so i've been checking into the regional 40m net on wednesday nights for a few months now, its usually around 7.250 or so depending on QRM, net control has been rotating between a couple of guys and its been a pretty good time honestly. last week i completely spaced it out, work stuff got in the way and by the time i remembered it was already past 9pm local.

anyway i was just curious if anyone else participates in wednesday night HF nets or something similar and whether you've noticed the check-in numbers going up or down lately. feels like some nights we get maybe 8-10 stations and other nights its closer to 20 which is kinda cool. also heard theres a special event station coming up for some historical thing but i dont have details, someone mentioned it on the net a few weeks ago but i was half paying attention tbh

is there a good resource for finding net schedules besides the ARRL net directory? that thing always feels a little outdated to me

yeah the ARRL directory is honestly hit or miss, half the nets listed havent been active in years. what i usually do is check the Amateur Radio Newsline or just ask around on local repeaters, people tend to know whats actually running. there's also a site called netlogger that a lot of nets use for logging check-ins digitally, you can see which nets are active in real time which is pretty handy.

as for special event stations, the ARRL special event page gets updated pretty regularly, thats where id start. there was one a while back for a lighthouse event and another for some civil war anniversary thing, they're usually on weekends and you can sometimes get a QSL card or certificate for working them which is a nice little bonus if youre into that sort of thing. dont sweat missing a wednesday net, net control usually just logs you as absent and moves on, nobody's keeping score haha

oh man i just started checking into nets like two months ago and i was so nervous the first time. totally fumbled my callsign on the first try lol. but yeah netlogger is the thing, someone at my club told me about it and it made a huge difference for finding active nets. some nets have been running the same night and frequency for like 30 years which is kind of wild to think about.

i dont know about the special event station you mentioned but i want to find one to work, sounds fun