RadioBanter - NTS Training

Richard Crowley wrote:
I am working on putting together an computer (online, downloadable,etc.)
based training package for learning to properly handle National Traffic
System (NTS) messages.

First, is there already something out there? I don't want to re-invent
any wheels here. Second, if not, does anybody have audio recordings
of an NTS traffic net (voice, not CW) that we could use both as an
example, and ideally for actual practice.

Or, does anybody here know if there are any NTS traffic nets that
I can hear and record myself in the PDX area? There was a weekly
practice sked many months (years?) ago, I remember coming across
them every so often. But now when I went out to look, I can't find
anything.

There is quite a bit of information available on the ARRL web site. As
for finding an actual net, check the net directory at
http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/net...netsearch.html

Might I suggest that if you're planning to create audio examples it
makes more sense to record them using people who are reading from
scripts. I say this because you'll get better quality audio, have
control of what you're recording, and because most of the voice NTS nets
that I've heard in the past decade or so are not the kind of operation
that I'd want to use as an example of how to do it right.

You might consider teaching the basic skills rather than focusing on a
specific protocol for formal traffic. Knowing how to send and receive
traffic is a much different, basic, and useful skill than knowing how to
put it in the NTS format. People who haven't done it equate this with
"talk" and "write", but there's a lot more to it than that. When your
students can relay a list of ten items like "fifteen packages of twenty
infant size diapers" from point A to point B _with zero errors_, then it
is time to think about specific traffic protocol wrappers.

73, Steve KB9X