Radiograms – Aaron

This page is part of the NTS training series. On this page…

Radiogram overview
Radiogram parts
Example radiogram

When sending communications over the NTS, having a standardized method of communicating can help greatly. Without standards like this, an already hectic environment can be made even worse, which is why it is important for amateur radio operators to learn about traffic handling before a disaster or emergency occurs. These skills can also assist you when moving other message formats, such as the ICS-213 General Message form.

The National Traffic System moves traffic using a standardized format called a radiogram. Here is what a radiogram looks like:

This radiogram template allows for messages (traffic) to be passed globally using a standardized layout.

Radiogram PDF

Click to download a printer-friendly PDF copy of ARRL radiograms.

Once a radiogram is written, the end goal when moving it through the NTS is to have it arrive at its destination with the exact same content it started with, word for word and letter for letter.

Radiogram parts

While the template has the majority of the items you can complete on a radiogram, there are a few items that are not specifically called out. However, generally speaking the radiogram format covers the majority of radiograms you would encounter, and it consists of four basic elements:

There are four main parts in a radiogram message.

Click on an element to jump to its section below.

Header
Address part (the destination)
Text (the message)
Signature

There are also areas for recording the receiving station’s information (to the right of the address part), as well as tracking fields to show where the message came from and/or where the message was relayed to (this is below the signature).

Header

Here are the components of a radiogram header.

The header tracks key information about the message.

Number

This is a sequential number that you assign to your messages as you create them.

You are free to number messages as you wish, but keep in mind that you should be able to easily track your messages. For example, some stations reset their messages numbers each month, while others reset them each year. Some stations never reset them, but if your message numbers would go into the tens-of-thousands range, it is good form to reset your numbers.

I suggest starting your message number at 1 and go from there, and then reset back to 1 at the start of the calendar year.

This indicates how important a message is according to its originator (the station that created the message). Messages with a higher urgency receive more attention during traffic nets. Here are the four precedence types from least urgent to most urgent:

Routine (R): These are general messages. When there are no emergencies or other time of need, messages offering well-wishes or other general greetings are sent to help test the system and let amateur radio operators build, sharpen, and practice their skills.
Welfare (W): These messages are either inquiries into the health and welfare of an individual in an affected area, or an advisory or reply from an affected area indicating all is well.
Priority (P): These messages either have a time-limit in which they need to be delivered, or notify about injuries and other emergency-related traffic not of utmost urgency.
Emergency: Any message related to a life-and-death matter, including requests for supplies or specific instructions vital to relief of affected populations. These types of messages are pretty rare.

In the header, the precedence may be written as the entire word (Routine) or by its initial (R), except for the Emergency precedence. In this case, Emergency is always written out. Otherwise, it is common to see the initial of the precedence written in the header (R), but when given over the air, its full word is said (“Routine”).

These are special instructions the originating station can provide. They’re not commonly used, but when included it is important for the delivering operator to know what they mean.

HXA (followed by number): Collect landline delivery authorized by addressee within X miles. (If no number, authorization is unlimited)
- With today’s free long distance plans, you should rarely, if never, encounter this handling instruction.
HXB (followed by number): Cancel the message if it’s not delivered within X hours of the filing time (this will be filled in on the header block). Once cancelled, send a service message back to the originating station to let them know.
- This is used in cases where the message becomes pointless after a certain amount of time. These types of messages should be sent at least as a Priority message.
HXC: Report the date and time of delivery back to the originating station.
- This lets the originating station know that the message was delivered, as well as what date and time.
HXD: Report to the originating station the identity of the station you received the message from, as well as the date and time you received it. Also, report the identity of the station to which you relayed the message along with the date and time, or if you delivered it to its destination, report the date, time, and method of delivery.
- This is used to track a message as it moves through the NTS. It is quite painful, and should only be used if absolutely necessary.
HXE: The delivering station should ask for a reply from the addressee, and then originate a message back with the reply.
- Some stations would like to receive a reply, and can either indicate it in the message text or here in the handling instructions.
HXF (followed by number): Hold delivery until (specific date).
- Commonly seen in birthday greetings, this ensures a message is not delivered too early.
HXG: Delivery by mail or landline toll call not required. If toll or other expense involved, cancel message and service originating station.
- While the goal of any radiogram is to deliver it to its addressee, this instruction indicates that if the delivering station has to incur an expense to complete the delivery, to instead cancel delivering the message and to let the originating station know.

