3) HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS (Optional) A B C D E F G

Handling Instructions are sometimes used to tell the various stations
along the way, what the desires of the originating station are. If not
needed, it is best not to use them.

On phone: the sending station would say, "HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS (*)",
n explained below. On CW: Send HX(*).

HX A (Followed by a number) Collect land line delivery authorized by the
by addressee within x miles. (If no number, authorization is unlimited).

HX B (Followed by a number) Cancel message if not delivered within x hours
of filing time and service originating station.

HX C Report the time and date of delivery to originating station.

HX D Report to the originating station the identity of the station from
which you received, plus time and date. Report the identity of the
station to which it was relayed, plus time and date; or if delivered,
report time and date of delivery.

HX E Delivering station gets a reply from the addressee, and originates a message back.

HX F (Followed by number) Hold delivery until (date).

HX G Delivery by mail or land line toll call not required. If toll or other expense involved, cancel message and service originating station.

Example: NR 1 R HXG

4) STATION OF ORIGIN (Mandatory)

This is the call sign of the Amateur Radio Station generating (originating) this message. This call sign, along with the message number, serve as the "serial number" of this message. Any future reference to this message would
be: "Number nn of CALL nn4nnn".

Example: NR 1 R WA2VUV

5) CHECK (Mandatory)

This is a count of the number of words used in the TEXT (only) of the
message. Words in the address or signature are NOT counted. Groups of
figures, letters, combinations of figures and letters, and "X" are counted
as words. This is the method that Amateurs use to make sure that the TEXT
was received without error. Both the sender and receiver should end up with
the same word count (CHECK).

Example: NR 1 R WA2VUV 12

6) PLACE OF ORIGIN (Mandatory)

This field is the City and State of either the Station of Origin, or the
person in the Signature. In most cases, this will be the same place.

Example: NR 1 R WA2VUV 12 BOSTON MA

7) TIME FILED (Optional)

The time the message was originated. You may either use UTC or your Local
time.

Examples: 1615Z or 1115 EST.

Most messages do NOT use this field. It is only useful if the message has
a short time value.

Example: NR 1 R WA2VUV 12 BOSTON MA 1615Z

8) DATE (Mandatory)

This is the date the message was originated. In Amateur Radio, we use
month and day. The year is NOT used. If the message is over a year old, it should be sent to the circular file (discard, or return to original sender).
Do not use the number corresponding to the month. Do not say 12-20 --
please use wording of December, two, zero.

Example: NR 1 R WA2VUV 12 BOSTON MA 1615Z DEC 20
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: The Thunderbolt BBS - Little Rock, Arkansas (316:36/20)