NTS Letter for January 6, 2026 undefined

National Traffic System®

 

 

 

Editor: - January 6, 2026

 

 

 

The NTS Letter – a Year in Review

It is always hard to believe that another year has passed. The older we get, the faster they seem to fly by. 2026 should be a momentous year. Not only will we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, but ARRL celebrates 100 years since the development of its field organization. In an article by former Field Services Manager Mike Walters, W8ZY, in the January 2026 issue of QST, page 70, he states, “This is a major milestone for the volunteer-based administrative and operational structure of the League, which allows ARRL programs and activities to be managed at local levels throughout the US and its territories.” These programs include club, ARES, and NTS activities. While 2026 has been declared the ARRL Year of the Club, let us not neglect both the ARES and NTS programs, which together prepare us for service to the public as stated in the FCC regulations that govern amateur radio.

 

In The NTS Letter, we have shared the efforts of the newly created (2021) NTS subcommittee of ARRL Emergency Communications and Field Services Committee (EC-FSC), as well as highlighting activities within the NTS community. This is a time to reflect on the accomplishments of 2025.

 

The year began with a change at ARRL. Beginning in 2022, then-New England Division Director Fred Kemmerer, AB1OC, led the NTS subcommittee’s revitalization program, known as NTS 2.0. A group of volunteers recruited by Fred accomplished a great deal under his driving force, and the group is very grateful for his energy and leadership. In 2025, that leadership was transferred to New England Division Vice Director Phil Temples, K9HI. In February, Phil organized a “Call-Out” via Zoom for volunteers interested in helping with this program and additional help was added from the field of traffic handlers in support of this revitalization project.

 

Some projects such as the Radiogram Portal and the NTS Treasure Hunt have continued to attract traffic handlers and have been updated from time to time as needed. More on these programs will be noted later in this newsletter.

 

Perhaps the biggest event of 2025 was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ARRL and Radio Relay International (RRI), allowing for greater unity and cooperation in support of the NTS. Each of these two organizations has much to contribute toward presenting a stronger and more relevant national messaging service, available for public service when and wherever needed.

 

In June, this newsletter reported on a new Certified Radiogram precedence introduced by RRI to improve transmission and delivery time for more personalized radiograms. While the common practice of sending welcome messages to new hams with addresses obtained from an FCC database provided opportunities for practice in traffic handling as well as encouraging newly licensed amateurs, the numbers and repetition of these radiograms have had a downside as transmission time and actual delivery of radiograms had diminished considerably. The new “C” precedence, which might be compared to the US Postal Service “Priority Mail,” requires personally known addressing information and the delivery of a radiogram within 48 hours.

 

Some of the other improvements since then have included an updated list of numbered radiograms. These standardized messages are especially relevant to welfare and emergency communications when time is of the essence. This updated list can be found on both the RRI () and the NTS 2 () websites. Handling instructions, an optional field in the radiogram preamble, have also been updated and found on the above noted websites.

 

Another accomplishment during 2025 has been an updated program of awards for traffic handlers. Newly-designed certificates have been published on the NTS 2 website and are available to be downloaded and signed by local leadership. To encourage new traffic handlers, a certificate may be awarded for properly formatting and sending a first radiogram on an NTS traffic net. A new “Challenge Coin” is now available for those who have shown dedication to net participation and message handling by reporting this activity to their Section Traffic Managers over a period of 48 months.

 

For those new to traffic handling who may have difficulty finding a training net in their area, a Virtual NTS Training Net (VNTN) has been operational since March, meeting weekly via Zoom on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM Eastern Time. The program generally starts the first Wednesday of each month, but anyone from anywhere is welcome to join in at any time. Training is conducted by Shawn Dodds, N1CVO, of Massachusetts, and experienced traffic handlers from around the country often drop in to either get ideas for starting such a net in their area or to offer help from their years of experience. Information on this training net is available on the NTS2 website at .

 

Tips on traffic handling and experiences from the field, such as the “Cape Cod Traffic Jam” and articles about some of the independent nets that contribute to the flow of NTS traffic are interspersed in this newsletter, along with spotlights on those traffic handlers who have made a difference, contributing their time and energy to keeping this network running as smoothly as possible.

