[Skywarn] Rules Regulations

Sun Jun 23 22:45:29 EDT 2013

Joe, I have been a ham for twenty years and held a similar position to yours
for the Tampa Bay Weather Service Forecast Office twice, from 1994 until
1999 and again from 2008 to 2011.  I now live in Murphy, NC which is
actually in the CWA for the WSFO Morristown, TN.  When I arrived here a
little over a year ago, there was no formal SKYWARN program for far
southwest North Carolina but there was an EF-3 tornado, so I set about to
create one.  I am a member of North Carolina ARES and AUXCOMM, holding the
position of AEC for Cherokee County, NC....but I also hold the position of
SKYWARN District Emergency Coordinator for WSFO MRX District 2, which is
comprised of Cherokee and Clay Counties of North Carolina.  But, I am only
allowed to call myself the SKYWARN Net Manager by the NC ARES chain of
command.  

I am 5 miles from Georgia, which is covered by WSFO Peachtree City (FFC) and
30 miles from Graham County, NC which is covered by WSFO Greer, South
Carolina (GSP).  I ended up having to get the blessing of the NC ARES chain
of command, the Tennessee ACS chain of command, the WCM at Morristown, and
the 8 trustees of the WX4MRX amateur radio station at WSFO MRX before all of
this could happen.  

Coincidentally, I am also a retired police sergeant.  So, I certainly
understand your problem.  What I am about to express is my opinion based
upon the fact the ARRL and NWS operate under a memorandum of understanding
and Part 97 rules permit the transmission of "broadcasts" only if they are
of direct and immediate interest to radio amateurs and amateur radio.  It is
permissible to re-transmit NOAA weather radio audio from an amateur repeater
when a watch or warning is issued.  Many repeater owners do this, along with
other "announcements" like net meeting times, PL tones, the current time,
etc.

The SOLE purpose of SKYWARN is to receive reports meeting severe or near
severe criteria and relaying that information to the weather service office,
by radio, telephone, or e-spotter report.  In the process of receiving those
reports, anyone listening gains the advantage of hearing real time data,
whether they are a ham or just listening on a scanner.  But, it is not the
purpose of a SKYWARN net to report existing weather conditions to those
listening like the weatherman on the TV news.

When I or one of my designated net control operators runs a net, we only
transmit weather information that has been dissimated publicly by the NWS.
I repeat the exact wording of watches, warnings, severe weather statements,
and special weather statements as I receive them over my computer, or
directly by radio from WX4MRX at WSFO Morristown.

That having been said, we are in the Great Smoky Mountains and we use a wide
area repeater that is located well over 4000 feet MSL and has an effective
radius of 100 miles in all directions.  Therefore, I will accept any report
of severe weather and relay it to the correct WSFO...I have all three
spotter line numbers.  I also transmit TOR, SVR, SWS, SPS, FFA, FFW and FLW
information for all the counties that can receive my transmission, which are
Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Swain, Jackson, and Macon of North Carolina; Fannin,
Union, Towns, and Rabun Counties of Georgia; Polk, Bradley, and Monroe
Counties of Tennessee.

However, despite the fact that I have internet access to high resolution
RADAR, I am not trained to interpret that info and dissiminate any
information not provided by a meteorologist.  I only use that information to
help guide me in knowing where the most severe storms are and estimate when
I will need to be prepared to go from watch to warning mode.

I do have a problem with ham operators wanting to repeat what they heard on
local commercial television and radio stations....information that may not
have come from the NWS, and may or may not be accurate.  I do not accept
these reports, nor do I relay them to the NWS.  TV and Radio stations are
part of the EAS system and must relay those reports on their own.
Unfortunately, some hams, especially those that are not trained spotters,
want to treat a SKYWARN net as their own personal weather service and think
the weather nets exist solely to warn other hams of impending bad weather.
This is certainly not the true purpose of SKYWARN.

