.500]  Yesterday. I say again great seeing you yesterday. Initial x-ray. It gets you into that rhythm of
[55:00.500 --> 55:09.000]  putting that correction in and keeping things following. So the last part now, what if I'm a
[55:09.000 --> 55:15.160]  bad speller? Well, when you read it over the air, we won't know how you spelled it. We'll just know
[55:15.160 --> 55:21.840]  how you said it. But if someone asks you to spell something like methotrexate, right, try and get it
[55:21.840 --> 55:27.440]  right. But if something is introduced with a misspelling, and that's how it's handed to you
[55:27.440 --> 55:33.540]  as it's in transit, then relay it exactly as you got it. We're not in the middle of this
[55:33.540 --> 55:37.500]  to change the message while it's in transit, right? This is not the time for the telephone game
[55:37.500 --> 55:45.280]  where I start with, you know, I need two cases of bottled water, and it ends with I need five
[55:45.280 --> 55:50.340]  one-gallon jugs of iced tea or, you know, something. So if it has a mistake in it or things,
[55:50.340 --> 55:56.860]  move it along just as you got it. I wouldn't change anything like that. So if something comes
[55:56.860 --> 56:00.660]  in with a spelling mistake, it'll move through the system like that. As long as we know what
[56:00.660 --> 56:08.840]  it's saying, then we're okay. The signature. So this is the last part that would generally
[56:08.840 --> 56:13.760]  be filled out. It's below the text and above the sent and received info with no label.
[56:14.720 --> 56:17.980]  So it's just kind of one of those we-know-it-goes-there types of things.
[56:17.980 --> 56:24.920]  Generally, it's your name and your call sign if you have one. So in my case, it's Aaron K8AMH.
[56:25.860 --> 56:31.340]  This is how I would finish this message on the air. I would say,
[56:31.340 --> 56:38.100]  signed. So I've read the text, I break, the other station says, go ahead. I would say,
[56:38.100 --> 56:48.500]  signed, Aaron, amateur call, Kilo 8, Alpha Mike Hotel, end, number 312, no more, how copy?
[56:50.220 --> 56:58.300]  So, end means that's the end of the radiogram. Book traffic, we'll talk about in a second.
[56:59.520 --> 57:04.380]  No more is just how many you have left to relay to that station. So if you're like, I have three
[57:04.380 --> 57:09.320]  that are going to Michigan, then I would read the first one, I would say, end, number whatever that
[57:09.320 --> 57:14.080]  was, two more, how copy this one? And then the other station knows we still have some more to go.
[57:14.720 --> 57:20.780]  How copy, so did you copy it successfully? And then, you know, Roger, I Roger your number 312,
[57:21.420 --> 57:26.080]  good copy on 312, something like that, is how you'd know the other station
[57:27.420 --> 57:32.520]  has everything successfully. Now, this is the second place where op notes can appear.
[57:32.940 --> 57:39.580]  This is more commonly used, this is related to replies or servicing. And so for example,
[57:39.580 --> 57:46.760]  could have Aaron, Kiloweight Alpha Mike Hotel, op note, reply or service to KE5YTA.
[57:47.120 --> 57:53.380]  Effectively, what this is saying is, if you have a reply that you need to send to me,
[57:53.380 --> 58:04.360]  send it to me via KE5YTA, and his name's Roger. So the message would go to Roger. And I'll show
[58:04.360 --> 58:09.580]  this in a real radiogram of how this works. This is good for, like for Peter in Germany,
[58:09.580 --> 58:17.160]  how we get the messages back to him. So the last part of this is your tracking. So everything we've
[58:17.160 --> 58:22.200]  talked about so far, aside from the receiving station info, will not change in the radiogram
[58:22.200 --> 58:27.700]  ever. This will stay the same as it moves through the system. The received and sent info, this is
[58:27.700 --> 58:34.160]  for your tracking. Who did you get it from and who did you send it to? And so let's say I sent
[58:34.160 --> 58:41.860]  to Roger. I would put KE5YTA. I like to track what net I was on when I did that. That's optional,
[58:41.860 --> 58:47.460]  but that's just a little piece of extra info for me. And again, I use UTC here, you know,
[58:47.460 --> 58:53.040]  with the date and the time that I relayed it. And that way, if I need to go back and try and follow
[58:53.040 --> 58:57.960]  its journey, I have my records. Roger will have his records, and we can start tracing it
[58:57.960 --> 59:06.980]  through the system. So this is how this radiogram looks from everything that we've built up. So let
[59:06.980 --> 59:13.260]  me zoom in on it so we have a little bit better view. So the number precedence, we had no handling
[59:13.260 --> 59:21.820]  instructions, so that's blank. The origin is me, check of 12 Dallas, where it's headed, the message,
[59:21.820 --> 59:27.280]  signature, and then who I relayed it to after, you know, I moved it on the traffic net.
[59:27.280 --> 59:43.960]  Are there any questions on this example? And I'll buy you some time. I did not receive an
[59:43.960 --> 59:51.380]  email with the radiogram download or print. Okay, so if you go to k8amh.com forward slash
[59:52.460 --> 59:57.860]  handouts. Oh, is that plural? Let me go find out because I don't remember.
[59:57.860 --> 01:00:01.900]  Um, if the browser will open.
[01:00:03.460 --> 01:00:07.760]  I think it's plural. Yeah, okay. Thanks, Sean. Yeah.
[01:00:09.240 --> 01:00:13.000]  So I'll go ahead and let this open slowly for some reason.
[01:00:15.940 --> 01:00:19.980]  Come on, internet. There we go. You'll find the reference guide here on the left, and then I've
[01:00:19.980 --> 01:00:27.140]  got two copies of the radiogram forms. One that is not fillable, the other one that is. So if
[01:00:27.140 --> 01:00:34.160]  you prefer to fill it out on screen, then you've got it. Great. Any other questions or anything,
[01:00:34.160 --> 01:00:40.140]  feel free to throw them in there. What if we have the same message going to more than one person?
[01:00:40.140 --> 01:00:44.320]  So let's say it's, you know, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And I'm sending it to three
[01:00:44.320 --> 01:00:49.240]  different people. We call that book traffic. It's just a nice way of saying that, well,
[01:00:49.240 --> 01:00:54.860]  the message itself is the same. I just have it going to different people. And then when I go to
[01:00:54.860 --> 01:01:03.180]  relay it on the air, I only need to read the text once. And then I just give the destination
[01:01:03.620 --> 01:01:10.060]  separately. Each radiogram still has its own number. So if I had, you know, three going to
[01:01:10.060 --> 01:01:14.600]  family members in Michigan, then, you know, if it was 312 is the first one, then the second one is
[01:01:14.600 --> 01:01:20.120]  313, and the next one is 314. And then the address information would change, right, different
[01:01:20.120 --> 01:01:26.280]  destination, but the rest of it's the same. So I would relay this. There's two ways you could do
[01:01:26.280 --> 01:01:30.800]  it. One is where you just give the common parts, the parts that appear the same in all of them.