 

As we begin a new year, we can look forward to continued efforts to improve the NTS and to recruit more folks to learn about the value of the skills learned in message relay.

 

Are We Prepared?

James Wades, WB8SIW

 

Are you really prepared?

 

During the “Basic Voice Communications Procedures” class conducted by Radio Relay International, we ask students to engage in a simple exercise. While traveling out of town, check into an ARES® or similar local EmComm net. Transmit your call sign slowly and carefully, using the standard ITU phonetic alphabet. Then wait to see if the NCS gets it right!

 

During 25 years of business travel, I conducted this experiment many times. In 95 percent or more cases, the typical NCS couldn’t transcribe my call sign correctly despite two or three attempts. In many cases, the net sounded like a well-oiled machine, with stations checking in and being acknowledged without error - until a strange call sign appeared.

 

Now imagine that same NCS during an ARES® net operating under the stress of emergency conditions in which important messages are being conveyed on behalf of a served agency. Perhaps a request for medical supplies is being transmitted or someone is reporting the release of a hazardous chemical. If an ARES operator can’t copy an unfamiliar call sign, will he or she be able to accurately transcribe and deliver a message containing a term such as “acute subdural hematoma” or “ethylene oxide?”

 

The example of the volunteer fire company applies well here. When you dial 9-1-1 to report a fire, you have a reasonable expectation that the firefighters arriving on scene have been trained. They should know how to ventilate the structure, attack the fire, operate the apparatus, or extricate victims, even if they are unpaid volunteers. Likewise, when radio amateurs offer their “emergency communications” services to an agency, the agency has a similar expectation that those assisting have been trained in basic communications procedures and protocols.

 

Learning to convey tactical or record message traffic is an essential skill. It is NOT enough to simply establish connectivity. One must be able to communicate accurately and efficiently, keep a concise radio log, transcribe information without error, and perform the basic administrative functions required of a message center or EOC.

This is why participation in traffic nets is so important. Traffic nets are the only place where one can check into a net any day of the week at your convenience and practice sending and receiving messages using standard prowords, proper ITU phonetic alphabet, and concise procedures. Some dismiss traffic handling because they see the content of routine messages as “unimportant,” but they are missing the point. The real value proposition is in the practice of transmitting variable message content. Every address is different. Network management data varies from message to message. One must transmit the message at a pace that allows transcription by the receiving operator. Likewise, the receiving operator must be able to understand exactly what is being transmitted. These same skills are also essential to an efficient emergency communications process, whether the content being conveyed is tactical in nature or served agency messages intended for delivery to an emergency services official.

 

Let’s be honest! Many EmComm volunteers are not prepared to handle important agency traffic. They have little training in the mechanics of message handling and too few participate in traffic nets.

 

For the first time in many years, we are beginning to see real cooperation between NTS and ARES. This cooperation isn’t just “nice,” it’s essential. Every EmComm volunteer should practice handling traffic because establishing connectivity is only a small piece of the overall communications process.

 

The time has come to bridge the gap between traffic operations and local EmComm. Let’s work together to the benefit of the Amateur Radio Service and our communities.

 

 

Why Are There So Few HXC Responses?

Jim Kutsch, KY2D

 

Many of us have probably heard from disappointed message originators who used handling instruction HXC, which asks the delivering station to report the date and time of delivery (TOD) to the originating station. They use HXC because they want to know, positively, when a message they originated was delivered. Yet, as we know, many HXC requests go unanswered, and the originating station never receives the confirmation he/she requested. Let’s explore why.

 

HXC has always required the delivering station to send a service message confirming the date and time of delivery. But who is the “delivering” station? Here’s the definition of “delivery” from the section on Station Activity Reporting in the ARRL Methods and Practices Guidelines ().

 

From Section 7.2.1 CATEGORIES OF ACTIVITY - ORIG, RCVD, SENT, DLVD:

 

“DELIVERED: (An off-the-air function) Any message traffic that is delivered by you to the message addressee (a third party), provided that the message was received at your station by amateur radio and that the addressee is someone other than yourself. This delivery is done by telephone, postal, email, in person, etc. Count one point. Note: A message sent by amateur radio to the final addressee at another amateur station is counted as a sent message, not as a delivered message.”

