Hi everyone & welcome to your ALERT Newsletter.

I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July & that you enjoyed the fireworks over Red Mountain.

As I started thinking about an article for this month’s newsletter the subject of nets and net operations came to mind.

I’ve always had a deep interest in Ham nets, both on VHF and HF.

My first exposure to Ham Radio was listening to the old Alabama Emergency Net X-ray on 146.940. I vividly remember the night of “The Day Of 100 Tornadoes” back in April of 1974, as wave after wave of storms passed through. I remember the power going out at the house just as the NCS began shouting, “someone kill the autopatch”, which had activated itself just as the line hit, jamming the desperate reports that were flooding in, adding to the drama & chaos of the night.

One of the first things I did as a new ham was become active in the 3.965 Net. In the course of time I was an NCS on the AENX now the Jefferson County Emergency Net, the AENN now the Shelby County Net, the AENB now the Alabama Section Net fast speed CW Net and the now defunct AEND slow speed CW traffic Net, of which I was also Net Manager.