At the same time, the commercial communications systems were fragile and often made unusable during natural disasters. Even at this early stage, Amateurs proved their worth to communities who found themselves without communications during emergencies.

During those early days, communications were strictly by Morse Code (CW) and communication suffered under the worst combinations of noise, poor receiver selectivity, and transmitter instability. Dedicated and skilled operators handled messages with a duty that compared to a sacred trust. A message from coast to coast often had to be painstakingly relayed eight or more times. To “botch” or delay such a message was not looked at very kindly by “The Brethren”. An operator was judged not so much for the amount of messages that he/she could handle nor the “sweetness” of his/her fist (code ability) as much as how accurate and reliable a relay operator they proved to be. It was a top priority to have an efficient continental system established not only for amateur radio communications but also for public service and disaster communication.

For accuracy and efficiency, a specific format eventually was determined that proved to be most effective. The standard NTS format in its present form is almost identical with that which also evolved in a parallel manner in the military and commercial message services; which by the way, were for the most part staffed by hams as well.

The present day National Traffic System (NTS) evolved out of this eighty-year history of public service and disaster communications tradition. The NTS is still sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. It features a reliable method of moving messages across the country through a