How about an after-action report?
I have some comments I made while listening to the radio today:
First off, I think the net and overall operation went really really great!
My old trusty Kenwood TM-V71A worked great in the crossband mode and my tiny Yaesu VX-2 talkie allowed me to clip the talkie up by my ear on my safety vest like I would a speaker-mic. It all worked great for me as at RS11 I was out of talkie range of the 76 repeater.
Note that while I was using my crossband repeater I kept another 2m talkie nearby on 76 with the volume down low. That way I knew my crossband repeater was working and also was not causing interference.
Constantly saying your call sign phonetically slows down the net and actually impedes us from knowing what your call sign is without us writing it down or stopping what we are doing and consciously thinking about it to decode the phonetics into letters. We know who you are, net control has your call sign so phonetics are not proper here. If you don’t know how to say your call sign the way it is printed on your license then go practice out loud in front of your bathroom mirror.
We helped recover a stolen dog! How awesome is that!!!
For net control (and others), instead of just telling someone that you can’t copy them, tell them why. Too weak and too noisy? Audio too low? Too much microphone background noise? This gives them ideas of what to do to improve their signal.
10 codes and even Amateur Radio codes might be understood by some or most on the net however this is an Amateur Radio service net. For our nets plain language is recommended to avoid confusion. As an example, there have been times when I have heard a Ham ask for a radio check and someone comes back to them and tells them they are “Lima Charley”. The asking Ham says thank you and signs off. I call the asking Ham and ask them if they know what “Lima Charley” means and they say they don’t, as they must not have watched that Hollywood movie, but they didn’t want to show their ignorance. Just use plain language and say what you mean and mean what you say!
We really need to work on tracking the last rider so we don’t have to depend on others so much.
What comments do you have to add?
73,
Charles WA5VHU
