Hudson Valley Net History

By Ed N2JBA, Net Manager and Andrew W2BOS, Assistant Section Manager, ENY

The Hudson Valley Net (HVN) is a local net of the ARRL National Traffic System which was originally established to provide a means by which messages could be sent from point to point by amateur radio in a reliable and expeditious manner.  

The HVN serves the Mid-Hudson valley of New York and handles formally written traffic messages, whether they be routine, priority, welfare or emergency in nature, into and out of the local area to anywhere in the US or the world, provided that there is a third-party agreement between the US and that country.

HVN is a public service and training net which renders a free service to the ham radio community as well as the general public. The Net trains duly licensed amateur radio operators in the art of composing, processing and sending traffic messages in a formal manner and under the supervision of a net control station, who is assigned by the net manager. 

HVN made its debut in 1979 and was founded and organized by Don Kalinowski, WB2QOH (later NJ2E (sk, 12/16/2017)) . The net was held only 5 days a week, Monday through Friday, but in March 1981, it became a daily operation. The Net was located on the Mount Beacon Amateur Radio Club repeater, 146.970 from Monday to Friday, and on the repeater of the Putnam Emergency and Amateur Radio League, (PEARL), 145.130, on Saturday and Sunday.  In 1998, the net moved exclusively to the Mt Beacon ARC 146.970 mhz repeater, where it is found today.

Joe McGowen N2BDW (sk), was the net manager from June 1980 until May 1984; Joe was generous enough to furnish me with this historical background of the net. During Joe's tenure, traffic training sessions were held weekly and ran for about 30 minutes. The net in those days averaged about 4 pieces of traffic and had an average of 15 check-ins. The net liaised with many other nets, ie. ARES/RACES of various counties, MARS, Southern District Net, Big Apple Net, Capital District Net, New York Phone Net, New York State CW Nets, New York Public Operations Net and some independent nets like the New York State, Phone, Traffic and Emergency Net and Clearing House Net.

As 2026 dawned, after 30 years, Ed N2JBA turned the reins of HVN over to Michael "Mikey" Carman, KD2NMG.


Former and current HVN Net managers include:

Former and current HVN Assistant Net managers include:

Ben was N2JBA's predecessor and mentor and managed the net with pride and precision. 

In February 2006, the hvnet.org website was created by former Net Manager W2BOS.  W2BOS also created an email reflector for net members also was created at http://wr2abb.org/mailman/listinfo/hvnet_hvnet.org in April 2011. We thank the Mt. Beacon ARC for allowing us to use their web facilities in both hosting the actual website as well as domain name (www.hvnet.org) management.

HVN is involved with NTS net certificates, for those stations who meet certain criteria. Other NTS certificates are awarded by the section traffic manager and the section manager, Those certificates include Official Relay Station (ORS), Official Bulletin Station (OBS), Public Service Honor Roll (PSHR) and Brass Pounder's League (BPL), the ultimate award. Finally, the Net plays an active role in the yearly Simulated Emergency Test (SET), which is sponsored by the ARRL and which tests the strengths and weaknesses of amateur radio operators in their ability to provide formal and expeditious communications during emergency situations.

Other HVN Historical Items of Note for Posterity

Updates:

All original material on this page is copyrighted  ©2006-2026 by Hudson Valley Net.

Use on other NTS or Amateur Radio webpages is allowable provided appropriate (including our URL, www.hvnet.org) is given.  Likewise, we thank those whose materials we've incorporated on our page with their permission as well.

(BT)