Frequencies and multiple net controls
A net doesn’t have to be one frequency and one Net Control Station. A multi-band ARES or SKYWARN exercise routinely runs several repeaters or talkgroups under a single net, each with its own desk, all logging into the same check-in list. This page covers working one frequency chip, and what it looks like when more than one NCS is active on the same net at once.
Frequency chips
If a net has more than one working frequency, each one shows as a chip in the net’s header row, next to the status and duration chips. What clicking a chip does depends on who you are:
- If you’re an active NCS, clicking a chip claims it as yours. It becomes the frequency you’re monitoring, shown with a star and your own color, and it’s added to your own check-in’s available frequencies. A different NCS on the same net claims a different chip the same way; nothing stops two NCS from claiming two different frequencies at once, which is exactly the point.
- If you’re Logger or the net’s manager (but not an active NCS), clicking a chip instead sets it as the net’s single active frequency, the one highlighted blue in the check-in list for whoever’s currently on it.
- If you’re Relay or a Standard participant, a plain click on a chip does nothing. Ctrl+click still works for you, covered next.
- Ctrl+click (or Cmd+click on a Mac) always just filters the check-in list down to that frequency, no matter who you are. It never changes anyone’s claim or the net’s active frequency.
- On a closed or archived net, chips are view-only, and clicking one no longer does anything.
Filtering the check-in list to one frequency never hides an active NCS’s own row, regardless of which frequency they’ve claimed, so you can always see who’s in charge no matter which slice of the net you’re currently looking at.
More than one NCS at once
A net can legitimately have several simultaneously active NCS. This isn’t a fallback or an error state: a multi-desk exercise with each NCS running a different frequency is exactly what the frequency-claiming behavior above exists for, and the check-in list marks it plainly: the first NCS assigned gets the plain NCS crown, and every other simultaneously active NCS gets a second, smaller 2nd NCS crown next to their name.
“2nd NCS” is a real label you’ll see in the legend, but it is not a separate role you assign. Underneath, every NCS on the net holds the exact same role. The list is simply marking that more than one is active right now. Station statuses covers the legend in full, including the other things it mixes in alongside roles and statuses.
Becoming a second NCS
There’s nothing special to do. Any operator eligible to become NCS on this net can check themselves in as NCS the normal way, regardless of whether someone else already holds the role. Roles and stepping away covers exactly who’s eligible and how, and Roles and permissions has the complete rules this page leans on.
Next
Roles and stepping away covers taking, sharing, and handing off NCS itself, and Handling traffic covers formal message traffic, which works the same way regardless of how many frequencies or desks the net is running.