As a reminder our primary 40M frequency is 7120 KHz, and our secondary 20M
frequency is (14067.5 USB + 1500).

The primary 40M net frequency has turned into a "guard" channel many watch every day
from 2300Z-0200Z. During daytime (from about 1800Z - 2300Z)  the 20M guard frequency
may be monitored.

The quick and dirty details of the guard channels are:
40M 2300Z-0200Z, Olivia 16/500 on  7114 7120 USB +1500 (Primary/Night)
20M 1800Z-2300Z, Olivia 16/500 on 14067.5 USB + 1500 (Secondary/Day)

There is a regularly scheduled net on Wednesdays at 0000Z (for now.)

Net control floats among those with good signals. Remember there are also stations that
are not members of this forum as it's an open net.

Typically the net lasts for an 30 to 60 minutes starts with check ins and then moves to a round robin
where each station gets to share a short little personal news item, signal reports and/or weather.

Starting 0000Z/1900ET:

Primary band 40M digital guard channel and net frequency
Mode: Olivia 16/500
Primary Frequency: 7114 7120KHz USB + 1500 waterfall

Secondary Frequencies
Mode: Olivia 16/500
20M: 14067.5KHz USB + 1500 waterfall

Mode: Olivia 16/500
80M: 3586KHz USB + 1500 waterfall

Olivia 16/500 is a slow digital mode, but very reliable, so it remains the main mode in use.
When conditions permit, the net may move to higher speed modes.

Short but sweet digital operating guide:

#1, don't stress, these little rules are just to make things faster and easier,
you're among ham friends and we all make little mistakes all the time. Join in!

Rig setup:
- Olivia/Contestia is always USB, even on 80/40M.
- Digital is a 100% mode, run your power low or your transmitter gets toasty. 25-30W suggested.
- Clean up your radio: turn off compression and DSP features. Turn off IF shifts, ideally we want you within a few Hertz on frequency.

Operating:
- On slow modes like Olivia, keep it short (one or two liners, like a short text message)
- This is a net, we pause frequently to allow stations to check in
- for initial contact send a long enough string for all of us to figure out who you are,
we suggest a few periods "..." your call twice and the prosign QRU.
- Start your transmission with "....." to give the modems RXing you time to sync.
- Use your type ahead buffer (if you know how to use it without transmitting on top of someone else )
- Abbreviate and use prosigns. Optionally use lower case, which is faster on Olivia. Examples below:

Initial call from net control (if nothing heard 5 min in, any station who wishes to be net control can issue this call as well):
cq cq de n7xyz n7xyz
cq cq de n7xyz n7xyz
pse check in, format
"... callsign callsign QRU kn ."
QNI pse k .

(Note the pse "please" and K, the prosign for end of call/anyone respond, the space and "." after the K are optional but give a cleaner print.
Those fancy Q-signals? QNI is a call to check into the net, and QRU is what you say to check in with no traffic.)

Respond to net control in the requested format:

... wa1abc wa1abc QRU kn .

Note that other stations may also be responding, so watch the waterfall and avoid
transmitting if someone else is. You are encouraged to respond to check ins after
you see the call, or see another station check in. It brings happiness to net control
to stare at a list of callsigns without answering every single call.

Net control, if he hears you will answer:

... wa1abc de n7xyz 90% copy. Other stations pse check in now QNI de n7xyz k .

This process will continue until everyone net control can hear is checked in.
Here's how you can help! Follow along with the check ins, noting the calls you hear. At some point net control will list the stations in net:

... arfcom de n7xyz copy WA1ABC N5JKL KA3LMN KB9OPQ. Please relay stations not heard now de n7xyz k .

At this point WA1ABC heard K7YZ, net control did not:

... n7xyz de wa1abc relay K7YZ kn .

net control will answer:

... wa1abc de n7xyz K7YZ on net, you will relay. Any more relays check in de n7xyz k .

Once done, net control provides a final list:

... arfcom de n7xyz copy WA1ABC N5JKL KA3LMN KB9OPQ K7YZ. WA1ABC is up, ga de n7xyz k .

