[Elecraft] Too Many ECN Net Control Stations?

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

What Mychael and others reported happened to me a few weeks back when I
listened to someone calling ECN who was NOT the net control. Kevin was
several kHz up the band looking for people.

A protocol that we always observed in the Army CW nets was that there =
was
only ONE net control. No one called the net except by the explicit =
direction
of the NCS.=20

ON rare occasions when NCS couldn't be heard one might query on the
frequency with (in this case) ECN? DE AC7AC, but to call CQ ECN when one =
is
not the NCS would ensure a few well-directed whacks with the Army =
equivalent
of the Wouff Hong (How many potatoes do I have to peel??).=20

If a query like ECN? DE AC7AC produced a response, the objective of =
those
stations would be to FIND the net, not start a duplicate session and
certainly not to accept any "check in's". If the "check in" isn't with =
NCS,
or with a station relying under the immediate control of the NCS, it =
isn't a
check in.=20

As long as there is an NCS on the air, someone's gonna hear him or her, =
and
for someone else to pre-empt that role is always going to cause mass
confusion.=20

Gee, maybe this sounds like a "rant". Isn't intended that way, but to =
point
out that the orchestra can never have more than one conductor.=20

Ron AC7AC