I’ve picked up a little bit of experience calling local nets. I’ve called the HCARC net twice, the Sunday night ALERT net maybe 4 times, the Tuesday night BARC net twice now. Even got to call the Trader’s Net once.  I’ve had two funny things happen. The first time I ever called a net, the Sunday night net, I am told that night tied the record for the largest number of check-ins ever. (62 or something like that.) That was a trial by fire.

Here’s my confession for the last time I called the Sunday night net. I watched the clock and keyed up to start the net at exactly 7:00 pm. I’m talking 7:00:00 pm. Started on the preamble. No one came back to volunteer as an alternate net control, but that’s not too unusual, so I didn’t think anything of it. Then, I finally got down to call for shorttime, portable, and mobile stations…and I get nothing back. Nothing. Hm. At this point I glanced up and noted my radio was sitting on the Shelby County 146.98 repeater. That’s, like, totally the wrong repeater. That explained it. Whipped over to the correct .88 repeater and started over, just maybe 2 or 3 minutes late. I keep wondering if someone might have been listening on .98…just letting me twist in the wind! Oh well. This is how we learn.

I hope I get to keep calling nets here and there. I’m on the rotation to call Tuesday’s once a month. I enjoy being useful.