Brass Pounders' quarterly An Electronic NEwsletter of the ARRL National Traffic System Richard WEbb, nf5b, editor PUBLISHED BY TRAFFIC HANDLERS FOR TRAFIC HANDLERS NTS resources: http://www.arrl.org/nts ARRL Public service communications manual: www.arrl.org/public-service-communications-manual NTs officials, be sure that you are connected with the NTS Officials' email reflector. IF you aren't, contact Steve Ewald at ARRL HQ. Volume VI Issue 1 COpyright 2012 by THe ARRL National Traffic SYstem http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/files/FDIST/HAMNEWS/BPQ-0601.ZIP Contents Editor's corner NTS news briefs From the editor's email inbox General articles: Station of origin: Is a call sign enough? NTS Training: Quality control: It's built in BPQ features: A quick and dirty guide to my NTS white paper HOw to submit an article Where to get BPQ THIs electronic newsletter is free to all who may wish to receive it. YOu may upload it to bulletin board systems; ftp sites etc. so long as no fees are charged for access to it. INdividual articles retain the copyright of the author. EDITOR'S CORNER A culture gap In our efforts to preserve and promote NTS as a viable tool into the foreseeable future I find that we don't so much bump up against a traditional generation gap, but something even more insidious, a culture gap. When we talk about the challenges we face many of us who have been at this awhile put it in terms of the former, but that's where we're missing the mark. WE all have said some version of it, i.e. "the new hams just don't understand ... " As you're aware I've done quite a bit of writing on this subject over the last couple of years. In my efforts I've discussed at length why I believe we still need to train today's radio amateur in handling formal traffic; why the standard format is still relevant; the value of preserving our cw circuits, etc. I've written hundreds of words, talked myself blue in the face at gatherings, and at times grown quite frustrated at the lack of foresight of many of our leaders in the amateur radio community. We're so busy staring at the bath water that we've failed to notice that the baby is still in there. Many of us want to see no movement at all in how we operate, in fact anything which challenges us to step outside the comfort zone is perceived to be an attack on the system, even if those changes would help us reach out to others who aren't regular NTS participants. This is why we can send ARRL leaders to Washington to talk with the president's technology advisors on robust radio email links while the board rejects updating the Public Service Communications manual to better reflect these capabilities. IN large part, our leaders both within NTS and the larger ARRL community seem intent on keeping NTS operable, so long as it doesn't expand its capabilities and take its former place as an integral part of our public service and emergency communications offering. WE want it, so long as it remains a museum piece to be pointed to occasionally. As for me, I have no intention of being part of a display at a museum. I refuse to be part of that when what the public needs is a viable robust organized system of moving messages of all types across town, or across the country after the disaster or when confronted by emergencies. I truly believe that we have no need to reinvent wheels on an ad hoc basis to respond to these situations when modernizing our practices and procedures can pay huge dividends in available trained manpower offering the capabilities the public needs. Whether the situation calls for moving email by radio, or standard radiogram messages on cw we have the tools necessary to get the job done. What we don't have is the awareness of, and support of, that average new ham who might have acquired a license after the code requirements for hf access were lifted. Why don't we have the support and awareness of those new hams? The answer is simple, and its root cause goes back nearly half a century to when the phone components of NTS were added. Since those days the phone component has been supported, but treated as an unwanted stepchild. We're doing the same today with our new digital capabilities. We want to show the minimum level of support necessary to be able to say we support our phone circuits and digital capabilities, but when it comes to providing any more than basic life support we drag our feet, and when challenged about the foot dragging get downright hostile to the challenger. This is true for our leaders within NTS, and ARRL in general. I truly believe this will change, but by the time it does we may not be able to recover. As Joni Mitchell sang back in the '70's "you don't know what you've got till it's gone." IN my opinion over half a century is long enough. Many of us in NTS leadership are politics averse. We've had enough of politics on the job, on the tv and radio, we want to avoid it in our avocations and hobbies. Believe me, I concur with this. Politics has become one of those words that in the minds of many of us should join those words George Carlin liked to bandy about that couldn't be uttered on our broadcast media. But, we have to face the reality that if we're going to preserve NTS as more than a museum piece we're going to have to get down and dirty and truly become part of the political process within ARRL. We can always take a good long shower once we've