[CoARES-D10] NWS SKYWARN APPRECIATION DAY

[Randy & Karen Long]

Hi Guys and Gals,

Bob Glancy from the National Weather Service has contacted me and asked me
again to pull a list of names of people who would be interested in operating
at the NWS foe SKYWARN Recognition Day. Below is the announcement. I need to
know at least the Wednesday before the 4th of December, which would be
December 1. That way he can make notifications to the Police on the
facilitiy to allow you/us in. Please read the forwarded mail below and let
me know if you are interested and we will again, have sign up times to make
sure we don't overwhelm them with too many folks. Two at a time is a
comfortable number in the office. This is an HF and VHF event again. Pairing
up Techs, with higher class licensee's is something we have tried to do in
the past, to allow Techs some operating time on HF. Thanks for your
cooperation and your interest.

Thanks for reading on and I look forward to hearing from more of you this
year than last.

 

Randy, W0AVV

Severe Weather Coordinator, D-10/ARES/SKYWARN

Ladies and Gentlemen...
 
SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) is approximately
one month from now.  This 24 hour event begins at
0000 UTC on December 4, 2004.  There are currently
65 NWS offices registered to participate. Thanks to Jeff
Dovyak (VE4MBQ), the Canadian Weather Service will
be represented by operations at the Prairie Storm Prediction
Centre in Winnipeg. I've received an additional 10 commitments
from other NWS offices, so we are on pace to have around
100 weather offices participating this year.  If you've lost the
information about the registration web site, contact Dave Floyd
via email at David.L.Floyd at noaa.gov.
 
The December issue of QST magazine will have a short
article about SRD.  That will be coming soon.
 
Remember to check the official SRD web site at:
http://hamradio.noaa.gov/.  Please review the information
for your station and inform me about any corrections that
need to be made.
 
This is a reminder to those offices working from airport
grounds to notify the airport manager what will occur.  This
is done as a courtesy and to make certain that no radio
interference occurs to airport communications.
 
I received a couple of questions regarding the event, so I'll
answer them here. Note that you can find operating
instructions and suggestions at the SRD registration
web site.
 
 - Do we need to operate for the entire 24 hour period?
   No.  Work as many hours as you want.  I estimate about
   50% of the offices work the 24 hours.  Others work
   between 8 and 12 hours during Saturday morning and
   afternoon.
 
  - What frequency should I use?
   This is a common question.  The answer is "any one
   that is free" on the General section of the 10, 15, 20, 40,
   and 80 meter bands.  You may use any VHF/UHF
   frequency other than the national calling frequencies.
   There is no band plan for the event.  If the bands
   get extremely crowded, you can move to the Extra
   portions of the bands assuming you have a control operator
   who is licensed in the Extra class.
 
If you have any other questions, let me know.  This newsletter
will be updated once a week through 11/26/04...and then
daily through 12/3.
 
Scott Mentzer (N0QE)
Meteorologist-in-Charge
NWS - Goodland, Kansas