Monday Night Net – The Story So Far!

Over the last few days, I’ve been updating the Essex Ham records, and those of you interested in such things might find the following stats of interest. Those not so keen on numbers and percentages may want to stay away.

MNN History and Headlines

The Essex Ham Monday Night Net officially started on the 10th of October 2011. There had been a few previous “Thursday Night Newbie Nets” before then, but we’re only looking at the net in its current form and on its current night.

There have been 105 Monday Night Nets so far, making contact with 244 callsigns and 1384 logged QSOs. 77% of participants are from Essex with over 1 in three attendees using a Foundation callsign.

Here are some more numbers for you…

Nets and Attendees By Year

Not many nets in 2011 and 2012, and an average of 13 people per net. The record was 26 attendees in February 2013.

	Total	2014	2013	2012	2011
Number of Nets	105	23	49	22	11
Unique callsigns logged	244	107	138	72	38
Total logged QSOs	1384	334	692	253	105
Average attendees per net	13	15	14	12	10

Participants

77% of participants have their QTH listed as Essex – The others are from Kent, Suffolk, Herts and London (in that order)

Foundation and Intermediate callsign holders account for 57% of logged QSOs on the Net.

A good percentage of people who’ve joined the net have signed up for free Essex Ham Membership and/or have attended one of the CARS Chelmsford-based Skills Nights.

Essex callsigns	189	77%
Callsigns outside Essex	55	23%
Foundation Callsign	88	36%
Intermediate Callsign	52	21%
Full Callsign	104	43%
Member of Essex Ham	60	29%
Attended Skills Night	59	28%

 

Essex Demographics

Here, we look at the callsigns in Essex. Our database shows over 2500 callsigns assigned to Essex, but of course many amateurs hold multiple callsigns, haven’t revalidated their licence, have left the hobby, or are no longer with us. As such, the “All Essex” numbers here are not overly reliable.

Using the data we have, in media terms, the net has a a ‘reach’ of 7% of all of the callsigns in Essex. Interestingly, the ‘reach’ for Intermediate is 23%, meaning almost a quarter of all Essex Intermediate licence holders have joined the net at some time.

	All Essex	Joined Net	% Reach
Total Callsigns (Essex)	2556	189	7%
Foundation callsigns (Essex)	425	87	20%
Intermediate callsigns (Essex)	217	50	23%
Full callsigns (Essex)	1914	106	6%

A piece of history

We’ve had a number of firsts on the Monday Night Net, including:

• Being the first ever QSO for many local amateurs
• Contact with other countries during lifts
• Simplex Nets and Nets on Kent repeaters, when GB3DA has not been accessible
• A live video stream of the net, plus audio streams
• Nets lasting 3 and a half hours, and nets with over 25 participants
• Coverage of the net in CQ Magazine and RadCom
• Use of a live chatroom

Today’s nets are managed using a paper rotation sheet, then logged electronically and uploaded to the site together with notes and subjects. When it all started, the net was logged in Pete M0PSX’s “Mobile Logbook”, and here’s a scan of the first official Monday Night Net

Finally, honourable mentions to Brian G1KPS, Jim 2E0RMI, Neil G0RNU, Steve M0SHQ and John M3JHQ – You appear in each year’s logs from 2011 to 2014!

Thanks very much to everyone who’s taken the time to join a net, or to support the net over the months and years. Thanks also to ERG for allowing us to use GB3DA and occasionally GB3ER to hold our regular on-air get-togethers.

Related Links

• Essex Ham Monday Night Net
• Essex Repeater Group
• Other nets in Essex
• Monday Night Net Reports