So ive been licensed about 8 months now and i keep hearing people talk about nets like they're a big part of the hobby but honestly im still figuring out which ones are worth checking into regularly. Right now i only do the local 2m club net on tuesday nights and thats about it.

I was poking around on netlogger the other night and there are just SO many nets running at any given time, like traffic nets, emergency prep nets, ragchew nets, dx nets — how do you guys even pick? Do most people just stick to a few they like or do you kind of rotate around depending on whats on HF that evening?

Also im curious about special event stations, ive heard about them but never actually worked one. Is there a good place to track when they're happening? I saw something about a national parks one a while back and totally missed it which was kind of annoying.

welcome to the net rabbit hole haha. honestly when i first started doing nets regularly i tried to check into everything and burned out on it pretty quick. now i just have maybe 3 or 4 that i actually care about — the local 2m one like you, a regional traffic net on 80m wednesday evenings, and then i try to catch the 10-10 net on 10m when the band cooperates which isnt always.

for special event stations the ARRL website has a list but the one i actually use more is the special event station page on QRZ, they update it pretty often and you can sort by date. the national parks on the air thing runs all year so you didnt totally miss it, theres always another one coming up. just search NPOTA or actually its called POTA now — parks on the air — and there's a whole website for it with activations listed by date and location. some weekends there are like 20 activations happening at once if you're on HF.

yeah i was pretty much in the same boat last year. what helped me was just picking one net and sticking with it long enough to actually know the net control and the regulars, once you do that it feels way less like a formality and more like actually talking to people you know. the tuesday night 2m net i do has turned into kind of a social thing at this point, same handful of guys every week.

the special event stations are fun but dont stress about missing them, there's always another one. i worked a lighthouse one last august and the operator on the other end was super chill about giving me the details for the QSL card. most of those ops are happy to slow down for newer folks.