Active HF Nets to Check Into: Schedules, Frequencies, History

Part of our Clubs and Nets guide.

Nets are one of the most underrated parts of HF operating. A lot of newer hams think of HF as either ragchewing on SSB or grinding out FT8 contacts, but there is a whole world of organized, scheduled nets running every single day, some purely social, some handling real traffic, and a few that have genuinely saved lives. Here are several of the more interesting ones worth spinning the dial to find, along with where they came from and what they actually do.

Jump to a net:

3905 Century Club

Frequency: Multiple, including 3.902 MHz, 7.2675 MHz, and 14.315 MHz, across SSB, CW, RTTY, and PSK-31
Schedule: Daily, with specific bands and modes rotating throughout the day and week
Purpose: Helping operators complete Worked All States (WAS) and related awards

This one is pure ragchew with a purpose. The 3905 Century Club exists specifically to help hams, both domestic and foreign, work all fifty states for WAS and similar awards, running nets across five different bands and four modes to maximize the chance that whatever state you still need is represented by an active check-in. It is a genuinely social net on top of the award-chasing angle, and it is one of the friendlier entry points for a newer ham who wants to get comfortable checking into a structured net without the pressure of formal traffic handling.

More info: 3905ccn.org

ARES and RACES

Frequency: No single calling frequency, varies by local ARES group and county or state RACES program
Schedule: Local ARES nets typically run weekly, days and times vary by jurisdiction. RACES activates only when called up by a served government agency
Purpose: Volunteer emergency communications support for local, county, and state agencies

ARES, the Amateur Radio Emergency Service, is sponsored by the ARRL and handles emergency traffic before, during, and after a disaster, including messages between government agencies. RACES, the Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Service, is the government counterpart operating under FCC Part 97.407, and it almost never activates before an emergency, shuts down once the immediate need passes, and is bound by tighter rules on who a station can talk to and how long drills can run. Because RACES drills are capped at one hour a week under FCC rules, plenty of local groups run their weekly net as ARES instead, with the blessing of the local Emergency Coordinator, so members get the same training without the RACES time limits.

To volunteer for ARES, register with your local ARRL Emergency Coordinator. To volunteer for RACES, contact your local civil defense office or Emergency Operations Center. Plenty of operators carry both.

More info: arrl.org/ares-races-faq

Caribbean Emergency and Weather Net (CEWN)

Frequency: 3.815 MHz LSB
Schedule: Daily at 1030 and 2230 UTC
Purpose: Weather reporting and emergency communications support for the Caribbean region

Founded in 1954, CEWN is one of the older regional weather and emergency nets still running, providing storm tracking and communications support to government agencies and relief organizations throughout the Caribbean. It runs twice daily year-round and becomes considerably busier during hurricane season, often coordinating closely with the Hurricane Watch Net during active storms.

More info: qsl.net/cewn/home.html

Columbia Basin Net (CBN)

Frequency: 3.960 MHz (backup 3.963 MHz LSB or USB)
Schedule: Daily at 6:00 PM Pacific Time, 365 days a year
Purpose: Informal traffic and rag-chewing net covering the Columbia Basin region of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho

CBN has been on the air since at least the mid-1960s, based on rosters the net has archived going back to 1965, and it runs entirely on member donations. Like a lot of these regional nets, membership requires a minimum check-in count, ten times a month here, and visitors get called at the end of the roster. If you are in the Tri-Cities area of Washington or anywhere in range of 3.960 MHz, it is a reliable evening check-in.

More info: cbn.homestead.com

Eastern Regional Patriots Net USA (ERPN USA)

Frequency: 3.860 MHz
Schedule: Monday through Saturday at 8:45 PM Eastern (7:45 PM Central)
Purpose: Sitreps, patriot, and preparedness discussion

ERPN USA started in 1997 as an East Coast net, founded in part by KF8ED in West Virginia, who was joined in 2002 by KI8Q in Alabama. Those two stations kept it running as net control six nights a week for years, and in fall 2015 the group rebranded to ERPN USA to reflect how far west their regular check-ins had spread. It leans conservative in its discussion topics and is upfront about that, but the net describes itself as welcoming to anyone willing to listen, including those who disagree.

