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W1GMF > NTS 11.10.07 14:05l 648 Lines 27276 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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To : NTS@WW
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³ BRASS POUNDERS' QUARTERLY ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
An Electronic NEwsletter of the ARRL National Traffic System
Richard WEbb, nf5b, editor
PUBLISHED BY TRAFFIC HANDLERS FOR TRAFIC HANDLERS
Volume I Issue 1
COpyright 2007 by THe ARRL National Traffic SYstem
Contents
Editor's corner
NTS news briefs
From the editor's email inbox
General articles: DO they know their resources?
NTS outreach: The message fair, new tricks for old dogs
HOw to submit an article
Where to get BPQ
*A note to over-the-air bbs operators:
IF you receive this file via email in plaintext please make it
available to users of your systems. For consistency name the file bpq
followed by the volume and issue number. FOr example, the
first issue is volume 1 issue 1, so the file name would be
bpq-0101.txt etc.
IF you do not have the capability of making it a retrievable file
please make it a user accessible bulletin.
THIs electronic newsletter is free to all who may wish to
receive it. YOu may upload it to bulletin board systems; ftp sites etc. so
long as no fees are charged for access to it. INdividual articles
retain the copyright of the author.
Editor's corner
SInce this is the first issue of brass pounders' quarterly you're
reading I thought it might be an idea to tell you why I thought it
necessary to start an NTS publication. I also thought it might be
nice to tell you a bit about how you can help me make it
informative to your fellow traffic handlers.
First let's address why an NTS specific publication. Less time and
attention is spent on NTS than any other aspect of the hobby when
it comes to ARRL HQ and the production of QST. OTher than some dry
stats there's virtually nothing at all except an op-ed or a little
blurb here and there.
THis is not a decision taken blindly by the folks at HQ. THough
many of us don't like to see it, traffic handling is no longer
part of mainstream ham radio though Many of us think it still should
be.
Events like Katrina bring out numerous operators without this
vital training component, and it shows. IN fact, it loomed large
in my view during Katrina and its aftermath when I had to become a
teacher on the spot just to get my traffic handled for two hospitals in
NEw Orleans that I served.
There are good operators still
handling traffic regularly and many of us have the same complaints
and concerns. We want to encourage newcomers to get proper
training in traffic handling. We want to see the public actually
utilize NTS more which is a challenge in these days of high speed
internet and free or nearly so long distance telephone.
Quality third party traffic promotes good training, and proper
operating habits are fostered when it is available regularly.
All these factors taken together indicate that NTS needs to do a
bit more polishing of its public image. To accomplish it, a
brainstorm I had one evening has turned into the Brass POunders'
quarterly which you're now reading.
A quarterly seems to be about right for NTS in my opinion. We can
provide some information to traffic handlers well in that time span
taking special note of seasonal changes etc. THis way your editor
has some time to actually put together an issue which will provide
you useful information and be enjoyable to read. With that in mind
here's what I'd like from you, the reader and regular traffic
handler.
WE're not interested in publishing the same old dry stats
about how many check-ins, how many pieces of traffic, etc. I'm
interested in hearing from tcc directors; net managers; and section
traffic managers however. I'd like to hear from you about how your
nets are doing, average check-ins per session maybe or other facts you
deem worthy of attention and publication. SUch items as notes on
silent keys or new stations taking tcc assignments will be welcome,
and a news briefs section immediately follows this space just for
this material.
IF you MUST send me mnonthly reports please cut and paste the text
into an email, no file attaches unless they are straight text files
please.
Tell us about interesting things you've done to promote traffic
handling such as message fairs etcetera.
Our purpose is training and service to the public. These days both
have been getting short shrift from leaders in the amateur radio
community. With some work we can change this for the better.
See the HOw to submit an article section later in this issue for
guidelines on article submission formatting etc.
You'll note I authored every piece in this issue. THese were
originally destined for other publications, but I decided to
publish them here first. As you'll note from the where to get BPQ
section at the end of each issue club newsletter editors and others
are welcome to reproduce this material so long as BPQ and the author
of any materia reproduced is credited.
73 de nf5b
NTS NEWS BRIEFS
Frank Thrash, w4dlz has been relocated to FLorida from Louisiana for
quite some time now so has recently resigned as manager of
LCW net. He will still remain active as an ncs for this net
as well as perform his regular duties on region 5 and other
nets. Frank will also retain his position on central area
staff as a member at large.
