The Awful Awful Ugly Net 25th Anniversary Certificates have finally arrived. Better late than never…

The 24th Anniversary Net was broadcast live on the internet for everyone. Click the link below to listen to the recording, or right click it to download it for use with another player or device.

Awful Awful Ugly Net 24th Anniversary recording (235MB)

March 16, 2016 was the 24th anniversary net with 143 check ins, and as usual everyone that participated will get a special certificate.

The official list is posted, and when certificates are available they can be downloaded here.

Wayne Miller KB5AAU and his lovely wife Doris KB5IWF having moved from Nashville, TN to Memphis, TN, wanted to keep in touch with their good friend Tommy Page AD4AI and decided to use HF on a frequency of 3856khz. This proved to be a little too close to others on 3858 so they moved 1khz down, and here the traditional frequency was set to 3855 where it still is today.

Wayne and Tommy were joined by Claude Robertson KB4GSX (now sk) and others from the Nashville area. About a week into this endeavor they gathered at the usual time to find the frequency occupied. The other group not being regular, noting that Wayne’s group had been there every night, elected to move and give them the frequncy. Claude said to Wayne since he and Tommy had started talking here that they should just start a net and call it the Awful Awful Ugly net after the phonetics for Wayne’s call sign given to him by a friend that stuck so well it could never be washed off. It was at this moment on March 16, 1992 that the world was forever changed as the Awful Awful Ugly Net came into being. The net has been on the air every single night for 23 years tonight. If there was anyone able to talk on the band there was the Awful Awful Ugly Net.

It wasn’t long before new ham friends in Memphis joined in, and others from other areas as the net spread far and wide. It quickly grew to a level of having over 50 check ins a night where it is still 23 years later. Wayne and Doris started traveling often and Claude took over as net control while they were not home. Claude kept running it until he became very ill. Claude passed the torch to Herman Tucker WA4OBA from Nashville and he ran with it for some time until he had to pass the torch for health reasons to Mike Stewart N0MBK who ran it until Wayne started staying home, continuing the net control baton relay. Today it has become more like a game of hot potato with a different net control every night. On the special 23rd anniversary net there will be a whole team of awful awful ugly net control stations helping out tag team style.

The Awful Awful Ugly Net has always been family oriented from day one. Some time ago Wayne and Mike both had it on their hearts to include prayer on net and it is been as staple ever since. The Awful Awful Ugly Net has enjoyed a long standing relationship with the Freewheelers on 3916, as evidenced by the Wayback Machine having even further enchanced the net. This net has proven that awful awful ugly can certianly be awful awful nice.

This has been the story of how a small group of friends became the world famous Awful Awful Ugly Net with membership in the thousands.

Coast to Coast, Border to Border, and beyond, the World Renowned Awful Awful Ugly Net was formed on March 16, 1992 by a group of retiries and vets from around the country that started talking to one another. On this night we decided to form a net. Then we had people join in with us from around the country.

The AAU Net starts out at 7pm (Central Time) on or about 3855Khz with the pre net for check in’s and rag chew, and at 8pm (Central Time) the Net officially begins. We are in our Twenty Second Year of service. The AAU net meets every single night of the week, 365 days a year and 366 on leap year, as long as conditions permit a Net Controller to get on Frequency.

We hope everybody stops in and says hello. We are known world wide as the Awful Awful Ugly net but don’t let that scare you away because you don’t have to be awful awful ugly, you don’t have to be awful ugly, in fact, you don’t have to be ugly at all. You can be pretty or think you’re pretty and still participate in this net. Once you check in just one time, then you are branded a Awful Awful Ugly member for life. You don’t have to belong to any clubs or organizations, Just have a General Class license or higher and checkin that one time. So come and join us please as we have fun with our hobby.

We are a Christian Comradery net and rated G, so please conduct yourself accordingly. This is a family net and always has been. This being a family net you will not hear any profanity, off colored jokes or anything like that. We do not discuss the trivium of politics, controversial issues, or anything else that would create division or interfere with good fellowship.