More info: erpnusa.net

Georgia Preppers’ Network Net

Frequency: 7.242 MHz LSB (40 meters, daylight time, spring and summer) or 3.818 MHz LSB (80 meters, standard time, fall and winter)
Schedule: 1st and 3rd Thursdays of the month, 2000 local (0100 Zulu)
Purpose: Preparedness discussion and coordination for the Georgia Preppers’ Network

This one is affiliated with the wider American Preppers Network and functions as a regional check-in and discussion net rather than a formal traffic net, similar in spirit to the Eastern Regional Patriots Net below but scoped specifically to Georgia. The band and time split, 40 meters during daylight months and 80 meters once standard time returns, is a common pattern for regional nets trying to hold onto consistent propagation year-round.

More info: georgia.preppersnetwork.com

Great Northern Boaters Net (GNBN)

Frequency: 3.870 MHz
Schedule: Daily at 0800 Pacific Time
Purpose: Maritime net for boaters cruising the Pacific Northwest and Inside Passage

GNBN is a boaters’ net in the same spirit as the Maritime Mobile Service Net above, but scaled to the Pacific Northwest and Alaska cruising community. It has historically tracked check-ins from several hundred boats and close to a thousand licensed hams among their crews, relaying weather, float plans, and general check-in traffic for people cruising remote stretches of coastline where cell coverage disappears fast. If you or anyone you know boats the Inside Passage, this one is worth having programmed in before departure.

More info: toandos.com/bnnbn.html

The High Noon Net (HNN)

Frequency: 7.240 MHz
Schedule: Daily at 12:00 noon Mountain Time (1900 UTC in winter, 1800 UTC in summer)
Purpose: Directed traffic net registered with the ARRL and a member of the National Traffic System

HNN is run out of New Mexico by Bill Savage, N5FLD, and has been a fixture of the Mountain Region traffic net scene for decades, feeding into the broader Twelfth Region Traffic Net structure. Membership requires checking in eight times in a 30 day window, then four times a month after that to stay on the roster, though visitors are always welcome to check in with or without traffic.

More info: nmia.com/~bsavage/hnn/hnn.html

Hurricane Watch Net (HWN)

Frequency: 14.325 MHz USB (primary), 7.268 MHz LSB (secondary, used as 20 meters closes)
Schedule: Activated on demand whenever a hurricane or tropical storm threatens landfall
Purpose: Real-time ground reports for the National Hurricane Center during tropical storms

The HWN traces back to 1965, when Gerald “Jerry” Murphy, K8YUW, was handling phone patches on the Intercontinental Amateur Radio Net during a tropical storm and, at the suggestion of the net manager, shifted storm-interested stations up 5 kHz to get them off the main net. Marcy Rice, KZ5MM, operating from the Panama Canal Zone, picked up the idea, and together they established what became the Hurricane Watch Net. Sixty years later it is still doing essentially the same job: relaying real-time surface reports, wind speed, storm surge, and damage assessments directly to the National Hurricane Center from people actually experiencing the storm, which is information satellite data alone cannot always capture.

The net only activates when a storm is an active threat, so you will not find it running as a daily fixture, but during Atlantic hurricane season, June through November, it is worth keeping 14.325 MHz programmed in. When it activates, net control stations operate under the special callsign WX5HWN and ask that other stations stay off frequency to keep it clear for storm reports.

More info: hwn.org

MAGNET

Frequency: 7.115 MHz USB, 900 Hz waterfall offset, Contestia 4/250
Schedule: Ten regional nets (MR01 through MR10), each on its own night of the week, see the full table below
Purpose: HF network connecting local Mutual Assistance Groups (MAGs) across the US and Canada

MAGNET exists to give Mutual Assistance Groups, which cover everything from neighborhood watches and prepper circles to food banks and church groups, a way to reach each other by HF if normal infrastructure goes down. The network is organized into numbered regions (MR01 through MR10) covering the US and Canada, with each region running its own weekly net on a staggered schedule so a single operator isn’t stuck covering every region. All regions share the same frequency and mode, Contestia 4/250, a robust digital mode well suited to weak-signal conditions.

MR01 – MR03: Wednesdays, 9:00 PM Eastern (Thursday 0100 Zulu)
MR04: Thursdays, 9:00 PM Eastern (Friday 0100 Zulu)
MR05 / MR07: Mondays, 8:00 PM Central (Tuesday 0100 Zulu)
MR06: Tuesdays, 8:00 PM Central (Wednesday 0100 Zulu)
MR08 / MR09: Thursdays, 8:00 PM Mountain (Friday 0200 Zulu)
MR10: Fridays, 7:00 PM Pacific (Saturday 0200 Zulu)

Check the MAGNET Telegram group for your regional Hub to confirm participation before checking in for the first time.

