This is a fortnightly newsletter about the New Zealand Net.
If you would like to subscribe, please contact ZL1NZ.
Highlights
On Monday 24 June we set a new record with eight stations checking into the net.
Unfortunately we also had one day with just two stations (thanks Rob ZL3RX for keeping me company). 🙂
NZ Net flier
Thanks to a suggestion from David ZL2WT, we now have an A5-size flier for the NZ Net. You can download it and print it, two at a time, on A4 paper. Why not take a few along to your next club meeting or hamfest, and say a few words about the Net?
Also, I am happy to speak to radio club meetings via Skype. If your club is interested, let me know and we’ll work out the details.
On the Net next week
Top scores from Straight Key Night will be announced during NZ Net on Monday 1 July. (If you participated in SKN on 9 June, don’t forget to get your log to ZL1NZ no later than tomorrow 30 June. Log sheets are available from maritimeradio.org/skn)
On Tuesday 2 July, the monthly NZ Net report for June will be sent to all stations.
Both of these are great opportunities to practise copying formal traffic.
Survey
In the next newsletter, I hope to announce an online survey to gather your opinions on how to make the NZ Net better. So if you’ve been thinking about this, please get your suggestions to me in the next week or so, in order than I can incorporate them into the survey for everyone to consider.
The main issue, as I see it, is whether to add more features to the Net to keep it interesting, or to keep things brief so that it doesn’t take longer to run the net. It would be ideal if we could do both. Looking forward to hearing your ideas.
Net tip
Many stations have already picked up on this naturally, but for those who haven’t noticed, it is quite OK to check into the net whenever you hear a pause. For example, if NCS acknowledges a station, gets their signal report and their QRU or QTC, NCS will generally then send:
R <AS> (followed by a pause of about 3 secs)
During that pause, feel free to send your callsign, or just your sine. (Your “sine” is a short form of your callsign, usually just one letter, which NCS will then acknowledge, after which you would send your full call plus your QNI info.)
This saves time, as NCS doesn’t have to send CQ between each QNI.
Suggestions?
If you have suggestions on how to make the net better, or things you’d like to see covered in these updates, please contact ZL1NZ. You might even like to write something for the newsletter.
Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you soon on the NZ Net!
Neil ZL1NZ
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