 

Then, from 7.2.2 EXPLANATIONS AND EXAMPLES:

 

“A message Received by amateur radio for you at your station is counted only as Received. A message received for a fellow amateur provides two choices ... Deliver it by phone and get a Delivered point or deliver it on the radio and get a Sent point.”

 

It’s clear that a message delivered to a non-ham is a delivery and the station doing that delivery should send the HXC reply. However, when the addressee is a ham, who did the delivery isn’t as obvious. Assume KY2D has received a message with handling instruction HXC for KB1TCE. KY2D calls KB1TCE by phone or sends the radiogram to him by email. Referring to the parenthesized note at the top of MTG 7.2.1 stating that delivery is an off-the-air function, KY2D is clearly the delivering station in this example and is responsible for sending the HXC reply.

 

However, what if KY2D sends the message to KB1TCE on the Maine Seagull phone net? In this case, according to MPG 7.2.2, KY2D is not “delivering” the message; he is “sending” it and KB1TCE is “receiving” it. Since delivery is an off-the-air function, who delivered it? The answer is clarified by considering that an amateur radio license is both a station license and an operator license. Through that lens, KB1TCE (the station) received the message from KY2D. Then KB1TCE (the station) delivered it to KB1TCE (the operator). Thus, KB1TCE is responsible for sending the HXC service message acknowledging the message that was delivered. However, no delivery point is counted in KB1TCE’s Station Activity Report.

 

Last month’s NTS Letter reported that ARRL and RRI have updated the list of handling instructions. One very important change is the addition of a new second sentence in HXC, providing further explanation. The updated HXC now states “Delivering station report date and time of delivery (TOD) to originating station. If received directly on the air by the addressee, then the addressee is responsible for the reply. Hopefully, that highlighted one-sentence summary of the lengthy explanation in this article will help increase the number of HXC responses when radiograms are addressed to amateur radio operators.

 

NTS Treasure Hunt Update

Dan Rinaman, AC8NP

 

Hello, NTS Treasure Hunters!

 

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years holiday!

 

Fifteen stations completed all four rounds in the November 2025 NTS Treasure Hunt.

  • AB1XW - Alan Dove
  • KC1TLF - Dave Marcucci
  • N1CVO - Shawn Dodds
  • WB2JNQ - Bob Jordan
  • WX2DX - Bill Smith
  • N7YD - Mark Galbraith
  • KD2QAR - Mark Vincett
  • WA5EWN - Emmett Ward
  • N4RJB - Richard Bridges
  • KN6HXP - Warren Halstead
  • W4EDN - Bill Heybruck
  • W8ROY - Roy Watts
  • KC1RMD - Dan Rabinowitz
  • KJ7JJ - John Jewkes
  • W9EEU - Gerry Adams

Mug Award Winner for November is Mark Galbraith, N7YD

 

Mug Award

 

In previous Treasure Hunts, a special mug was awarded to the first hunter to finish the hunt. We received feedback that sometimes radiograms are inexplicably delayed, and a hunter may end up not finishing first despite their diligence on the hunt. Starting with the November hunt, the mug is awarded with a random drawing from all hunters who complete the hunt.

 

There were a few problems which were discovered and remedied this past hunt. The Winlink Radiograms got stuck in the system due to some confusion as to where DTN stations were to pick up traffic. This has been fixed.

 

We still seem to be having problems with getting confirmations (HXC) back from our messages. If you deliver a message to the addressee of a message with HXC, whether on air or any other means, you need to send a message such as an ARL Forty Seven to the originating station. (See previous article. – Ed.)