More info: magnethf.com. I’ve written a full breakdown, including my take on the net itself, in MAGNET: A Nationwide HF Network for Mutual Assistance Groups.

Maritime Mobile Service Net (MMSN)

Frequency: 14.300 MHz USB
Schedule: Daily, 12:00 PM to 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time (12:00 PM to 10:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time)
Purpose: Third-party traffic and safety support for vessels at sea

The MMSN launched on January 3, 1968, started by a group of shore-based hams including Winston Robertson, KB5YX, during a period when U.S. naval vessels involved in Vietnam were not permitted to use the Military Auxiliary Radio System on board. Ham operators stepped in to run phone patches for those ships instead, mostly on 20 meters. The original frequency was 14.320 MHz, then it shifted a few times before settling permanently on 14.300 MHz, the globally recognized emergency center-of-activity frequency, sometime before 2000.

Today the net’s main job is handling legitimate third-party traffic from maritime mobile stations, both pleasure boaters and commercial vessels, along with relaying tropical weather updates from the National Hurricane Center and supporting missionaries operating overseas. It runs for roughly 70 hours a week and has directly assisted in real rescues, including towing disabled sailboats to safety after a skipper could not reach anyone on VHF marine radio. Any ham can check in, and stations with a phone patch capability are specifically invited to volunteer.

More info: mmsn.org

Montana Traffic Net (MTN)

Frequency: On or near 3.910 MHz
Schedule: Daily (the net’s own site lists the time as “Zero Hour Thirty Minutes,” which reads as 12:30 AM but is worth confirming directly with the net before you plan around it)
Purpose: Directed traffic relay covering Montana, affiliated with the National Traffic System and Radio Relay International

MTN has reportedly been running for more than 60 years and still handles real third-party traffic to other states, Canada, and anywhere else third-party traffic is permitted. It rotates net control duty across a roster of callsigns for each day of the week, a good sign of a healthy, active net rather than one person carrying it alone.

More info: montanatrafficnet.com

National Traffic System (NTS)

Frequency: Varies by region, state, and local section, no single calling frequency
Schedule: Structured daily and weekly nets at the local, section, region, and area level
Purpose: Formal, standardized message relay across the country

NTS is less a single net and more an entire layered system, sponsored by the ARRL, for relaying formatted written messages (radiograms) from a local net up through section and region nets and back down to a local net near the destination. It is the direct descendant of the traffic-handling tradition that goes back to the earliest days of organized amateur radio, when relaying messages by radio actually mattered for practical, everyday communication rather than just emergencies. Every state and ARRL section runs its own local NTS net on its own schedule and frequency, almost always VHF or HF depending on the section, so the right one to check into depends entirely on where you live. It is one of the best ways to actually learn formal message handling and net discipline, skills that carry directly into EmComm work.

More info: arrl.org/national-traffic-system

The Noontime Net

Frequency: 7.284 MHz (40 meters) and 3.970 MHz (75 meters), with 7.2835 MHz as an alternate
Schedule: Daily, informal check-ins start around 9:30 AM Pacific on 40 meters and 11:30 AM Pacific on 75 meters
Purpose: Public service net covering the western United States and western Canada

What makes the Noontime Net unusual is that it runs on two HF bands at the same time with a separate net control station for each, rather than picking one band and moving as propagation shifts through the day. Any General class or higher operator is welcome to check in on either frequency, and it has been a steady presence for hams across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, and western Canada for years.

More info: noontimenet.org

Orca Digital Net (ORCA)

Frequency: 3.581 MHz USB, 1500 Hz waterfall offset, MFSK-32 by default
Schedule: Every Tuesday at 1930 Pacific Time (0330 Zulu)
Purpose: Directed net for developing digital operating skills and practicing digital traffic handling with FLDigi, FLMSG, and FLAMP

ORCA is run by Doug, K7KY, and Mindy, W7ZAP, out of Brookings, Oregon, and has spent years training newer digital operators on the NBEMS software suite before they graduate to nets that handle real traffic. It is built specifically for practice and mentorship rather than speed, so new check-ins are encouraged to monitor for a few weeks before jumping in. The Western Digital Net below is its direct spinoff for operators further from the coast.

