Template: Contribute to QSP by 16-Line

The NTS radiogram was created as a means to send short messages to individuals, more or less a noncommercial version of the telegram services run by the Marconi Company, American Telephone & Telegraph, Western Union, and the like. Government agencies also use teleprint, though with some different requirements for their operations. Allied nations of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States have worked together through what is known as the Combined Communications-Electronics Board (CCEB) to create Allied Communications Publications (ACPs). These standards provide more features than the short message services, and are still in use today.

The Basic Message, also known as the 16-Line, provides options that may make it more appropriate, particularly for agency traffic, or in emergency operations. This is a transmission format, capable of carrying standard presentation formats such as the ICS-213, and even computer data formats such as comma-separated value (CSV), eXtensible Markup Language (XML), and application-specific formats such as Red Cross Custom Forms in FLMSG.

This format is suitable for transmission on BLACK SWAN (digitally, with FLAMP). The elements shown in bold are what you will want to change to suit your own message.

DE AA1AAA NR 1234
R 221316Z MAY 21
FM Joan the Ham
Winlink AA1AAA
TO Editor, QSP
KD8TTE
US OH Franklin
GRNC
BT
Buckeye County ARS Virtual Meeting started the plan for Field Day. This week, I worked 80M NBEMS, 75M phone, and 40M Winlink!
BT

NNNN

The points of note for the template are:

  • DE, a literal token to indicate the station originating the transmission; we are using it as station of origin, which may differ from any given transmission because the transmitter and receiver are identified through procedure and the FLAMP transmission process.

  • AA1AAA, the station of origin. This is almost always your own callsign.

  • NR, a literal token meaning number, indicating that the message serial number will follow.

  • 1234, the message serial number. As the operator at the station of origin, you set the number and just increment it every time you issue one. This ensures that the message can be uniquely identified.

  • R, the precedence. In this case it is "routine" as voiced on phone nets, R as transmitted with CW and digital. These newsletter messages will always be routine.

  • 221316Z MAY 21, the date-time group showing when the message was originated. The structure for the date-time group is two digits for the day of the month followed by two digits for the hour of the day (24-hour clock), followed by two digits for the minute of the hour, followed by a letter to show timezone. Z is "zulu time," also Greenwich Mean Time, or UTC-0000. Other timezones applicable to Ohio are Q (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-0400) and R (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-0500). There is a timezone L (UTC+1100), and may not be used to indicate "local" time. The three-digit abbreviation for month follows, and the group concludes with a two-digit or four-digit year.

  • FM, a literal token to indicate the source of the message: who sent it. The is the equivalent of signature in the NTS Radiogram.

  • TO, a literal token to indicate the action addressee, the message's intended recipient looking for the information or expected to do something with the information. The action addressee is the QSP Newsletter Editor, and we include identifying station information to assist in routing, so we give this as a literal to use directly.

  • GRNC, message accounting showing "groups not counted." Because we transmit these messages digitally with FLAMP, the transmission procedure includes an external checksum of the content and provides the means to get fills to make corrections. (Were we to transmit this message through another means that does not provide that accounting we would count the groups of the text and the line would read "GR98" to indicate a text of ninety-eight groups. This is the equivalent of the "check" in the NTS Radiogram.)

  • BT, a literal token as transmitted in CW and digital, and voiced "break" on phone circuits. This is a separator indicating the end of the addressee portion of the message and the start of the text.

  • Buckeye County...Winlink!, message text. Note that this does allow for mixed-case text, punctuation, and is otherwise suitable for carrying text without a large amount of preparation in the origination process.

  • BT, another separator, this now indicating the end of the text section of the message.

  • NNNN, a literal indicating end of message.

The value of being able to include mixed-case text and punctuation can be seen by illustrating how the same template can be used to carry the K2S file produced by an FLMSG Custom Form, such as that for contributing content to QSP.

DE AA1AAA NR 1234
R 221316Z MAY 21
FM Joan the Ham
Winlink AA1AAA
TO Editor, QSP
KD8TTE
US OH Franklin
GRNC
BT
<flmsg>4.0.17
:hdr_ed:22
KD8TTE 20212205155347
<customform>
:mg:489 CUSTOM_FORM,QSP-share.html
name,Joan
origin,aa1aaa
TEXT,We started planning for Field Day! Looking forward to trying out my new paddle for CW!
160p,
160c,Y
160n,
160w,
160x,
80p,Y
80c,Y
80n,Y
80w,Y
80x,
60p,Y
60c,Y
60n,Y
60x,
40p,
40c,Y
40n,
40w,Y
40x,
30c,Y
30n,
30w,Y
30x,
20p,
20c,
20n,
20w,Y
20x,
17p,
17c,
17n,
17w,
17x,
15p,
15c,
15n,
15w,
15x,
12p,
12c,
12n,
12w,
12x,
10p,
10c,
10n,
10w,
10x,
6p,Y
6c,
6n,Y
6w,
6x,
hvp,Y
hvc,
hvn,Y
hvw,
hvx,
upp,Y
upc,
upn,
upw,
upx,
county,39049
BT
NNNN