 

November Questions

 

THR1 WHAT IS THE NAME

AND CALLSIGN OF A WELL

KNOWN GUITARIST FROM BEVERLY

HILLS 90210 QUERY REPLY TO

GLENN VE1AQF METEGHAN NS B0W

2J0

 

Answer: JOE WALSH WB6ACU

 

THR2 WHICH Q SIGNAL IS

USED TO CLOSE A CW

NET QUERY ANSWER TO DAN

AC8NP TIFFIN OH 44883

 

Answer: QNF

 

THR3 WHICH NUMBERED RADIOGRAM IS

USED TO SERVICE HANDLING INSTRUCTION

HXD QUERY ANSWER TO JON

N1ILZ EASTHAM MA 02642

Answer: ARL NINETY FOUR

 

THR4 WHICH DIGITAL REPEATER SYSTEM

WAS CREATED BY THE AUTHOR

OF THE RADIOGRAM PORTAL QUERY

REPLY TO MICHELLE K2MJR POUGHKEEPSIE

NY 12603

 

Answer: ECHOLINK

 

On to the January 2026 NTS Treasure Hunt

 

The hunt will have 4 or 5 rounds this time. Can you get through all the rounds by February 25?

 

For those of you who have trouble finding an NTS net, you are free to use the or Winlink RRI Radiogram (not Winlink email). In the message templates, you will find the RRI Radiogram under Select Template, Standard Forms, Radiogram & RRI Forms, Radiogram.txt. It will open in your web browser. Follow the instructions and your message will be sent to a liaison station for input to the Digital Traffic Network side of NTS and work its way through the system. Feel free to send it via radio or telnet at this point.

 

So here is the first-round question:

 

NR1 R HXG AC8NP 26 TIFFIN OH JAN 2

TREASURE HUNTERS

 

BT

THR1 WHICH CITY CONTAINS THE

FORMER SUMMER RESIDENCE OF THE

ORIGINATOR OF MORSE CODE QUERY

REPLY TO MICHELLE KM2I POUGHKEEPSIE

NY 12603

BT

DAN AC8NP

 

Please remember to start your message with the THR1-5 answer, which means Treasure Hunt Round Number.

 

The judges will generally respond with a radiogram back to you within 24 hours of receipt of your message. At times, they may miss a day here and there due to family obligations or illness, or sometimes they sneak off on vacation. Our judges are on traffic nets almost daily. The in-transit time will vary. So, if it has been 5 or 6 days and you do not receive a reply radiogram, try sending an email message to the judge.

 

Try to learn about the NTS in your section. Who is your Section Traffic Manager (STM)? The STM can answer your questions on how to move traffic in and out of your section.

 

If you missed the official Treasure Hunt announcement in the December 2023 issue of The NTS Letter, here is a recap: This is a fun, on-air, multi-step competition in which you will respond to a "judge" with your answer to an initial clue or question via radiogram. The judge will reply via radiogram with the identity of the next judge, along with the next question or clue in the hunt.

 

If you have any comments or suggestions, please email Dan Rinaman, AC8NP, at .

 

Book Traffic on the Portal

Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD

 

Anyone who's been busy with traffic handling has realized that many of our Radiograms convey the same message, from the same source, at the same time, to more than one recipient. This comes frequently when handling everything from emergency traffic to routine greetings. Book traffic to the rescue!

 

As a refresher, a "book" is a set of messages that have the same preamble, text, and signature, but with different addresses and different message numbers. A book is sent to a single station for further handling, after which the book is often broken into smaller books or individual messages as the messages are routed through NTS.

 

For each traffic-handling mode — CW, phone, and digital — there's a specific procedure for how to send (and receive) a book of messages. Put together a set of "booked messages" sometime; it's great practice, both for you and for the station on the receiving end.

 

Following that same theme, the Radiogram Portal now includes the ability to create a Radiogram submission with multiple recipients. For those of you who are Radiogrammers, here are the highlights:

 

1) On the Radiogram entry page, there's a button called "Add Another Recipient," which opens up an additional Addressee section. (Additional address blocks can also be deleted before submitting.)

 

2) The confirmation page shows the message with all recipients shown in the address section.

 

3) Behind the scenes, the Portal creates separate (but otherwise identical) Radiogram entries for each recipient, allowing each to be picked up separately. (There is currently no support for picking up an entire "book" in one transaction).

 

4) In the list of available Radiograms, those which were part of a multi-recipient message are labeled with a "book number," to make it clearer that these messages have identical preambles and text and could be transmitted as a book if desired.

 

Currently, the "Add Another Recipient" button will appear only if you're logged in to the Radiogram Portal, so it's not available to the general public. However, this is a feature that the Portal administrator might make available to the public in the future.

