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ARES District 10

Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Jackson, Larimer , and Weld Counties, Colorado    USA

ARES D10 Introduction to Formal Traffic Handling

Why formal traffic? Accountability.

Using formal traffic allows us to know where the traffic originated, who originated it (and when), the importance of the traffic, who the traffic is intended for, the text, who authorized the message, and how the message was routed. A side benefit is that the message is already in correct format to go into the National Traffic System, should the message need to go out of the district. By use of a standard format which has been developed and fine tuned over the past fifty years, the message can be passed quickly and accurately, whether across town or across the world. Thus, everyone who might be in position to originate, relay, or receive traffic, must know the standard format. This standard format is based on the American Radio Relay League Radiogram.

Parts of the Standard Format The standard format consists of five major parts: the heading, the addressee, the message text, the signature and the routing. The following is a detailed explanation of these parts and how they are used.

The heading consists of eight blocks The first block is the message number. It is assigned by the originating station (the station who first transmits the message) by a counting scheme of the originating station for the indexing of the message. I strongly urge you to use the numbers from 1 to 999 to avoid confusion as the message is passed on. When you return to the number 1 depends on how you want to keep your message index. For those of us who do not originate many messages, starting with number 1 at the beginning of a year makes sense. For others, quarterly or even monthly may make better sense.

The second block is the urgency of the message. The scheme is EMERGENCY, P(riority), W(elfare) and R(outine), from the most urgent to the least urgent.

EMERGENCY (always spelled out) is the highest priority and is used in situations of life-and-death only. Do not use EMERGENCY unless insisted upon by the requester of the message.

P(riority) is used for time dependant urgently needed information, which is not of and emergency nature and is handled after EMERGENCY messages. Again, the urgency is determined by the requester of the message.

W(elfare) is equivalent to the American Red Cross DWI (Disaster Welfare Inquiry) and is used to inquire of the health and welfare of an individual in the disaster area and the return message out of the disaster area. Welfare traffic is handled after emergency and priority traffic.

R(outine) is any traffic that is not in the forgoing categories. Routine traffic is handled after emergency, priority or welfare traffic, but is still to be handled expeditiously.

The third block is the message handling instructions and is optional. Do not use a handling instruction unless the situation requires one. It is used as special handling request according to the following scheme.

HXA(number) means addressee authorizes a collect call within (number) miles. (No number means unlimited distance.)

HXB(number) means cancel if not delivered within (number) hours of originating time and send return message to originating station of cancellation.

HXC means send a return message to originating station giving time and date that it was delivered.

HXD means send return message to originating station giving the identity of station from which received, plus time, date and method of delivery.

HXE means delivering station get reply from addressee and send reply to originating station.

HXF(number) means hold delivery until (number) date.

HXG means cancel message if it must be delivered by mail or toll call or other expense and send cancellation message to originating station.

The fourth block is simply the call sign of the originating station. The originating station is the station which first sends the message into the system. The message number and the originating station call sign make the message unique; thus the call sign of the originating station must not be changed by any of the stations handling the message.

The fifth block, the check, is the count of the number of items in the text of the message. On high precision modes such as CW, packet, rtty, etc., this is not much of an issue, but on phone, what one says and what another one hears is two different things, and I will address this at length under the text. If the check is not just a number but letters and a number, it means that a standard system of "canned" message texts is involved. For example, ARL 13 in the check means that the text has thirteen items and is using the ARRL Standard Numbered Radiograms.

The sixth block is the place of origin. This is usually the city and state of the originating station.

The seventh block is the time the message is originated. By convention this is in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC) or Zulu (Z). However, since so many mistakes are made in the conversion to and from UTC, we are going to use local time in 24-hour format. This conversion is made by adding 12 to the time if it is after noon or in the PM, i.e., 7 PM becomes 1900. Note this is an optional block and only needs to be filled in if the message precedence or handling instructions indicate it is needed.

The eighth block is the date of origin. This date should agree with the system you are using for time. If you are using UTC, remember that the date changes early. We have agreed to use local time for ARES messages staying in district.

ADDRESSEE

This section of the form indicates whom the message is for. It should have all the information needed to deliver the message by mail or telephone. Thus it has the person's name, street address, city, state and zip code as well as the phone number. It is very advisable to have the area code in the phone number as the phone company has run out of numbers and is using the area code to reuse numbers in the same physical area. The phone number should thus consist of three numbers with a space between. Thus 970-482-0553 is correctly written as 970 482 0553. Likewise the zip code, if nine digits is not 80541-0059 but 80541 0059. Hyphens and other punctuation are not to be used in the address.

