The Western Digital Net (WDN) is a Relay Traffic Net on HF that uses the FLDigi suite of software and many relay stations to serve the Amateur Radio community. It was created in the fall of 2019 and has operated every Thursday since.
This West-of-the-Rockies keyboard-to-keyboard HF net endeavors to reach out to Amateur radio stations and provide traffic service:
- In times of poor voice propagation;
- Where accurate information needs to get through;
- To pass non-trivial traffic and QSTs to participating stations;
- To relay non-trivial information to remote stations;
- And to relay traffic for stations in challenging situations.
We serve the entire amateur radio community and can use our NBEMS capabilities and relay locations to assist voice nets, mobile stations, QRP stations and to check DX and propagation.
Many of the ops that participate in the WDN have been active on the ORCA (Oregon-California) HF Net. ORCA’s focus is more on training, procedures and practice traffic handling whereas WDN takes that to the next level by actually providing a live traffic net using those same skills.
We highly recommend that any new ops participate with the ORCA Net to learn the skills needed on the WDN. This will ensure consistency and core competency to put in action on the WDN.
NET FORMAT
- Early Check-Ins Begin at 1900 PDT
- Net Begins at 1930 PDT
- Prologue
- Regular Check-Ins and Relays
- Roster is sent via FLMsg
- Traffic Round – NCS facilitates stations in traffic queue
- Late Check-Ins / Check Outs and Relays
- Comments Round
- Net Closes (generally between 2030-2100 PST (0330-0400 zulu)
WDN REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS WANTED!
WDN welcomes regular regional reports, items of interest to the Amateur Radio Community, WX and Space Weather Updates, etc.
Please make sure they fall under our stated mission (above). These QSTs will be taken after our Traffic Round. We encourage all WDN stations to contribute regularly to these updates. If any station would like to provide regular updates on any of these QST topics, please indicate that during the net’s Comments Round!
It would be great to have regular Space Weather updates, regional alerts and weekly Amateur radio news summaries!
We ask that all QSTs be related to non-trivial information. For instance, a WX report can be a brief summary of regional forecast, prioritizing any warnings or advisories. Please keep jokes, trivia, politics and religion out of WDN QSTs as we want to keep the net focused on our stated mission.
Opinions should not appear in QSTs – save any personal comments for the Comments Round. Please cite sources if possible and try to use credible sources when making such announcements to the net!