So, my suggestion to you is to only repeat what has been publicly
disseminated over the weather wire or provided directly from the WSFO to you
by phone or radio, if you are asked about weather conditions during a
SKYWARN net.  One thing we must always stay away from is prognostications
and forecasting when we are not forecasters and there is a seven minute
delay between what you see on any RADAR over the internet and what the
actual meteorologist can see on the WSR-88D display.

Depending upon what you are told by your chain-of-command, I could also see
you reporting road closures and flooding that have been validated through
police dispatch, but only if validated, since you access to that info.

Although I do not know the WCM, I suspect he or she either has or has had a
problem with others communicating to hams non-validated severe weather which
can cause rumor, inuendo, innaccuracy, reduncy in reporting, and sometimes
panic.  This is the most likely reason for trying to institute such controls
on your network.

Now, as far as telling a mobile ham the proper frequency for a county he or
she is entering, the WCM has no control over that.  That is no different
than me telling someone leaving the range of the K4AIH repeater on 147.045
entering Georgia to shift to the W4ACS Jasper, GA repeater on 146.805 so I
can continue a QSO with him.  I am at 2200 feet MSL, so I can reach
repeaters in three, and sometimes 4, states.

All of this is just one opinion, and not all will necessarily agree. I would
be curious to see what other answers you may receive.  The most important
thing I can tell you is do not butt heads with the WCM.  That is a battle
you will not win and will only result in the detrement of the SKYWARN system
in your area.

By the way, just because the adjacent county does not have an amateur radio
SKYWARN net, does not mean they don't have spotters (not all spotters are
hams) or a severe weather radio net by some other means such as GMRS or even
a public service radio frequency.  In some areas, weather spotters are
county volunteers who, much like volunteer fireman, deploy to specific areas
and operate on one of the county or city public service band frequencies.

Kevin Heyboer KD4UYR
AEC for Cherokee County NCARES
Southwest Carolina Area SKYWARN Manager 

http://cherokee.ccares.us
-----Original Message-----
From: skywarn-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:skywarn-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of J Wozniak
Sent: Sunday, June 23, 2013 3:12 PM
To: skywarn at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [Skywarn] Rules Regulations

As the Amateur Emergency Communications Coordinator for the St. Louis County
EOC and the lead operator for St. Louis County SKYWARN severe weather net
operations, I am looking for any and all "rules and regulations" concerning
the operations of an established SKYWARN program for our county.  It seems
that there is a discrepancy between our warning coordination
meteorologistand St. Louis County Police EOC concerning what information we
are allowed and not allowed to provide to our citizens during a severe
weather event in addition to how we operate our SKYWARN severe weather (ham
radio) nets.  

I am sure that you are aware that St. Louis is a major transportation hub in
the Midwest.  Because of this, we regularly have “truckers” and commuters
that tune in to our severe weather nets requesting weather information for
an adjoining county during times of severe weather.  We have gladly provided
this information to those travelers as a courtesy, both in the past and
present since they may not be in range of the next county’s repeater.  In
addition to this we also provide the frequency of the next county’s SKYWARN
severe weather net if it is needed.  (e.g., there is a severe thunderstorm
warning for Jefferson County until 7pm; Jefferson County’s SKYWARN frequency
is 146.XXX).  However we have been told by our warning coordination
meteorologist that we can no longer provide weather information for other
counties, and that we can only provide weather information for our county
and no others.  This is very difficult to understand since
 we also provide our severe weather net service for the City of St. Louis
(they are a separate county entity) who does not have a SKYWARN severe
weather net of their own.  Because of this “new rule” the City of St. Louis
is now on their own.  

Since the “9-11” incident in New York, the federal government has been
promoting interoperability between various county governments and their
departments.  Now our warning coordination meteorologist states that we are
no longer to do this?  I do not understand.  Do any of the other
coordinators in this group have any similar experiences?  

Joe Wozniak, KDØEFW/WBØAAF
Amateur Emergency Communications Coordinator
St. Louis County Police Department
Division of Special Operations
Office of Emergency Management
14847 Ladue Bluffs Crossing Drive
Chesterfield, MO 63017
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