The TEXT

The text of the message is the reason for the message. The text should be carefully worded to be concise and accurate, and easily passed on. Thus, confusing and trick phrases are to be avoided. No punctuation is used. A period is replaced by an X(ray) and a question mark is replaced by QUERY. Phone numbers and other numbers and words, which are normally hyphenated, have a space instead of the hyphen. Thus 970-482-0553 becomes 970 482 0553. Likewise apostrophes are not used. We're should be we are, etc. Since the ARRL went to a lot of effort to develop standard numbered radiograms which are then used to shorten the message, please use them when appropriate. Example. "Need additional four mobile or portable equipment for immediate emergency use. Additional five radio operators needed to assist with emergency at this location." Becomes, "Need additional four mobile or portable equipment for immediate emergency use X Additional five radio operators needed to assist with emergency at this location" (Note, no X needed at end of text.) With ARRL Numbered Radiograms, this becomes, "ARL EIGHT FOUR ARL NINE FIVE" (Note it is much shorter, less to make mistakes on and that the numbers are spelled out.) Thus, somewhere with your pads and pencils should be a list of the ARRL NumberedRadiograms.

The COUNT

Now comes the really hard part. How do you find the check for the text? Using the above as an example, "Need additional four mobile or portable equipment for immediate emergency use X Additional five radio operators needed to assist with emergency at this location" the check is 24. Count one for each word and one for the X. Now do the same with, "ARL EIGHT FOUR ARL NINE FIVE" and the check is ARL 6. ARL because the text now has ARRL Radiograms and there are 6 items. The check is one of the most hotly debated parts of formal messages. Usually, it is because at least one of the operators involved does not understand the standard formatting of the text. Thus "ARL FIFTY FOUR" a check of three, tends to become, "ARL 54" a check of two, or even "ARL FIFTY-FOUR" a check of two. Maybe by now you are beginning to understand why standards are necessary. As mentioned above, numbers such as phone numbers and zip codes are without hyphens. Thus 970-482-0553 and 80541-0059, (both a check of one,) in standard format are 970 482 0553 (a check of three) and 80541 0059 (a check of two). Short numbers and ARL numbers should be spelled out, but longer numbers can be used as numbers without commas or hyphens. Letter groups and mixed groups (groups containing letters and numbers) are counted as one each. Thus, WB4WQA is one and ARRL is one and QCWA is one and 2N706 is one, etc. You will get a lot of practice, as the transmitted check should match the received check. Should the matter of check be irreconcilable, a corrected check should be noted by (original check)/(received check) in the heading box for check. Thus original check of 14 and received check of 13 is noted in the heading box for check as 14/13. Usually this type of discrepancy comes about by a word missing on relay that does not get caught, or by one or more operators making a nonstandard assumption. (Sometimes people cannot count.)

The Signature

The signature tells on whose behalf the message was sent. Normal salutations like "Love" belong in the text, not the signature. If the message expects an answer, it is wise to include the senders return address as part of the signature. Thus if the originator does not get the return message, it is still possible to affect a delivery. (Just who is Aunt May anyway?)

The Routing

The last and very important part of the message is the routing. Simply, the routing consists of who the message was received from and when, and who the message was sent to and when. Naturally, if you are originating the message the "From" field can be left blank and if you are delivering the message to the addressee a note to that effect is all that is required.

Nuts and Bolts

Most traffic will be handled by phone. Hopefully, it will have a text of 25 items or less. Hopefully the operators involved will know the standard formats. If so, except for the "what I heard is not what you said" aspect, everything should go quickly and reasonably painless. It is up to the net control to determine whether the message will be relayed on the net or if the traffic will be handled on another frequency. Thus, follow the net control's instructions and if you are sent to a side frequency and contact cannot be made, return to the net and tell net control. Receiving station calls the sending station. If you have a clear frequency use phonetics for fills. Spell any unusual names and words. Do not send faster than the receiving station can write or you will spend more time on fills.

Example:

Joe checks in to the local net and lists one for Fort Collins. Fortunately, a Fort Collins station checks in and takes the message, which is handled on the net frequency since the net is not busy. Because the message is in standard form and short, it is handled with only the need to spell Whedbee. Roger, the receiving station, looks up the ARL numbers and calls Grace, who (amazingly enough) is home. Roger tells Grace that he is an amateur radio operator and has a greetings message for her from Bob. He then reads the text to her using the full text of the ARL radiograms with the word package inserted into the first one at the blank. Grace declines the offer of returning a message and thanks Roger for calling. Naturally this is a bit idealized and things do not always go as smoothly in real life, but if the originating station follows standard format, crafts the text to minimize misunderstanding, and the relaying and receiving stations insure accuracy, it can go this well.

Comments about this ARES Colorado D10 website ?   Email Ted Cline, n0rqv@arrl.net

This http://home.earthlink.net/~aresco10/d10traf.htm page was last changed Sep 30 2001.