 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
|
 Previous: Radio Camp: Learning From One Another |  Next: Surfin': Up, Up and Away |
 A map showing the locations of NWS offices participating in the 2004 SRD. |
NEWINGTON, CT, Nov 26, 2004--The sixth annual ARRL-National Weather Service SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) event will take place Saturday, December 4. Begun in 1999, SKYWARN Recognition Day pays tribute to Amateur Radio SKYWARN volunteers for the vital services they provide during weather-related emergencies. During the 24-hour activity, radio amateurs set up stations at National Weather Service (NWS) offices and work as a team to contact other hams around the world.
"Ham radio operators are a tremendous resource for the National Weather Service," says Scott Mentzer, N0QE, the event's organizer and the meteorologist-in-charge at the NWS office in Goodland, Kansas. "The dedication these amateurs have shown is inspirational, and their assistance during the year is invaluable."
The 2004 activity gets under way December 4 at 0000 UTC (Friday,
December 3, in US time zones) and continues until 2400 UTC. The object is for amateur
stations to exchange QSO information with as many National Weather Service stations
as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 meters, and 70 cm. Contacts via
repeaters and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) modes also are permitted. Operators
will exchange call sign, signal
report, QTH, and a one or two word description of their weather, such as
"sunny," "partly cloudy," "windy," etc. Participants in the 2003 SRD logged
nearly 19,000 QSOs.
 Members of the SKYWARN club station KH6SW in Honolulu, Hawaii, were on the air for the 2003 SKYWARN Recognition Event. |
Warning Coordination Meteorologist David Floyd, N5DBZ, at the Goodland NWS office says hams demonstrated their dedication to serving others in time of need during the hurricanes that struck Florida and parts of the Gulf Coast and the US Southeast earlier this year. "When the eyewall of hurricane Charley moved over Florida in mid-August, radio amateurs provided the Melbourne NWS office with initial damage reports," he notes. "Operators remained on duty for 36 hours during hurricanes Frances and Jeanne--a unique contribution considering they could have been home with their families."
Direct communication between mobile weather spotters and
the LaCrosse, Wisconsin, NWS office during a tornado provided vital information
needed to warn the public with higher confidence, Floyd said. "In Illinois,
effective spotter communication during an F3 tornado resulted in strongly
worded statements conveying a much greater sense of urgency," he continued. "The
result was greater public response."
 KA2RFT and W2IV operate during the 2003 SRD from the Buffalo, New York, NWS office, where operators logged more than 600 contacts. |
He notes that in May of this year, weather spotters
tracked a tornado passing within miles of the Indianapolis 500 race where
100,000 people were in attendance. "Their detailed reports allowed NWS
forecasters to keep race officials informed," Floyd said. "During Alaska's
worst wildfire season on record, hams relayed locations of dense smoke to the
Fairbanks office, providing crucial local wind information to forecasters and
firefighters."
 Goodland, Kansas, NWS Office staffers David Floyd, N5DBZ, and Trent Smith, KC0QBH, working the 2003 SRD from WX0GLD. |
Some hams also have gone out of their way to take part in SKYWARN Recognition Day. According to Floyd, a group of Montana hams felt so compelled to participate in the 2003 event that they drove 100 miles through snow and ice to an NWS office.
Amateurs also remain at the ready for weather-related emergencies. For example, in North Dakota and Minnesota, hams have assembled a "superlink" repeater/digipeater system that makes it possible for the NWS office in Grand Forks to track spotters and receive spotter reports beneath more distant storms, Floyd explained.
A number of NWS stations will utilize EchoLink and the Internet Radio Linking Project to make contacts during SKYWARN Recognition Day 2004. IRLP reflector node 9219 will be utilized for QSOs with NWS stations and also will be bridged to the EchoLink WX-TALK conference room so that IRLP stations can talk to EchoLink stations using a common point of contact.
WX4NHC at the National
Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, will utilize IRLP reflector 9219 from 1700
UTC through 2100 UTC during SRD. Net control operators will develop a list of
stations to talk to WX4NHC using an online form, similar to the process used
during hurricane season. Danny Musten, KD4RAA,
has more information about SRD VoIP activities.
| Previous: Radio Camp: Learning From One Another | Next: Surfin': Up, Up and Away |