PSK31 Rag Chew

Frequency: 14.070 MHz (20 meters), 7.070 MHz (40 meters, Region 2), 7.035 MHz (40 meters, Regions 1 and 3), plus equivalents on most other HF bands
Schedule: No single formal schedule, activity clusters informally around the calling frequencies at any hour
Purpose: Real-time keyboard-to-keyboard text chat over HF

A quick honesty note before the details: unlike the other nets on this list, there is no single organization running a formally scheduled “PSK31 Rag Chew” net with fixed hours and a named net control roster. What exists instead is a long-standing, always-available cluster of activity around a handful of calling frequencies, and it functions like a net in practice even without the formal structure. If you tune to 14.070 MHz on 20 meters, USB, with any PSK31-capable software running, you will almost always find multiple simultaneous keyboard-to-keyboard conversations stacked into a space narrower than a single voice channel.

PSK31 itself was developed by English ham Peter Martinez, G3PLX, building on earlier work by Pawel Jalocha, SP9VRC, and introduced to the wider amateur radio community in December 1998. It was specifically tuned to run at a data rate close to normal typing speed, with an extremely narrow signal bandwidth, which is what lets dozens of separate PSK31 conversations fit into the same slice of spectrum a single SSB voice contact would use. That efficiency also means a PSK31 rag chew, a genuine real-time typed conversation rather than a quick contest-style exchange, can happen reliably on just a few watts and a modest wire antenna, which is a big part of why the mode caught on so fast with operators who could not run high power or large antennas.

More info: bpsk31.com

QRP Calling Frequencies

Frequency: 7.030 MHz CW / 7.285 MHz SSB (40 meters), 14.060 MHz CW / 14.285 MHz SSB (20 meters), plus equivalents on most other HF bands
Schedule: No formal schedule, always-on gathering points
Purpose: A common calling point for low-power (5 watts or less CW/digital, 10 watts or less SSB) operators to find each other

This is not a scheduled net in the traditional sense, but it functions like one in practice. QRP calling frequencies are informal, long-established gathering points where low-power operators call CQ specifically hoping to work another QRP station, since finding another low-power signal in the noise is a lot easier when everyone interested is clustered in the same slice of the band. If you run QRP and want to find other QRP operators without waiting for a specific contest weekend, these are the frequencies to camp on.

More info: qrper.com/resources/qrp-calling-frequencies

S2 Underground Ghost Net

Frequency: 7.107 MHz USB for JS8Call (non-standard offset, requires manual configuration) and Winlink P2P, 7.077 MHz for RTTY, 7.190 MHz LSB for voice (dire emergencies only), all on 40 meters
Schedule: Weekly, Thursday nights for North America, four consecutive 30 minute windows starting at 0100 UTC Friday (9:00 PM Eastern Thursday): JS8Call check-ins, Winlink peer-to-peer email, RTTY, then a voice window held in reserve
Purpose: Decentralized HF network for information sharing, check-ins, and emergency traffic outside normal infrastructure

GhostNet was created by S2 Underground and is deliberately built with no net control station and no central authority, so no single lost operator or targeted jamming attempt can take the whole thing down. Traffic gets tagged with groups rather than routed through a hierarchy: @GHOSTNET for general chatter, @GN plus a country and state code (@GNUSAAZ for Arizona, for example) for regional routing, and @GSTFLASH reserved for urgent traffic. Beyond the weekly North America window, GhostNet runs matching nets for Europe and Australia on their own local Thursday evenings, plus Saturday “Data Bridge” windows on 20 and 80 meters that link the regions together for longer-range contacts.

More info: github.com/s2underground/GhostNet. I’ve written a full breakdown in What Is GhostNet? S2 Underground’s Off-Grid HF Comms Plan Explained.

SATERN (Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network)

Frequency: 14.325 MHz USB (original SATERN net, in cooperation with HWN)
Schedule: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 11:00 AM Central Time
Purpose: Emergency and health-and-welfare traffic in support of Salvation Army disaster response

SATERN grew out of SAROF, the Salvationist Amateur Radio Operators Fellowship, founded in the late 1950s. A small group of SAROF members formalized it into a dedicated emergency communications network, holding its first official net session on June 25, 1988, with its first real test coming just months later during Hurricane Gilbert. SATERN volunteers pass health-and-welfare traffic, support Salvation Army disaster operations, and have been activated for major events including the 2003 Northeast blackout and numerous hurricanes since.

