How it works
A radiogram is the written message of the ARRL National Traffic System, passed station to station on traffic nets.4 What is ARES? explains how NTS works and where radiograms fit in emergency work.
The check is the number of word groups in the text: any run of characters between two spaces is one group. An X for a period counts, and so does punctuation spelled out as QUERY or COMMA. A slash inside a group and an R for a decimal point do not make a new group. When the text holds an ARRL numbered radiogram, the check starts with ARL. Texts usually stay at 25 groups or fewer.16
The precedence decides the order. Emergency is always spelled out and goes first; Welfare waits until Emergency and Priority traffic is cleared; Routine goes last in a disaster.13 The goal for an Emergency radiogram is 30 minutes from end to end.5
On a voice net the message starts with NUMBER and ends with END and NO MORE, or MORE when traffic follows. BREAK comes before and after the text. Numbers are read digit by digit, after FIGURES. A single letter gets INITIAL, a call sign AMATEUR CALL, and names are spelled with I SPELL. State and month are said in full, and the date and time are UTC unless marked otherwise.12 The phonetic alphabet is in radio codes.