 

Spotlight – Leslie Varnicle, WA3QLW, and George Stone, AC7AI

GREETINGS, MY NAME IS GEORGE, AC7AI. I BECAME INTERESTED IN AMATEUR RADIO AS A RESULT OF LISTENING TO SCANNER BROADCASTS FROM MT. ST. HELENS. I WAS ALSO IN THE FIRE SERVICE AND BECAME A PARAMEDIC AND WAS PLACED IN CHARGE OF DISASTER PLANNING FOR THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. THIS PUT ME IN TOUCH WITH THE COUNTY EOC, WHERE I HELPED GET A GRANT FOR AMATEUR RADIOS IN THE EOC. IN RETIREMENT, I GO UP ONCE A WEEK AND TEST 12 RADIOS THAT WE HAVE THERE.

 

Leslie Varnicle, WA3QLW, from Colorado, has accepted the role as Interim Staff Chair for the Western Area along with her many other roles. For those unfamiliar with the role of Area Staff Chair, see the September 2025 issue of The NTS Letter. More on this role will be forthcoming in future issues. Leslie, who deserves accolades for her hard work in all the responsibilities she has been asked to take on, writes the following. Thank you, Leslie, for all you do. She writes:

 

Dad was a ham and was on the air a lot from our home in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I guess I got the bug from him. I actually got my commercial ticket first and was the evening engineer at a local AM station while in high school. I continued on in electronics and since a lot of the folks I worked with were hams, I got my ham ticket in the late ‘60s. I got active in traffic handling during the Vietnam days and was also the state director for AF MARS.

 

Although I stayed active on air, I dropped out of traffic-handling for a number of years due to work schedules, and picked up again as the century turned. I helped bring Colorado traffic handling up to standards and from there I helped add on region nets in the 12th region. I provide training during the traffic nets when time permits.

 

RRI asked for a volunteer to assist on the board and I volunteered to handle Western Area. I don't really like to run a brag tape as I tend to stay quiet and humble.

 

Leslie, WA3QLW

 

George Stone, AC7AI, is Section Traffic Manager in Western Washington, a very active Section. George’s story came to me, like a true traffic handler, in all CAPS. Thank you, George, for all you do.

 

GREETINGS, MY NAME IS GEORGE, AC7AI. I BECAME INTERESTED IN AMATEUR RADIO AS A RESULT OF LISTENING TO SCANNER BROADCASTS FROM MT. ST. HELENS. I WAS ALSO IN THE FIRE SERVICE AND BECAME A PARAMEDIC AND WAS PLACED IN CHARGE OF DISASTER PLANNING FOR THE FIRE DEPARTMENT. THIS PUT ME IN TOUCH WITH THE COUNTY EOC, WHERE I HELPED GET A GRANT FOR AMATEUR RADIOS IN THE EOC. IN REITREMENT, I GO UP ONCE A WEEK AND TEST 12 RADIOS THAT WE HAVE THERE.

 

IN MARS, I MET AN AMATEUR WHO WAS DEEP INTO TRAFFIC HANDLING AND HE BROUGHT ME ALONG TO THE TRAFFIC NETS. THEN I BECAME THE RECEIVE STATION FOR REGION 7 FOR RRI. NEXT, I WAS ASKED TO BE THE SECTION TRAFFIC MANAGER FOR WESTERN WASHINGTON.

 

I AM VERY HAPPY WITH HOW THE REGION 7 TEAM HAS HANDLED ANY AND ALL TRAFFIC COMING INTO REGION 7.

 

A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

 

 

NTS® Resources

The National Traffic System® (NTS®) is a network of amateur radio operators who move information during disasters and other emergencies. General messages offering well-wishes also move through the NTS® to help test the system and to help amateur radio operators build traffic handling skills. While the NTS® is primarily set up to serve the United States and Canada, it is possible to move traffic internationally through the NTS® via various local, regional, area, and international network connections.

 

 

 

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Editor: , Section Traffic Manager -- Eastern Massachusetts, Western Massachusetts, and Rhode Island

 

ARRL Emergency Communications and Field Services Director:

 

 

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