[01:01:33.760 --> 01:01:40.380]  In Dallas, we read the first radiogram all the way through the first time. So we start with
[01:01:40.380 --> 01:01:47.380]  number 312, routine, kilo-weight albumin, 2, Jane Doe, great seeing you, sign. And then the next one,
[01:01:47.380 --> 01:01:53.060]  we would say, okay, the next one in the book is number 313, and it's going to John Smith,
[01:01:53.060 --> 01:01:58.900]  123 Fake Street, and number 313, one more in the book, a copy. And then the next one would be 314
[01:01:58.900 --> 01:02:05.580]  going to, you know, Jane Smith, you know, type of thing. So again, listen to that net personality.
[01:02:05.600 --> 01:02:08.900]  But we don't need to read the whole header. We don't need to read the text over again or things
[01:02:08.900 --> 01:02:12.940]  in the comment, great for your field day traffic, book of 10. Yeah, it's just more, you know, speedy
[01:02:12.940 --> 01:02:20.720]  type of thing. It helps speed up moving things. And you think about the, you know, ARL 56,
[01:02:20.720 --> 01:02:24.720]  new amateur radio license, welcome to the hobby, enjoy the fun and friendships you will make,
[01:02:24.720 --> 01:02:30.100]  right? If, you know, someone like Lauren, November 1, India, Quebec, India, or Chris,
[01:02:30.100 --> 01:02:37.060]  November X-ray 9 kilo, and Jim, you know, are sending the same greetings that we just put that
[01:02:37.060 --> 01:02:40.600]  through as book traffic, only have to read the message once, and then we can go through all the
[01:02:40.600 --> 01:02:47.520]  destinations type of thing. Okay, I talked about shorthands. So we'll dive in these in a bit.
[01:02:47.520 --> 01:02:57.260]  Here's an example of where a shorthand is used. And so this is real, I just, I took out the name.
[01:02:58.040 --> 01:03:01.700]  ARL 56, new amateur radio license, welcome to the hobby, enjoy the fun and friendships you will
[01:03:01.700 --> 01:03:10.700]  make, 73. Fun how you just memorize those over time. We're using a shorthand here,
[01:03:10.700 --> 01:03:18.820]  because this does mean something, and it's in your handout, the ARL numbered radiograms.
[01:03:20.140 --> 01:03:26.480]  They provide a way for us to send common phrases very quickly. When you deliver it to the other
[01:03:26.480 --> 01:03:29.940]  end, of course, you're going to say what it means. Like I wouldn't say, okay, you got a message,
[01:03:29.940 --> 01:03:34.880]  this is ARL 50. You know, they're not going to know what that means, so tell them what it means.
[01:03:35.020 --> 01:03:40.680]  And then in the check, we indicate that we have a shorthand in use. And so the check of 1-2,
[01:03:40.680 --> 01:03:46.660]  you know, example would become Alpha Romeo Lima 1-2. Again, to flag the fact that we've used
[01:03:47.440 --> 01:03:51.480]  a shorthand. Here are some common ones. You have the full list of them in the handout.
[01:03:52.260 --> 01:03:58.480]  ARL 50, greetings by amateur radio. 56, congratulations on your, and then whatever,
[01:03:58.480 --> 01:04:05.600]  most worthy and deserved achievement. For servicing, if we want to tell a station we
[01:04:05.600 --> 01:04:10.640]  delivered their message, then it's ARL 47, and then we give the number and the destination and
[01:04:10.640 --> 01:04:16.160]  the date and time of delivery. If we couldn't deliver it, then ARL 67, and then we give the
[01:04:16.160 --> 01:04:20.400]  message number and maybe some other details, and then we explain why. You know, phone number,
[01:04:20.400 --> 01:04:26.540]  out of service, or no answer, you know, that type of thing. So when we look at this example,
[01:04:26.540 --> 01:04:34.520]  ARL 56, new amateur radio license, becomes congratulations on your, and this is the blank,
[01:04:34.520 --> 01:04:39.700]  so what follows this shorthand here, you know, new amateur radio license, initial x-ray,
[01:04:39.700 --> 01:04:45.080]  that's what goes in the blank. So congratulations on your new amateur radio license, a most worthy
[01:04:45.080 --> 01:04:50.980]  and deserved achievement. Welcome to the hobby. Enjoy the fun and friendships you will make.
[01:04:50.980 --> 01:04:56.600]  73. That would be how I would deliver it to its destination.
[01:04:58.520 --> 01:05:03.040]  We spell out the numbers in these shorthands, and this is to help clarify that
[01:05:03.040 --> 01:05:09.820]  this is part of the shorthand. So I would read this as initials, Alpha, Romeo, Lima,
[01:05:10.380 --> 01:05:17.560]  50, I spell, Foxtrot, India, Foxtrot, Tango, Yankee, six, I spell, Sierra, India, x-ray.
[01:05:17.560 --> 01:05:24.600]  We're spelling them to call out the fact that they are spelled out words rather than like
[01:05:24.600 --> 01:05:30.560]  figure 7-3, right? We want to clarify that these are written out words rather than
[01:05:30.560 --> 01:05:34.900]  some digits, and so that's why we spell them out like that.
[01:05:36.440 --> 01:05:42.220]  Some other quick examples, and then we can do maybe a little bit of hands-on.
[01:05:42.220 --> 01:05:50.140]  Let me zoom in on this just for fun. So ARL50, John, and congrats on new amateur radio license.
[01:05:50.140 --> 01:05:58.140]  X-ray, enjoy all that the radio community offers. X-ray, best regards. ARL50,
[01:05:58.140 --> 01:06:04.720]  remember what that is? It's greetings by amateur radio. And so that's how greetings by amateur
[01:06:04.720 --> 01:06:11.600]  radio, John, and congrats on it. Here we have the op note that Peter includes.
[01:06:12.140 --> 01:06:20.060]  So he signs it, Peter, DL4FN, op note reply or service message to him through Roger in Richardson,
[01:06:20.060 --> 01:06:27.460]  Texas. And so what this means, I see someone recognizes Peter's messages in the chat. What
[01:06:27.460 --> 01:06:33.500]  this means is that to send something back to Peter, so like if that other station wants to
[01:06:33.500 --> 01:06:39.980]  say thank you and hope to hear you on the air or whatever their reply is, or if it's I couldn't
[01:06:39.980 --> 01:06:46.940]  deliver it because the phone number is disconnected, I would send the reply to Peter, DL4FN,
[01:06:46.940 --> 01:06:54.660]  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
[01:06:54.660 --> 01:07:01.000]  it to Roger here in Dallas, because Peter has asked Roger here in Dallas to act as kind of
[01:07:01.000 --> 01:07:06.420]  his liaison to get the messages back to him in Germany. So I'm going to send it back to
[01:07:07.000 --> 01:07:12.680]  Roger, and then Roger will relay it across to Peter. If that makes sense, how this op note
[01:07:12.680 --> 01:07:18.360]  works at the end. Again, this is relating to, you know, the replies or service messages.