rolled in the mud and other unsavory substances and be sure to wear the appropriate clothing whenever we must wade into it again. This means actively participating in our local clubs; showing up at hamfests; and spending our dollars and time actively supporting candidates for ARRL leadership positions who truly understand what we in NTS are about. That's our big hurdle, but there are a couple more on the way to that high one that we must clear as well. When our net management and member at large positions come open at the area staff levels we must put forward candidates for these positions who are truly thinking about tomorrow. Yes it's nice if those candidates we put forward for these positions are diligent at getting their stats into hq the first of every month, but it's pretty obvious that nobody gives a tinker's dam about those figures anymore. I note that cycles 1 and 2 of region nine have cut back to operating three days a week, and not a whimper was heard, not a voice was raised expressing concern about this. Central area daytime has also cut back to three days a week. Some have expressed great concern about this, and I share those concerns. The trouble is a severe manpower shortage. There's only one way to solve a manpower shortage, and that's recruiting. Many would argue the manpower shortage is caused by a lack of anything to do, i.e. traffic moving via digital routes. This is part of the problem, but the decrease in available bodies has been an an issue for many years. Within the 10th region the problem is most accute, as this is the NTS region with the lowest population density. IF we wish to preserve the tools and capabilities we offer in NTS we're going to have to get our hands dirty and get to work. We all know that making policy is like making sausage, it's an ugly process nobody wants to see, especially if one likes sausage with one's eggs and toast for breakfast. But, since we all agree we like our NTS sausage and want to continue to enjoy it we're going to have to get in there and take an active part in formulating ARRL policy for the future. We start by pushing the Emergency Communications Advisory committee to help us advocate for the replacement of the appropriate sections of the Public Service Communications manual, and go from there. Other challenges await us as well. We meet those challenges by becoming better advocates and getting involved. LEt's make 2012 the year that NTS leadership takes an active role in shaping the future of public service and humanitarian communications using radio. Taking an active role is going to mean a bit of thinking outside the box. See the article in this issue regarding the definition of "station of origin" and discuss it with other traffic handlers and Ares leaders. This is how we adapt and grow to meet tomorrow's challenges. Today's new hams need what we have to teach, and the public we ultimately serve needs us to adapt and grow as its telecommunications needs and expectations change. ******** Short takes and SYSTEM NEWS! Region and area net managers, other Nts leaders, send the editor short items for publication in this space. WElcome those newcomers; especially new net controls and liaisons! send in plain text to nf5b@arrl.net or bpq.editor@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com for inclusion. Be sure to make it clear in the subject line you wish this included in this space in case I'm too brain dead to figure it out . The NTS Officials reflector is now operational! It's been a long time coming, but finally we have an official system wide NTS officials reflector. if you are a region or area net manager, area digital coordinator, member at large of NTS area staff, or a section traffic manager be sure that you're connected! If you're not seeing messages from the reflector at your preferred primary email address contact Steve EWald at HQ. No ads, no funky stuff, just a place to post queries, suggestions, ideas and the like for the entire NTS community to consider. This is a tool we've been needing for a long time. Come join in, nTS needs your active participation, both on the air and in generation of ideas to keep us viable. -- Do you make this newsletter available on your web site or bulletin board system? Be sure to send a note giving the url or other access info so that it can be noted here. It just might bring you some more visitors. ******** From the editor's email inbox WE welcome your comments suggestions and items for publication. THe editor reserves the right to edit letters to fit available space. send your comments to richard.webb@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com and please indicate in the subject line that this is a letter to the editor. YOu can also use bpq.editor@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com NOw, on with the mail. Steve, k6jt writes: I read your articles in BPQ and also read through your entire white paper concerning the future of NTS and your suggestions. Thank you for taking the time and effort to document all of this as I'm sure it will be of great benefit to those of us in traffic handling in a not-so-distant future. I am active in the CW NTS nets and also handle a lot of traffic via digital links using Winlink and also a local packet BBS. I agree that digital is going to be the mode of choice for much of what ARES does. The methods you describe, particularly of having key digital