Part of our Clubs and Nets guide.
I covered how to actually run a net mechanically, but the mechanics do not matter much if check-ins wrap up in four minutes and the net just kind of ends. Here are topics worth keeping in your back pocket so a slow night still gives people a reason to stick around.
Gear Talk, Always a Safe Bet
- What is everyone running for a radio and antenna these days, and has anything changed
- Did anyone try a new piece of gear this month, good experience or bad
- Anyone dealing with a noise problem, and did the group help track it down
Quick Skill Builders
- Explain one Q code a week and ask if anyone actually knew it before you said it
- What is the band doing tonight and why, tying into where we are in the solar cycle
- Walk through one basic troubleshooting step, like how to check SWR, in under two minutes
Preparedness Check-Ins
- Reminder to check and charge go-bag batteries this week
- Run a one-line practice message exchange in ICS-213 format between two stations
- Ask if everyone actually knows their own grid square, and explain what it is for anyone who does not
Community and Events
- Any upcoming POTA or SOTA activations people are planning
- Contest or Field Day dates on the calendar
- Welcome new hams, congratulate license upgrades, mention local VE sessions
Just for Fun
- Best DX contact of the week
- Strangest thing anyone has heard on the bands recently
- Antenna disaster stories, the more embarrassing the better
You do not need all of these every week. Pick one or two ahead of time so you are not scrambling live on the repeater, and rotate through the list so the net does not turn into the same three topics every Tuesday. The goal is not to fill airtime, it is to give people an actual reason to check in instead of just going through the motions.