so ive been running our local ARES net on wednesday nights for about 8 months now and turnout has been kind of inconsistent lately. we usually get maybe 6-8 check-ins on a good night but last week we only had 3 and one of them was my buddy dave who lives next door and basically feels obligated lol

i know its summer and people are busy doing outdoor stuff but i was wondering if anyone has had luck getting more operators to participate regularly. we do announce it on the club facebook page and i post the schedule to the repeater trustee but i feel like thats not reaching people who are newer to the hobby or maybe just dont know the net exists

also curious if anyone here participates in any regular HF nets too — i caught part of the 40m traffic net the other night just browsing around and it seemed pretty active, way more than our local 2m stuff. wondering if thats just because HF has more range obviously or if those communities are just more organized about it

any ideas welcome, really dont want to see the net fold because its actually good practice for emcomm stuff and i feel like thats kind of the whole point of having it

yeah the summer slump is real, happens to basically every net I've ever been part of. what helped our Wednesday night 2m net was honestly just having the NCS personally reach out to operators who had checked in before but gone quiet — not in a guilt trippy way just a quick email or even a text if you have their number saying hey we miss you on the net. sounds simple but it actually worked, got a couple guys back who thought we had changed our frequency or something

also worth seeing if any of the local clubs in nearby towns would cross-promote. we linked up with a club about 40 miles out and suddenly had a few more mobiles checking in from their area. doesnt fix everything but 10-11 check-ins feels way more alive than 3

the HF nets do tend to hold up better through the summer partly because its traffic nets and people feel a bit more committed to passing actual messages. if you havent tried getting your ARES members to run some practice traffic it might give the net a little more purpose beyond just the roll call

i just got my ticket in april and honestly hadnt even thought about nets until i read your post. is there a good place to find schedules? like an online list or something? i have my technician so i can do 2m and i've been kind of just listening around not really sure when anything is happening