gateway stations, is already taking shape, at least here in Texas. In fact, I act much like one of the gateways you describe, routing traffic to and from the CW NTS nets, local VHF traffic nets, and wide-coverage SSB traffic nets. My preference is the CW nets (being the manager of the Texas CW NTS net for 6 years now should give you a clue about that). I do not enjoy the digital operations as much, but I acknowledge they are necessary. In fact, I am very sad to see the deterioration of much of the CW NTS cycle 4 that is occurring. I am NCS on the Central Area Net one night per week. We have not had a check-in from the 9th Region Net now in over 6 weeks. I have taken that traffic a few times myself and, you guessed it, put it into the digital system. Region Net 5 is in better shape, but it is also suffering from a lack of operators. There are probably only a dozen "regular" liaison and NCS stations left on RN5. We have lost several "iron men" in the past 5 years who were doing more than their share to hold things together ops like Dave, W4ZJY, Jim, KB5W, and Wads, W5CDX, to name a few from the RN5 area, were staunch supporters of the nets before their time on earth came to an end. We really miss them all. But with the lack of emphasis on CW and the lack of interest by younger operators in traffic handling in general, it will be only those of us with advancing age that are left to carry the torch, so to speak. That's where digital comes in. Younger operators are more attuned to the digital lifestyle, what with email, texting, computer literacy, etc. The skill set is pretty well already developed. After all, digital traffic handling is almost the same as sending email. It is only the radio part that separates it from simple Internet access. Or does it? That brings up a point that has been bothering me since I learned of the Telnet access afforded by such programs as Airmail and even Winlink Webmail. We are fortunate here in the north Texas area to have numerous VHF RMS stations with 24/7 access to the Winlink system. That is what I have been using for a few years now with just an old (picked up used at a hamfest) Kantronics TNC. It is only in the last month that I discovered the Telnet path. Further investigation has revealed that there are several stations who are using the Telnet interface (which is simply a direct Internet connection to a Winlink CMS) to handle traffic. While there is nothing wrong with that, particularly for stations who don't have a VHF RMS within range and who cannot budget the high dollars for an SCS Pactor HF modem, what IS wrong is that they are counting that traffic for reporting purposes to their STM or SM, some of them even "making BPL" with high message totals. The Public Service Comm Manual clearly states that traffic can only be counted when sent or received BY RADIO by the station involved. It does not matter if the message inserted into the system eventually goes over radio, it is the station sending or receiving that must use radio in order to count the traffic for reporting purposes. Furthermore, the PSCM states that one cannot count a message for delivery unless that message was subsequently received BY RADIO. I am not sure about reporting for digital traffic handled, it may still qualify for that, but it should be made clear it is ONLY for digital traffic totaling, NOT for STM/SM reporting for BPL purposes. I'd appreciate it if you would have something about this in a future BPQ =AD you are welcome to use this email, if you wish. In any case, thank you for your thoughtful analysis and hard work. You are on the right track, at least from my perspective. Cycle 4 of NTS in the Central Area is not dead yet, but it is certainly a bit sick. That is not yet the case for the Pacific area, nor for the Eastern area. I have direct connections with the Pacific area through TCC skeds (where I check-into PAN). They have a lot more traffic flowing and a lot more active operators than we do here. Similarly, I have been told by the Eastern Area TCC director that EAN is still going strong. Naturally, there are weak spots / states here and there, but nothing like what I am observing here in the CAN area. I'll be happy to tell you more about the way digital is working, at least for me, here in the central area if you are interested. For now, I'll leav= e it at this. 73, Steve K6JT Manager TEX CW NTS net TCC E,F : CAN NCS : RN5 liaison DFW VHF local net liaison W5ROK Packet BBS sysop 7290 traffic net liaison Thanks for your feedback Steve. OUr phone and digital components, like it or not, are the future. We all may lament the erosion inMorse capability, but that doesn't change the facts as they are. We can best bolster our Morse capabilities, and our manpower shortages in the heartland of America by acknowledging this, and changing the ways we offer access to reflect these changes. What really saddens me is that we got a thumbs down from the ARRL board on replacing the Public SErvice Communications Manual Appendix B chapter 6 with an up to date version. Meanwhile the ARRl Emergency Communications level 1 course indicates that this new chapter 6 is in place. Also our leaders marched off to WAshington to sing the praises of our digital capabilities, which require knowledge of the techniques and principles described in the revised mpg chapter 6. IN other words, we are sending mixed messages. I hope you've made your concerns