The ESS Bulletin

December totals: QNI 300, per session 9.7 (Nov 10.0); QSP 53, per session 1.7 (Nov 1.2). Checkins were down a bit (perhaps because of the season), but I hope we can sustain the bump-up in traffic. Please remember the Golden Rule and listen for our weaker-signal members--now is not the time, God knows, for antenna work--and relay them into the net as needed. It's easy--just send your suffix (as usual) to attract the net control's attention; when they repeat your suffix, send QRZ followed by whatever checkin letter you hear or make an educated guess if you have a pretty good idea who they are--a fist can be as distinctive as a voice. The NCS will probably ask you to call the net, since you can hear what they can't. Relay stations in as follows: WI2G (or whoever)/QRU. We welcome W2XS as the new Sunday net control, and thank N2TQT and VE3FAS very much for their help; we also welcome longtime WNY STM KA2GJV as manager of 2RN/745. After managing two nets for 16 years, something had to go here. It was good to hear that W2ITT is returning from his work-related hiatus and will be able to resume his other Sunday skeds, which KT2D and N2TQT have been covering to save my sanity as the Sunday Eastern Area Net NCS. Bill (K3ZYK) is trustee of W3SNN, the IEEE UPJ Mountain Cat ARC. The space cadets continue to creep down from the nominal digital band edge of 3570 kHz, so it's probably best for net controls to send traffic pairs down 3 or 5 kHz; the Michigan QMN net meets on 3563 at 6:30, so only send stations down 3 kHz early in our session; otherwise, down 5 is best. The Carolinas Net is hanging in there on 3572 at 7 pm, however, so nothing is carved in stone. Congratulations and thanks to Scott, W2LC, this year's final net-certificate recipient. Birthdays: January—VE3NUL 7, WA2YOW 18 and WI2G (who always loves to see more traffic) 30. February—--WA3JXW 1, K2NPN 8, K2TV 12, VE3MVM 15, N3AAK 26 and W2XS 27. Additions and corrections, preferably by radiogram, are always welcome!

Few things are more disheartening than a Blank Page to Fill, especially after a three-day ice storm followed by yet another windstorm of historic proportions (I, and I'm sure many others, have had it up to here with climate change) and the usual sideways lake-effect snow; unlike my better half (a playwright and novelist), Creative Writing is anything but for me. So I was glad to tuck into the latest issue of Radio Relay International's QNI, which is available at h https://radiorelay.org/files/2025/11/QNI-2025-12-1-F-A.pdf.

Like many other traffic-handlers, I had heard of a radiogram portal. I've also recently received messages which were incorrectly formatted, and churlishly blamed the blankety-blank portal. Turns out I may have been right, but for a different reason than I'd supposed. Page 21 of the December QNI has a very good article by Marcia, KW1U, explaining how the radiogram portal is designed to work and detailing how to use it. The portal has two sides—a public-facing one, and an in-house one for us traffic-handlers. The public-facing side (accessible at https://nts2.arrl.org/radiogram/ ) is well-designed and user-friendly; anyone wanting to send a radiogram simply fills in the blanks, (optionally) previews their message, and submits it for relay. Not just anyone can pull a submitted message off the portal and enter it into the traffic network; it's necessary to submit a Google form (linked at https://nts2.arrl.org/radiogram-portal-quick-start/) and be certified—by whom, I don't know—as a password-protected Portal Radiogrammer.

This raises a couple of issues. The incorrectly-formatted radiograms I received indicate that the portal-radiogrammer vetting process may need a tweak or two. The GIGO factor (garbage in, garbage out) may be at play, as well; do radiograms submitted with significant information omissions bounce back for correction, or does anything go? If the latter, there needs to be a mechanism in place for contacting the sender later for any necessary "fills".

2RN/630 (6:30 pm daily on 3926 kHz; K3YAK is the net manager) assistant manager WB2JNQ advised in mid-December that he had received a message with HXC handling instructions (Delivering station report date and time of delivery to originating station) and an ARL FORTY SEVEN text (Your message number ___ delivered on ___ at ___ UTC) from the portal. KW1U reported that HXC was a portal default which has since been corrected. Although the radiogram portal can be a welcome substitute for the message-booth-at-the-fair of yore, we shouldn't entrust traffic generation to artificial intelligence (which is an oxymoron anyway). It's a common misconception that every radiogram requires one (or more) handling instructions, but an intelligently-used handling instruction can make life easier for delivering station and recipient alike. The updated handling-instruction and numbered-radiogram lists are available to download and print (probably a good idea; the radiogram list is color-coded) on the ARRL and RRI websites.

As mentioned here several months ago, RRI has introduced a Certified precedence as an antidote to bulk (mass origination) traffic--a lower precedence than Welfare, and higher than Routine. (I don't know if the ARRL is on board with the C precedence since its rapprochement with RRI, and trust that the precedence won't be confused with HXC above.) Another source of confusion may be with RRI's Certified Radio Operator (CRO) program, which is separate from the Certified precedence; any traffic handler can originate a qualifying message with the C precedence. According to RRI's rollout of the precedence late last spring (available on its Publications page), the difference between certified and routine traffic is roughly analogous to the postal difference between a greeting card and junk mail. The contact information for an addressee is expected to be as accurate as possible. Online lookup pages are notoriously, laughably inaccurate, and I've attempted to deliver more than one new-ham radiogram to the bemused parent of offspring who had flown the nest years before.

Mass-origination traffic has been a double-edged sword; what it contributes to traffic volume is, in my opinion, negated by a certain "yeah, well, whatever" ethos it has encouraged (not introduced) in the system; I stayed in traffic-handling after a birthday message to my sister disappeared in a neighboring state almost 40 years ago. Certified messages are a giant step in the right direction, but they have a few caveats. DTN (Digital Traffic Network) relay is encouraged, requiring a zip or postal code. Messages require a time of origin to ensure delivery within 48 hours no matter what, which used to be strongly encouraged for all traffic. Certified traffic is a much-needed shot in the arm for a system which has become complacent and untrustworthy.