Worldwide Check-In Description and History

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Purpose

To demonstrate the international reach of DMR
To provide a Net for interaction (even if only check-ins) with hams outside the local area and outside a specific interest group (most Nets are limited to one or both of those types.)

Apart from conducting a Saturday TG91 worldwide net, our other important goal is to assist fellow HAMs especially our young amateur radio enthusiasts who've just recently learned the proper amateur radio etiquette and since the majority of them are on QRX, we all would like it to be enjoyable and educational for them all and, to clarify some important matters and making some "suggestions". More specifically, the intention is for our Net Controllers to provide good examples of operating procedure during the Net including correct use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

LISTEN, LISTEN AND LISTEN AGAIN:

During TG91 worldwide check-in, some of our fellow HAMs will just call other stations straight away. Some of us will not listen to what is currently happening. The result of it is a waste of time during net call and the worst down side is that we are not a good example by propagating a bad practice on-air.
We humbly suggest, that all of us to listen first for at least several seconds so that we can hear our TG91 Net Controller transmitting or, use our old standard polite method of asking, "is the talk group in use?" followed by our call sign (or "is the frequency in use" if operating on an RF medium). This is a guaranteed method to avoid confusion as the net controller will answer back straight away. This method is being heavily practiced on RF medium and some of us are already practicing it on VOIP medium. This is a very good example for new comers, for them to become polite HAM radio operators.
Before we start calling for stations who are going to check-in on TG91 worldwide net, we used to always call first those stations with priority or emergency traffic (a message(s) with double or triple breaks). This is to make sure that we will be able to assist them in case of emergency situations without delay.
During emergency situations, most of the time our main power grids are down and we're just utilizing a battery to power our handheld portable radios with weak signal and can drain its battery anytime. This is the paramount reason why we need to pause and listen for those priority stations having a very weak signal during emergency transmission therefore we "highly suggest" all fellow HAMs to listen, listen and listen again before pressing that PTT.

Listening is key to becoming a Super star HAM and a basic HAM must have skill

TG91 IS NOT AN ENGLISH ONLY SPEAKING TG/CHANNEL:

TG91 promotes camaraderie worldwide. It is unfair to our fellow HAMs that can't speak/understand English if we will indicate that TG91 is for English speaking stations only, hence, we should welcome them and try our best to understand each and everyone. We can always use Q-codes in case two stations can't understand each other due to language differences.
If we are conducting a Saturday TG91 worldwide net and some fellow HAM keeps on interrupting our net controller or calling out of order because he/she don't understand what's going on as they can't understand English as well, we, TG91 net controllers will politely talk to them and explain about TG91 worldwide net call and as well as other matters using their own non-English language.

INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET (IPA):

Why accurate IPA is so important to young hams who just recently learned it. Accurate IPA is so important during emergency and public service communication in terms of rescue operation. One wrong transmitted alphabet is catastrophic in terms of passing coordinates to rescue stranded people.
Some of our fellow HAMs used to intentionally alter IPA. TG91 is being monitored and used by large audience of young amateur radio enthusiasts who just recently learned this IPA. It is very confusing to them if they can hear a different IPA specially if it's coming from the stations of old timers.
Altering IPA is not a crime - means we can't go to prison if we intend to replace the whole International Phonetic Alphabets. The main issue here is that it will severely mislead young amateur radio enthusiasts who just recently learned this IPA. Having said that, we will "never" tell you to refrain from altering IPA instead, we and majority of our fellow HAMs worldwide will remind our young amateur radio enthusiasts to practice what they've learned about proper amateur radio etiquette.

WHY IT IS SO IMPORTANT TO PRACTICE CORRECT IPA?

Because it will simply cut down transmission errors primarily if main power grid is down and hence we are utilizing only batteries to power our QRP transceivers with very weak signals to save life during disaster rescue operations. One wrong alphabet is a disaster when transmitting a coordinate to rescuers saving the life of stranded people. A short example, in 1991, Mount Pinatubo eruption. One error due to tampering IPA during coordinate transmission to airlift rescuers will result in people going several feet below lahar flowing high speed from the mouth of that very angry mountain.

Let's help each other for the benefit of our future replacements, our fellow young amateur radio enthusiasts who will continue our paramount purpose, to serve the general public by implementing emergency communication during disaster operations.

Worldwide Check-In Operation

For the benefit of newcomers to the Worldwide Check-in, your net controller will now provide a brief explanation of how it works. The Net Controller will proceed through the entire planet region by region.

Since the Net runs for a long while now and some of you like to check-in at the appropriate time but do not want to listen to the entire Net, here is a list of the regions in the order that they are called to give you some idea of how to judge the Net progress in time:

1) Asia and Pacific
2) Middle East
3) Europe (there are many stations and sub-regions in Europe)
4) Africa, Caribbean, Latin America (including Mexico)
5) North America (Canada and the US)

Within each region, The Net Controller will call for check-ins from groups of countries, individual countries, and, in some cases, specific parts of countries (for example, individual US call zones.) When your area is called, the Net Controller will listen for check-ins from the called area. At specific times during the process, the Net Controller will call for late or missed check-ins from particular areas (for example, after calling all of Europe, the Net Controller will call for any late or missed stations anywhere in Europe.) Please check-in only when your area is called or when late or missed stations anywhere in the world are called for. Check-ins out of order cause confusion and can delay the process.

When you check in, please identify yourself using your callsign in phonetics alphabet only. This will allow the Net Controller to get all check-ins more accurately and in a more timely manner. For example, the Net Controller would say his/her callsign as X1XXX using the phonetic alphabet (this is an example callsign only and not a real callsign) and the Net Controller would not say his/her name and location.

If you have any traffic, please announce this when you check-in. You do not need to announce if you have no traffic and we would recommend not doing so to limit the time as the entire world wide check-in is tending to go rather long nowadays.

Traffic should be about DMR events, new repeaters or anything else DMR related.

This is a controlled net. All traffic must go through net control. Every few check-ins, the Net Controlelr will pause and read back the callsigns of the heard stations. If you are heard, you will be checked in and there is no need for you to continue checking in. Also, please remember that we are keeping digital logs so you will be logged in the digital log even if Net Control misses hearing you due to the usual network issues.

History

The Net started in 2015 when most DMR repeaters in California switched to the then new Brandmeister Network
Net was started by Dick K6SUU who did Net Controller duties on his own initially
Modelled after similar older Net on Talkgroup 1 on the DMR-MARC cbridge network
Over the next Christmas/New Year period Dick went on an overseas trip and could not do net control
He asked for volunteers and Alec N1AJW and Paul VA6PW volunteered.
Since then the Net Controller Group has expanded and various people have come and gone.

Key Personnel

Net Founder: Dick K6SUU
Digital Log Acquisition and Processing: Andy AC2HE
Scheduling: Paul VA6PW
Script Editor: Paul VA6PW
Webmaster: Paul VA6PW with assistance from Malcolm VA6MWM and webspace from Hamish VA6GNU
Onboarding of new Net Controllers: Barry K6ST

Volunteering

We are always looking for new Net Controllers. If you are interested or need more information, please email the Net Controller group at info@worldwidecheckin.net

Being a net controller doesn’t need to be a solo job. Two or more people could split the load amongst themselves.

Listening to the Worldwide Check-In on the Internet

Some of you who do not have a DMR radio may want to listen to the Net via the Internet. This can be done via the Brandmeister Hoseline page at https://hose.brandmeister.network/#/91. Then click on the box labelled 91 World-wide.