We are not a traffic net or emergency net but if there is any Emergency, Priority or Time Value traffic just call Break Break, that’s the Double Break, and you will get all the help we can possibly give you.

We always start the net with the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a prayer. Between the pledge and prayer we will have our net historian, Pete KE5GGY, guide us through history on the early edition of the wayback machine. Once the net begins we will call all the stations on the Short Time List that cannot stay for the entire net. Next we call on the Full Time checkins. After reaching the bottom of the list we go back to the top and start the 73 round. We then end our net with a prayer. And before each prayer we take prayer requests and give Praise reports. We hope to see all of you as often as possible on the Awful Awful Ugly Net.

Net Control Stations are as follows:

Sunday – W5MZ David with tag team assist by WD5DJX “The Bull”
Monday* – WD5DJX “The Bull” with tag team assit by W5MZ David
Tuesday – KC0MQS Jimmy and W5CCT Tom “the Dream Team” a.k.a “the Tom and Jimmy Show”
Wednesday – KD0MZL Dave “The Mud Duck” Quack! Quack!
Thursday – N0MBK Mike (Resident Chaplin)
Friday – KB5AAU Wayne “the Founder” Charter Member #1
Saturday – N5SRB Sam “Solid Rocket Booster”

* WD5DJX Bull is currently on sick leave and is temporarily replaced on Mondays by one of our other net controllers

Our backup net controllers are:
N0KPH – Porter
KC5YWN – Mike

Our resident chaplin is N0MBK Mike

Some of us are on the move a lot to different parts of the country. We keep in contact through the net. Anyone who has a licence to work that band is welcome to check in.

The net has continued to grow over the years. There was even spin off net called the Awful Awful Ugly Net #2 (Which celebrated 8 years on March 26, 2014) on CQ100 on the Internet at 7:30pm (on the Virtual 3855 KHz) for those Ham radio operators without HF equipment.

We also use NetLogger 3.0 which is a free download. Sunday and Monday it is in full use, and sometimes other days. We try to at least have it up as a check in path on days that netlogger isn’t actually tracking the net. It offers chat called “Almost Instant Message”. There is a 20 second delay between messages. If the chat has been up and active and has seen many messages it could take some time when you connect to see ALL of the messages. To find the net once you get netlogger, go to EDIT then SERVERS. Select the SATERN server. The AAU Net is on the SATERN server and will not be reachable on any of the others. When it’s time for the net go to FUNCTION and Monitor net in progress. Be sure to Select “Awful Awful Ugly Net” from the list. There are other nets on this server that are not related to the AAU Net. WD5DJX “The Bull” is master of the logger.

NetLogger download (main site): http://www.netlogger.org

(In case you have problems obtaining NetLogger 2.4 from the main site it is mirrored here)
NetLogger 2.4 download (w5mz mirror): http://w5mz.com/files/netlog24.exe

You can view and search by callsign on the AAU Net Netlogger database here.

Have to unhook for bad weather? You can still listen to the AAU Net online. There are a couple of places to go. http://remotehams.com/ not only lets you listen, but can actually get you on the air. You can also go to http://globaltuners.com/ for even more listening paths.

Previous Certificates:

March 16, 2015 was the 23rd anniversary net with 136 check ins, and as usual everyone that participated will get a special certificate.

23rd Anniversary Certificates are available and can be downloaded here.

We had another successful anniversary net March 16, 2014 with 112 check ins celebrating 22 years on the air.

To view and print the 22nd anniversary certificates (this year’s) click here: http://w5mz.com/aau-certificates/

To view and print the 8th anniversary certificates for the AAU #2 on CQ100 click here: http://w5mz.com/aau2-8th

We celebrated 21 years of being on the air every night on March 16, 2013. We had 159 check ins for this special anniversary net.

To view and print the 21st anniversary certificates click here: http://w5mz.com/21st-aau-certificates/