And WA1ABC will now say his short little message:

... arfcom de wa1abc wx is 42 and snowy, N5JKL is s9+20 here. btu de wa1abc k .

and net control will do the same for the next station:

... arfcom de n7xyz N5JKL is up, ga de n7xyz k .

and so on.. when we get to the relays:

... arfcom de n7xyz WA1ABC please relay K7YZ ga de n7xyz kn .

and WA1ABC sends:

... k7yz de wa1abc you are up, ga de wa1abc kn .

and K7YZ sends his short message, when he is done, wa1abc relays:

... n7xyz de wa1abc K7ZX says your antenna sucks net control de wa1abc kn .

and then net control passes on to other stations as needed.


Key points in all this:

(Note the "... " lead in to let modem sync, the short transmissions, btu="back to you" and "kn" prosign, which means wa1abc is asking
for only n7xyz to respond. n7xyz responds and then asks for other check ins)

See you all on the net soon!

FYI due to recent events I thought it best if we reset the digital guard channel thread and cleaned up some of the history.

As a reminder to all the net is an open net to people from ARFCOM and outside of ARFCOM. It may be monitored by anyone.

ARFHams that don't want to be connected with ARFCOM may wish to set up QSOs via IM, and use different frequencies and modes
than the net uses.

placeholder #2

Any suggested software for Olivia?  I think Ham Radio Deluxe can do it, but I have not been able to install it yet.

fldigi
http://www.w1hkj.com/

also install flrig for rig control

FLdigi is the free option that does Olivia.

Be warned, it has some quirks. Always put the cursor at the end of the buffer before sending.

Net tonight, 1900 est. Net warnings will start ~1830.

I have visitors tonight, will have to be in/out, but NC is +5 dB 100% copy in Central Texas.

BJDFL53 was very loud here. 100% copy.

Question: Do any of you guys leave their radio and computer on the Guard frequency 24/7? If yes, I assume you review the buffer daily, right?

Net closed at 1937est with 6 participants, thank you all for joining.

I used to for a couple years. Now I only do so during times where outside area emcomm might be needed (hurricanes, power outages, etc.) I try to remember to check.

FLdigi also has a text-matching feature I use to play a sound to provide an audible alert, so if I'm present in the shack (which is often) I'll be aware of traffic.

Net tonight @ 1900est.

ETA: NCS is having a dinner conflict with grilling a steak and sending warning messages. I probably won't be at my station until right before net time.

NCS is a "ghost print" tonight. Barely receiving you. We are too close for 40 meters.

Gyprat, you bent my S meter needle again!  

Sounded like you timed out at the end.

Glad to hear you are feeling better.

Is there a limit on the TX message length in FLDigi? It just quits after a while. Same thing happened last week.

Net closes at 1947L with 7 stations checking in.

There is a timeout timer in FLDIGI, I think the default is 5min. Configuration->UI-General.

im on 7,217 if anyone wants a QSO, SSB of course.

Nothing heard. I'm QRT
73!
Thank you, NSC for today's net!

And.... FLDigi cut off my transmission in the middle of my message. How nice! This is why I don't trust anything with a Windows computer involved.

That's why I have always used the DM780 program in Ham Radio Deluxe.  It only very rarely glitches, and that only when I have an RF feedback problem to my USB ports.

Hmmm. This reminds me that I did buy a copy of HRD, about 6 years ago. It should still me valid, I guess.

Did you confirm you don't have a transmit timeout active in fldigi?

I can't find any timeout settings except the " TX deadman timeout" (set for 7 minutes). Also, it seems to do this sporadically.

@Gyprat
That sounds like it could be an RFI issue.
73,
Rob

40m wasn't very kind to me tonight, but I think I checked in successfully.  Nice to be back, Gents!  

Try again at the end.

Is this like a Hf Packed bbs? and its been so long I have to ask.. what do you mean freq + 1500?

@Thoth8
It a digital mode, the tones (Audio) are centered at 1500 Hz on the waterfall graphic.
73,
Rob

Okay I see thanks. I really need to get into digital modes.

