AmRRON operators are on the air almost any time of day!
Statement of Purpose:
Introduce and explain the AmRRON Persistent Presence Net concept and give guidance
for participating stations for training and real-world applications of its use.
Intent:
During real-world emergencies in the past, AmRRON has had volunteer stations take
to the airwaves, standing by continuously to receive emergency traffic. In the past
couple of years on a normal, day-to-day basis, our operators have increasingly kept
their stations on the air.
They engage in testing, practicing, and mentoring other operators over the airwaves.
This also provides an excellent opportunity for beaconing throughout the day or
night to keep track of band conditions and determine path quality between stations.
While maintaining continuous coverage on the bands (what we’ve come to call
‘Persistent Presence Nets’) we have received several real-world reports involving
extreme weather, power outages, wildfires, and other developments. This is because
the operators who have been participating know that if they tune in to one of the
AmRRON digital mode HF frequencies, there will be someone there, somewhere, on one
or more of the bands. Usually there are several operators on each of the bands,
especially during the day.
This (until now) ‘unofficial’ Persistent Presence Net has become a valuable training
environment and has been invaluable for team building as well.
While the Scheduled S.O.I. Nets are considered ‘controlled’ nets (meaning they are
run by Net Control Station operators), the Persistent Presence Net is not controlled.
Operators may make contact and pass traffic as the situation requires and band
conditions permit.
The ‘Persistent Presence’ Digital Net was implemented for:
A.Real-world emergency situations; Operators who have sufficient backup power and
the time to continue monitoring between the Scheduled S.O.I. Net cycles.
B.Maintaining a lifeline for those who need to pass priority or emergency
traffic when there is not a scheduled net taking place.
C.Allowing for stations to assess band conditions and determine propagation paths to
other stations, through beaconing (or sounding/heartbeating) and signal reports.
D.Creating an opportunity for stations to directly pass point-to-point traffic,
relieving the scheduled S.O.I. nets of congestion. The following schedule has been
developed as guidance reflecting our experience as it relates to best band
performance at various times of the day and night. Band conditions can and do
deviate greatly.
General Guidance:
Here are the most commonly-used modes by AmRRON operators.
Many stations run multiple modes simultaneously.
In order of the most commonly used:
JS8Call: Used for sending propagation beacons, determining path quality with other
stations, and understanding band conditions. Great for sending short messages to
individuals or groups (such as @amrron). Designed as a weak signal mode, works
very well when using low power, or poor band conditions. Stations can leave
messages, such as Abbreviated Status Reports which may be queried and received by
other stations.
See white paper on JS8Call Operations for AmRRON, which addresses settings and
procedures used most commonly by AmRRON operators.
FLDIGI: Standard program, using contestia 4/250 mode, for general messaging and
receiving reports and files with the use of FLMSG and FLAMP.
FLDIGI is the cornerstone of AmRRON digital operations and is the program all
operators should have. All AmRRON digital nets use FLDIGI, and with the companion
FLMSG and FLAMP programs, is used for sending error-free reports, files, net
check-ins, sending images, etc.
gARIM: The ARIM program with graphic interface uses the ARDOP mode and is excellent
for sharing files. May also be used for storing files in folders which can be
retrieved by other stations, even if you are away from your station. Has peer-to-peer
chat feature and ARQ mode, which connects your station with another station for
increased privacy (not secure or encrypted).
FSQ4.5: This is used for text file sharing, sending images, chatting, and beaconing
(‘sounding’) allowing the operator to determine what other stations are on the air,
and the signal strength of each station. There are several queries available which
allow the operator to get basic information about the status of other stations, and
it allows for direct messaging with text window notifications of a message received,
in case you were away from your station when the message came in.
A stand alone program for (windows only) exists, named FSQcall. For Linux and Raspberry
Pi users, a second instance of FLDIGI is usually opened up and FSQ4.5 is selected from
the OpMode menu.
Generally, JS8call has grown to the point that it posesses many of the same features as
FSQ, and is preferred. Still, most of us run FSQ in multimode because it is an
excellent backup to JS8call when there is congestion on the frequency.
IMPORTANT TIP: Be sure to remove all beacons/sounders/heartbeats prior to the
beginning of scheduled nets. If you are going to leave your station monitoring,
unattended, do not leave your station beacons on when there are nets scheduled to
take place. This is extremely disruptive. We’ve all been ‘that guy’.
Don’t be ‘that guy.’
TIP: If you are operating multiple modes simultaneously, be sure to refer to the
AmRRON Digital Mode Waterfall white paper.
PERSISTENT PRESENCE DIGITAL NET SCHEDULE
Do not think of this as a hard, fixed time schedule. The Persistent Presence Net
is extremely flexible. You will likely find operators on 40m and 80m at any time
of the day and many nights.