over traffic counting methods and practices known to STeve EWald and others at ARRL hq. Another point you touched on, which i keep coming back to in my writings on the subject of NTS and public service/humanitarian comms is the shortage of manpower here in the heartland. Folks in pacific and Eastern areas do not perceive the problem we have here, because they do not yet confront it. HOwever, as we age the new hams are not being properly mentored or steered to programs such as NTS. These shortages here in the Central ARea will face them in the not too distant future. Now is the time to begin thinking about them. AGain, thanks for the feedback. ******** *Station of origin: Is a call sign enough? Station of origin: Is a call sign enough? Put your thinking cap on. This is an issue we should be considering seriously. You've deployed to a location far from home to help out after a disaster. Most of the infrastructure has been knocked out of service, and you're sending messages via manual relay. You don't have hf winlink access; you don't have reliable cellular service, and you don't even have reliable hf phone or cw from your assigned location. Your messages are going out on two meters to a fellow in the next town who still has his hf capability. This means that your messages to the folks that support the agency you're serving are all going by one or more relays. You are from a location 500 miles away from where you're serving. You spend three days on site, then it's time for you to go home and resume your normal life. After all, you have a business to run, bills to pay. Your spouse would really like you to come home, and there is a new person coming in to relieve you. TO expand this further, let's say that you've sent messages all over the country from your assigned location. Now you're gone from that location, and one of those messages needs to be serviced back to you for some reason. IT doesn't however need to be serviced back to you, it needs to be serviced back to its point of origin, not you. Remember, you're 500 miles or more away now. Here's where the fun begins. You receive the service message once you've arrived at home and resumed normal day to day life. But, you don't need to receive that service message. It needed to go to the operator(s) where you were assigned. Yes your "station" may have originated the message, but you can now not communicate with the person who actually caused it to be generated. You are hundreds of miles from there, and your message will need to go by radio to reach him or her. You don't know the call sign of the operator who relieved you with any degree of certainty. How do you get word to the person who caused the message to be generated? Is there a better way to go about this? Maybe there is. Bill Kuechler, n9acq of Arkansas had the following thoughts I'd like to share with you. He provides the following examples to illustrate his thoughts on the subject. Station of origin: Station call / operator call or tactical address / operator call. Place of origin: Building or agency office City State. KC5TEL is the call sign for Craighead County EOC. If you consider the Place of Origin as the return address then any reply can be routed back without any problem. N9ACQ is the operator in shift and will be relieved and return home after 5 days out of state. Thus: 123 P HXC KC5TEL / N9ACQ 15 Fire Station 2 Jonesboro AR 0915 CST Nov 25 2011 Or: 123 P HXC Craighead EOC / N9ACQ 15 Fire Station 2 Jonesboro AR 0915 CST Nov 25 2011 IN either case, reliably routing a response back to itsoriginators is the key. Under most day to day circumstances, this isn't a problem, but, when operating in support of emergency communications this could pose an even bigger problem. ******** *Quality control: It's built in Quality control: IT's built in I endeavor to put something in almost every issue that's going to be of value to the newcomer to traffic handling. For this issue we'll concentrate on one of the most important mechanisms for assuring the quality of the messages we relay and deliver. I've hammered away about the check, or group count in this space before. I've also discussed handling instructions at length, as well as operator's notes. I'll probably end up doing updates on those later on. First though let's start with the very basics. For you newcomers, take your regular radiogram form in whatever format you have it, print one out if you must from the web, and notice that first item in the preamble, the message number. That number is on the front line of the battle for quality control. That number is issued by the station of origination of course, and should be unique. Numbering policy: There are differing schools of thought on how to do this. Back in the old days some might start anew at number 1 each month. Others at the beginning of each calendar year. I do neither, I consecutively number them, one after the other, after the other. Institute a policy that works for your operations and stick with it. We hear a lot of talk bandied about these days about why we should abandon the standard radiogram in favor of the 213 form. We should remember though that the radiogram format is not the "nts" format, the "ARRL" format, or, as I've seen lately, the "iaru" format. IT predates all of these, in its raw simplest form and has its origins in the dawn of telegraphy. But, in its modern guises it provides us all the tools we