Handiham Net Schedule, Updated February 21, 2012
Join our worldwide EchoLink net every day, now including a special "trivia net" on Sunday. All licensed operators are welcome. The net is controlled but informal, and there is no need to be a Handiham member to participate. Sometimes the net control station will throw out a discussion topic to liven things up! Listen in a few times if you are shy, and then take the plunge and throw out your callsign.
Operating tip: Because so many different nodes and repeaters are connected across the world, there can be a bit more delay between transmissions than you might be used to. Be sure to allow a few seconds before keying after the net control station calls for check-ins. This allows the nodes and repeaters in the network to all get synchronized.
Days: Monday through Saturday, and Sunday Trivia Net.
Times: 11:00 hours United States Central Time daily and a second Wednesday session at 19:30 Central Time. (GMT: 17:00 daily & 01:30 Thursdays.)
Frequency in the local Minnesota repeater coverage zone: 145.45 FM, negative offset with no tone in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul Minnesota.
EchoLink nodes:
HANDIHAM conference server Node 494492 (Our preferred high-capacity node.)
KA0PQW-R, node 267582
KA0PQW-L, node 538131
N0BVE-R, node 89680
N9GMR-R 640860
W0EQO-R, node 309436
Other ways to connect:
IRLP node 9008 (Vancouver BC reflector)
WIRES system number 1427
More information about repeaters and nodes may be found at http://www.handiham.info.
The Wednesday evening EchoLink net is at 19:30 United States Central Standard time, which translates to +6 hours, or 01:30 GMT Thursday morning during North American Standard Time. (In the North American summer during DST, the GMT schedule is +5 hours.) Connect from any Internet-enabled computer in the world, and come out on Twin Cities repeater N0BVE on 145.450. Remember that GMT is AHEAD of Minnesota time, so to translate to GMT you need to add 5 hours in the summer and 6 hours in the winter to Minneapolis time.
On the second Sunday of March in the United States, we move to Central Daylight Time, at least in most places. That means that hours for our daily nets are adjusted accordingly, beginning with the midday EchoLink net, which is on at 11:00 Minnesota time. Since the local time has shifted ahead one hour, you will now find the daily net at 11 + 5 = 16:00 GMT Monday through Saturday.
A question we get every year at this time is, "Why do you change the net times to follow Daylight Saving Time? Wouldn't it be easier to just stick with GMT and not change the times?"
The answer is that we have tried staying with GMT in the past, but received complaints from net members who liked staying on their local time schedules. Also, we ran up against other nets using the same frequencies unless we maintained the "local" times.
HF Operations
Here are some other nets and times:
Friday CW Net:
7.112 MHz CW, 09:00 - 12:00 ET, plus whatever time is needed to wrap up the last contact: This is the Handiham Informal slow speed CW Net. Look for Paul, W8IRT. You may e-mail Paul at w8irt@aol.com with your ideas and signal reports, or to find out about schedule changes for the CW net. Paul advises us that the net remains true to local time, which means a one hour shift when changing to or from Daylight time in the Spring and Autumn.
The PICONET operates on a frequency of 3.925 MHz, Lower Side Band:
Monday - Saturday 0900 - 1100
Monday - Friday 1500 - 1600
Monday - Friday 1600 - 1700
Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a member, and the net is relaxed, friendly, and informal. The PICONET does have an assigned net control station and will take NTS traffic. It has a long time association with the Handihams. Handiham members can easily participate in PICONET via the remote base stations W0EQO or W0ZSW.
If you have a correction in any part of the net schedule, please e-mail wa0tda@arrl.net.
