[ScanIndiana] RE: Dayton Tornado

[Jim]

Good email Duane, as I was reading it, sure sounds just like Wayne County.
I to have been working for the past 3 years on growing the numbers of hams
in the Skywarn and RACES programs.

Good Luck and keep your chin up.  By all means "Don't give up and drop the
ball, or someone else will pick it up and when everything starts looking
good and growing they will say" "Look at what I did" and you get left out.

73's
Jim KB9SJZ

-----Original Message-----
From: scanindiana-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:scanindiana-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Duane Mantick
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 8:48 PM
To: 'Indiana Scanning'
Subject: RE: [ScanIndiana] RE: Dayton Tornado


A point which is a sore one to many of us Amateurs in the
Tippecanoe County area.  Once upon a time, we used to have
a good working relationship with "the authorities" but for
some reason that nobody seems to be able to bring themselves
to speak about, we appear to have been "shut out".

To be fair, the hams here in Tippecanoe County anymore have
nobody to blame but themselves.  During the aforementioned
tornado, there was no Amateur coordinating any sort of net
until the event was already taking place.  That needs to start
when there are watches in place, not warnings about an event
already on the ground.

(Of course, I imagine that being "shut out", maybe those who
once were in charge of this stuff on the ham end may have
simply said "f*** it!" and gave up.....which I think is a
LOUSY attitude.)

How do I know?  I was one of the few who was ON the air on
2 meters at the time, and I had a few fellow hams (3 or 4)
who cared enough to actually talk about it.  The mess that
spawned that tornado passed to the south of my QTH in SW
Lafayette and was plainly obvious as a serious threat at that
point.  However, monitoring the local cops etc told me that
they were already aware of it so there was no point in my
clogging up their switchboard.

I have already discussed the incredibly poor performance
of our local "group" with some of the guys who are more in
charge; there was agreement but so far, I haven't seen anyone
take action to do anything about it.

We don't seem to have a functional ARRL EC hierarchy here
anymore, which is where the local emphasis used to be.  I
have some theories about why that is but with no real facts
to back them up, I just keep poking behind the scenes to see
if I can hit a "raw spot" and get some people back into
action.  This group locally used to be very, VERY good.

I also have to say, to be fair, that the groups that at least
used to exist to our west and would check in to our severe
weather nets and/or pop up on the local 'net repeater (147.135
PL 88.5) and give us a heads up about anything coming our way.
I don't know if these groups no longer exist or if they got so
tired of not getting a response (or at best getting a poorly
organized one) that they just gave up and quit doing it.
That's a "chicken or egg" situation, but one that needs to be
FIXED, too.

There are plenty of Amateurs in Tippecanoe County who are
more than able and qualified to do this stuff.  Which pile of
sand (or other dark location   :-)   ) they have their heads
stuck into, I don't know.

Duane
WB9OMC
Lafayette, IN


-----Original Message-----
From: scanindiana-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:scanindiana-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Rob Dale
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2005 11:58 AM
To: 'Indiana Scanning'
Subject: [ScanIndiana] RE: Dayton Tornado

> When I was taking pictures of the F2 that hit Dayton last May in
> Tippecanoe county 2m was dead. I heard the State Police,

It wasn't really dead - just that spotters in that area seem to be "special"
and don't use ham radio to communicate but the EM radios... I was there
(chased all the way down from Lansing that day!) and followed on the
northwest side of the storm as the road network isn't the best for chasing
from Purdue ;>

> I got the shots. Better than the ones on the NWS site,too.

Post them!

 - Rob

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