need to track every single message entered into the system, from point of origin to point of delivery. That radiogram preamble can be adapted to the 213 form. Anybody who tells you it can't be hasn't really thought it through. Consider for a moment what happens when you take a package to UPS or FedEx. Although you've placed the recipient's address on the package the first thing the shipper is going to do is affix some more tags to the package. IN fact, these days they'll provide you with a tracking number which you can then provide to the recipient so that he/she can look on the web referencing it. With that number the exact location of the package can be determined. IF not its exact location, at the minimum the intended recipient can find out when/where it was last handled. The message number of our standard radiogram serves this purpose. IF you're sending that 213 form direct to its recipient it's dealer's choice, omit that radiogram preamble if you feel you must, but, if that form must go through one or more relays that tracking information provided in the radiogram preamble is vital. This goes not just for the ics 213 form, but any specialized form that must be sent via relays to its destination. Every piece of information contained in that preamble gives us essential information about what's within. After the message number of course we have the message precedence, i.e. emergency, priority, routine, welfare or service. We don't often see the last two these days, they are usually just labeled routine. These tell us what we need to know about the importance of the message. Then of course we have any handling instructions, if nothing is found in this three character field then we can assume hxg. This tells us what the originator would like us to do to assure him/her of proper handling of the message. Sometimes just to check out the system I'll use hxd for this one. I'll do this especially if I'm sending a message which will go from section to region to area, then possibly even further, and placing it in the hands of a new traffic handler. OF course then we have the station of origin, which is self explanatory. Which station put this message into the system? It coupled with that message number is our front line of tracking that message if we should have need to reference it later. See the accompanying article in this issue for more discussion of the station of origin. Then of course is that dreaded check, or group count. This tells us how many "groups" not words, but groups can be found in the body of the message. This is vital, as it helps me as a recipient of a message for relay be absolutely sure that I have copied the message accurately. If the group count indicates 25 and I only have 24 groups, then I'm missing something, and it's incumbent on me as the receiving station to work with the sender to fill in the potential missing group. Finally, we have fields which are really self explanatory, the place of origin; time, and finally the date. Remember if you're using utc time then utc date should agree. These fields contain pieces of information that we *must* have when relaying messages to assure the sender that we can provide high quality service. This is why a consistent method of sending the dreaded 213 form manually must be chosen, and taught. Until a consistent methodology is chosen I don't think you'll see many regular traffic handlers receptive to the idea of sending the 213 form, even though the agencies would prefer it. I'd be more than happy to accommodate, but my preferred implementation might not be somebody else's. This creates confusion, and that's not what we want. This is the only way we'll get our operators to become familiar, and comfortable with the 213 form. Does this preamble need a bit of a facelift? Maybe, but then again, maybe not. A colleague and I have been bouncing around some scenarios recently. Read the accompanying article, then put your thinking cap on. ******** A quick and dirty guide to my NTS white paper. *A quick and dirty guide to my NTS white paper By Richard Webb, nf5b This white paper was composed in part due to the chronic personnel shortages we have been experiencing here in the NTS Central area. Another reason I spent the time to formulate these ideas and set them down is the lack of true mentoring available to today's new ham. As I've said before, such personnel shortages as we are experiencing are not yet widely felt in the more populous areas, i.e. Eastern and Pacific, but they are a real part of the future as we lose those operators who were the beneficiaries of the traditional Elmer. Central area is basically the "canary in the coal mine" whose warnings we should heed. First, a discussion of NTS and traditional methods of operator training and a comparison with today. Posits that the NTS system is still viable. Cyclic timetables can be expanded to provide 24/7 coverage after a large scale emergency or disaster. NTS has the versatility to provide regular routed service for normal traffic, and to establish special "hot line" circuits between two or more locations with a need to exchange high volumes of time sensitive traffic. Defines the problem: The main problem of NTS is lack of reliable access to the system for today's radio amateur. Scheduled nets do not often lend themselves to participation by today's highly mobile active radio amateur, barring meaningful participation and