ZSARC ragchew or net for HF?

[ElevenBravo]

Id be interested in knowing if there is either an official or unofficial ragchew or net
for 40 or 20?

Anyone have a proposed freq, day or time?

Id like to see something maybe Sunday... offset times for 40 and 20 so
I can try both bands.

I can do phone, but Ill have to unplug my key first.

Andrew

[kyle]

I'm down for sunday. What time?

I'm rather new at this HF stuff but I have a radio set up that a friend gave me and a general license so I should put it to use more.

[kir]

I'd do Sunday too. I'm pretty flexible that day as well so time is not much of an issue.

[ElevenBravo]

Well, how about letting me sleep in a bit, so no mornings? HA HA!

Im thinking about 1300 EST (Forget what that is in UTC).

Now, what would be a good open freq? Im headed to bed, early work day... so
lets see what suggestions there are for 40m to start.

CU Then!
dit dit

[Scotticus]

Sorry for the necro-post!

The possibility / eventuality for an HF component of our weekly net is now being discussed. If any of you HF-equipped cats are already up and running, and care to take the lead as net HF Liaison, feel free! I look forward to hearing from you.

[ke4yqd]

sundays sound great. 40m is pretty good for keeping it local-er during the day. 20 has been getting long-er. Who wants to take point on this one? I tried this back during the summer, but no one ever joined in. I called at the same time on the same freq for several days and got nothing...

[44Dave]

I'm still trying to get my shack set up :/ Going to takea stab at pounding in the ground rod this weekend - hope the ground isn't too frozen

[ke4yqd]

How about this, we reattack!!!

I would suggest +/- 5 khz of the QRP calling freqs. It is in the of the general class license in all cases. And there is only one minor deconfliction to be made. 40 QRP calling freq is 5 khz below the AM calling freq, but no one really uses .290 for AM calling any more. I haven’t heard one in years and emergency communications trump EVERYBODY ELSE any day, but it is important to be mindful of them.

Schedule for EOP (Emergency Operations Procedures)
0:00 80 = 3.980 (top of the hour), 0:05 3.990 (5 after and so on)
0:10 40 = 7.280, 0:15 7.290 (7.290 is AM calling freq)
0:20 20 = 14.280, 0:25 14.290
0:30 17 = 18.135, 0:35 18.145 (had to make this one up)
0:40 15 = 21.380, 0:45 21.390
0:50 10 = 28.380, 0:55 28.390

You may be aware that we have biweekly nets on echolink. We use the *UNODE* server for the time being. But what say you to having a go at a HF net same day, 30 min prior to or after the echolink net?

The next ZSARC echolink net will be on the 27th of May at 18:00 central, 21:00 zulu. We could try HF at 17:30 central, 20:30 z or 18:30, 21:30? What say you to 7380 KHz?

Example Preamble:

CQ Zombie Squad, CQ Zombie Squad, CQ Zombie Squad, this is (YOUR CALL) net control station for the Zombie Squad Amateur Radio Club. My name is (YOUR NAME) and I am located in (YOUR QTH). This net meets every other Sunday at 20:30 (or 21:30) zulu on a frequency of ######.

This is an informal net that is open to all amateur radio operators. If through the duration of the net there are any emergency or priority traffic please say “Break Priority or Break Emergency” and you will be recognized.

We will now take check-ins. If you would like to check in please give me your call sign phonetically followed by your name and location. Please call now.

[Thunderbolt]

I'm up for a net whenever you have another one. I'm on the west coast, so 80m would be a good choice, higher if the band conditions are good.

Let me know,

T.

[ke4yqd]

Well, no one was on last week. So we'll try it again next week. I was able to hook up with one ZS ham in Ohio, using echolink to coordinate our conversation. I could hear barely him. Not the other way. So, if you want next Sunday June 17th at 5:30pm central, 20:30 Z we will try again on 7.280. If that freq is busy I'll switch to 7.290. If no one checks in I'll switch to 14.280 at 20:40, and if that freq is busy 14.290. If you can't hear me initially, make sure to wait around for the band change.

One change we have is that we will do the HF net opposite weeks of the echolink net. So the echolink net was today, we will have the HF net next week. Another change will be moving the net to 6:00 central 21:00 Z.

[Thunderbolt]

I missed that net. I was out of town.

But I'm still up for a net. Maybe something during the week, say around 07:00z, so that us west coasters can get in on it?

Hell, if there's enough interest, I'll run a net.

T.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

[CoffeeGuy]

Hope to catch ya'll next Sunday at 1600 PST

[KJ4VOV]

Sunday is a no-go for me. I'll be recovering from Field Day.

However, listen for my call Saturday and Sunday as I'll be running the GOTA station for our club. The club call is K4TS

[ke4yqd]

The last net on the 17th had no check-ins. Then next HF net will be on the first.

So far, no one has checked into the last three nets. This is the second time I've tried an HF net and had NO participation what so ever.

[KJ4VOV]

The last net on the 17th had no check-ins. Then next HF net will be on the first.

So far, no one has checked into the last three nets. This is the second time I've tried an HF net and had NO participation what so ever.

The reason might be that it's a bit early for 40m grayline contacts.

[ke4yqd]

The reason might be that it's a bit early for 40m grayline contacts.

I work 40m coast to coast at that time on a regular basis. And 20m (minus my surrounding states here in the midwest).

On the first night, I got onto echolink and there was a member there who did tune up on both 7 / 14 mhz and I could hear him from Ohio on both bands.

I think more a more likely reason is that while everyone want's an HF net, no one is participating. This is the second time I have started an HF net. I started one the early spring of 2011, and again, there were quite a few people interested, but no one checked in. And on that net I think we started on 80.

Everyone talks about it until someone actually does it. i.e. Men of many words and few actions.

OK. All that aside. What proposals do you guys have for an HF net?

We went for Sundays because that is when we hold our Echolink nets. What day would work best?

But I'm still up for a net. Maybe something during the week, say around 07:00z, so that us west coasters can get in on it?

You don't mean 07:00z I hope. That is like 2am here in the midwest.

What time works best for you guys? Would you like to push it back after 0000Z (7pm Central)?

[InTheWeeds]

Running a nationwide HF net is not easy. A good frequency for the East Coast is awful for the West and vice versa, with those of us in the Midwest caught somewhere in the middle. Maybe its time to take a different approach?

instead of one large national net, how about a series of regional nets with some overlapping coverage? This approach has a couple of advantages, namely it can be adjusted seasonally to fit your location and whatever your MUF and FoF2 happen to be. Also, it doesn't rely on just one net controller. Remember, if this net ever went into action when it REALLY counted, it will be after something pretty bad has happened. It makes no sense to base a net like this on one point of failure.

I have some ideas if anyone is interested in this approach.

in the mean time, KE4YQD, I'm interested in seeing if we can make contact if you are. We're pretty close (Central Iowa here), but according to the Ionogram out of Boulder, it looks like we'd have a good shot at a 40m NVIS contact around 000z. maybe we can get something going with the other zero-landers?

[zenprepper]

It would be neat to try and set up some kind of informal rag-chew sked, if not an actual net, on HF just to see how many people can hear each other. The bands seem to be improving, at least much better than my early days in the mid to late 90s.