[01:07:18.380 --> 01:07:22.840]  We're going to still send this reply to Peter, but we're going to route it to Roger, because
[01:07:22.840 --> 01:07:28.800]  that's who Peter's designated here in the U.S. for receiving, for working, you know, those replies
[01:07:28.800 --> 01:07:37.320]  back to him in Germany. Same thing here on this one. Peter's got the op note, you know,
[01:07:37.320 --> 01:07:42.580]  hello Gary, congrats on your new amateur license, you know, that type of thing. And these are ones
[01:07:42.580 --> 01:07:48.700]  I put in the mail, because I choose if I can't get a hold of them on the phone, then I mail them.
[01:07:48.700 --> 01:07:53.320]  It's a personal choice. And I fill out these details here in the, you know, the receive box,
[01:07:53.320 --> 01:07:57.180]  so that if they have any questions, they know how to get a hold of me. And I put a little
[01:07:57.180 --> 01:08:01.400]  letter with an explanation to just saying, you know, this is part of traffic handling,
[01:08:01.400 --> 01:08:06.860]  and here's what the message says, and that type of thing. All right, so we'll do a little hands-on.
[01:08:07.300 --> 01:08:13.240]  Let's say you're going to send something to me. There's my address and phone number,
[01:08:13.240 --> 01:08:20.100]  and you're going to send, hope to hear you on the band soon, and 73. So go ahead and take some time,
[01:08:20.100 --> 01:08:24.940]  if you've got your blank radiogram printed out. And if it's, you can make up the number,
[01:08:24.940 --> 01:08:31.480]  one or 500, or however you want to do that. But I'll give you a couple minutes. And in the meantime,
[01:08:31.480 --> 01:08:48.170]  if folks have questions, feel free to throw them in the chat. Again, more fuel, getting a little
[01:08:48.170 --> 01:09:43.640]  cooler, but I'll still work on it. Okay, we'll give you another minute here. So again, any questions,
[01:09:43.640 --> 01:09:57.360]  feel free to throw them in the chat. The handling instructions definitions list,
[01:09:57.360 --> 01:10:03.020]  excuse me, so that is also in the handout. So why don't I open it here,
[01:10:03.020 --> 01:10:08.940]  and we'll kind of walk through it very, very quickly. So at the beginning of this phonetic
[01:10:08.940 --> 01:10:16.040]  alphabet, because again, the gold standard, and then the handling instructions, and what they all
[01:10:16.040 --> 01:10:26.800]  mean. Precedences, so again, priority welfare emergency, and then common prosigns that are used
[01:10:27.650 --> 01:10:36.420]  in traffic handling. And then that's followed by the ARL shorthands. And there are two blocks of
[01:10:36.420 --> 01:10:41.740]  these. The first group is generally emergency related, you know, like supplies requests or
[01:10:42.440 --> 01:10:47.980]  comments on damage to the area or things. Group two is more for the routine-y things.
[01:10:49.700 --> 01:10:52.520]  You know, greetings by amateur radio, greetings on your birthday,
[01:10:53.680 --> 01:11:17.530]  you know, holiday greetings, and things like that. Other questions? So from a big picture,
[01:11:17.530 --> 01:11:22.490]  how do I initiate a message from a local level and get it to a regional relay? So the way it'll
[01:11:22.490 --> 01:11:30.430]  work, we'll go through this in the net discussion, is you'll bring it to a local traffic net,
[01:11:30.430 --> 01:11:35.750]  and then someone else that's also checked into that traffic net will be able to act as that bridge
[01:11:35.750 --> 01:11:40.750]  to a regional or area net, and then they'll take that there and move it there. And that's how it'll
[01:11:40.750 --> 01:11:46.090]  jump across. I think it'll become a little bit clearer when we get into the... pardon me,
[01:11:46.090 --> 01:11:53.150]  get into the... how the traffic nets work here in just a second. But that's kind of a quick answer,
[01:11:53.610 --> 01:11:57.110]  is when you bring it to the local level, you'll have folks that can take things to
[01:11:57.110 --> 01:12:01.950]  the regional area or things, and that's how it'll keep going. Yeah, there'll be liaisons to other
[01:12:01.950 --> 01:12:06.510]  nets. Yeah, we're going to walk through that. Yeah. All right. So let's keep moving. If you
[01:12:06.510 --> 01:12:11.490]  don't have it quite filled out, that's okay. This is effectively how it should look.
[01:12:11.490 --> 01:12:19.570]  So whatever number you put, and then routine, your call sign, a check of nine or a niner,
[01:12:19.970 --> 01:12:25.730]  your city and state, today's date, then my address and phone number, and then one word in each blank,
[01:12:25.730 --> 01:12:30.650]  hope to hear you on the band soon, figure seven three, and then your name and your call sign here
[01:12:30.650 --> 01:12:38.470]  in this little tiny spot. Anybody have any questions on how we filled it out this way,
[01:12:38.470 --> 01:12:43.150]  or if you had something a little different, or anything that I can clarify on this?
[01:12:43.910 --> 01:12:49.070]  I'll give you about 30 seconds, and then we'll jump in a little bit. We got a little bit more
[01:12:49.070 --> 01:12:54.410]  to go. We're not doing horrible on time. We've got maybe another 10, maybe 15 minutes. I added
[01:12:54.410 --> 01:13:00.930]  an initial x-ray. So again, so that's the comment. I added an initial x-ray in the chat.
[01:13:00.930 --> 01:13:12.630]  So if you put an x-ray between soon and 73, you can do that. Is it necessary? Not necessarily. I
[01:13:12.630 --> 01:13:18.430]  know the sentence ended here at soon. If you put it, you can put it. But I personally like to save
[01:13:18.430 --> 01:13:26.570]  the five dollars, and so I don't put an x-ray there for a period. Another question, what's the
[01:13:26.570 --> 01:13:36.710]  rationale for place of origin? So again on this, this is the location of whoever authored this
[01:13:36.710 --> 01:13:48.050]  text. The rationale for that, yeah. So this is so that we know where the message came from.
[01:13:48.190 --> 01:13:54.470]  Because again, if you are the station of origin, like if I'm filling it out, and I'm in Dallas,
[01:13:54.470 --> 01:14:02.370]  the people that are authoring that message are in Fort Worth. And if I say, I need five
[01:14:02.370 --> 01:14:10.350]  cots at Mercy Hospital, Mercy Hospital in Fort Worth, or Mercy Hospital in Dallas, or Mercy
[01:14:10.350 --> 01:14:19.090]  Hospital. It just helps provide some of that clarity, first off. And then also, as Darwin's
[01:14:19.090 --> 01:14:23.870]  put in there, I think it's to help replies go back to the proper local net. It does help with
[01:14:23.870 --> 01:14:31.370]  routing, because we've got that clue in there of where we can head it back to for its destination.
[01:14:31.890 --> 01:14:36.450]  But when we think about emergency traffic or things, just, you know, where did this come from?
