A reader writes:
Our club is in the early planning stages of implementing a net on one of our repeaters for having technical discussions bi-weekly. It seems that often these types of discussions just happen impromptu and we thought if we invested a little time in publishing a schedule of topical tech topics and arranging for a subject matter expert to either run the net or kick off the topic it would be a good method of ‘Elmering’ and provide a lower bar to participating etc. We’re able to record our nets and we can archive these sessions on the club website for future replay. In the future, we will have our Fusion machines networked to allow remote participation from WiresX or DMR users and I imagine that this would allow a subject matter expert from another venue to participate with minimal effort. (I wasn’t thinking of this as a way to widen the scope of participants, however that would be a natural outcome).
The nature of repeaters doesn’t allow participation by all participants in full duplex so there are probably protocols to establish to allow participation by all to be worked out etc When this happens impromptu it’s typically 5 or 6 guys politely bantering back and forth and occasionally someone else breaks in to he group with another data point etc. I’m not sure what the format should look like to have a lively discussion without a big mess when the number of participants exceeds single digits. Perhaps establish a FIFO order based on check in.
Are you aware of any clubs or groups doing something similar or do you have any thoughts, suggestions good, bad or tips to pass along?
I replied:
I’m not personally aware of other clubs doing this, but I think this is a great idea. I also don’t have a lot of experience with DMR and no experience at all with WiresX or Fusion. Having said that, what you’re going to need is some kind of net control station.I have had some experience with EchoLink, and as you may know, EchoLink has “chat function.” That is, those that are logged in via a computer can send text messages back and forth. That’s one way that participants could engage with the net. The net control station would be monitoring the text messages, and either just read the questions, or call upon the questioners to ask their questions at the appropriate time. If you’re not using EchoLink, you could perhaps set up some other channel, like say a Slack channel, or even an irc channel, where participants can ask questions or offer comments.The net control station would also break occasionally for those who are only able to participate via voice. Only the stations who had comments or questions would need to “check in.”
Dan, I think the use of an IM client like SLACK along with the repeater net would go a long way to help manage questions, comments, and responses to the information presented by a presenter so that a net moderator could respond over the net in response to messaging on the IM. This would allow net participants to ‘raise their hands’ for a question, submit a question that might be answered by someone else on the chat etc. The moderator can relay the chat discussion and questions to the net. I think some people would argue this is better done with an IP based video chat client but that wouldn’t be in the spirit of ham radio and we prefer to use the repeater. I think we just need to work out a procedure for net participants. In our club’s case, we would probably want to integrate an IRC web chat on the club’s website so participants wouldn’t have to download a chat client. We also know that many of the younger hams are already using Discord for this purpose and perhaps we should integrate that audience as well. Thanks!
Phil – K0PWS
Congratulations on your progress to date, and good luck with this activity.
I’ve been the Net Director of our Club for over 10 years. We have a weekly net averaging 30 check-ins per session on our local UHF repeater. We have a rotating list of 4 topics. One of these used to be “Ask the Expert.” This was quite well-received with a fair amount of on-air interaction until our tech expert moved on to other club activities and we had no one qualified willing to take over. So, among the things to consider are: What will you do for your subject matter? Do you have enough content and content experts for 26 sessions per year? Have you polled your potential audience to confirm there’s enough interest in this type of activity? Assuming yes to these questions, I’d suggest once you get over about 4 people on a frequency, you need a formal structure–a Net Control Station to be in charge. Perhaps ask for questions at some point and write down callsigns and take them in turn. After a question is asked, either turn it over to your expert, or ask for input from the group by callsign. And then call on those volunteering their answers.
But…be prepared for people to stay on the sidelines. Always have one or two questions “in your hip pocket” you could address if you ask for questions and hear nothing but silence. Sometimes the obvious questions are the one people have, but they need to hear more before they’re willing to push the mic button to either ask their question or offer an answer. I’m not suggesting planting question or planting people to ask questions…just have some topics to discuss when there’s no one stepping forward. Hopefully that will spur more interaction.
My club has a tech session every Tuesday night following the ARES net. The two parts are done back-to-back, so the check-ins for ARES gives the net controller a roster to work from. The whole thing is run as a directed net, both for the ARES practice and to cut down on repeater doubling. Usually the NC will suggest a topic to get things rolling and then it goes from there, usually for about 45 minutes. When any topic seems well-done, the NC will ask for another topic, or sometimes throw one out for consideration. That’s about all there is to it. It’s pretty informal, even though it is a directed net.
We don’t have any kind of on-line chat room for it, but we do have a broadcastify link and anyone outside the area is welcome to listen in: https://www.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/25297 Again, it’s on Tuesday evenings at 7 Central time. Check-ins run for about 15 minutes, then it’s on to the tech part.
I’d imagine it might be possible to edit down the recordings and turn it into a podcast for wider consumption. That’d be kind of neat.
But not having heard a net like this, I’m not sure it would work.
That’s an interesting idea. Maybe I could hold a kind of tech net on Skype, where we discuss questions from the exam question pools. I could record sessions, then publish them as a podcast.
It might be possible to edit down the recording and turn it into a podcast for wider consumption. I’d take a listen for sure, even if it(the edited audio) was quite short.
Having never heard the net, I don’t know if it’s feasible. Just an idea!