[HCRA] Isabel and Ham Radio

Daniel Sullivan [email protected]
Wed, 17 Sep 2003 13:14:50 +0000 

1) WX4NHC Activation Notice

2) IRLP Listening

3) HWN Activation

4) Maritime SSB Net

*****************************************************************************

ANNOUNCEMENT September 16th, 2003

WX4NHC Activation for Hurricane Isabel

WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami 
will begin operations Wednesday, September 17th at 6pm EDT (2200Z).

ATTENTION ALL HAMS ON OR WITHIN 50 MILES OF THE ATLANTIC COASTAL REGION from 
SC to NJ. WE NEED YOUR WEATHER DATA...POWERFUL HURRICANE ISABEL MOVING 
NORTHWESTWARD...INTERESTS FROM THE CAROLINAS NORTHWARD TO SOUTHERN NEW 
ENGLAND...ALONG THE COAST AND INLAND...SHOULD CLOSELY MONITOR THE PROGRESS 
OF ISABEL."...ISABEL CONTINUES AS A DANGEROUS HURRICANE..."

Isabel currently is a CAT-3 Hurricane with sustained winds of 125 MPH and 
though it is forecast to weaken very slightly before directly affecting 
North Carolina/Virginia coast in the next 48 to 76 hours it will remain a 
very strong and dangerous hurricane.

If you have weather equipment and are in the affected area please try to get 
that data to WX4NHC, however DO NOT put your self in danger at any time. 
PLEASE do not send weather that was given out by any of the media, this data 
is already in the "system".

WX4NHC will be monitoring the Hurricane Watch Net on 14.325 MHz.  We will 
also be monitoring Reflector 9210 on IRLP as well as the Echolink system. 
You can listen to the net via Streaming MP3 audio on the Reflector 9210 
here: http://live.irlp.net:8080/listen.pls Surface Reports using our online 
Hurricane Report form will also be monitored.

Amateur Weather Enthusiasts with weather equipment and ON-NHC Volunteers may 
report directly to WX4NHC on-line at: http://www.wx4nhc.org/WX-form1.html

These "Surface Reports" are very important as they give Hurricane 
Specialists at NHC a better idea of what is actually happening on the ground 
level during the storm.

Please remember all nets will be controlled by a Net Control. The WX4NHC 
Group continues to expanded its efforts to increase the quantity and quality 
of surface reports to include many different modes of reception and groups 
of people; including HF, VHF/UHF IRLP & ECHOlink, VHF & HF APRS, CWOP NOAA 
Program, CARMEN Program and ON-NHC Weather Observers Network.

WX4NHC is very proud to have maintained an active Amateur Radio Station in 
the National Hurricane Center for the past 23 years.

We appreciate all of the volunteers who help with our efforts.  See our web 
site for more information and details of the above programs:

http://www.wx4nhc.org

John Mc Hugh, KU4GY

Coordinator for Amateur Radio

National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC

Home page:- http://www.wx4nhc.org


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IRLP has activated its nodes for use by WX4NHC and SKYWARN WX Comms. Radio 
Discipline at all times must be maintained to allow the flow of traffic for 
relief and monitoring operations.

http://www.irlp.net/

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"Activation Plan for Net Operations"

The Hurricane Watch Net plans to begin operations on our net frequency 
(14.325.00 MHz) beginning Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 1400UTC. According to 
recent advisory and track information, Hurricane Isabel will be within 300 
miles of projected land fall someplace along the North Carolina coast at 
that time.

Our main operational goals for Wednesday will be two fold, as follows:
1) to make the storm advisory information on a regular basis to those in the 
affected area of the forecast path of the storm, and
2) to identify and collect a list of stations in the path of the storm who 
may be available throughout this event for the purpose of reporting local 
weather measurements and observations to us for conveyance to the 
forecasters in the National Hurricane Center. It is essential to contain our 
scope of reporting stations along and closely to the side of the forecast 
track, and it is important that you remain silent if not in the specified 
area.

Beginning Wednesday evening at 1800 EDT (2200UTC) we plan to request 
measured/observed ground truth data from the affected area. Under direction 
of the National Hurricane Center, those may be solicited from specific 
locations and/or with specific criterion attached (such as people 
experiencing sustained winds in excess of 35kts, or those with rapidly 
degrading conditions, etc.). We remind those reporting stations to "please 
do not report to us the weather information reported on your local media. We 
are interested ONLY in your personal observations, preferably measured by 
calibrated instrumentation.

Throughout this event, we remind everyone that we are also available to 
provide backup communications facilities to official agencies such as 
Emergency Operations Centers and Red Cross officials in the affected area. 
We will also be interested to collect and report significant damage 
assessment data back to FEMA officials stationed in the National Hurricane 
Center.

Please honor our request that you should not check in to the net unless 
specifically requested to do so. We will attempt to handle all 
communications within the capabilities of our own members, and only when 
required assistance is needed will we ask for your help.

While our mission is specifically to provide storm related information into 
and out of the storm, please understand we are not involved in Health and 
Welfare traffic. That traffic will be handled by the SATERN net on 14.265 
beginning at 1400UTC on Thursday, and will be in place throughout the 
duration of this event. We will likely be reporting other emergency 
frequencies to be set up by local emergency management nets in the affected 
area. Please monitor 14.325 for that information as it is made available.

As a final reminder, please monitor this web site for storm related advisory 
updates, graphics displays, and other data made available from the National 
Hurricane Center.

Thanks in advance for your support and cooperation during this extremely 
dangerous storm.

Sincerely,
Mike Pilgrim, K5MP
Manager

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>From an email from KC5FM on a Yahoo Mailing list.


http://www.hwn.org/marine-ssb-nets.shtml
contains this information:


      From Marti, KF4TRG:
      There will be a Marine HF net beginning on Wednesday morning 1230UTC 
on 8.152 MHz, USB.  Name chosen for
      this net is Hurricane Advisory SSB Net which is obviously set up to 
alert mariners in harms way and to gather
      information from them which can be conveyed to the Hurricane Watch Net 
14.325.00 MHz

      WLO Radio broadcasts the Hurricane advisories hourly on ITU
channels:
      405
      824
      1212
      1641
      2237
      Mariners with SSB radios can receive these broadcast free of charge.

      Frequencies for ship receive:               Frequencies for ship 
transmit:
      4369.0                                               4077.0
      8788.0                                               8264.0
      13110.0                                             12263.0
      17252.0                                             16480.0
      22804.0                                             22108.0
--


Lloyd Colston		Mayes County CEM
Pryor, OK USA		http://www.geocities.com/mccem
   When Danger comes, it is too late to plan.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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