[01:14:37.250 --> 01:14:41.510]  You know, Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel, that's an 8. So this must have come from Michigan or West
[01:14:41.510 --> 01:14:46.810]  Virginia or something, right? No, it's coming from Dallas, Texas. And so, you know, if I don't have
[01:14:46.810 --> 01:14:54.030]  access to the FCC ULS, the, you know, Universal Licensing System, or things like QRZ to look up
[01:14:54.030 --> 01:14:59.070]  addresses, then this is my clue. Place of origin, at least for me, when I sent it,
[01:14:59.070 --> 01:15:03.530]  would be Dallas, Texas. And that's how you'd know how to route it back to me type of thing.
[01:15:05.030 --> 01:15:09.510]  Yeah, other questions on this? Feel free to throw them in the chat. I'm gonna
[01:15:09.510 --> 01:15:13.950]  keep rolling just to try and keep conscious of time here.
[01:15:14.770 --> 01:15:20.490]  So now on traffic nets, I won't dive into this too much. It's pretty much like any other net you've
[01:15:20.490 --> 01:15:25.130]  hopefully joined where you get the preamble, you know, welcome to the traffic net. My name is and
[01:15:25.130 --> 01:15:30.110]  I'm your net control station. And I will now take check-ins from stations with traffic, which means
[01:15:30.110 --> 01:15:36.350]  you're bringing a radiogram that you want to introduce into the system or relay through the
[01:15:36.350 --> 01:15:41.430]  system. And then you can take check-ins from stations without traffic, which means I don't
[01:15:41.430 --> 01:15:46.970]  have any radiograms to relay, but I'm here if you need help relaying things. And then after that,
[01:15:46.970 --> 01:15:52.010]  the relaying begins. Two stations will connect together on the air. And then this is... I'm
[01:15:52.010 --> 01:15:56.950]  doing this as a voice net because that's how many folks here at Dallas get started on traffic nets
[01:15:56.950 --> 01:16:02.430]  is at the local level. You know, if it's a CW net or things, you know, you follow similar.
[01:16:03.210 --> 01:16:08.590]  Here's how a net control could log things. For this one, I was the one that was running the net.
[01:16:09.950 --> 01:16:16.210]  And so, of course, I tracked myself as the as the net control station. Next, we had Calvin
[01:16:16.210 --> 01:16:24.310]  check in. He brought a piece of traffic for Bowie, Texas. Then Don, W9BE, checked in. He acted as a
[01:16:24.310 --> 01:16:31.950]  liaison for TEX, the Texas Traffic Net, which that for me as a net control station tells me
[01:16:31.950 --> 01:16:40.810]  an option on how to route traffic out of Dallas-Fort Worth. I have this option for moving
[01:16:40.810 --> 01:16:47.650]  traffic out of the area. Same thing with Roger, K85YATA. He interfaces with the digital traffic
[01:16:47.650 --> 01:16:54.210]  net. And if I have to send something Michigan, Wisconsin, you know, Washington State, something,
[01:16:54.210 --> 01:16:59.850]  then I know that Roger is an option to move things out of the area through the digital traffic net.
[01:16:59.850 --> 01:17:05.370]  Same with John. Roger, in this case, brought a book of five. So it's the same text and things
[01:17:06.350 --> 01:17:11.630]  going to five different destinations. Two of those were in Dallas, one in Plano, one in Prosper,
[01:17:11.630 --> 01:17:17.070]  one in Melissa. And then John also had his a book of three, separate book, but book of three.
[01:17:17.110 --> 01:17:21.810]  And then he had one and another one that's not part of the book.
[01:17:22.670 --> 01:17:29.010]  And then last, Corky checked in with a net report, which is how we turn in our statistics
[01:17:29.770 --> 01:17:34.210]  and they get reported to me and then I report them to our headquarters. But how do we turn
[01:17:34.210 --> 01:17:41.270]  in those net reports? Well, through a radiogram. So, okay, let me turn off the pointer and we'll
[01:17:41.270 --> 01:17:47.350]  keep moving. So the way this would work is after figuring out who can route what,
[01:17:47.350 --> 01:17:58.990]  the net control station would have those two stations connect, you know, and say, okay, I'm,
[01:17:58.990 --> 01:18:03.250]  they would read the header and the address and phone number and then break.
[01:18:03.350 --> 01:18:07.190]  And then I would either say, please say again, phone number, or please say again,
[01:18:07.190 --> 01:18:12.790]  city, or please spell city. Or when I'm ready to go, I would say, go, go text, go ahead.
[01:18:13.610 --> 01:18:21.030]  Other station would then read the text section one word at a time, and then break. And then I
[01:18:21.030 --> 01:18:27.090]  would say, you know, please say again, word after blah, or go, go ahead, go signature,
[01:18:27.090 --> 01:18:32.690]  then they would read the signature, you know, sign some da da da, end number, whatever,
[01:18:32.690 --> 01:18:38.110]  no more or one more, how copy, I Roger your number, whatever, you know, thanks for the traffic
[01:18:38.110 --> 01:18:42.950]  and then K8AMH, and they, you know, thank you for taking that and ID and then turn it back to net
[01:18:42.950 --> 01:18:49.890]  control. That's how, that's how you would flow. I see the questions on how to get involved. I'll
[01:18:49.890 --> 01:18:55.150]  jump into that in just a second. So the way I would move this is I would say, please copy my
[01:18:55.150 --> 01:19:01.730]  number three, and I'm going to go fast. Please copy my number 312, routine, K8AMH, 1-2, Dallas,
[01:19:01.730 --> 01:19:12.030]  Texas, January 1-5, to Jane Doe, amateur call, Alfa Romeo 1-Tango, address figures 1-2-3,
[01:19:12.030 --> 01:19:19.810]  mixed group 8-5 Tango Hotel, street, direction southeast, some town Wisconsin, zip figures
[01:19:19.810 --> 01:19:29.550]  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
[01:19:29.550 --> 01:19:38.750]  seeing you yesterday, initial x-ray, hope to get together again soon, figures 7-3, break,
[01:19:38.750 --> 01:19:43.770]  and the other station would say go, signed Aaron, amateur call, Kilo 8, Alfa Mike Hotel,
[01:19:43.770 --> 01:19:49.570]  number 312, and no more, I'll copy. And the other, I copy, Roger, you're 312,
[01:19:49.570 --> 01:19:54.430]  thanks for the traffic, thanks for taking K8AMH back to NET. So that's how we would
[01:19:54.430 --> 01:20:01.330]  move that on the air. How do you get involved in the traffic nets? I would recommend finding,
[01:20:01.330 --> 01:20:11.010]  if possible, a local traffic net in your area. The ARRL, main webpage, ARRL.org,
[01:20:11.010 --> 01:20:18.230]  has a NET database that you can search. And let me make a note, I will put that in my follow-up email,
[01:20:19.410 --> 01:20:27.170]  how to search local NETs. And you can find local NETs and regional NETs and things,
[01:20:27.170 --> 01:20:33.990]  and then get involved that way. Find the NET at your local level, or if not available, find a
[01:20:33.990 --> 01:20:39.590]  regional or area NET on HF. Again, listen, I recommend you listen in the beginning, get a feel
[01:20:39.590 --> 01:20:45.490]  for that NET and how it flows, and then you can start jumping in and participating. I know, like,
[01:20:45.490 --> 01:20:51.350]  for example, here at the 7290 traffic net, the first time you check in and, you know, participate
[01:20:51.350 --> 01:20:56.490]  in the NET, even if you don't move any traffic, they send you a radiogram thanking you for finding
[01:20:56.490 --> 01:21:01.090]  them and for jumping in on the NET. They're very happy to hear from folks that join in.