---
Daytime NTS in central area needs a real shot in the arm.
Both regions 9 and 10 are scarce on central area net daytime,
and most days one cannot even find a region net on their regularly
posted frequencies at the scheduled times. Can daytime also needs
net controls and tcc stations desperately.
If you're interested in volunteering for a daytime TCC position contact
Dave Knight, w4zjy at 4_wzjy@mindspring.com.
---
On a related note to the second item above:
Earlier this year longtime traffic handler Karl Koppelman, wa0tfc
suffered a stroke. At last report he was residing in a nursing home
and unable to do anything with ham radio. He still is quite
glad to hear from his ham radio colleagues. Send cards and letters to him at:
Room 214B.
Benedictine Living Community Home Of St. Pete
1907 Kline Street
St. Peter MN, 56082.
---
From the editor's email inbox
A sampling of both positive and negative feedback we receive here
at BPQ from time to time will appear in BPQ.
WE welcome your comments suggestions and items for publication.
THe editor reserves the right to edit letters to fit available
space. Even though we're an electronic newsletter, we're not trying to
write a book. Honest folks <grin>.
NOw, on with the mail.
We haven't even put the first issue to bed yet at BPQ and already
some items for this space.
From: KB0OFD in MIssouri:
Greeting's! My call is KB0OFD and the name is Gary. Nice to meet
you. I run a MSYS Packet BBS in Forsyth, MO. I would be more than
happy to pass your newsletter on packet network. I would like to
see the NTS Traffic more often on the BBS. I like your ideas and
think it would be worth a shot. Am glad Dave forwarded your email
to me. Again nice to meet you...
And you as well Gary, hope you enjoy the newsletter.
From: Rodney Baker in TExas
I was inactive for 15 years from 1991 to 2006. When I became active =
again, I could not believe the changes that had taken place. There is =
very little traffic anymore. Just "renew your license" or "join a slow =
speed cw net" etc. It is a pleasure to receive a message from someone to =
someone else saying happy birthday, congratulations on the new baby or =
whatever.
Appreciate the comments ROdney. I remember back in the '70's
hearing the messages sent out advising concerned parents that a new
recruit just arrived safely at the Marine COrps recruiting Depot in
SAn DIego CA. Lots of phone patches for the troops in those days too.
A far cry from that, and hopefully we can all do something about
that. WE can all start by not coming to our section or region net
empty handed at least once per week. Bring a piece of real
third party traffic to the net at least once per week! IT's been
said that you don't show up at a potluck dinner without bringing a
contribution, your traffic net should be looked at in the same
manner. THat's how we get to provide real training for the newcomers!
And finally, this from NEw JErsey:
K2UL writes:
We already do this in New Jersey - it's called the NJ Traffic Bulletin =
and it's available on the web. Expanding to a national NTS newsletter =
by collecting the "best" from local newsletters might be one way to go. =
But using ftp and telnet, yucch. A pdf file on a web page is the way =
to go in the 21st century.
WE're talking a little wider distribution than New Jersey, but
thanks anyway.
As for your other comment, there are many reasons for the choice of
machine readable plain text. There are still lots of packet and
pactor systems out there, and machine readable will benefit those
folks.
Now my other rationale: I'm not playing with page layouts and all
that stuff, I'm distributing information, not pretty. That's the
first part, keep my workload down, after all I'm a man with a life
away from a radio as well. Back in the day when I edited a high
school newspaper I had time for all that. These days between
business and other life responsibilities I don't. However, a plain
text newsletter can be formatted and handled via email from
wherever I happen to be because of business.
There's an even stronger rationale though and it has everything to
do with the pdf format itself.
Being a blind man I must use text to speech or braille. Often pdf
format files will not display properly using such technologies,
often they display nothing usable at all, even with the so-called
accessibility plug-in.
When this occurs there's one choice you have. That's to print
the darned thing out and run it through optical character
recognition after scanning the pages.
Now I don't know about you, but I've done plenty of messing with
optical character recognition, and so far I'm unimpressed.