access to regular training opportunities. The majority of hams expressing an interest in emcomm and public service are no longer Morse conversant, hence NTS scheduled services during prime time are even more inaccessible to them. Various possible solutions are discussed, and the solution that fits best to me is as follows. at the NTS region level NTS would establish during prime time evening hours a watch or guard channel for each region on a frequency accessible to all operators of general class or above using ssb in addition to the regularly scheduled cw nets that take place during prime time. Daytime nts nets, (cycles 1 and 2) should also establish such "guard channels" as well. Operations using other modes such as the usual cw nighttime schedules would continue, and in fact be strongly encouraged and nurtured. Advantages: An impacted section's members can immediately tune to their region guard channel when an emergency condition exists. Section leadership can then call up the regular section net if desired, or ask the region's management to stand up a controlled net as long as it should be necessary. Hot line and key points circuits can be easily established, and the amateur radio community can rapidly respond to conditions as they develop. We in the ARRL Delta Division and other Gulf coast sections have demonstrated over the years the effectiveness of offering a network which swings into 24/7 operation during such events as a hurricane making landfall. such manual long haul access should be available nationwide after disaster strikes. Its effectiveness in actual saving of lives has been demonstrated multiple times. I know, because on September 3 of 2005 at around 5:00 A.M. local time I used this network to do just that from my station at University Hospital, New Orleans. A store and forward email system would have been ineffective in saving the lives of a mother, her unborn child and a kidney patient who had become critical. Established regional "guard channel" nets would negate the necessary reinvention of the wheel which has occurred within the Delta Division, and the Memorandum of understanding entered into by the Louisiana, MIssissippi, and South Texas sections. Regional guard chanel nets with active management could already have these circuits in operation, lending immediate support to an impacted section, enabling it to quickly stand up available section resources as well. Additional advantages to the region guard channel concept: Today's radio amateur can utilize these frequencies for the usual services which he would acquire from such systems as midcars/eastcars, etc. Offering expanded services enables more operators to have opportunities to develop skills such as controlling a busy net that doesn't run on a "role call" or other rigidly structured format, and to handle traffic of varying types, from informal words to formal messages. Operators can develop a wide variety of skill sets and develop relationships with others to build an effective team within the region. The organizational structure of NTS is still sound, but its visibility and accessibility are sorely lacking. Section phone nets are proving less than effective in closing this gap. Section nets are best supported, and nurtured under the region watch channel proposal as discussed in my white paper. These region watch or guard frequencies can become known go-to resources for today's highly mobile amateur population. Enterprising individuals might even establish carefully controlled vhf and uhf links to these frequencies as well. These regional guard channels can bring all the NTS and long haul resources "under one roof" enabling the amateur community to easily get needed resources up and running to serve the agencies, and the public, such as the arrangement of digital resources to link a stricken area with email by radio, etc. Ad hoc is often the name of the game, and this means adaptability and timeliness. The white paper points out that government and other "utility" radio services have been using similar concepts reliably since the development of suppressed carrier single sideband. Although they use additional techniques such as ale (automatic link establishment) those techniques have some disadvantages if used on HF amateur frequencies regularly. The key disadvantage again is availability, mobile and portable stations may not have the computer interfaces and other equipment to utilize them. Second is that as we know, "nobody owns a frequency" as we're reminded. Ale and other such automatic signaling techniques may inadvertently generate interference to ongoing communication, and not generate goodwill toward the amateurs involved in the network using such techniques. Finally, the white paper discusses the IARU promulgation of global center of activity frequencies for emergency communications. Anyone not familiar with this can visit IARU web resources to get more information, or turn to the final appendix of this white paper. WAnt to see more? Take your browser to http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/files/FDIST/HAMNEWS/NTSFUTUR.ZIP or ftp://ftp.wpusa.dynip.com/pub/FDIST/HAMNEWS/NTSFUTUR.ZIP YOu'll need winzip or its equivalent. Load the extracted text file in your favorite word processor. ******** How to submit an article Send a file attach of a straight ascii file to the editor at elspider@bellsouth.net for inclusion. Brief items for