One thing worth knowing if you go looking for it: in 2021 a separate group using the same SATERN acronym, the Strategic Auxiliary Team Emergency Readiness Net, split off and set up shop on 14.265 MHz, the original SATERN’s former frequency. The Salvation Army has stated it has no association with that breakaway group, so if you are specifically looking for the Salvation Army’s program, the 14.325 MHz net is the one to check into.

More info: centralusa.salvationarmy.org/usc/satern-program

Ten-Ten International Net

Frequency: 28.800 MHz and 28.380 MHz
Schedule: Daily except Sunday, 1800 UTC
Purpose: Promoting activity on the 10 meter band

Ten-Ten International started as a small Southern California group that decided to meet every day but Sunday at 10:00 AM local time, which conveniently also worked out to 1800 UTC. The “10:00 on ten” wordplay stuck, and the net kept the name even after it grew into an international organization with its own callbook, awards program, and quarterly newsletter. The core purpose has not changed: get people talking on 10 meters, a band that can swing from dead silent to wide open worldwide depending on the sunspot cycle, and keep it active enough that newer operators have somewhere reliable to check in and confirm the band is actually working. It remains one of the most recognizable calls on the air, “CQ Ten-Ten,” and checking in gets you a Ten-Ten number of your own if you decide to join.

More info: ten-ten.org

Washington Amateur Radio Traffic System Net (WARTS)

Frequency: 3.975 MHz LSB
Schedule: Daily at 1730 (5:30 PM) Pacific Time (winter band conditions may shift the time slightly)
Purpose: Formal and informal traffic handling for Washington State, and a gateway to Alaska and British Columbia

WARTS has been running since December 23, 1947, making it one of the older state traffic nets still on the air, and it is an affiliate of both the ARRL and the National Traffic System. Stations check in when their city is called, and visitors are welcome after the roster roll call. Membership just requires eight check-ins in a calendar month, after which you notify the net secretary. Worth having programmed in if you ever need to get a message into or out of Washington State.

More info: wartsnet.net

Western Digital Net (WDN)

Frequency: 3.581 MHz USB, 1500 Hz waterfall offset
Schedule: Every Thursday at 1930 Pacific Time (0330 Zulu)
Purpose: HF relay traffic net west of the Rockies, forwarding traffic into Winlink, the packet BBS network, and email

WDN launched in fall 2019 as a spinoff of the Orca Digital Net, built by many of the same operators to extend digital relay traffic handling further west of the Rockies using the same FLDigi-based toolkit. New operators are encouraged to cut their teeth on ORCA first to learn the net conventions before joining WDN, since the two nets share callsigns, macros, and a lot of the same regular check-ins.

More info: westerndigitalnet.org

YL System

Frequency: 14.332 MHz (daytime), 7.245 to 7.254 MHz (evenings)
Schedule: Daily, five rotating periods from roughly 1300 to 0000 UTC (abbreviated on weekends and holidays)
Purpose: An on-air community for women amateur radio operators

Running continuously since 1963, the YL System is technically not a net at all in the formal sense, its own members are careful to point that out, but a rotating, all-day presence on 20 and 40 meters where YLs (the traditional CW-derived term for women hams, used regardless of age) check in throughout the day across five named periods, from the Sunrise Period through the closing Moonbeam Period. It runs 365 days a year with volunteer System Controls handing off responsibility as propagation shifts through the day. It is separate from, though related in spirit to, the Young Ladies’ Radio League (YLRL), the formal membership organization founded in 1939 that also runs its own weekday net on 14.292 MHz and supports several other YL-focused nets around the world.

More info: ylsystem.org and ylrl.net

None of these require anything special to check into beyond a working HF station and the willingness to listen for a break in the pattern before keying up. Listening to a net for a full cycle before you ever transmit is the best way to learn its particular rhythm, and every net on this list welcomes new check-ins.

Thinking about starting a net of your own closer to home? What Is an HF NVIS Regional Net? covers how to cover your whole region on HF with no repeater, and how to run a first net test.

Cool HF Nets Worth Checking Into: History, Schedules, and Purpose