If your club owns a repeater, or has access to one, your club should have a weekly net. These nets inform members about club events, provide a forum for club members to get help with any technical problems they may have, build camaraderie among club members, and are just fun. At least they should be fun.
Too often, these nets turn out to be a drudge-fest. Net controls slog through a list of check-ins, who dutifully say when called upon, “No traffic.” If your net is like this, you’re missing an opportunity.
When I’m net control, I like to get personal to get people talking. When I call a station, I’ll say things like, “Next is W8ABC. How’s life in your part of town tonight, Joe?” or “What are you up to tonight, Sam?” or “How’s that antenna project coming, Don?” or “Worked any DX lately, Steve?” If someone has joined the net from outside our local area, I’ll say something like, “K8XYZ, you’re our DX station tonight. How are things in your part of the world?”
Often, I’ll continue a conversation by asking a question about a topic brought up by a previous station. For example, if one guy says that he’s having tacos for dinner, I’ll ask the next person what they’re having for dinner or what kind of tacos they like.
To get people to show up in the first place, make sure that your club members know about the net. An announcement should be in every club newsletter, and if your club has a mailing list, send out an email announcement every week. People are busy, and things like this can often slip through the cracks. After the net, reply to the announcement email with a list of who checked in and what you discussed. If someone sees that their buddy checked in to a net, they are more likely to check in the next week. Similarly, if they see that a topic of interest was discussed, they might join the net next week to chime in on the topic.
You might try doing some different things, too. For example, before this week’s net, one guy asked if he could try sending an SSTV image over the repeater during the net. What a great idea! I, of course, said yes. On his first transmission, this guy mentioned that he was going to try this at the beginning of the second round and then pointed people towards an app—Robot36—that they could download to their Android phones. I downloaded Robot36 to my Android phone, and on his second transmission, I was able to copy the image. That was something different and fun. I’m thinking that we might even try RTTY or some other digital mode in the future.
I think you get the idea. Making a net fun will draw members, and more members means more fun. I think it’s working here in Ann Arbor. Last Monday’s net had 17 check-ins and a run time of 70 minutes.
Now, tell me how you make your club net fun.
Hi Dan.
Love your blog.
Our club has an informal FM simplex net after our weekly repeater net on 146.52 MHz (2m calling freq.) This helps us figure put how well our gear can reach out if the repeaters are down and lets hams with directional antennas practice adjusting them.
That SSTV idea over the repeater is smart.
Great thread/topic.
Thanks Dan.
73 de Don KG5CMS.
On my old club’s weekly net (W5SGL, unfortunately (in some ways) I’ve moved from the area), there isn’t so much a “roll call” as a “cattle call” for the check-ins. It works well. The way it operates is that a call goes out for hams with call signs with the first letter of the suffix in the range A thru G, the first quarter of the alphabet. After net control takes down all the call signs in that range, he comes back and asks each one for traffic and personal news, much as you’ve suggested in the blog post. Then it’s on to the next block of letters, H thru M, and so forth. There can be a little bit of a pile-up on the call signs, but it’s never a significant problem. If the pile-ups did ever become bothersome, we could call in eighths of the alphabet; similarly, a smaller club could go in halves or thirds of the alphabet.
I like this system because it’s fast, and people don’t have to listen to repeated calls for no-shows. I’ve been in on nets with the roll call system, and it’s just a downer.
After check-ins, we’ll do a technical topic Q&A session, moderated by net control. Usually the controller will lead off with a topic to get the discussion going. As topics are covered and answers are batted around, new topics frequently pop up. It generally runs for 30-45 minutes before the week’s questions are done, but it can and has gone longer.
Anyway, the cattle call system works, and it just feels more upbeat than a sparsely attended roll call. Do any other nets run things this way?
Yes, that is how we do it in Temecula CA. Role Calls can be very long.
Joe, Sam, Don, and Steve. Are there no women in your net? Could you have thrown in a hypothetical one, to make women feel more included?
Hi Ann.
Our club is fortunate to have several ladies in our membership.
73 Don KG5CMS.
Point taken. How can I get more women to check into our net?
I can’t understand the attraction for a roll call net, at least the ones I’ve encountered, where the net control drones on for upwards of many minutes, calling one callsign after another, then pausing, and not hearing any response continues on. I tend to think it is simply an excuse for the net control to ‘broadcast’, i.e. use up net time with the sound of their own voice.
What a monumental waste of time. No wonder folks are turned off by that kind of behavior.