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Weekly Nets
Special Event Nets
Emergency Nets
Simplex Nets
Winlink Nets
Weekly Nets
The MARC hosts the following weekly nets: (Note: dates and times are subject to change – please check our club calendar and home page for up-to-date info)
MTEARS Net – Mondays at 8PM Central Time. Our UHF repeater 443.175 is linked to the MTEARS network for their weekly net. All licensed Amateur Radio operators in the area are encouraged to participate.
MARC Weekly Club Net – Thursdays at 8PM Central Time on our VHF repeater. Our weekly informal club net. All licensed Amateur Radio operators are welcome to join the net – you do not have to be a MARC member to check in.
ARES Net – Sundays at 8:30PM Central Time on our VHF repeater. This is a net dedicated to emergency radio services. We take check-ins from licensed Amateur Radio operators in Maury and surrounding counties. You do not have to be a MARC or ARES member to check in.
The Experimenter’s Net – held monthly on the 2nd Saturday of the month at 8PM on the VHF repeater. For more information, visit the net blog. NOTE: this net has been suspended until further notice – we hope to resume it at a future date.
Special Event Nets
Talkin’ In The New Year Net – held every year December 31st on the VHF repeater, from 11PM to Midnight. Everyone that checks in with their Name & Call sign will receive a “Talkin’ the New Year Net Certificate”. We are continuing this Net in memory of Dale Adams, KA4ZDR (SK) who hosted it for many years.
Emergency Nets
Anytime there is an emergency situation or severe weather event (a National Weather Service Warning issued impacting the county), the VHF repeater will be used exclusively for an Emergency Net and will be under a Net Control Operator (NCO). All local observations are to be reported to this local VHF net. The Maury County MTEARS net liaison monitors this net during activation and relays information to the statewide MTEARS network. All VHF repeater traffic will go through the NCO until the emergency subsides and the NCO returns the repeater back to normal use.
To avoid overwhelming statewide emergency resources with traffic, do not use the UHF repeater when the statewide MTEARS network is activated. Per MTEARS emergency net activation procedures, the county liaison will handle all communications to the statewide network, including weather observations for the NWS.
Guidelines for Emergency Nets:
- Use phonetic callsigns for emergency net check-ins.
- When the Emergency Net is first activated, the NCO will ask for check-ins. Please give your Callsign, First Name, and Location slowly so the NCO can enter your information in the log.
- PLEASE refrain from discussion unrelated to the situation during these Nets.
- When giving your reports (ex: hail size, wind velocity, trees/power lines down, etc), you should be as accurate as possible. This information will be relayed to the National Weather Service in Nashville.
- If you need to leave the Net, please advise the NCO that you want to SECURE your station; the NCO will acknowledge you are leaving the net and log the time.
- SKYWARN or other emergency training is recommended.
Guidelines for Engaging Public Emergency Services:
(1) If phone service is operational and on hand, the person reporting the emergency should call emergency services as the person on scene is most capable of answering questions from dispatch. Utilize 911 for life threatening emergencies. Call the appropriate emergency agency or call 931-381-3190 to contact dispatch for non-life threatening reports.
(2) If the above is not possible, then the NCO will take the precise location, name, nature of the emergency and current conditions and maintain radio contact with the reporting station for relays. Then (in order):
- Call emergency services if phone service is available for the NCO.
- Identify a person on the net with phone service to call emergency services.
- Utilize direct radio communication to dispatch which is available to either the ARES Emergency Coordinator or the Assistant ARES EC.
Simplex Nets
In the event that there is a repeater outage during an emergency or a simplex net exercise, the backup net frequency is 146.55 MHz simplex (no offset or tone). In this case, the NCO will likely call one station in each of the other quadrants of the county (as defined in the weekly training net) to serve as relay stations so that all stations in the county can hear the NCO message and reports by all stations can be heard by the NCO.
Operation will proceed as follows: 1) The NCO will make any announcements and then call for check-ins from a county quadrant. Phonetic callsigns are essential for simplex operation! Check-ins heard by the NCO will be acknowledged. 2) The NCO will designate a relay station in the quadrant that can be heard clearly and will confirm that the relay station is willing to serve the role. Then the NCO will request that relay station repeat any announcement, request check-ins from stations not acknowledged by the NCO, and ask for any reports or emergency traffic for the net.
A sample script for a relay station:
This is [callsign and name] serving as relay in the _______ area of Maury County for net control. A WARNING has been issued for Maury County effective until :________ AM/PM. Are there any more check-ins not already acknowledged by Net Control? Please give your callsign and name now. Are there any damage reports or emergency traffic for Net control? [If so, obtain time, location, conditions, and callsign]
Net control, this is [callsign] relaying the following check-ins: [list callsigns and names]. No reports or emergency traffic heard. [If heard give info above].
Note: To assure all can be heard, take check-ins or relay traffic from any unacknowledged station you can hear whether or not it is in your quadrant.
Response from Net control: I acknowledge [list callsigns and names]. [Net control will also acknowledge any reports/traffic]
This process will repeat for the other two quadrants that do not include the NCO. As time passes new information becomes available, the NCO may request relay stations to repeat the new information in their quadrant, to request any new check-ins, and/or to request new reports following this same process. At any time, relay stations can/should call net control with new reports or traffic, check-ins, or check-outs not acknowledged by net control.If the emergency net is still active, relay stations should notify Net Control before going off air!
Simplex nets are practiced the first Sunday of each month. Participants meet on the repeater per the normal schedule. Once the preamble is complete, the NCO instructs participants to move to the simplex frequency where net check-ins are taken per this simplex net procedure.
Winlink Nets
In the event of a local loss of internet connectivity, amateur radio can serve a valuable emergency service by providing document transfer using Winlink technology. A goal of Maury County ARES is to develop and maintain a capable and competent group of Winlink capable amateur radio operators in Maury County and surrounding counties. A secondary goal to this is to cultivate both the capability and practical knowledge of Winlink capabilities in our local emergency services organizations so that the capability can be utilized effectively when need arises. To support these goals, a local Winlink net has been established to both provide practice in using the tools AND to serve as a development laboratory for procedures that can be used effectively when there is no internet service.
Winlink nets are held weekly and offer two ways and multiple modes to check in. The first way to check-in is to drop a check-in message to KM4D on a gateway anytime between Friday and Sunday at 6:30 Central Time. The second way is to make a Peer to Peer (PtP) connection with KM4D between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM Sunday evenings and transfer the check-in message directly. Everyone is encouraged to practice as many modes (Gateways, Peer to Peer, VARA HF, VARA FM, telnet, etc.) as possible by changing them up from week to week. Check-in messages must include the following: Callsign, Net Date (same as voice net date), and mode used.
Peer to Peer session optimization is a work in progress. Please adhere to the following to facilitate:
- Because of propagation variability and band traffic, Peer to Peer net frequencies can vary and change during the net. To deal with this for training nets, the 147.12 MHz, W4GGM repeater will be utilized to coordinate traffic. For those not able to hit the repeater by radio, it can also be accessed using AllStarLink which is easy to set up on a smart phone.
- In order for everyone to have a chance in the time allotted, please use plain text messages without forms for Peer to Peer Check-ins.
- Please use 500 Hz as the bandwidth setting for PtP. This will make it a lot easier to find a clean slot on the band.