14.300 MHz has become a very well known
frequency in the Amatuer Radio world. There are three major nets in the
Western Hemisphere that operate on 14.300 MHz. From early morning until
late evening the frequency is busy with traffiic of one form or another.
Begining at 0700 ET daily, The Intercon Net, formally know as The
Intercontinental Amatuer Traffic Net, starts out the day. Intercon runs
until 1200 ET before handing the frequency over to The Maritime Mobile
Service Network. The MMSN, which also runs daily, operates from 1200 ET
until 9 PM EST / 10 PM EDT or 0200 UTC. After The MMSN raps up The Pacific
Seafarers Net begins operation at 10 PM EST / 11PM EDT or 0300 UTC and
runs various lengths of time, depending on traffic load, but usually about
2 hours or less.
Let's take a brief look at each net.
The Intercon
Net
According to Intercon's website, the nets mission
is threefold:
To promote goodwill and friendly relations among radio operators
everywhere.
To handle third party traffic and information between individuals in
any country where such traffic handling is permitted by treaty or mutual
agreement.
To provide a means of emergency communications to any location where
the normal means are disrupted by local disaster such as fire, earthquake,
storms, floods and terrorist activity.
Intercon is probably the least structured, or formal net of the three.
Make no mistake about it, some very important and critical traffic has
been handled on Intercon over the years, but a little more "ragchewing" is
acceptable.
The Maritime Mobile Service Network
The primary purpose of the net is for handling traffic from maritime
mobiles and overseas deployed service personnel. MMSN also assists
missionaries and persons working abroad. The MMSN has a more formal or
structured format than Intercon. Since vessels at sea generally have
barefoot or less rigs, running on battery power with wire or vertical
antennas, their signals may be hard to copy at times. The Net Control
Stations frequently ask all stations to standby while calling for
maritimes only that may wish to check in. Also, offshore weather
information is usually read at about 30 minutes past the hour. Ragchewing
is considered a no-no during MMSN. Any station can check into the MMSN
when the NCS is asking for general check-in's. If you would like a signal
report, audio report or just to say you are "riding along", this is the
time to check-in.
The Pacific
Seafarer's Net
Pacsea handles traffic with vessles mainly in the
Pacific Ocean. Utilizing stations from North America to New Zeland /
Austrailia and across the Pacific, Pacsea takes position reports and
weather observations from vessels. Pacsea NCS's use special software to
post positions on the internet and send observed weather conditions to the
weather forecasters for the Pacific. Friends and family may then track
their vessel of interest online. The first 25 minutes of the net is open
to general check-in's. After that, the roll call portion of the net begins
and it is very structured from that point. Any station is welcome to
assist as a relay for Pacsea. If your area of interest is The Pacific,
check out The Pacific Seafarer's Net.
|
