Net began Saturday March 4th 2023 at 11.00am ET on 145.29 MHz repeater with John N1QFH at the shack VHF room as NCS on the IC-910 machine and using the VHF tower beam. Stations checked into the net were Paul WA2FOF, Philip WB2QWU, Will KO4ZOL, and John KE4IDW as a late check-in. Jay N2ELG, Marshall KY4NK, and Laz K9LAZ were on site at the shack. Laz was managing the HF net on the FT-1000MP. Marshall is new to our organization and was monitoring the net activity. Paul had VHF, UHF, HF and DMR capability. Philp had VHF, UHF and DMR capability. Will had VHF and EchoLink capability. The pass Phrase “March Madness” was communicated to all operators. NCS announced stations to QSY to 145.55 where N1QFH called for stations. On that frequency upon request the pass phrase was relayed. WA2FOF, WB2QWU, and KO4ZOL checked into the frequency. NCS requested stations to go to 441.000 simplex DMR (CC1, TS1, TG99). Paul WA2FOF was NCS and checked in Philp. Next, NCS requested K9LAZ who was on the FT-1000MP to QSY to 3820 MHz and call for stations. WA2FOF checked into this frequency. Next, Laz went to 28.380 after finding an available 10m frequency and called for stations. No station checked into that frequency. Laz next tried 40m on 7240 MHz and made a call for stations and none were heard. There were very busy HF contests underway making it challenging to identify station for the net. All desired bands, modes and frequencies were attempted. In the future, we will continue with the monthly pass phrases. Also, we will make another attempt at other modes in FLDIGI and FT8. We requested stations to provide suggestions and feedback. We wrapped up about 11.45am.
In April, lets spread the word and be ready with digital modes. We missed using 144.200 MHz SSB and will attempt to roll that and digital modes into the next exercise.
Thank you to all who participated. We will get better and more confidant in preparation of a bad day event. 73