[01:21:01.410 --> 01:21:06.490]  Lots of good NETs and lots of excitement when folks want to jump in type of thing.
[01:21:12.340 --> 01:21:21.580]  Okay, great presentation. We got Aaron and Justin here in Discord to do a demo for us.
[01:21:21.580 --> 01:21:29.100]  So I'll let you guys take it from here, and we'll do some questions afterwards. Go ahead.
[01:21:32.320 --> 01:21:38.240]  All right, I'll take it, I guess. Everybody, thanks for jumping in. We'll do a couple of
[01:21:38.240 --> 01:21:46.400]  practice radiograms here. If you've printed them out from the handouts page, and I promise I'll go
[01:21:46.400 --> 01:21:55.580]  nice and slow. You could give this a spin to see how it flows for you when filling out the radiogram,
[01:21:55.580 --> 01:22:01.500]  and then if there's any questions on, well, what happened there, or what did that mean,
[01:22:01.500 --> 01:22:06.520]  or those types of things, we've got some time here to take questions. So hopefully I've bought
[01:22:06.520 --> 01:22:11.360]  enough time for folks to get their blank radiograms handy. I'll just go ahead and start
[01:22:12.460 --> 01:22:16.660]  doing this. If this works, or do you want to do questions first, let me double check
[01:22:17.780 --> 01:22:22.360]  to make sure I'm good to go with the relaying. Let's go ahead. All righty, then we'll go ahead
[01:22:22.360 --> 01:22:33.920]  and get started. And this will be number 809-routine, Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel,
[01:22:33.920 --> 01:22:46.260]  1-4, Dallas, Texas, August 9-r, to your station. That's how we would do that on the air
[01:22:46.260 --> 01:22:51.520]  when it's going to the recipient is the same ham. So going to your station,
[01:22:51.520 --> 01:23:04.400]  break. This is where somebody would say go. So I'll assume I gotta go. Thank you for attending
[01:23:06.110 --> 01:23:15.600]  today. Hope to get some traffic
[01:23:19.440 --> 01:23:30.580]  from you soon. Figures 7-3, break. And again, I, you know, say again or something, but you know,
[01:23:30.580 --> 01:23:38.360]  go, you know, we'll do go signature. That's signed Aaron Amateur Call, Kilo 8 Alpha Mike Hotel.
[01:23:38.360 --> 01:23:42.800]  End number 809-r, and no more. I'll copy.
[01:23:44.540 --> 01:23:51.720]  And so hopefully that first, hopefully I was slow enough. So yeah, I learned with some stations,
[01:23:51.720 --> 01:23:56.160]  I can go faster than with others. And so I try to adjust the speed based on that.
[01:23:58.060 --> 01:24:01.120]  I don't know if we can throw that one up on the screen.
[01:24:01.120 --> 01:24:02.480]  Yeah, you're ready for the reveal?
[01:24:02.700 --> 01:24:08.360]  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure thing. And then if any questions on, well, why did that go there? Or
[01:24:09.360 --> 01:24:12.540]  that was really confusing. How come this? Or, you know, that type of thing.
[01:24:14.140 --> 01:24:20.660]  Yeah, definitely wanted to give that clarity type of thing. Or if you're experts, then you
[01:24:20.660 --> 01:24:26.480]  could take Justin. And, you know, we'll double check that, you know, things are good. And then
[01:24:26.480 --> 01:24:32.280]  we had some questions during the presentation part. I want to jump in on those as well. And
[01:24:33.020 --> 01:24:40.560]  if any other questions type of thing. Otherwise, silence is acceptance.
[01:24:40.560 --> 01:24:43.720]  Let's go to Justin's demo here.
[01:24:43.720 --> 01:24:49.220]  Sure. All right. Well, yep, I have one more if you want to try it again. And again, as they say,
[01:24:49.220 --> 01:24:53.040]  every NAT usually has their own personality. So mine might sound a little bit different.
[01:24:53.100 --> 01:25:00.380]  So I'll go ahead and get started. Please copy message number one, three, routine,
[01:25:00.380 --> 01:25:11.120]  kilo, echo, eight, Mike, Yankee, Foxtrot, one, eight, Grand Rapids, I spell Romeo, Alpha, Papa,
[01:25:11.120 --> 01:25:22.540]  India, Delta, Sierra, Michigan, August 9. Going to your station. Break.
[01:25:23.500 --> 01:25:25.360]  Go.
[01:25:25.820 --> 01:25:27.600]  All right.
[01:25:27.800 --> 01:25:28.960]  Thanks
[01:25:29.500 --> 01:25:30.940]  for
[01:25:31.500 --> 01:25:32.520]  attending
[01:25:33.500 --> 01:25:34.480]  this
[01:25:35.500 --> 01:25:37.680]  talk.
[01:25:37.760 --> 01:25:38.340]  And
[01:25:39.400 --> 01:25:39.980]  hope
[01:25:41.000 --> 01:25:44.920]  to, I spell Tango Oscar,
[01:25:44.920 --> 01:25:45.600]  C,
[01:25:45.600 --> 01:25:49.080]  I spell Sierra, Echo, Echo,
[01:25:49.080 --> 01:25:50.720]  U,
[01:25:50.720 --> 01:25:51.600]  all
[01:25:51.600 --> 01:25:53.220]  at
[01:25:53.220 --> 01:25:55.740]  mixed group,
[01:25:55.740 --> 01:25:57.620]  Delta, Charlie,
[01:25:57.620 --> 01:26:00.100]  two, niner,
[01:26:00.100 --> 01:26:01.600]  initial X-ray,
[01:26:02.680 --> 01:26:04.060]  hack,
[01:26:04.060 --> 01:26:04.800]  the
[01:26:05.780 --> 01:26:07.440]  planet,
[01:26:07.440 --> 01:26:09.860]  figures 73. Break.
[01:26:11.140 --> 01:26:12.740]  Go ahead.
[01:26:12.840 --> 01:26:13.740]  Signed
[01:26:13.740 --> 01:26:16.080]  Justin, amateur call,
[01:26:16.080 --> 01:26:17.680]  kilo, echo, eight, Mike,
[01:26:17.680 --> 01:26:19.620]  Yankee, Foxtrot, end message number
[01:26:19.620 --> 01:26:21.560]  one, three, no more, how copy?
[01:26:21.880 --> 01:26:24.020]  Roger, one, three, thanks for the traffic.
[01:26:24.260 --> 01:26:26.040]  It's that, Debbie, we do it here.
[01:26:26.600 --> 01:26:27.120]  Yeah.