our news section should be sent as a regular plain text email. Again, attachments of plain ascii files preferred. If using MS Word choose the save-as option to save as plain text, possibly called dos text. CHeck your favorite word processor's doccumentation on creating ascii files. NO graphics files, pdf etcetera please! THis electronic newsletter is intended to be machine readable. This newsletter may be distributed on packet and other radio systems where system operators and relay stations wish to closely monitor content of transmissions. IT is intended to be platform independent which is not possible with graphical file formats. Even the operator with the old commodore or Apple II should be able to read this newsletter, or the fellow using the old dumb terminal. Text to speech systems etcetera should have no problems reading this newsletter. IF possible use a file extension of .art for your article. IF it fits one of these categories use the category name as the file name. Regular categories for which we seek articles are as follows: general : articles of general interest to traffic handlers. USE a file name of general.art training : Articles regarding training hints and tips. AS above, use training.art if possible. Outreach : articles on ways to reach out to the public and promote NTS and amateur radio message handling capabilities. AS with the above examples, outreach.art. Using these naming conventions allows your editor to auto- matically process your article. TYpe the title twice, the first time at left margin preceded by a * character. THe second time centered as you'd like it to appear. THe line with the * will be used to automatically build a table of contents and the asterisk removed. YOur article will then appear with title centered. Immediately below the centered title please place your name and call sign so that folks will know who authored the article. If you have an email address please provide it as well. THough often these can be looked up the information provided in call sign databases is often incorrect. IF you are a net manager or hold an aRRL field organization position please provide this information as well. IF possible keep line lengths to 70 characters or fewer. Again remember that we are attempting to be platform independent. Many of our readers will wish to view this on their screens instead of printing it out. IF you cannot save your article as plain text paste the text into an email and send it. Your editor will do his best to format it properly for display on most computer systems. IF you do this state in the subject line that text enclosed in email is an article for BPQ. Although you retain the copyright on your work, submission of any articles implies permission to publish them in BPQ and distribute said work electronically without remuneration to you or BPQ. NO fee may be charged to receive BPQ. WHere to get BPQ http://home.earthlink.net/~bscottmd/ http://home.comcast.net/~wx4j/ Many fine internet connected bulletin boards also carry bPQ in the hamnews file area as a zip file using the same naming conventions as the text files within them. THese files are distributed by the ham-fdn and the International FIlegate Project. Visit www.filegate.net/ Fidonet: Many fine bulletin board systems available via telnet www and dial-up can link to the ham-fdn described above. IF you don't see it on your favorite fido board ask the sysop to link to the hamnews area through his/her regular files link. THe headquarters of the ham-fdn can be accessed as follows: Waldo's place USA. modem (919) 774-5930 telnet://bbs.wpusa.dynip.com http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/ ftp://ftp.wpusa.dynip.com See below for direct links to this issue of BPQ! IF you are the system operator of a BBS (either landline or radio) and cannot get BPQ through your regular links it can be sent you via email as either regular email or a file attach. SEnd an email to bpq.distro@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com Provide your email address in the text and tell us how you'd like to receive BPQ. Also tell us what kind of bbs system you operate, its frequencies of operation if a packet board or its dial-up/telnet info etc. Also, please give us your callsign. we wish to keep the email distribution list fairly small, so look to your favorite internet dial-up or packet connections first if at all possible. Thanks for reading and 73 Richard Webb, nf5b Find this issue via the web or ftp at: http://www.wpusa.dynip.com/files/FDIST/HAMNEWS/BPQ-0601.ZIP or ftp://ftp.wpusa.dynip.com/pub/FDIST/HAMNEWS/BPQ-0601.ZIP send correspondence to the editor via email using the following email address: elspider@bellsouth.net OR using plaintext only to: bpq.editor@116-901.ftn.wpusa.dynip.com All file attached article submissions should be sent to the bellsouth address . See the earlier section on how to submit an article. Place bpq feedback or similar text in the subject line so that it receives proper attention from the editor. reproduction of articles in club newsletters is permitted so long as BPQ and the original author are credited. FOr more information contact the editor. BRASS POUNDERS' QUARTERLY Published by traffic handlers for traffic handlers COpyright ARRL National Traffic SYstem, electronic distribution encouraged. *** end of file*** Richard Webb, send plain text only to this account, no pdf or jpg files please.