Groups of nets may organize and operate in collaboration for a common purpose, such as to pass along emergency messages in time of disaster.
Club nets, such as ones for discussing equipment or other topics, use a NCS simply to control the order in which participants transmit their comments to the group in round-robin style.
In many parts of the world outside North America, it is illegal for amateur radio operators to pass messages on behalf of third parties.
Today, with inexpensive communication capability available to anyone, routine message handling has dwindled and is largely used for training purposes.
During emergencies (such as natural disasters) – especially when normal communications channels are disabled or compromised – traffic nets (utilizing emergency-powered stations) are used to pass information into and out of affected areas.
By checking into a DX net, a ham could have a chance to contact another station he or she might otherwise not be likely to hear by randomly tuning across the amateur bands.