NTS Traffic Handling
History of the National Traffic System
ARL Prosigns & Handling Instructions
What is the national traffic system? It is a vast network of
nets which operate at different levels, but in an organized and
systematic manner. The U.S. and Canada are divided up into 3
areas, the pacific, central and eastern areas. The structure of
the areas is all the same. All 3 areas have their representative
nets, that being the region, section, and local nets. Lets
examine the pacific area and trace a message through the system.
Messages usually begin at the local level. Examples of local nets
are the Northwest Oregon Traffic and Training Net and the
District 1 ARES net. These nets serve cities and communities,
that is, a very local area. The traffic will be picked up by what
are known as liaison stations. These are nothing more then
stations who relay traffic from one level of NTS to the next.
Our message now sits at the section level. Section nets usually
cover a whole state or if the population is low, several states.
Examples of nets here are the Beaver State Net, OARES net and
Idaho-Montana net. Once again, liaison stations will relay
traffic from the section net to the region net.
These region nets cover an even wider scope. They usually cover a
whole call area and or several states such as the seventh region
which consists of five states and parts of Canada. An example
here are the RN7 and DRN7 nets. The US and Canada are divided up
into 12 regions.
From the region net, liaisons will relay the message to the
highest level of the NTS that being the area net. These nets
cover the largest area of which there 3 roughly correlating with
the 3 time zones of the US and Canada.
How do the messages get relayed between areas? This is the
function of special liaison stations known as the
transcontinental corp or TCC. These highly trained stations move
traffic primarily by high speed Morse code. These stations do not
meet in a net setting, but during a schedule worked out by the
TCC directors of which there are six, two for each area.
Once traffic is exchanged amongst TCC stations, these stations
report into their respective area nets and the traffic is
disseminated down to the region nets and further down the line.
Most traffic in the NTS is relayed via phone or cw. The phone
nets operate primarily during the day and cw nets at night.
There is an HF digital long haul network, but it is not
coordinated and is unreliable at this time.
Traffic can also be passed via packet, but until we have complete
accountability and responsibility on the part of all BBS sysops,
packet traffic remains unreliable in that the message can linger
on the BBS for days or weeks and be lost forever in the digital
"black hole."
On an editorial note, I'd like to say a few words about
forwarding traffic via e-mail. In a word, don't. I highly
discourage and frown on the practice of relaying traffic via
e-mail. This policy is concurred with myself by our section
traffic manager for Oregon, Dave WA7EES, and is in fact mandated
by him as official section policy. E-mail forwarding starves
other nts nets of traffic. Furthermore this deprives other nts
members the opportunity to participate in a team environment.
Each level of nts relies on the next. The concept of teamwork
provides an efficient and coordinated means for relay of third
party traffic as mandated by the guidlines of the ARRL National
Traffic System.
Also, we are in the radio communications business as provided for
by our licenses for which we worked so hard to get.
Last Updated: September 13, 2001