The ESS Bulletin    August 2008

 The Pete Gellert W2WSS Memorial Net

The Empire Slow Speed Net Founded 1955 by K2DYB meets Daily at 6PM Local Eastern time on 3576 kHz

Anne Fanelli, WI2G, Manager

541 Schultz Road

Elma, New York 14059

(716) 652-6719
E-mail wi2g@yahoo.com

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

K2ABX WA2YOW WE2G W2RBA WB2GTG KB2ETO WI2G

JULY ROSTER

AA2JI Duane Rushford 1                                                                                    W2RBA Joe Mount Vision 30
AB2WB Pat Ithaca 14                                                                                           WA2IAX Jim Sidney 6
AK2E Hal Middle Grove 9                                                                                    WA2WMJ J B Pine Bush 8
AK2Z Doug Camden 1                                                                                          WA2YOW C J Staten Island 5
K2ABX Paul Apalachin 26                                                                                   WB2GHH Jack Vestal 6
K2DYB Nat Verona 2                                                                                             WB2YOR Tom Clifton Park 10
K2MMW Bill Milford                                                                                            WI2G Anne Elma 16
K2TV Bob Copiague 9                                                                                           KA1GWE Ann Fairfield CT 9
KA2YDW Barry Staten Island 1                                                                          KB1MGL Doug Northfield NH 1
KB2ETO Bill Dryden 15                                                                                         N1JX Arnold Roseland NJ 23
KC2SKI Bob Latham 19                                                                                         NG1A Fred Milton MA 3
KD2LE Rick South Glens Falls 1                                                                          W1LUH Joe Stamford CT 19
N2QZ Nick Carmel 1                                                                                               W2JG Joe Waldwick NJ 25
N2SKP Shirley Verplanck 5                                                                                   WB2GTG Bill Easton PA 19
N2UC John Holland Patent 7                                                                                KW3U Jim Matamoras PA 1
N2YHQ Marcelo Penfield 8                                                                                   WA3YLO Tony Bowie MD 1
W2FJB Ray Richford 2                                                                                          AB8CR Steve Tinner WV 1
W2MTA Bill Newark Valley 5                                                                              KA8WNO Jack Coalton WV 4
W2PL Phil Malone 9                                                                                              VA3EE Joseph Beeton ON 14

July Totals: QNI 422, per session 13.6 (Jun 11.9); QSP 49, per session 1.6 (Jun 1.6). Checkins are up,
which is good; traffic is the same which is, alas, less good. A net without traffic is...well, boring! Thanks to
Chet, AB4XK, and WB2GTG for informing me that Gail Heinzman (K2BCL) has moved from Florida to the
Lone Star State. Gail's new address is 6701 Tezel Oaks, San Antonio TX 78250 tel 210 437 0687, and I'm sure
he'd love to get a radiogram from you. Birthdays: August—W1LUH (94 years young!) 1, W2YGW 7, W2PL
8, K2ABX 9, W2RBA 12, K2DYB 16, WB2YOR 22 and NB2D 28. September—WE2G 19 and N2AKZ 26.
Additions/corrections, as always, to Suzi Sunshine whose slip-up for this month—last month, actually—was to
inexplicably assign W2PL two birthdays and W2RBA none (sigh...Joe's [see above] is August 12th). Due to
family and work obligations, N2QZ is stepping down from all his managerial/NCS/liaison duties effective
September 8th . We'll miss him, and Nick promises to be QRV as time permits. This creates some vacancies at
the section/region/area net levels, as well as an opening for a new NYS/E manager; that net is dear to me, since
I managed it for eight years back in the '90s. Please let your respective NMs know if you're able to help (and
managing a net isn't that much more difficult than serving as net control). Congratulations to W2JG on
receiving a net certificate this month, in what seems like record time since Joe's annual return north. Sorry to
read in the NJ Traffic Bulletin that W2QNL has joined Silent Keys after a period of ill health; Lee was a
mainstay on EAN, 2RN and the Garden State nets when I got started and a kind, considerate mentor on CW.


