Is NTS still big in Ham Radio

[Carroll A]

Hey guys just kinda curious if the National Traffic System is still big in Ham Radio... When I was still living in South carolina I helped move a lot of traffic through NTS no matter if it was MARS or plain NTS... I am thinking about stringing up some wire and trying to get back a little more active, but was kinda curious if there still were a lot of traffic nets and such still going... CC

 

[n1wbd]

Yes they still have traffic nets, in my opinion though not much traffic gets passed at least up here in NH. I think NTS is slowly fading away as time passes kinda like the barber shop.

Bob N1WBD

Hey guys just kinda curious if the National Traffic System is still big in Ham Radio... When I was still living in South carolina I helped move a lot of traffic through NTS no matter if it was MARS or plain NTS... I am thinking about stringing up some wire and trying to get back a little more active, but was kinda curious if there still were a lot of traffic nets and such still going... CC

 

[Carroll A]

Thanks Bob... That was kinda what I figured... I use to do everything from Local nets to regional nets and so one... I know I was a small person in the world of traffic handlers, but I averaged anywhere from 200 to 300 a month and on Holidays 400 or more... I lived in SC and we still at the time had a lot of old school hams down there, but I could hang with the best of them... I loved moving traffic and also calling a lot of the nets as well... I use to call the South Carolina Single Side Band net and we held it everynight right around 7ish on good old 3915... man I miss those old days... 73 from CC... KT4SJ

 

[Dishphreak]

NTS as well as many other nets can be found using the ARRL Net Directory Search.

 

[NE8E]

BTW is still going strong in Michigan. Though, it is mostly spam birthday grams and renewal reminders for practice. They do get passed though. I really enjoy delivering welcome to ham radio traffic!

 

[NE8E]

Doh! I tried posting with my DROID and it thinks its smarter than me. That was supposed to be NTS.

 

[Dishphreak]

Yes, I listened to a huge net on Saturday on the 146.76 repeater out of Detroit. Most of the traffic sounded like field day traffic. It was still fun to listen to!

 

[Carroll A]

When I left SC in 2001 most of the traffic I passed was Country cousin traffic wish various people happy Birthday's... Hopefully later this summer like I say I wanna get some sort of G5RV up, but with work and me being sight impaired it is pretty hard... CC/KT4SJ

 

[Ed KG6UTS]

Locally, San Diego, there are nets on the repeaters and some HF that meet regularly but not much traffic gets passed. I guess its good to have the traffic nets as back up to other Ham emergency services.

EdZ KG6UTS

 

[Cham]

Been doing some NTS traffic practice but usually on VHF AX-25 APRS using WinAPRS. This is for health and welfare as we went through major flooding in my area this spring, there were many evacuations and Red Cross needed a backup system in case the phone system went down or was overloaded. This was limited to my ARES area and main EOC for the province. It works but there are certainly better systems. We would like to set something up where we receive the message digitally and it automatically gets sent through a high speed digital link (Ham Radio LAN) maybe using D* or something like WiFi. Been playing with 30m HF as well for longer links especially up north where there is no ham radio infrastructure.
I think NTS is still functional because of it's simplicity. Training for digital modes is difficult when dealing with operators that do not dabble in that part of amateur radio.
-C.