[CoARES-D10] "No Traffic"

[SCOMIND@aol.com]

Hi Pat,

> In listening to tonight's net there were many people that would check in 
> per the script which says "When checking in to the net please give your 
> call phonetically, your name, your location and if you have traffic for 
> the net" but say "No Traffic".
> 
> I have done that many times myself so I am not picking on anyone. My 
> question is, since the script says "and if you have traffic", isn't just 
> giving your call (phonetically), name and location sufficient?
> In tonight's net we had one person that said "with buzzt traffic" the 
> buzzt is what I heard and it covered his voice so I couldn't tell if he 
> actually said "with some traffic" or "with no traffic". Turns out he did 
> have traffic and things worked out fine.
> 
> Once again, I'm not picking on anyone here, just asking a question for 
> discussion.
> 
> There are times when the NCS has said "whether or not you have traffic 
> for the net". In which case you would be exactly following NCS 
> instructions by saying "no traffic" if you had none (and I'll admit I 
> was not listening closely enough to the start of the net that I remember 
> which way it was phrased).
> 
> Perspective:  If this were the largest problem we have in nets WE WOULD 
> HAVE NO PROBLEM! So don't be worried here. I am bringing this up for 
> discussion so that we focus on training details, in training nets. Thus 
> leaving time during event nets to focus on the event.
> 
> Thoughts / comments / questions ??
> 

Since you asked, here's my 2c. This is offered merely as one ham's opinion.

I feel bad for Dave, KA1BXM, who tries very hard to find net control stations 
- - yet I'm not willing to volunteer because I'm not inclined to learn yet 
another system with its picayune rules. Been there, done that.

Background: I've been licensed 42 years and used to be very deep into ham 
radio from a public service aspect.

When I was in college in the early 70s, we Milwaukee hams organized a solid 
ARES group that was real tight with local government (part of the attraction 
government officials had toward us was our very nice printed emergency plan - - 
officials love nice, printed plans). It probably didn't hurt that the Viet Nam 
protests were in full swing and that there were bombings and arson in 
Milwaukee and Madison.

In the mid-70s I helped form a similar group in Fond du Lac County, and we 
did the printed plans, shoulder patches that were nicer than the REACT ones, 
etc.

I built Calumet County's first repeater and got appointed EC in the late 70s. 
That was followed by appointments as County Warning Officer and RACES Radio 
Officer (no applause, please - - in a small farm county, appointments come 
pretty easy). I spent most of my remaining free time handling SSB and RTTY traffic 
on the Badger Emergency Net and on various HF and VHF Navy-Marine Corps MARS 
nets. Our little core group of VHF whackos maintained a very nice linked 
statewide NAVMARCORMARS repeater system that we all monitored 24/7.

Frankly, when I moved to Colorado 19 years ago, I found the state of ARES and 
traffic handling to be quite a bit behind that of the Midwest. I didn't 
contribute very much to improving the situation because the business had to come 
first. Fortunately, others have come forward and we're doing pretty well these 
days. Certainly D10 has the backing of local government and the relationship we 
now enjoy is the envy of many other groups around the country.

But back to the topic. All groups have rules, but in my humble opinion, no 
one has ever come up with a better traffic system than MARS.

So, I have to wonder how MARS could have gotten it wrong all these years when 
I read on the CoARES website that the standard MARS checkin procedure of 
"This is - - (pause to see if doubling) - - etc." isn't any good, and the standard 
MARS procedure of saying "no traffic" when you don't have any traffic isn't 
correct. Guess I'll just leave that sort of thing to more enthusiastic 
(younger) guys to argue over.

Don't get me wrong, net discipline is crucial to the success of a net, and 
NCS is the convening authority. IMHO, either NCS (being a god) should be able to 
run the net any way he wants, or if rules are going to be set right down to 
the word level, then pick a 'standard' standard.

Thanks for reading.

73,
Bob, WA9FBO


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