[Ares-races] ARL Number "Wish List"

[N4AOF]

Several of your suggested messages appear useful.  However I also note that
many of them appear to be messages that would primarily be local tactical
traffic.  The primary point of the ARRL Numbered Radiogram list was (and is)
to cut down the length of common messages used on long haul HF traffic nets.

The use of the numbered radiograms in local tactical nets is generally a bad
idea.  The existing ARRL Numbered Radiograms are frequently misused badly by
operators who are not regular dedicated NTS traffic handlers.  The most
common offense is delivering a message exactly as sent, without translating
the numbered radiogram back into plain text.  I have seen this mistake made
even by "traffic handlers" when passing such messages from NTS to other
systems (including MARS), and numerous times when delivery is achieved
through local nets (especially local ARES nets that supposedly have NTS
liaison).  This was also a common problem with packet back during the brief
period when packet was almost a serious traffic handling method.

Although the existing numbered radiogram list includes a few
fill-in-the-blank messages, these are often a problem area.  There is a
tendency of the originators to fail to fill in the blank or to fill it in
incorrectly and delivering operators frequently fail to properly put the
filled-in text INTO the blank even when they do remember to expand the
numbered text back to its plain text version.

I also would have to question the usefulness of a numbered radiogram message
where the standard text is only a short intro to what would typically be a
long string of text.  This would be especially dangerous in the case of a
message where the numbered radiogram text is essentially little more than
"NOT!" as in the suggested text: "- There is misinformation spreading around
regarding ______.  Disregard as it is incorrect."  Let's assign that text
the number 99 and see what it would look like:

Intended message:
There is misinformation spreading around regarding extensive tornado damage
and numerous fatalities here.  Disregard as it is incorrect."

Transmitted message:
ARL    NINETY    NINE    EXTENSIVE    TORNADO
DAMAGE    AND    NUMEROUS    FATALITIES    HERE

What happens when that transmitted message is monitored by the media, by
SWLs, and by hams who aren't traffic handlers?  What happens when some well
meaning but incompletely trained operator does exactly what he has been
taught and delivers the message exactly as sent??

There really is a good reason why one of the basic principles of Emergency
Communications is to always use plain text for tactical messages.