Band conditions change widely, often several times in a day, and depend on the time
of the year (solar cycle), and the time of the day. A band may be long all afternoon
and then go short, or dead, where it seemed to be magical at the same time of the
day yesterday. Be flexible!
Below is listing of ‘generally’ what we have experienced as the the most favorable
times of the day for each of these bands.
Various factors will affect each band. Sunset/sunrise, peak sun position, etc. are
going to be different depending on your location, even within the same time zone.
Local Time Band/Freq.
Early evening through Early Morning 80M 3.588
Mid-morning through late afternoon 40M 7.110
18:00-22:00 ZULU Time 20M 14.110
If you missed traffic that was passed around on the scheduled nets, or if you missed
the transmission time for the weekly AIB (AmRRON Intelligence Brief), you’ll likely
be able to find another station who can pass the traffic along to you at just about
any time of the day, somewhere on the bands.
Scheduled nets are still critically important, and we really need maximum participation
in the regularly-scheduled practice nets and during training exercises. Still, the
Persistent Presence Net has its place and will continue to play a vital role into the
future. See you on the air!
Download the PDF version of this white paper HERE
Thanks for the article. I have started to monitor the 40M digital net frequency for the last few weeks and was wondering what the persistent net beacon message meant. I am using an ICOM IC-718, Raspberry Pi 4 with FLDIGI and JS8CALL, and a multiband antenna. My next step is to finish the battery system so I can have everything powered off-grid.
You bet! Great work, by the way. Persistent nets for persistent radio operators. =) Thanks for being out there! 73, -JJS
I maintain CH.3 Project here in Brunswick County NC along with my wife (PAPA ROMEO-88 ) We can be found on CB, FRS/GMRS , and MURS channel 3 even if no one is there, we are also trying to get classes set up for survival skills, but have found that the HAM presence is maintained by Sasquach, people 5talk about them but seems that no one has seen them. However I am not giving up. The CH.3 project will make our presence known even if the only HAM encountered is on the dinner plate…that reminds me I am hungry.
Tango Kilo-62 is 10-7 and QRT
I’m monitoring (when I can) ch3, on CB, FRS, and am trying to get up to speed on Bao Feng. But have not been able to figure out what is talk about 20M, 40M, 80 M and what they mean or how to access? Also don’t know what P/W I set for log in when we joined AmRRon a month ago?
Can you assist?
As far as log-in, shoot an email to Polly-01@amrron.com
The 20m, 40m, and 80m references relate to Amateur Radio bands. To receive signals being sent over those bands by AmRRON operators, you can receive those signals with a shortwave radio or SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver, and audio patch cable, and the free downloadable decoding software.
We have a TON of information posted on the website. In the upper right-hand corner (the search box), type ‘Digital’ and/or ‘FLDIGI’. There are postings with videos and other tutorials that walk you through step-by-step. One foot in front of the other. It’s a journey. Be patient and before you know it you’ll be there.
Hi,
I asked a question On fb messenger and, have yet to get an answer.
Why, if no one uses contestia, and you can’t practice with it, why is amrron using this protocol?
One can look on PSK reporter and see it’s not used.
I would greatly appreciate your communicating a response.
First, I’m not sure why you would presume “no one uses contestia.” We use it daily and during all regularly-scheduled nets.
Secondly, why can’t we practice with it? We do daily. Why do we use this protocol? First, you said no one is using it. Now, ‘why are we using it?’
Not sure what to tell you about your PSK Reporter performance. Perhaps if you monitored the nets directly using a radio receiver (or better yet, a transceiver) you would see AmRRON practicing with several modes (Including Contestia 4/250). Check out the ‘Scheduled AmRRON Nets’ on the website and tune in. We’d love to have you.
-JJS
These Persistent Presence Nets area a great enhancement of the AmRRON mission capability. I’ve used them for mundane things like requesting AIB retrans.
During a multi-county power and internet outtage, I called CQ NCS to determine whether it was covering more than a few onfonly my counties in my State or wider coverage. No local radio stations were reporting ont he situation, but my VHF/UHF scanning of regional public safety comms showed that dispatchers were advising those on partol that they were on generator power and have no internet (avility to process license plate and ID cards, wants and warrants & etc.) at their dispatch centers. Persistant NCS in a bordering State advised me that he had normal opns in his region.. My SALUTE report fwas orwarded to NSC to send an ‘info only’ to naitonal, indicating this was likely a regional power outtage TThis incident was a few months ago.
The COOLEST in the weekli AmRRRON Intelligence Brief (AIB). This is already useful, even in training and would be VERY useful should the internet fail or become otherwise useless.
73 de Popeye