Local area amateur radio nets offer a wide variety of benefits to newly licensed operators as well as seasoned veterans.

I was able to dispel all of my “mic” fright (shyness on the air) by finding a net that was controlled by an operator that went of his way to ensure that I was welcomed to the ham radio community. By attending the numerous types of nets, I was able to quickly pick up on the protocols (including how to relay a weak signal), terminology and the people on the air – all of which gave me the confidence to continue pressing the PTT button.

Types of Nets

There are various categories of nets that check-in visitors and frequent participants:

• Informational – pass along general information about amateur radio topics, events in the local area, message traffic, and more;
• Social – good ole’ “rag chewing”;
• Directed – the net controller will call stations by using a previously registered list of call signs or by region;
• Health and Welfare – general check on operators in the area;
• Emergency Preparedness – dedicated to contacting regional EOC’s (Emergency Operation Centres) or EMCR (previously known as EMBC) registered volunteers https://www.percs.bc.ca/

You can find nets on the various amateur radio bands. The most common are on VHF 2m (using a repeater or just simplex communication) and HF such as on (but not limited to) 40 or 80m.

Signal Reports

One of the advantages of checking into a net is to determine how well you are being received by the net controller and other stations on the net. The RST or Readability-Signal-Tone reports are used to inform the transmitting station on how well his or her signal is received using a standard convention. Here are links to a few references:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-S-T_system
• https://www.hamradioschool.com/post/practical-signal-reports
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMaQFo2CkCU

Nets In the Lower Mainland

There are many nets that you can participate in. We maintain a list that you can take select and advantage of: https://ve7scc.org/local-area-nets/

The Coquitlam Club or VE7SCC runs its Monday Night Nets at 7:30pm (local time): https://ve7scc.org/weekly-net/
We start with the repeater portion using the VE7MFS repeater following by 2 simplex nets: FM at 146.430 MHz and SSB at 144.220 MHz.

VE7SCC proudly hosts the BC Public Service Net on each Wednesday evening: https://www.bcpsn.com/

Net Controllers

Hope to hear you on one of the nets …