The ESS Bulletin

May totals: QNI 340, per session 11.0 (Apr 10.4); QSP 34, per session 1.1 (Apr 1.4). Our earlier-than-expected QSY to 40 meters has made quite a difference; the net was sinking on 80 like the Titanic, and we're still in desperate need of traffic but things are otherwise good. Traffic pairs have had better results up the band than down, with more digital and SSB QRM below 7110. Every day is different, though; if you're NCS and have a moment before net time, test the waters. Several new and returning calls are on the roster, and it's wonderful indeed to see WB2GTG among them. Congratulations and thanks for their support of ESS to VE3FAS, WA3JXW, W2XS, K3YAK and AB2WB, this month's net-certificate recipients. An ESS certificate on card stock by postal mail has the sole requirement of 80 points in a calendar year. You earn one point every time you check in and a bonus point for serving as net control (scheduled or substitute); even without net-controlling, with a couple of checkins per week you're in like Flynn. June has begun with a nice little G4 geomagnetic storm as solar cycle number whatever-it-is seems to be nearing its peak. In my unscientific (and counterintuitive) experience, lower frequencies generally return sooner from a radio blackout than higher ones. Hopefully we won't have another G4 while the net is meeting on 40, but good old 3566 kHz may be usable if 7110 is not; I was able to operate on 80 later on June 1st in tolerable conditions--not great, but traffic could be cleared and that's the name of the game. Birthdays: June—EAN manager KW1U 8. July—VE3FAS 1 (Canada Day!) and VE3DCX 25. Additions and corrections, preferably by radiogram, are always welcome!

Now that waning propagation is less of a factor for the foreseeable future with our seasonal QSY to 40 meters (effective May 18th), it’s as good a time as any to check our understanding of net procedure and scale back any bad habits. Nets (especially independent nets) may have idiosyncratic practices, but ESS has always observed standard NTS procedure as much as possible. Net operation should combine courtesy and efficiency; thanking the NCS (for running the net, so I don’t have to do it?) is perhaps excessively courteous, although I’m guilty-as-charged of thanking checkins when net-controlling below the area level; the Eastern Area Net is very much a Beat the Clock situation! It’s reassuring, particularly to the signally-challenged among us, to hear R from a net control at the beginning of a check-in acknowledgment; without that R, we’re alerted of the need to repeat callsign and/or traffic.

At the beginning of a net, wait a beat before checking in if you’re QRU to give any stations with traffic a chance to check in first; it’s fine, though, to check in QRU if you can handle traffic already listed. Unlike NYS, its counterpart, New York traffic is listed on ESS by city or town. Out-of-state traffic is listed by the state’s two-letter postal abbreviation, easily distinguishing ON (the province of Ontario) from Ontario (the Wayne County town, across the eponymous Great Lake).

Net checkins are expected to stick around until excused, or the net is over; if you’re sent off frequency to clear traffic, you’re expected to alert the NCS you’re back (by sending your suffix) unless you’re told that you can secure (QNX) after the traffic is cleared. Good net procedure makes any net run smoother and faster—especially important in summer, when other activities await!

Amid my monthly what-do-I-write-about-this-time brain-wrack, an announcement arrived in my inbox about the June 1st introduction by Radio Relay International of the certified radiogram precedence. Since time immemorial, radiogram preambles have contained one of four precedences—EMERGENCY (always spelled out and a “net-stopper”, as W2MTA used to say), Priority (P), Welfare (W) and Routine (R). RRI is introducing a fifth precedence—Certified (C). Don't scoff, because much of its rationale makes sense.

Although the vast majority of messages we handle outside emergency-test exercises have borne the R precedence, experienced traffic-handlers are well aware that not all routine traffic is created equal. Mass-origination traffic, part of the system for decades, has ballooned in quantity to the point that traffic-handlers are vocally delighted to receive a "real radiogram". It's not just the impersonal, cookie-cutter monotony of the so-called spamgrams--they're notoriously difficult to deliver because their phone numbers are "harvested" (I love that term) from online databases which have themselves become notoriously inaccurate; try looking yourself or a family member up on one, and you'll realize that artificial intelligence is an oxymoron. This encourages poor procedure and—paradoxically—discourages net participation, since even the most dedicated traffic-handler doesn't drool in anticipation of having to originate and relay a fistful of non-delivery service messages. The new C precedence recognizes and encourages "real radiograms", the ones we got into traffic-handling to originate, relay and deliver. I don't agree with RRI's emphasis on the digital network for originating and relaying certified traffic; DTN seems to be an improvement on the AX.25 packet network (which could be an embarrassment), but any automated-forwarding system can break down unnoticed. The human-error oops-it-got-lost-in-the-pile factor, however, is eliminated.

The precedence of bulk traffic will continue to be R. I wouldn't like to see mass-origination traffic deprecated or marginalized, but its shortcomings can't be ignored and there's just too much of it. Certified radiograms rightly emphasize accuracy, timeliness and originality. Full information on the new C precedence is available at https://radiorelay.org/certified-radiogram-implementation/. When you receive a message with the precedence C, it's not a mistake; you're expected to do something with it as soon as possible and if you deliver it, it will probably be to a recipient who's grateful—not bemused!