This is a count of the number of words present in the text section. Normally this is filled in after you complete writing the text.

When using ARL numbers in the text, you need to place ARL in front of the check. For example, if your text contains “ARL FIFTY HAVE A NICE DAY” then the check of 6 (as there are 6 words) would be written as “ARL 6”.

The location of the person who originated the message. If you are the amateur radio operator writing the message, this is your city and state. However, if you are writing the message on behalf of someone else (such as when you are getting a reply from someone you just delivered a message to) then their city and state goes here. Write out the city, and abbreviate the state, such as Dallas TX.

While optional, you should fill in the time if there is a HXB handling instruction as the filing time is needed to determine if the message should be cancelled.

Use the 24-hour time format, such as 21:00 for 9:00 PM. While ideal to use UTC time, it is okay to use your local time zone, but if you do so, indicate what time zone, such as 21:00 CDT.

Address part

The address part indicates the addressee, the person that should receive the message. While many radiograms are sent to other amateur radio operators, the recipient of the message does not need to be an amateur radio operator.

Here is its location on an ARRL radiogram.

The address part provides information about the recipient, including phone number and, if available, email address.

The basic format for the address part is:

FIRST LAST CALLSIGN
ADDRESS
CITY STATE ZIP

PHONE NUMBER ### ### ####

Notice that there are no punctuation marks in the city, state, and zip line, nor in the phone number. Also, if the recipient isn’t an amateur radio operator, we simply do not include a callsign.

Here is an example address part:

TO
JANE DOE AR1T
123 AMATEUR WAY
SOMETOWN WI 00121

PHONE NUMBER 330 555 4424

E-MAIL JANE DOT DOE ATSIGN EXAMPLE DOT COM

See how the email address is broken out? Instead of jane.doe@example.com it is listed into its components. This helps with efficiency when providing this information over the air.

You do not need to include an email address on the radiogram, and quite often it is not included as phone delivery is often the method of choice. Along this line, while providing a phone number isn’t a requirement, it is a good practice as most radiograms are delivered by phone once they reach a delivering station in the addressee’s area.

Text

This section contains the message, and is limited to 25 words. In the radiogram template there are 25 spaces, writing one word per space.

Here is its location on an ARRL radiogram.

The text section of the radiogram has 25 spaces.

Let’s use this as an example message we want to send:

Great seeing you yesterday. Hope to get together again soon. 73

In a radiogram, periods are written as either the letter X (“initial x-ray”), or the word XRAY. Either way, this indicates an end of a sentence. Similarly, if your message was, “How are you?” the question mark would be written as QUERY to indicate a question.

Using this method, we will write the text of the message like this:

GREAT SEEING YOU YESTERDAY X

HOPE TO GET TOGETHER AGAIN

SOON 73

Notice how we did not place X between SOON and 73? When wishing someone 73 at the end of a message, we generally do not include an X as it’s automatically implied. The only exception would be to include it for clarity. For example, if the end of your message was “ON AUGUST 10 73” it could be confusing this way, so we would instead say “ON AUGUST 10 X 73” to help better separate the date from wishing someone 73.

Items like X and QUERY count as a word when filling in the check, so counting what we have above, there are 12 words, and we would write 12 in the check.

Signature

Below the text area is the signature area.

Here is the signature location on an ARRL radiogram.

The signature is written between the last part of the text and directly above the REC’D (received) and SENT sections.

Here you would write the signature of the person or people that wrote the message. If you wrote it, then it would be your name and callsign, such as:

AARON K8AMH

If you originated the message for someone without an amateur radio license, simply place their name. And, you can place more than one name here, such as:

JOHN TA4ES AND JANE EX4MPL

Example radiogram

Using what we have in the above explanations, and assuming it is our 7th message and the current date and time are OCT 4 23:56 UTC, here is how our radiogram would look.

This completed radiogram is ready to send via a traffic net.