so ive been getting into nets lately and honestly its way more fun than i expected. i started with the local 2m club net on monday nights just to practice my callsign and get comfortable with the mic, but then someone at the club told me about some of the HF nets and now im kind of hooked on those too.

right now i check into the Maritime Mobile Service Net on 14.300 when im home in the evenings, and i found a traffic net on 40m that runs on weekday mornings which is cool to listen to even when i dont check in. but i feel like im missing a lot of stuff out there. like i know there are special event stations that pop up and i always seem to find out about them after the fact, which is annoying.

is there a good place to keep track of net schedules and special event stuff? ive been using the ARRL website a little but it feels like theres so much going on and i cant figure out where to look. also if anyone has nets they really like or recommend for a general class who just got his ticket about 8 months ago id love to hear about it. doesnt have to be anything fancy, i just like having a reason to get on the air regularly

the ARRL net directory is probably your best bet for finding scheduled nets, its at arrl.org/arrl-net-directory-search and you can filter by band and mode and all that. but honestly a lot of the best nets i know about i found just by word of mouth from other hams or by stumbling across them while tuning around.

for special event stations, the ARRL website does have a special event stations page that gets updated pretty regularly. W1AW also puts out bulletins that mention upcoming events, so if you have a way to receive or read those its worth checking. some of the state QSO parties and things like that run special event calls too and those are listed on the contest calendar if you poke around.

i've been running the same tuesday night 40m net for going on eleven years now and we still get new check-ins from people who just happened to be tuning through. so sometimes just being on the air and listening gets you plugged in faster than any website will

oh man i had no idea about half this stuff when i was 8 months in. the nets thing really does make a difference for actually using the radio instead of just having it sit there. i got into the 10-10 International Net on 28.380 a while back and that was a fun one, you can get a membership number and everything which sounds kind of nerdy but its actually a nice little community.

also not exactly a net but the 13 Colonies special event in July is something i look forward to every year now, its where all these stations in the original 13 colonies activate and you try to work all of them. lots of fun and theres even a bonus station in the UK and one in France i think. just throwing that out there since you mentioned special events, keep an eye out for it next summer if you havent heard of it