I see at least one braille magazine every month whose producers
used OCR to get the text imported for brailling, and the amount of
errors boggles the mind. Before my after the hurricane house fire
in SLidell I had a flatbed scanner and accompanying OCR software,
and though it has gotten me access to material I couldn't have used
without it the amount of editing I had to go through to get a
useful reference work was a drain on my time.
OFten it required somebody else with the doccument i scanned being available
to help me fix the errors introduced by the software.OCR is not
as intelligent as people think, yet.
Now any real traffic handler knows why CW is an often superior mode
over SSB due to errors creeping in during transmission and
retransmission of a message. Consider OCR in the same light, and
you'll understand my aversion to using it for a task such as
editing and compiling information for such a publication as this.
I'm not going to help kill a bunch of trees just to have to clean up
the output of OCR software for an hour or two and then guess at what
I'm reading. AFter all this work, I still get to dispose of all the
paper.
IF you want to submit items for publication do it in
plaintext please. I get to throw away enough adobe format stuff
sent to my email address. It especially gripes one when one knows
that most of this stuff came from a word processor, i.e. machine readable
text.
And for k2ul, you're welcome to utilize anything you find useful
from this publication, if you care to read it. SO you don't
care for telnet and ftp. That's fine. IF you're on packet
chances are your eastern area pactor nTSD hub will have this
quarterly available and it will make its way into the packet
system. I know you folks have quite an extensive packet network
out your way. IF not, I'm sure others will appreciate it even if
you're not interested. IF you wish to play with page layouts and
conversions of this publication to adobe acrobat, have at it, but a
plaintext machine readable format will be what is produced from
here. IF anybody wishes to convert it to another format to
display on a web site they're welcome to it. I make no money
from this, and will take the time to edit and compile these quarterly
newsletters just to put information in the hands of folks
interested in traffic handling, especially folks using ssb and cw.
IF it isn't modern enough for you that's fine with me.
"modern" is killing the essential skills so-called emergency
communicators should have because nobody teaches and fosters them
anymore. WHen the stuff hits the fan and the infrastructure dumps
its the op who can use ssb and cw to get the message sent accurately
that will be in short supply while everyone else stares at their plastic infrastructure
based tools that now are little more than expensive paperweights.
THe newer tools have their place to be sure, but some recent
disasters give us good examples of what happens when they fail.
TO quote an old saw I got from somewhere on the internet, "when
the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail."
ARticles
DO they know their resources?
By Richard WEbb, nf5b
Central area net cycle two manager
OPerations manager: Radio REscue NEt
I'll bet you just about everyone reading this is involved in some
way with their local ares group or other emergency response
organization as well as their other radio activities. IN these
other groups we hear a lot about what vhf/uhf frequencies are to be
used for what type of traffic or which net. WE're told regularly
where our local packet and other digital systems can be found on
vhf and uhf. This is good because it keeps the newcomers in the
loop, if they're paying attention.
Yet with all these newcomers to the hf bands I'd be willing to bet
that most couldn't tell you how to find their section or region
traffic net if they needed to. THey might tell you that it's
somewhere on 80/75 or 40 meters but that's probably as far as they
could specify, if they know at all.
The time for these newcomers to become familiar with these
resources and where to find them isn't when suddenly that newcomer
to hf is the only outlet your group might have for important
traffic to your state emergency management agency or that batch of
health & welfare messages from the shelter. The time for that
newbie to get clued in is before he needs to use it.
OUr ares group turns in a report every Monday evening to the sec
detailing how many stations participated in the previous week's
ares net, and how many of those stations are on the role as ares
members. FOr quite awhile one person was taking these reports to
the MOnday night combined section and ares net. NOw we've started
asking for volunteers to do it. YET I don't think that many
newcomers are stepping up to volunteer.
Maybe having these on the local list will get
us more volunteers.
DOes your ares group list these frequencies along with all these
local frequencies? does your ares group do regular training in
message handling? OUrs does. we also know who we can call on if
we actually need to use cw to move traffic that can do the job.
IF not, suggest to your group's leadership that such resources be
included or located if unknown. YOU might have an oldtimer who
checks into his cw traffic net regularly. said oldtimer might not
even have a vhf or uhf rig that can get on the local nets. When you
find him you can always resurrect an older mobile, help him get a
homebrew antenna up, slip a tone board in said old mobile and get
him on with the locals. He might be that go-to guy you need when
the stuff hits the fan.