[01:26:27.680 --> 01:26:29.600]  Very good, let's do a reveal
[01:26:29.600 --> 01:26:30.480]  on that.
[01:26:32.800 --> 01:26:33.680]  Here we go, that's what
[01:26:33.680 --> 01:26:34.860]  it should look like.
[01:26:42.260 --> 01:26:43.360]  All right, yeah, so on that one, we
[01:26:43.360 --> 01:26:45.300]  also had a mixed group in there with a
[01:26:45.300 --> 01:26:47.500]  DC-29, that's another thing to keep
[01:26:47.500 --> 01:26:49.520]  out. And when I mentioned
[01:26:49.520 --> 01:26:51.440]  the word two, I made sure to spell
[01:26:51.440 --> 01:26:53.560]  it out, just so it's 100%
[01:26:53.560 --> 01:26:54.980]  accurate, and someone didn't write
[01:26:55.440 --> 01:26:57.760]  Tango Oscar Oscar on accident,
[01:26:57.760 --> 01:26:59.580]  they would spell Tango Oscar.
[01:26:59.760 --> 01:27:01.640]  So that's, when there's words like that,
[01:27:01.640 --> 01:27:04.080]  it's always important to make sure you spell those out.
[01:27:06.780 --> 01:27:07.260]  Very
[01:27:07.260 --> 01:27:09.340]  good, we'll leave this up here for a few seconds
[01:27:09.340 --> 01:27:11.580]  and go to Q&A.
[01:27:11.800 --> 01:27:13.200]  I guess let's go
[01:27:13.200 --> 01:27:15.300]  there now. So, let's
[01:27:15.300 --> 01:27:16.600]  go to the chats.
[01:27:17.480 --> 01:27:19.600]  Hit up Discord,
[01:27:19.600 --> 01:27:21.000]  Presentation Chat, or
[01:27:21.000 --> 01:27:23.600]  Twitch, and we'll get some questions.
[01:27:23.600 --> 01:27:25.240]  But I guess first,
[01:27:25.240 --> 01:27:27.380]  you wanted to go over questions from the
[01:27:27.380 --> 01:27:29.720]  video, so go ahead, Aaron.
[01:27:29.720 --> 01:27:31.420]  Oh, okay. All right, we had
[01:27:31.420 --> 01:27:32.940]  two that came up during that.
[01:27:33.640 --> 01:27:35.100]  First one,
[01:27:35.100 --> 01:27:37.080]  do you know if and how other local
[01:27:37.080 --> 01:27:39.120]  and section traffic nets discourage
[01:27:39.120 --> 01:27:40.920]  use of the Internet or
[01:27:40.920 --> 01:27:42.760]  national traffic system relay? So
[01:27:42.760 --> 01:27:45.120]  the heart of that question really is
[01:27:45.120 --> 01:27:46.840]  how does the Internet play
[01:27:47.520 --> 01:27:49.600]  in with relaying
[01:27:49.600 --> 01:27:51.140]  traffic? And I mean,
[01:27:51.140 --> 01:27:52.520]  you could think of that as
[01:27:53.140 --> 01:27:54.680]  Echo Link, or
[01:27:54.680 --> 01:27:56.840]  maybe if you're on All Star, or
[01:27:56.840 --> 01:27:59.120]  something like that, where you're leveraging
[01:27:59.120 --> 01:28:01.240]  the Internet for moving things.
[01:28:01.360 --> 01:28:03.100]  From the national traffic system
[01:28:03.100 --> 01:28:05.220]  side, we really want things
[01:28:05.220 --> 01:28:06.800]  to go over the air.
[01:28:06.800 --> 01:28:08.600]  We are preparing for
[01:28:09.620 --> 01:28:10.820]  when infrastructure
[01:28:10.820 --> 01:28:13.300]  is not available.
[01:28:13.520 --> 01:28:15.320]  And sometimes you get the pushback
[01:28:15.320 --> 01:28:17.780]  of, well, when will that really happen?
[01:28:18.020 --> 01:28:21.120]  And you know,
[01:28:22.400 --> 01:28:23.300]  T-Mobile,
[01:28:23.300 --> 01:28:24.520]  third party,
[01:28:25.000 --> 01:28:27.080]  had an issue on their end, and it disrupted
[01:28:27.780 --> 01:28:29.380]  cellular communications, essentially
[01:28:29.380 --> 01:28:30.740]  across the board.
[01:28:32.080 --> 01:28:33.300]  That's the scenario
[01:28:33.300 --> 01:28:35.160]  we're preparing for. And so
[01:28:35.160 --> 01:28:37.280]  if we get into the habit of,
[01:28:37.840 --> 01:28:39.220]  well, I've got to relay this traffic
[01:28:39.220 --> 01:28:41.340]  from Dallas to, you know,
[01:28:41.340 --> 01:28:43.580]  I don't know, Washington, or California, or
[01:28:43.580 --> 01:28:45.200]  Massachusetts, or something. And it's, well,
[01:28:45.200 --> 01:28:47.880]  I'll just hop on Echo Link and go over the Internet and do that.
[01:28:48.040 --> 01:28:49.320]  And we built that
[01:28:49.320 --> 01:28:51.180]  habit of, we're just going to use the Internet.
[01:28:51.180 --> 01:28:53.580]  And when things really do hit the fan,
[01:28:53.580 --> 01:28:55.320]  and we've got to go over the air,
[01:28:56.840 --> 01:28:57.460]  you kind
[01:28:57.460 --> 01:28:59.300]  of have to now start
[01:28:59.300 --> 01:29:00.960]  getting into that over-the-air
[01:29:00.960 --> 01:29:03.320]  HF handling. That's not the time we want
[01:29:03.320 --> 01:29:05.480]  to do that. We want to practice that now
[01:29:05.480 --> 01:29:07.580]  and build that muscle memory now
[01:29:07.580 --> 01:29:09.420]  so that when the event
[01:29:09.420 --> 01:29:11.360]  does happen, we can just flow
[01:29:11.360 --> 01:29:13.540]  into it and run with it.
[01:29:13.540 --> 01:29:15.360]  And by using HF now,
[01:29:15.360 --> 01:29:17.400]  if there is a
[01:29:17.400 --> 01:29:19.120]  piece of traffic that stalls or
[01:29:19.120 --> 01:29:20.960]  something like that,
[01:29:20.960 --> 01:29:22.940]  we can investigate and understand
[01:29:22.940 --> 01:29:25.020]  and improve the traffic system so that
[01:29:25.020 --> 01:29:27.160]  we're ready
[01:29:27.160 --> 01:29:29.140]  to roll when something does happen. If we
[01:29:29.140 --> 01:29:31.240]  try to shortcut that and use the Internet, well,
[01:29:31.240 --> 01:29:33.200]  I couldn't get over HF, so I just dived on the
[01:29:33.200 --> 01:29:35.100]  Internet. And we haven't really
[01:29:35.100 --> 01:29:36.780]  addressed what's going on.