@seek2 .  Net tonight? Can't hear anything on the frequency.

Never mind. Somehow I bumped the Notch Filter button. All is well now but the net signals are weak.

Was hearing NC ok then I started getting somebody chatting down in the lower freq. Got past that, then had somebody doing CW who was uber-strong. Once that started, I got nothing.

You had a strong check in but fell off the earth right afterward.

Net closed at 19:33L with 2 in/outs and 3 check in's.

73, de alternate NCS.

had you 100%

I thought there was another station at the beginning, I could faintly hear it by ear but didn't decode anything. Mach was fading in and out a lot and not as strong as usual. Propagation is a strange mistress.

I won't be able to make the net tonight -- I thought I was going to be able to but my schedule just got changed so I'm on the road at net time.

Also post IC-7300 firmware update I discovered just now as I was trying to test on the net freq that my fldigi will only send idle tones so I have some debug time before I'll be back on the air. Grrr.

Ill run the net tonight, 15min warning going out now.

Net concluded at 1915L with zero check ins...

Sorry I missed it.  I was at my five year old grandson's birthday party.  My son did tune up the freq and we listened on his rig, with a 72' wire along the top of his 5' wooden fence.  We could hear you calling the net, but didn't hear any takers.  We were not in a position to transmit.

I'll try to be there as usual next week.

QST: The net is at 2000ET due to daylight savings time.

bump to remind everyone the net is happening right now.

DST switch always changes the turnout.

I finally remembered in time and made it in.  Maybe I can make a more frequent habit of this.

Started out pretty rough from NC, was all ghost print, maybe 50% copy.  By the end it picked up a bit to a -8db faint print but was getting a full copy.  Went with a tune margin of 16 and sync depth of 4 in DM780.  8 was a little better but much more delayed decoding.

Good to be back into a net though.  Being off at 1600 Pacific time the new DST schedule lets me get in now.  Bands conditions on the other hand...

73!

Come join the crickets!

Who you calling crickets? J/K

Well, I'll go ahead and bring it up.

I didn't check in last night.  I have another, local VHF FM simplex net at the same time.  I usually can do both at the same time with no problems.  But last night I didn't even try.

You guys know I have been pretty regular at checking into the digital net for years.  I rarely missed a session.  But you know what?  Since we have begun this terrible fear of being doxxed, cancelled, no mention of ARFCOM, no screen names, etc., paranoia, it's not as much fun anymore.  I even consider it almost cowardly.  I for one like to be able to connect a call on the net with a screen name on the board.  It's part of the camaraderie.  We did it for years.  Now, all of a sudden we are so afraid of the cancel culture we seem to be willing to give it up.  It bothers me.  I just didn't feel like even checking to see if there was a net last night.

I'll probably get over it and get back in the groove, but it bothers me that we seem to have lost something here that we once had.  Am I alone in this?

You aren't alone, if it were up to me we'd go back to screen names on the net. I don't keep mine a big secret or even really care. I've done NCS lots of times, you can't hide out and be NCS since it's so obvious who you are.

I am going to stop posting build threads on the forum. Several times I've only documented my build on here, and they fucked the archives so I can't even find my threads anymore to refer to them myself. I tried to find a thread by Mach on a 2m antenna and even PM'd him about it - neither of us could find it. I'm going to add a page to my wife's business website and document there, but to link to it from here is the same as posting a callsign. I'd change my screen name to my callsign if I could and just be done with it. Outside of the ham forum I only posted in meme threads and the fun police killed those. I try not to post things that could get myself in any trouble and I'm not afraid of being associated with the website. I'm posting now from my work PC...

Bump for tonight's net.

There was some kind of MFSK mode that wasn't Olivia on the net freq just before 2330Z, but couldn't figure out the mode.

Glad it wasn't just me, couldn't figure out what the weird noise was that swamped you out.

Good propagation but a smaller net tonight, with 3 check ins.

We ended up having a roundtable after the formal and net and if you want to use your screen name, you can
(not mandatory) just let NC know on check in and we'll include it.

Thanks to everyone for keeping the fire lit!