Foundations of Amateur Radio

If you've ever had the pleasure or misfortune to hear an on-air net, you might have considered, however briefly, how that net came to be, how it's run and what's involved behind the scenes to make it happen.

I host a weekly net called "F-troop". It's been running every week since the 12th of June in 2011. Since then I've made over 5000 contacts with stations scattered all over the globe. A typical net has about ten people, but depending on the weather, what's on TV or if people had a hard Friday night that number fluctuates. The biggest was about 40, the smallest just two.

At this point I could tell you that the infrastructure to make this happen, the preparation, management processes, network and marketing are what take up the bulk of my week. I mean, there might be a weekly stand-up between stakeholders on a Wednesday, a plan for the content, what to discuss, you know, the typical.

If I told you that, I'd be lying.

The reality is that F-troop is an organic animal. I generally get to my radio a couple of minutes before we start, midnight UTC, switch on, kerplunk the local repeater and wait for the clock to tick over.

I then launch into my opening spiel, something along the lines of: "Hi folks, it's me, it's F-troop, who's awake?"

After taking a few calls and logging them, I'll circulate through, call for more people, rinse and repeat.

There are two invisible things happening, one required, the other I do because I'm a computer geek. The required activity is logging. I chose to log in an online spreadsheet. It's helpful because it makes for a single place where all contacts are stored and it allows for others to host the net if I happen to fall off the air, either by being somewhere else, like a holiday every decade or so, or because my radio isn't being cooperative.

The other thing that logging gives you is a memory. I generally recall a person's name from their callsign, but if you listen closely you'll notice that every now and again I'll extend my babble so I can search for a callsign and appear not to be suffering from memory loss.

The other thing that happens is that I update the website. I'll be merrily adding articles from emails or discussion as it's happening. If someone mentions a product or a website, a callsign or a project, I'll often be searching for it in real time and adding it as a post to the F-troop website. That way people who want to refer back at a later time, that includes me, can search and find the thing that someone showed us.

As simple or as complex as that sounds, depending on your level of experience, it's really not rocket science. You can do this with pen and paper. I know, I've done it, standing in a car-park with a notepad, whilst dodging rain showers and preparing for a field-day. It's fun to test your skill and to get out of your comfort zone every now and again.

I should interrupt this story for a word from our sponsors. Don't have a kitten, we're not talking about advertising, we're talking about repeater and network operators who graciously give of their time and resources to link the main F-troop repeater to others around the world. The network of AllStar, Echolink, IRLP and IRN radios that carry F-troop is astonishing to me. We have regular participants all over Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. There have been contacts with stations in Asia and Europe.

For that to happen I don't do a single thing. Well, technically I let repeater operators know I exist and when it breaks, but that's pretty much the sum total of my efforts.

Why am I telling you this?

Last week it broke. My radio was acting up and someone commented on that. I handed over the reigns and let them at it. They were very unsure. I let them know that F-troop is for beginners. It's expected that people are going to make a mistake, I know I do, plenty of times.

It occurred to me afterwards that hosting a net can be scary. If you have no idea what's involved, how to make it happen, what to do, then hosting must be immensely daunting.

I hope that sharing how I do this will give you the confidence to host your own net in your own community. Perhaps you can tell me more about it, or come and visit F-troop. Saturday morning at midnight UTC. If you want I'll even help you host it.

I'm Onno VK6FLAB