[PBARC] FW: Local Skywarn news release -- 2nd draft

Mon, 23 Jun 2003 14:16:03 -0500

Outstanding article, Jim, everyone is to be congratulated.  Look forward to future articles

73

Dale

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Arkansas Airframe  <mailto:[email protected]> Inc. 
To: w5rxu <mailto:[email protected]>  
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 1:55 PM
Subject: Local Skywarn news release -- 2nd draft

Dale 

Thought you might like to see the news release Christine has put together that is going out to our local papers, about the recent Skywarn repair work.

In the next email I will forward the "Thanks for Contributions ad" we are buying in the Stone County News Papers.

Take Care !!
Jim Collom  N5YU

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Christine  <mailto:[email protected]> Weiss 
To: Arkair <mailto:[email protected]>  
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 10:12 AM
Subject: Local Skywarn news release -- 2nd draft

I tweaked a bit after we spoke, so there may be one or two more subtle adjustments to be made....

-------------------------

SKYWARN REPAIRS COMPLETE

Fundraising and volunteer efforts, forwarded by members of the Stone County Amateur Radio Club, have resulted in the completion of repair work and upgrades to key elements of the Arkansas Skywarn "severe weather" emergency reporting system that serves Stone and Izard Counties.

A cluster of ten VHF and UHF HAM radio "repeaters," located throughout northern and central Arkansas, makes direct communication possible between HAM radio operators and the National Weather Service (NWS). Called the "Holley Skywarn Link System," it derives its name because its "hub" is located at Holley Mountain Airpark atop Holley Mountain, just northeast of Clinton in Van Buren County. 

Without this relay system, full time direct HAM radio contact would not be possible within much of this Skywarn networking region, which extends from near the Missouri border  on the north all the way south to Little Rock. 

Ice storms earlier this year, along with doing heavy damage across the region, collapsed half of the KWOZ Radio broadcast tower, downing Skywarn components. "Lightening and ice are our worst enemies, and ice destroyed our Mountain View antenna system," Jim Collom, developer of Holley Mountain Airpark, confirmed. 

According to Collom who - working with a group of fellow HAM radio buffs - instigated the start of the communications networking system a decade ago, the downed tower "left a hole in our system and we've been playing catch-up, trying to get it all back on the air, since then." 

Explaining how the volunteer network interfaces with the official emergency alert system, Collom said "At that point where the Skywarn service is needed, the National Weather Service contacts a volunteer amateur radio operators group called Arkansas Skywarn." Based in Little Rock, members of this group send out a regional call for "visual reports" from "spotters."

Spotters are licensed HAM radio operators who receive special NWS training. Learning to recognize specific weather conditions like cloud types or formations of developing severe weather. This training enables volunteer spotters to report inclement conditions with accuracy, in terms that NWS professionals readily comprehend.  

As spotter reports come in, NWS personnel in Little Rock compare each visual sighting with the images on their radar screens. This visual confirmation process ensures that severe weather warnings, transmitted from NWS to commercial broadcast radio and TV stations throughout the state, are as accurate and immediate as possible. 

"In 1993, we linked just the Holley Mountain single repeater into the Central Arkansas Radio Emergency Net's tower in Little Rock," Collom recalled. "In '94, we went on and expanded it with remote receivers at Conway and Mountain View. Shortly thereafter, we decided that it would be better, instead of running one large transmitter, to go ahead and install repeaters at more locations. And it's just continued to grow from there." 

With repeater towers now based in Batesville (147.270mhz), Calico Rock (147.180mhz), Conway (147.030), Fox (145.110mhz), Jacksonville/Cabot (145.470mhz), and Mountain View (147.120mhz) linked to the Holley Mountain Airpark hub in Clinton (145.370mhz) --  (see: www.holleymountainairpark.com <http://www.holleymountainairpark.com/> , click: "Holley Mountain Skywarn") -- any licensed HAM operator can use the system for emergency communications at any time, "just by putting in the right PL codes," Collom affirmed. He explained that this makes the system tremendously important during any type of regional emergency. 