[01:29:37.560 --> 01:29:39.120]  Internet, some
[01:29:39.120 --> 01:29:40.740]  independent traffic nets
[01:29:41.340 --> 01:29:43.280]  use Echo Link or things,
[01:29:43.280 --> 01:29:45.020]  but from the ARL side,
[01:29:45.020 --> 01:29:46.940]  we really wanted to move over the air to reflect
[01:29:47.220 --> 01:29:49.020]  a real-world situation type
[01:29:49.020 --> 01:29:49.860]  of thing.
[01:29:50.880 --> 01:29:53.100]  If that hopefully provides the clarity there,
[01:29:53.100 --> 01:29:54.440]  if there's something I can
[01:29:55.240 --> 01:29:57.140]  clarify a little further, feel free to
[01:29:57.140 --> 01:29:59.180]  throw it in the discussion.
[01:29:59.660 --> 01:30:00.940]  The other question we had
[01:30:00.940 --> 01:30:03.000]  was, international radiograms
[01:30:03.000 --> 01:30:04.380]  are always in English.
[01:30:05.440 --> 01:30:07.060]  For traffic originating
[01:30:07.060 --> 01:30:09.020]  in the U.S.,
[01:30:10.320 --> 01:30:10.840]  the
[01:30:10.840 --> 01:30:12.920]  common language that's over the air for us
[01:30:12.920 --> 01:30:14.760]  is English, because that's one of the
[01:30:14.760 --> 01:30:16.940]  common languages here in the U.S.
[01:30:16.940 --> 01:30:18.600]  If I had something that
[01:30:18.600 --> 01:30:21.180]  entered the system,
[01:30:21.180 --> 01:30:22.760]  let's say in Spanish, I'm in
[01:30:22.760 --> 01:30:24.740]  Dallas, that would be a good candidate
[01:30:24.740 --> 01:30:26.520]  for another language I might have.
[01:30:26.720 --> 01:30:28.880]  If I had no other option,
[01:30:28.880 --> 01:30:30.740]  I had no interpreters of
[01:30:30.740 --> 01:30:32.700]  things, and my
[01:30:32.700 --> 01:30:34.780]  quasi-Spanish skills could make it
[01:30:34.780 --> 01:30:36.160]  work, then
[01:30:37.100 --> 01:30:38.760]  I would try my
[01:30:38.760 --> 01:30:40.840]  best to try and make that move.
[01:30:40.840 --> 01:30:42.180]  Now, there's some
[01:30:42.840 --> 01:30:44.360]  assumptions that happen with that,
[01:30:44.360 --> 01:30:46.440]  that the people that get that along the way
[01:30:46.440 --> 01:30:48.040]  are going to be able to do the same thing.
[01:30:48.040 --> 01:30:50.320]  That's the risk when you
[01:30:50.840 --> 01:30:52.040]  start taking traffic
[01:30:53.120 --> 01:30:54.560]  in a language other
[01:30:54.560 --> 01:30:56.180]  than English.
[01:30:57.880 --> 01:30:58.520]  The thing
[01:30:58.520 --> 01:31:00.360]  has got to keep moving, and you have
[01:31:00.360 --> 01:31:02.420]  to move it within the system that really
[01:31:03.600 --> 01:31:04.360]  the majority
[01:31:04.360 --> 01:31:06.300]  of us are all speaking English.
[01:31:06.940 --> 01:31:08.380]  If you want to amplify that
[01:31:08.380 --> 01:31:10.060]  example even further, what if it was
[01:31:10.880 --> 01:31:12.360]  Chinese or Japanese
[01:31:12.360 --> 01:31:13.960]  or something, right?
[01:31:14.820 --> 01:31:16.480]  That just adds even more
[01:31:16.480 --> 01:31:17.940]  complexity to things.
[01:31:18.360 --> 01:31:20.420]  When we're moving traffic here
[01:31:20.420 --> 01:31:22.560]  in the U.S., and the national traffic system
[01:31:22.560 --> 01:31:24.200]  against U.S. and Canada,
[01:31:24.200 --> 01:31:26.220]  English is the language
[01:31:26.220 --> 01:31:28.220]  that's commonly used for that,
[01:31:28.220 --> 01:31:29.000]  and drives
[01:31:29.000 --> 01:31:32.340]  the very, very, very, very, very vast
[01:31:32.340 --> 01:31:34.420]  majority of traffic. I have not encountered
[01:31:34.420 --> 01:31:36.600]  anything that wasn't in English.
[01:31:36.600 --> 01:31:37.540]  And if it's headed to
[01:31:38.160 --> 01:31:39.880]  Peter in Germany,
[01:31:39.880 --> 01:31:42.140]  I know I've had some traffic from
[01:31:42.140 --> 01:31:44.400]  Great Britain, so it'll be English.
[01:31:44.580 --> 01:31:46.440]  But things moving in and out, it's
[01:31:46.440 --> 01:31:47.260]  English.
[01:31:49.560 --> 01:31:50.960]  Very good.
[01:31:51.700 --> 01:31:52.380]  Let's go
[01:31:52.380 --> 01:31:54.260]  to the chats. Twitch
[01:31:54.260 --> 01:31:56.560]  and Discord, everybody, throw your questions
[01:31:56.560 --> 01:31:58.360]  out there. We'll get
[01:31:58.360 --> 01:31:59.880]  Aaron to answer for us.
[01:32:03.600 --> 01:32:04.960]  I think the talk was so
[01:32:04.960 --> 01:32:06.680]  good, everything was answered.
[01:32:08.540 --> 01:32:09.440]  And then I think
[01:32:09.440 --> 01:32:11.280]  you had the two big questions just there, so
[01:32:12.340 --> 01:32:13.440]  we'll keep it open here
[01:32:13.440 --> 01:32:16.060]  for a minute. It is very...
[01:32:16.060 --> 01:32:17.460]  it's kind of like, okay,
[01:32:17.460 --> 01:32:19.120]  here's the fire hose, and
[01:32:19.120 --> 01:32:20.380]  enjoy.
[01:32:20.780 --> 01:32:22.860]  So I
[01:32:22.860 --> 01:32:24.300]  give this talk
[01:32:25.100 --> 01:32:27.480]  once a month. My next one is
[01:32:27.480 --> 01:32:29.080]  this coming
[01:32:29.080 --> 01:32:30.400]  Saturday.
[01:32:32.720 --> 01:32:33.680]  K8AMH.com
[01:32:33.680 --> 01:32:35.320]  forward slash events. I have
[01:32:35.320 --> 01:32:36.980]  some folks that take it a couple of times
[01:32:38.980 --> 01:32:39.380]  where
[01:32:39.380 --> 01:32:41.260]  the first time is,
[01:32:41.260 --> 01:32:43.180]  all right, I'm ready to be overwhelmed.
[01:32:43.460 --> 01:32:45.740]  And then you kind of have some time
[01:32:45.740 --> 01:32:47.780]  to kind of digest.
[01:32:48.060 --> 01:32:49.460]  But then come back
[01:32:49.460 --> 01:32:51.340]  to the next one, and you go, oh, yeah,
[01:32:51.340 --> 01:32:53.280]  I remember that. Or, oh, okay.
