traffic handling

I got this radiogram in the mail. The message was originated by a ham friend of mine on Thursday, July 16 (my birthday) and mailed to me by the ham in PA to whom he passed the message. I received it on Monday, July 20. While I applaud my friend’s effort to use the National Traffic System (NTS), getting this in the mail just seemed crazy to me.

First of all, why did the ham who handled the traffic mail it to me? It would have been a lot more expedient for him to just phone me. It certainly cost him more to mail it than it would have been for him to just phone me, unless he doesn’t have a modern cellphone plan with nearly unlimited “long distance” calling.

I guess this is just an indication of how poorly NTS operates these days. That’s not really a criticism. There’s just no need for it anymore. We keep saying, “Well, what if the cell network goes down?” That can happen, I suppose, but how often, and for how long on average, is an area without cellphone service? My guess would be not very often and not very long.

I don’t know how much effort is being expended in keeping NTS running, but is it really worth the effort? I’m somewhat familiar with the system, so I know why this message took so long to get to me. If my friend, David, had sent it to someone less familiar with NTS and less forgiving, this would have been laughable. Do we want to be laughed at like that?