"Imagine if you had a daughter or son that was located in Homestead, Florida, when Hurricane Andrew, a category five storm, went across," Collom proposed. "You wouldn't hear anything for days." Collom said this is one of the main reasons that HAM technology still has a tremendous role to play in the digital age. 

"HAM radio is not dependent on telephone lines, switching circuits, or an Internet server." Collom stressed that even if the Holley Skywarn Link System went down, HAM operators here in Arkansas could communicate with just about any HAM operator, anywhere on the planet, at least once a day. "If you think your cell phone coverage is bad on a good day, after a major disaster such as Andrew, it's usually off for days or weeks," Collom said. 

"A lot of our Skywarn and HAM systems have both battery back-up and emergency generators." Collom elaborated on the stability of the volunteer-mobilized network, explaining that during major disasters, such as the Northridge, California, earthquake, CAREN members in Little Rock operated one of the major HAM radio traffic handling stations and went around the clock for 73 hours, making nearly 1000 contacts, because circuits were overloaded and telephone calls couldn't get through.

"It's a true uplifting experience to pass a message to a family that their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren are fine, without  injury, but have not had a phone to make contact," Collom shared. "And then pass the message back, 'Will call as soon as phones are back on. We love you all.'

"During severe weather you may listen to your scanner at home (see frequencies, above) and hear the warnings going in to the National Weather Service," Collom advised, noting that a few minutes more advance warning may make all the difference sometimes. "Any time you hear the 'bubble up tail tone' on any of the Skywarn system repeaters, you know the system is up and active in Skywarn mode," he said. 

Collom also said special thanks is owed to Ricky Shuttleworth, Jack Oyler, John Parker, Keith Parish and Thomas E. "Tem" Moore for their work on the current fundraising, repair and upgrade projects in Stone and Izard Counties. "We met in early May and set the goal of June 10 to get the repair done." 

Collom also complimented KWOZ's Gary Bridgman and the folks at AETN for "having been very courteous to us." He credited both companies for allowing repeater antennas to be housed on their broadcast towers. "And our hats are off to the guys in Little Rock that actually man and operate our Skywarn and CAREN systems during all NWS call-ups." Collom acknowledged, "Jerry & Pat Dixon, Dale Temple, Scott Derden, Dave Weaver, and so many more. The volunteer time is what keeps the operations going," he affirmed. 

For their role in the design and implementation of this system, Jim and JoAnn Collom each received award certificates from Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in 1997. In September of 2002, because the system continues to serve as an outstanding example of a volunteer-driven emergency communications network, Jim Collom - who personally hand-coded the 5000 lines of DOS computer programming required to operate the integrated network  -- received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Newington, Connecticut.

"I'm proud that I instigated, back when I did, to start the system," Collom confided. "And I'm also proud that we're on such a fine location, on top of Holley Mountain, to be able to provide the hub for the Skywarn service. But the bottom, bottom line is that the whole group is proud that we've done it, because if it saves just one life, it's worth the investment and long hours of family time sacrificed."

Over $2000 from 65 individual donors plus an uncountable number of man-hours have been contributed to the recent repair project. Future plans include expanding the system with a dedicated link to the CAREN (146.940mhz) repeater on Chenal Mountain by combining the 147.345mhz repeater with a full time link on the Holley Link Skywarn System, adding a UHF repeater at Quitman, another at Damascus/Bee Branch, and one on the south side of Greers Ferry Lake near the Bluffs, plus building a "spare" repeater component, so that if equipment at one location goes out of commission, it may be replaced immediately to keep the whole system operational. In addition, there is now serious interest for Heber Springs (145.430mhz) to join the system soon. 

For more information about HAM radio or to make a contribution in support of the Holley Skywarn Link System, contact Rickey Shuttleworth, 870-269-4612, KB5UGL, or any member of the Stone County Amateur Radio Club. 

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