NTS OUTREACH
The message fair, new tricks for old dogs
By Richard Webb, nf5b
Manager: Central area net cycle two
Operations manager: Radio Rescue Net
WHEn you read the editorial section in this issue you saw my
comment that NTS hasn't been well promoted by the amateur
community. HERe's a look at one way this can be remedied.
IN days of old when ham radio was demonstrated at a booth for a
fair or trade show the "send a free radiogram" booth was a staple
of these demonstrations and displays.
These days with cheap or free long distance calling and the
ubiquitous cellular phone a lot of people probably won't show much
interest. AT least, on the surface that's how it looks. YET
you'll catch plenty of interest if you follow some of these
guidelines and your display will definitely be memorable.
First: Push the emergency communications angle. Set your display
up as you might a type two arct. or emergency field station if
you're not familiar with the term.
Now before we even get started, forget the laptop computer and the
winlink modem for the public display part. HERe's why:
IF you don't, folks might have doubts that their messages are
really going over radio at all, and think this is just a gimmick.
You're going to let them see, if possible, and hear their messages
being transmitted via radio.
Set your display up so that a counter person takes their message.
IF working a fair or other event some canned text about the event
is a good starter. Messages of course should be brief, a total of
25 words or less including your canned text. The counter person
should get first and last name of recipient, address including zip
code and telephone number. WE'll get back to the counterperson's
duties in a moment.
IF you can set your display up so as to have a glass partition
between the counter person and the radio operator that will be
sending your message (using voice or cw only from the display) set
your operator up on the other side of this partition where the
outside noises will be minimized as much as possible. This will
keep the transmitted noise down and make it easier for the
receiving station that will relay the message(s) on the first leg
of their journey.
Your radio op at the display site should be using headphones in
either case. If he's isolated from the onlookers behind a
partition so much the better.
Isolation not possible? HERe's a new wrinkle. Bring out your
local ham with a fast scan amateur TV setup. Have him set up the
receiver in the public area near the counter person. set up the
transmit end of the link in your emergency communications van or at
a nearby site. USe this site for your sending station. Now
equip your booth with a good receiver to listen to your
sending operator's transmitted audio, and possibly
the audio of the receiving station as well. THIs lets the viewers
hear their messages transmitted on the first leg of their trip.
A couple of runners can be employed to run messages to your actual
operator's position in that communications van trailer or back
room. IN fact having a few runners available can help you have
adequate people to talk to that interested party who comes by the
booth and maybe recruit a new ham or educate that emergency
services person. IF these runners are also licensed operators they
can take their turn at the sending position and get some practice
too.
IF you employ an amateur fast scan TV link in your demo be sure to
tell the public about it. Provide good signage that tells the
folks passing by what's happening at your display. Then have your
counter person ready with plenty of message forms.
The arl numbered radiograms are perfect for these setups. LET's
say for our example you're working the POdunk county fair. You can
use the venerable arl fifty one in your text. This is three words
which translate as:
"Greetings by amateur radio. This message is sent as a free public
service by ham radio operators here at the Podunk county fair. Am
having a wonderful time."
Now John Q. public comes to your booth and wants to say happy
birthday to his aunt. Your text can easily add an arl forty six
and have a nice compact message that says a whole lot to his aunt
in just a few words.
Make sure your radio operators counter minders and others know how
to use these or have a quick reference available.
Now we've talked about how to provide some new wrinkles to that
venerable old message fair. SO the question comes up where to
target for these displays. OF course your county or state fair's
a good place.
The local shopping mall during holiday season's a nice one as well.
However think about a few nonstandard places such as the gun and
outdoor sports shows; conventions; local festivals etcetera.
You'll have a lot of fun, get the word to the public and provide
some great training for your local ares/races volunteers. Look for
an opportunity and give it a try!
How to submit an article
Send a file attach of a straight ascii file to the editor at
elspider@bellsouth.net
for inclusion.
Brief items for our news section should be sent as a regular
email.
Again, attach plain ascii files only.
If using MS Word choose the save-as option to save as plain
text, possibly called dos text.
CHeck your favorite word processor's doccumentation on creating ascii files.
NO graphics files, pdf etcetera please!
