On the net

Directed means somebody is in charge

An open net is a conversation: transmit when the frequency is clear. A directed net has a net control stationThe operator running a directed net: decides who transmits and when, prioritises traffic, keeps the log, and relays to the forecast office. The busiest person on the frequency. who decides who transmits and when, and during severe weather the net will be directed. You do not transmit unless net control calls you or you break in for something urgent.

Net control is doing four things at once: managing who is on the air, prioritising what gets passed, keeping a log, and relaying to the forecast office. They are the busiest person on the frequency, which is the reason for every piece of discipline below.

Checking in

1. Listen first. For at least a few seconds, and longer if you have just turned the radio on. You cannot hear a transmission in progress if you are transmitting over it.
2. Wait to be called, or wait for net control to ask for check-ins.
3. Give your call sign, your name, and your location. Location is the part that matters: net control is building a map of who is where.
4. Say whether you have traffic. If you have nothing to report, say so and stop talking.
5. Then stop talking. The commonest fault on any net is a check-in that turns into a conversation.

Breaking in when it matters

You will at some point need to interrupt. Somebody is passing a routine hail report and you are watching a tornado. The procedure is short and it exists precisely so you do not have to invent one.

Wait for a gap between transmissions, then:

    "BREAK, EMERGENCY TRAFFIC, [your call sign]"

Then stop, and wait for net control to acknowledge you.
Then pass the report, slowly, in the standard order.

The report, over the air

The same seven elements module 7 lesson 6 specified, in a fixed order so net control can write them down without asking you to repeat anything.

Weak:
  "Yeah I've got some real big hail here at the house, it's
   coming down hard, biggest I've seen in years."

Usable:
  "[Call sign], trained spotter. Hail, one and three quarter
   inches, measured. Three miles east of Robertsdale. Time of
   occurrence one nine four two local. Still falling."

• Your call sign and that you are a trained spotter. This becomes the source field from lesson 2.
• What, with a number and a measured-or-estimated tag.
• Where the event was, not where you are. Module 7 lesson 6 has the figure showing why.
• When it happened, not when you are transmitting.
• Anything still developing, briefly.

Phonetics, plain language and time

Use the standard phonetic alphabet

Alfa, Bravo, Charlie and the rest. Not invented words, however clear they sound to you. Spell place names, unusual words and anything containing a letter that sounds like another letter. B, C, D, E, G, P, T, V and Z are indistinguishable over a noisy signal.

Use plain language, not codes

This is doctrine, not preference. The national incident management standard requires common terminology rather than agency-specific ten-codes, precisely because the codes differ between agencies and the point of a multi-agency incident is that strangers have to understand each other.

Be explicit about time

Say "local" or say "zulu", every time. Never a bare number. Some nets work in UTC to avoid time zone confusion, especially near a zone boundary or when relaying across one.

Relay degradation

Every time a report passes through a person it can lose precision, and the losses are predictable. A report that started as "one and three quarter inch hail, measured, three miles east of Robertsdale, at 1942" becomes, two relays later, "golf ball hail near Robertsdale a little while ago".