[01:32:53.280 --> 01:32:55.580]  It's just kind of the frame of reference changes.
[01:32:58.000 --> 01:32:59.520]  if this is kind of
[01:32:59.940 --> 01:33:01.060]  like, oh, my,
[01:33:01.060 --> 01:33:02.800]  holy crap, this is a bunch.
[01:33:04.120 --> 01:33:04.900]  You're welcome
[01:33:04.900 --> 01:33:07.440]  to jump back in again, of course, type of thing.
[01:33:07.880 --> 01:33:08.900]  There's definitely
[01:33:09.140 --> 01:33:10.620]  a lot to absorb.
[01:33:11.840 --> 01:33:12.780]  It's not something
[01:33:12.780 --> 01:33:14.880]  that's learned in 10 minutes. It's
[01:33:14.880 --> 01:33:16.900]  something that's built in time. That muscle memory
[01:33:16.900 --> 01:33:19.040]  gets built with time.
[01:33:20.060 --> 01:33:20.800]  Does this
[01:33:20.800 --> 01:33:22.720]  system get used for QSL
[01:33:22.720 --> 01:33:24.360]  card equivalent sometimes?
[01:33:24.740 --> 01:33:27.040]  Yes. We'll get traffic sometimes
[01:33:27.040 --> 01:33:28.460]  that, you know,
[01:33:28.460 --> 01:33:30.820]  great hearing you on HF
[01:33:30.820 --> 01:33:33.100]  or something along that line type of thing.
[01:33:33.880 --> 01:33:34.800]  Hope to hear from you
[01:33:34.800 --> 01:33:36.180]  again or those types of things.
[01:33:36.180 --> 01:33:38.680]  It's something
[01:33:38.680 --> 01:33:41.220]  that moves across the traffic system.
[01:33:42.220 --> 01:33:42.600]  We get
[01:33:43.580 --> 01:33:44.880]  those types of
[01:33:44.880 --> 01:33:46.200]  radiograms. We get the
[01:33:46.200 --> 01:33:48.360]  happy birthday, merry Christmas. We get the
[01:33:48.360 --> 01:33:50.780]  welcome to the hobbies or
[01:33:51.800 --> 01:33:52.660]  ask about
[01:33:52.660 --> 01:33:54.720]  areas in your area or those types
[01:33:54.720 --> 01:33:55.720]  of things.
[01:33:56.480 --> 01:33:58.480]  We've had a couple of things that we're doing here
[01:33:58.920 --> 01:34:00.620]  to help with generating
[01:34:00.620 --> 01:34:02.680]  some variety in traffic too that
[01:34:03.240 --> 01:34:05.020]  I can quickly mention. One's a
[01:34:05.020 --> 01:34:07.380]  trivia program where once a week
[01:34:07.460 --> 01:34:10.840]  there's a new question that comes up.
[01:34:10.840 --> 01:34:12.000]  And you
[01:34:12.000 --> 01:34:13.200]  can send in your answer for
[01:34:13.200 --> 01:34:15.080]  points and the points are just
[01:34:15.080 --> 01:34:17.600]  kind of, you know, why not? I'll get some statistics.
[01:34:17.600 --> 01:34:19.100]  But, you know, say
[01:34:19.100 --> 01:34:21.420]  you got five right in the last
[01:34:21.420 --> 01:34:24.380]  couple months or that type of thing.
[01:34:24.380 --> 01:34:26.120]  But you send your answers
[01:34:26.120 --> 01:34:27.160]  as radiograms to the traffic system.
[01:34:27.160 --> 01:34:29.660]  And I get
[01:34:29.660 --> 01:34:31.500]  to see how long it takes too. So it gives me some
[01:34:31.500 --> 01:34:33.400]  data points to say, well, how is this system working
[01:34:33.400 --> 01:34:35.360]  and did that take, you know, one day or
[01:34:35.360 --> 01:34:37.420]  two days? And on average it takes two days for things
[01:34:37.420 --> 01:34:39.040]  to move across the country.
[01:34:39.480 --> 01:34:41.400]  But if you get that occasional, why did that take
[01:34:41.400 --> 01:34:43.500]  two weeks? Then you have the opportunity
[01:34:43.500 --> 01:34:45.020]  to understand and
[01:34:45.600 --> 01:34:47.100]  try and improve things to
[01:34:47.720 --> 01:34:49.860]  make it better for next time type of thing.
[01:34:52.380 --> 01:34:53.480]  ntstrivia.com is the place
[01:34:53.480 --> 01:34:55.040]  for that one. And
[01:34:55.040 --> 01:34:57.260]  I also have a pen pal program
[01:34:57.260 --> 01:34:59.180]  where I kind of hook you up with another
[01:34:59.180 --> 01:35:01.200]  traffic handler and you kind of
[01:35:01.200 --> 01:35:03.200]  start the conversation of getting to
[01:35:03.200 --> 01:35:05.180]  know each other through radiograms
[01:35:05.180 --> 01:35:06.960]  type of thing. So it's exactly pen pals, except
[01:35:06.960 --> 01:35:09.000]  instead of letters in the mail, it's traffic
[01:35:09.000 --> 01:35:10.300]  through the traffic system. And
[01:35:10.900 --> 01:35:13.300]  that's at ntspenpal.com.
[01:35:13.300 --> 01:35:15.240]  I should probably put those
[01:35:15.240 --> 01:35:17.400]  addresses in the chat areas.
[01:35:17.720 --> 01:35:19.700]  Might be helpful.
[01:35:20.580 --> 01:35:21.200]  So why
[01:35:21.200 --> 01:35:23.180]  don't I do that? We'll throw that in chat
[01:35:23.180 --> 01:35:25.120]  and definitely include it in
[01:35:25.120 --> 01:35:26.980]  the metadata for the video.
[01:35:27.160 --> 01:35:29.280]  Thank you, Aaron. Thank you,
[01:35:29.280 --> 01:35:31.540]  Justin. I think we're out of time.
[01:35:32.060 --> 01:35:32.620]  Let's
[01:35:33.380 --> 01:35:35.160]  give a virtual round
[01:35:35.160 --> 01:35:37.800]  of applause. That was an amazing presentation.
[01:35:37.800 --> 01:35:39.840]  Definitely a lot to absorb.
[01:35:40.220 --> 01:35:41.260]  I hope this
[01:35:41.260 --> 01:35:43.120]  system gets used more. I'd definitely
[01:35:43.120 --> 01:35:45.160]  like to see some more radiograms
[01:35:45.160 --> 01:35:47.000]  in my local area.
[01:35:47.060 --> 01:35:49.540]  That's very great. Thank you.
[01:35:49.540 --> 01:35:51.140]  Perfect. Thanks, everybody. And if you have
[01:35:51.140 --> 01:35:52.340]  any questions, k8mh
[01:35:52.340 --> 01:35:54.300]  at arl.net. Feel free.
[01:35:54.480 --> 01:35:56.460]  Everyone have a great day.
[01:35:56.600 --> 01:35:57.020]  Thank you.