About the Net
For more than half a century, the Eastern CT Traffic Net has been meeting nightly to
train area amateur operators in net procedures, use of repeaters, NTS message composition
and handling, and National Traffic System structure and accepted protocols.
We encourage the sending of practice radiograms. We welcome questions about how NTS works and why,
making sure new hams know they’ll be warmly received on the net, and encourage participants
to learn and practice being net control operators.
While the volume of messages passed through the National Traffic System has been dramatically
reduced with the rise of email and texting, the importance of understanding, relaying, and
responding coherently to human communication cannot be over stated.
The beauty of amateur radio is that it requires developing skills essential for times when
normal infrastructure is disrupted or unavailable.
Yet it also trains the individual to listen, think, reason and respond to daily interpersonal communication.
Combined with emphasis on community service, technical proficiency, and promoting international goodwill,
message traffic handling is an exciting and fun way to better one ‘self while meeting interesting people near and far.