THis electronic newsletter is intended to be machine readable.
This newsletter may be
distributed on packet and other radio systems where system
operators and relay stations wish to closely monitor content of
transmissions. IT is intended to be platform independent which is
not possible with graphical file formats. Even the operator with
the old commodore or Apple II should be able to read this
newsletter, or the fellow using the old dumb terminal. Text to speech
systems etcetera should have no problems reading this newsletter.
IF possible use a file extension of .art for your article. IF it
fits one of these categories use the category name as the file
name. Regular categories for which we seek articles are as
follows:
general : articles of general interest to traffic handlers.
USE a file name of general.art
training : Articles regarding training hints and tips.
AS above, use training.art if possible.
Outreach : articles on ways to reach out to the public and promote
NTS and amateur radio message handling capabilities.
AS with the above examples, outreach.art.
Using these naming conventions allows your editor to auto-
matically process your article.
TYpe the title twice, the first time at left margin preceded by a * character.
THe second time centered as you'd like it to appear. THe
line with the * will be used to automatically build a table
of contents and the asterisk removed. YOur article will then
appear with title centered.
Immediately below the centered title please place your name and
call sign so that folks will know who authored the article.
If you have an email address please provide it as well. THough
often these can be looked up the information provided in call sign
databases is often incorrect. IF you are a net manager or
hold an ARRL field organization position please provide this
information as well.
IF possible keep line lengths to 70 characters or fewer. Again
remember that we are attempting to be platform independent.
Many of our readers will wish to view this on their screens
instead of printing it out.
IF you cannot save your article as plain text paste the text into
an email and send it. Your editor will do his best to format it
properly for display on most computer systems. IF you do this
state in the subject line that text enclosed in email is an article
for BPQ.
Although you retain the copyright on your work, submission of any
articles implies permission to publish them in BPQ and
distribute said work electronically without remuneration to you or BPQ. NO fee
may be charged to receive BPQ.
WHere to get BPQ
BPQ should be available on your regular NTSD pactor hub.
THe central area hub will carry bpq on his system. Connect
with w4zjy scanning regular NTSD frequencies.
On the internet:
Many fine internet connected bulletin boards carry bPQ in the hamnews
file area as a zip file using the same naming conventions as
the text files within them. THese files are distributed by the ham-fdn and the
International FIlegate Project. Visit www.filegate.net/
Fidonet: Many fine bulletin board systems available via telnet www
and dial-up can link to the ham-fdn described above. IF you don't see
it on your favorite fido board ask the sysop to link to the hamnews area through
his/her regular files link.
Fidonet is a noncommercial network of bulletin board hobbyists.
For a good start try here:
Waldo's place USA. modem 12am-6pm EST. (919) 774-5930
telnet://bbs.wpusa.dynip.com
http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/
ftp://ftp.wpusa.dynip.com
RADIO RESCUE NET OPERATIONS BBS
Modem only 0600-1200 UTC 28.8 kbps n81 (901) 465-9921
IF you are the system operator of a BBS (either landline or radio)
and cannot get BPQ through your regular links it can be sent
you via email as either regular email or a file attach.
SEnd an email to bpq.distro@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com
Provide your email address in the text and tell us how you'd like to
receive BPQ. Also tell us what kind of bbs system you operate, its
frequencies of operation if a packet/pactor board or its
dial-up/telnet info etc. Also, please give us your callsign.
we wish to keep the email distribution list fairly small, so
look to your favorite internet pactor or packet connections first if
at all possible.
Thanks for reading and 73
Richard Webb, nf5b
send correspondence to the editor via email using the following email address:
elspider@bellsouth.net
OR using plaintext only to:
bpq.editor@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com
All file attached article submissions should be sent to the
bellsouth address . See the earlier section on how to submit an
article.
Place bpq feedback or similar text in the subject line so that it
receives proper attention from the editor.
REaders are encouraged to create a hardcopy of this newsletter
for those who do not have computer access but have an interest
in the material within. reproduction of articles in club
newsletters is permitted so long as BPQ and the original author
are credited.
FOr more information contact the editor.
BRASS POUNDERS' QUARTERLY
Published by traffic handlers for traffic handlers
COpyright ARRL National Traffic SYstem, electronic distribution
encouraged.
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