Handling Instructions (as promised)


Many messages (not all) include handling instructions in the preamble—after the precedence (usually
[R]outine), and before the station of origin. They can certainly be overused--as, with clenched teeth, we grimly
copy our sixth HXCE FCC-database message of the day or worse yet, of the net--but when intelligently used
can act both as a barometer of the health of the traffic-handling network and help in sustaining that network.

Until fairly recently, the most commonly-used handling instruction was HXG (basically, no need to mail
or make a long-distance call). With postage rapidly approaching four bits a pop, and with the proliferation of
unlimited-within-the-US calling plans, HXG has assumed a super-routine subtext when it is still used. Treat it
as Routine; realistically speaking, nobody expects you to mail any more and if your phone service is modest,
just service the message back with a NO OUTLET (I know it's an admission of defeat, but we can only do the
possible) if you can't move it along any other way. A dead-end service message is far preferable to never
knowing, for sure, what happened to that birthday greeting for dear Aunt Sally (and that's no lie; it was
precisely a never-delivered message to my late sister Clare many years ago that kept me in traffic-handling!)

In recent years, much mass-origination traffic has borne handling instructions—usually HXC,
sometimes HXCE (and that dit, God knows, can be often missed in summer static). HXC requests a message
reporting date and time of delivery to the station of origin. HXCE (two--or more--handling instructions are
combined, without a space or a slash) requests, in addition to date and time of delivery, a reply from the
addressee. Traditionally, this has meant two messages—one from the delivering station reporting TOD and a
second, originated by the delivering station, from the addressee. Since FCC-database traffic is relatively
impersonal, though, and given the vagaries of HF propagation—summertime, at the bottom of the sunspot cycle

(i.e. now) is about as bad as it gets—most delivering stations kill two birds with one stone (God, I hate that
phrase): ARL FORTY SEVEN 1211 JONES KC2ABC JUL 18 2147 ADDRESSEE SAYS THANKS.
If you've handled traffic from Joe, VE3SCY in Ontario, you're familiar with HXF. HXF, followed by a
number, means “Hold delivery until (date)”--the number, of course, corresponds with the date. These can be a
pain...er, challenge; we're so accustomed to delivering messages within a day or so of receipt that a message
needing to be held for three or four days (or more) can easily fall into the Wrong Pile. So keep special track of
any HXF messages you may have on the line and if I were originating one, I'd probably drop it into the system
3-4 days prior to the requested delivery date and think good thoughts.

The last three handling instructions are rarely used indeed but it's good to know them anyway, just in
case. In 20 years of traffic-handling, I've never seen an HXA--”(followed by number) Collect landline delivery
authorized by addressee within ___ miles. (If no number, authorization is unlimited.)” The sea change in
telephone service (not to mention the stratospheric cost of once-affordable services like collect calls) has
rendered it, like HXG, essentially obsolete. HXB (also followed by a number--”Cancel message if not
delivered within ___ of filing time; service originating station.”) is, in my view, underused; it's handy for the
routine message with a time limit—an important message with a time limit would have Priority precedence—
and as a test of the system as a whole. HXD, on the other hand, is a test of the individual components of the
system—us! It's the dreaded tracer instruction--”Report to originating station the identity of station from which
received, plus date and time. Report identity of station to which relayed, plus date and time, or if delivered
report date, time and method of delivery.” Whew. While it's irksome—not to say embarrassing—to discover
that your HXF birthday greeting to Aunt Sally in California took three days to exit the second region, for the
benefit of the traffic network it's good to know what parts of it need work.

Whatever method you use to copy traffic (if you're a poor typist like me, the back of ordinary 8 1/2by-
11 paper, torn in half widthwise, is about the same size as ARRL radiogram forms) it's good to note when
(and from whom) you get it and when (and to whom) you send it. You never know when you'll get that HXD,
but no need for voluminous record-keeping; anything older than a month can be safely discarded.