[Skywarn] Skywarn Recognition Day

[Lloyd Colston]

Its hard to believe but another SKYWARN Recognition Day is upon us. The
following is the first in the series of updates on SKYWARN Recognition Day
(SRD) 2012 and Echolink/IRLP operations. My apologies for the lateness in
getting this first update out. The SRD event was confirmed in mid October
and between that and Hurricane Sandy's impact on Southern New England and
the New York City/Long Island/New Jersey area, this delayed getting this
information out to you.

EchoLink and IRLP are just a couple of modes people can utilize to contact
NWS offices during SKYWARN Recognition Day. Many NWS offices will be on 2
Meters, 440 MHz, HF and other VHF/UHF bands. Additional details on SKYWARN
Recognition Day can be found via the following link:

http://hamradio.noaa.gov

As in past years, the EchoLink *WX_TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP reflector 9219
system will be scheduling time for NWS offices in 1-2 hour time slots to
act as a net control to make contacts with spotters that are on the system.
If a NWS office runs out of contacts and there are other NWS offices on the
system, the NWS office acting as net control can turn it over to a
different NWS office to act as a net control on the system at their
discretion.

We'd like to ask NWS offices to do their best to adhere to the schedule.
Sometimes this is difficult due to the number of contacts received by NWS
offices. We ask for everyone's patience and working cooperatively to
respect the time slot schedule.

Below is the SRD schedule from last year. We would like to know if NWS
offices would like to keep their time slot or change time slots. A couple
of NWS offices have already asked to keep their time slot. See the list of
NWS offices below:

Time in UTC NWS Office Call-Sign
0000-0100: WX0GLD (Time slot from last year)
0100-0200: WX1GYX (Time slot from last year)
0200-0300: WX4MLB (Time slot from last year)
0300-0400: W0ABR  (Time slot from last year)
0400-0500: WX1BOX (Time slot from last year)
0500-0600: WX9GRB (Time slot from last year)
0600-0700: WX4HUN (Time slot from last year)
0700-0800: N0NWS  (Time slot from last year)
0800-0900: KL7FWX (Time slot from last year)
0900-1000: KL7FWX (Time slot from last year)
1000-1100: KL7FWX (Time slot from last year)
1100-1200: WX4HUN (Time slot from last year)
1200-1300: W7NWS  (Time slot from last year)
1300-1400: KL7FWX (Time slot from last year)
1400-1500: WX7SLC (Time slot from last year)
1500-1600: WX1BOX (Time slot from last year)
1600-1800: WX4NC  (Time slot from last year)
1800-1900: WX6MTR (Time slot from last year)
1900-2000: K0MPX  (Confirmed to keep the time slot)
2000-2100: WX4MLB (Time slot from last year)
2100-2300: WX4NHC (Time slot from last year)
2300-2400: WX6NWS (Time slot from last year)

There will be other conference systems utilized for SKYWARN Recognition
Day. They are as follows:

The New England Reflector Gateway System will be utilized by the NWS
Taunton, Mass. and NWS Gray, Maine offices from 0000-0500 UTC and 1200-2400
UTC. The New England Gateway system is on EchoLink Conference server
*NEW-ENG* Node: 9123, IRLP reflector 9123. If other NWS offices would like
to join the system, they are welcome to do so and participants in SKYWARN
Recognition Day can also use that system to make contact with various NWS
offices. This is a great place to move off the *WX_TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP
9219 system after your scheduled time if other Amateurs or NWS offices
whish to make contact with you.

Also, the Western Reflector will be having NWS offices calling CQ as in
past years on reflector 9250 and have its gateway system on IRLP
9258/EchoLink Conference *NV-GATE* Node: 125266 open for NWS offices.
Please contact Kent-W7AOR for additional information on the Western
Reflector.

A few technical reminders for folks interested in making contacts with the
NWS Forecast Offices on the *WX-TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP 9219 and New England
Reflector Gateway IRLP 9123/*NEW-ENG* Echolink Node: 9123 systems:

-The system allows both EchoLink and IRLP connections. For EchoLink users,
you connect to the *WX-TALK* Node: 7203 conference system. For IRLP users,
you would connect to IRLP reflector 9219.

-If you are using EchoLink, the RF node or PC that you’re using must have
EchoLink conferencing disabled. If it is not disabled, the system will
automatically kick the node or PC off of the system.

The reason this occurs is to prevent unintentional interference from a
conferencing station that may not know the node is connected somewhere
else. This will keep traffic moving on the net and reduce interference
considerably.

For more information on VoIP Technical Configuration Tips, please go to our
web site at http://www.voipwx.net where we have a link to that information
on the main menu of the web site. This announcement will also be on the web
site.

We are looking forward to another fun SKYWARN Recognition Day on the
*WX-TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP reflector 9219 system, New England Reflector
Gateway system and Western Reflector system. Thanks to all for their
support!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton Massachusetts
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator