[CVRC] LESSON 1

[N7ccn1@aol.com]

Message from Hal Moore N7CCN regarding Sunday Traffic and Training net:

We have had our first on air check-in.  Most stations checked in properly 
and the net progressed very smoothly.  Now we will start the interesting 
part of radio communications, messages.  As I mentioned, there are several 
types of messages that we will cover in the following weeks.  Today we will 
be gin with the standard third party message.  What I am going to do is to 
broadcast a message to you and then call each of you for 
acknowledgment.  If you have received the message good enough to say that 
your copy is exactly like mine, then your response will simply be "ROGER 
OUT." If you have missed some parts of it, then ask for those parts.  I 
realize that we have covered the fill instructions only briefly so do not 
worry about how you do it for now. We will cover proper fill instructions 
later. For now, I want you to have a copy just like mine so keep asking 
until you are sure that you have it.

Since we have not studied relay instructions I am also going to skip that 
for now but pay special attention to how the message is listed with NET 
CONTROL and how the message is passed.  We will also cover relay 
instruction and the listing of traffic during a later session. Get ready to 
copy. By the way, we assume that every member at all times has a pencil and 
paper ready and, for voice transmissions, never ask if they are "ready to 
copy" or something like that. Unless the receiving station has previously 
said that the link is anything less than "readable," then it is assumed to 
be "readable" and no radio check is required.

RELAY

R 240509Z MAR 02

FM MR. HOWARD BENTZ SILVER SPRINGS NV/N7CCN NV

TO MRS SANDRA BENTZ

1335 EAST LAKE STREET

SALT LAKE CITY UT 56789

806-555-8936 SADIE233(AT)AOL.COM

BT

UNCLAS

YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE THIS BUT THE ROADS BETWEEN RENO

AND ELKO ARE CLOSED DUE TO SNOW. I SHOULD BE ABLE TO

PROCEED WITHIN THE NEXT TWO DAYS.

LOVE.

BT

The E-mail address in this example is optional. When a message is sent via 
E-mail, the operator should request a receipt for his or her records.

This message is from one third party to another. In practice, either of 
these, or both, could be amateur radio operators and, in that case, either 
the TO or the FROM would just have the amateur call sign and the Area that 
it is in.

Every message must have relay instructions unless it is being transmitted 
directly to the addressee, which can only happen in the case where the 
addressee is an amateur radio operator.

In this case, the single PROWORD RELAY means "Relay to all Addressees." In 
this case, there is only one addressee so, when you roger for this message, 
it is your responsibility to relay the message to that person. It is the 
word ROGER that transfers the responsibility. That is why it is extremely 
important that you have copied the message perfectly before you say it. No 
one will criticize you for being careful that you have the message correct 
before saying ROGER. When you say ROGER, the ball has been passed to you 
and the person sending it has crossed it off his or her list. If you do not 
deliver it or pass it on, NO ONE EVER WILL.

Notice that the PROWORD is just RELAY. You will find that it means RELAY 
(TO), with the TO implied and not spoken.

The next line contains the precedence and the date-time group. The 
date-time group is commonly abbreviated as DTG. There are three common 
precedence, ROUTINE which is abbreviated here as R, PRIORITY which is 
abbreviated here as P, and IMMEDIATE, which is abbreviated as O. Why O? 
This precedence used to be called Operational Immediate and the O came from 
that.

The DTG consists of the day of the month and the Zulu time in a six number 
group followed by the three letter abbreviation for the month and then the 
last two digits of the year. The DTG is used so much that it has a special 
way of being read in voice transmissions, as follows: "ROUNTINE time two 
four zero five zero nine zulu March zero two". If you should encounter this 
DTG in the text you would read it "I spell ROMEO figures two four zero five 
zero nine zulu I spell mike alpha romeo figures zero two." Again, in the 
DTG position it is read as "Routine time two four zero five zero nine zulu 
March zero two."

The next line is the From line.  If the message is from a third party, you 
must have a title such as MRS., MR., DR, etc., followed by the name. This 
is followed without any punctuation by the city and state in which the 
person resides and that is followed by a "slant" and the call sign and area 
of the station entering the message into our system. You see that the From 
line and the DTG make up a unique identification for the message if it 
later needs to be referred to. This message would be called N7CCN's DTG 
240509Z MAR 02. N7CCN should not give any other message that DTG (and the 
only time he would have to is if he made up over one message a minute, an 
unlikely event). If Mr. Bentz needs to be located, N7CCN has carefully 
files that information when he accepted the message from him and he can be 
reached through him. Therefore, his address is not needed on the message. 
Be sure that you do not lose it!

On the TO line, there must be enough information to deliver the message. 
This information is gotten from the person who called you to send the 
message. Get every scrap of information they have and put it in the 
address. (Note, however, that Social Security Numbers are NOT used, for 
privacy reasons.) Except in very rare cases, the zip code and phone number 
are an absolute necessity. Without the phone number, the message will 
probably be mailed from a radio operator's own expense and the sender might 
as well do the mailing themselves. Without the zip code, the message could 
not even be mailed. The e-mail address can optionally be added. Exercise 
caution in delivering messages by e-mail. You must get some acknowledgment 
that it has been delivered.

Third party messages are almost always routine. But, if it is time 
sensitive, say, someone is arriving at an airport in a couple of days, then 
priority may be used. However, explain to the party that they must 
understand that we will try our best but we cannot guarantee delivery on 
any time schedule.

The voice word BREAK is written BT.

The BT breaks the header from the text. The first word in the text is 
UNCLAS and it counts as one of the 50 allowed words in formal traffic passing.

One tip to help shorten messages is to note that the names are in the 
header and need not be repeated in the text. There are a lot of tricks to 
shorten a message but be sure that the person sending the message agrees 
with the final text.

The second BT ends the text and the message. It is NEVER referred to in 
asking for fills.  If you need a fill for the last part of a message, use 
the ALL AFTER proword rather than referring to the ending BT.

Now here is what I want you to do this week. I want you to make up a 
message from yourself as a third party to me as a third party. My name is 
Mr. Hal Moore, 1899 Maxwell Road, Carson City, NV 89706 with phone number 
775-883-2190. I want you to send this message to me by e-mail at 
n7ccn1@aol.com. I will check it out and let you know what I think of it. 
When I approve it, I want you to be prepared to send it on the weekly net.

Good luck and I will see you on the net Sunday evening.

(Parts of this lesson plan and training material are taken from the Region 
Five, Navy-Marine Corps MARS training guide.)