The Black Hills repeaters Rapid City and Bear Mountain via the Black Hills Tie will come on automatically on Wednesday nights at approximately 8:55 PM Central or 7:55 PM Mountain. You can ask for a confirmation that the Black Hills Tie is up from someone on those repeaters. The link goes down automatically at 9:45 PM Central time or 8:45 PM Mountain time or upon 5 minutes of no activity on the system.
SD Link Net Script:
“Good Evening and welcome to the SD Link net.
This net meets every Wednesday night at 9 pm Central, 8 pm Mountain time. The purpose of the net is for emergency preparedness, handling of traffic, making amateur related announcements and operational testing of the SD-Link system.
Please give your callsign even if you are just testing your ability to access the SD-Link system. It is not OK to ker-chunk and is very rude and inconsiderate to monitoring stations. It is also illegal according to FCC rules. Temporary, individual Cross Band repeat with the SD-Link is highly discouraged and any permanent linking is not permitted by the South Dakota Amateur Radio Council.
Stations that use ARPS should be sure they are not “BEACONING” when on the SD-Link. Operators of radio’s using ARPS have to make sure the automatic beaconing is turned off when not on the ARPS frequency. Unfortunately it is easy to forget to do this so the safest is to use a dedicated radio for APRS and never move it off the APRS frequency.
Please feel free to “rag chew” but please observe common courtesy to all and leave room for emergencies and breaking stations.”
“Your NCS tonight is (YOUR CALL, NAME, QTH)”.
“The SD link consists of 14 repeaters of which use the 146.2 tone except Salem W0SD UHF Hub and SF UHF which has a 103.5 tone. The coverage is from Minnesota to Wyoming on Intersate-90 and from Iowa to north of Watertown on Interstate-29. On most Wednesday nights the Blacks Hills Repeaters at Rapid City (VHF) and Bear Mountain will be a part of the system during the net extending coverage into NE and WY.” The SD-Link is owned and operated by the South Dakota Amateur Radio Council.
“To make sure your ENTIRE call sign is received when you check in, key up, then wait one full second before giving your call sign TWICE, once normally and once phonetically, as there is some delay across the whole state with this many linked sites.”
“If you are interested in being a net control on this net contact Steve KB0WSV the SD-Link net manager. Contact him by email, the SDLINK email group at sdlink@groups.io or simply on this net.”
“The SDLINK has a web page at SDLINK.ORG where you can find information on this South Dakota link repeater system, lists of all the clubs in the state along with their websites and more info.”
“This repeater system does take a substantial effort and money to maintain which is done by relatively few dedicated individuals. Any contribution toward keeping the SDLINK operational is much appreciated. You can do this directly by contacting the South Dakota Amateur Radio Council’s treasurer W0SD or through PayPal. The information is available on the web site’s Home page.”
End of preamble.
“Is there any traffic, announcements or bulletins for the net?”
Handle any that comes along.
Now work your way across the SDLINK system. You may ask them to give their their name and location. If they have any announcements to be made, let them make them after the roll call. If they want to contact another station. Allow them to do so immediately before the other station leaves. Allow them to arrange another frequency or time after the net to continue their QSO. After all announcements and such are done, call for additional check-ins grouped by East river then West river.
Call once more any additional business for the net. then compile a net report and call and give it to the net manager before you close the net. If he is not available, hold it till the next net. Then close the net.
Here is a suggested way to give you net report.
This net report will count as one piece of traffic so you’ll always have at least one. Give your net report to KB0WSV Steve and if not available, hold it till the next net.
“Please copy my Routine, abbreviated net report of (number or date) with a date of (date).
“From (your call) to KB0WSV I had (number) check ins and (number) pieces of traffic. Break sign it (your callsign). How copy?”
“This is (your call sign) now securing the South Dakota link net. We’ll meet again next week at this same time. This is (callsign) now returning the repeaters back to normal amateur use. 73 and Good night. (Your callsign) clear”