I worked this event last year, and it was a lot of fun…Dan
From The ARRL Letter, Vol. 24, No. 46, Nov 25, 2005
ARRL-NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SKYWARN RECOGNITION DAY IS DECEMBER 3
The seventh annual SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) special event will take place Saturday, December 3, from 0000 until 2400 UTC (ie, starting Friday, December 2 in US time zones). Cosponsored by the National Weather Service (NWS) and ARRL, SKYWARN Recognition Day is the Weather Service’s way of expressing its appreciation to Amateur Radio operators for their commitment to helping keep communities safe. During this 24-hour special event, teams of radio amateurs set up stations at local NWS offices to contact other hams across the US and around the world.
“Ham radio operators volunteering as storm spotters are an extremely valuable asset to National Weather Service operations since they are cross-trained in both communications and severe storm recognition,” says SRD organizer Scott Mentzer, N0QE, the Meteorologist-In-Charge at the Goodland, Kansas, NWS office, home of WX0GLD.
Last year, 114 NWS offices participated in SRD, logging more than 15,000 QSOs during the 24-hour event, says David Floyd, N5DBZ, the Warning Coordination Meteorologist at Goodland. The object is for amateur stations to exchange QSO information with as many NWS stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 meters, and 70 cm. Contacts via repeaters and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) modes, such as EchoLink and IRLP also welcome.
Operators exchange call sign, signal report, QTH, and a one or two word description of their weather, such as “sunny,” “partly cloudy,” “windy,” etc.
According to Floyd, in typical SKYWARN operations during severe weather, direct communication between mobile spotters and local NWS offices provides critical “ground truth” information for forecasters. “Spotter reports of hail size, wind damage and surface-based rotation in real time greatly assist the radar warning operator, since that information can be correlated with Doppler radar displays,” he says. The result may be a more strongly worded statement to convey greater urgency or issue a tornado warning a few minutes earlier than would otherwise have been possible.
“While NWS offices utilize the real-time reporting of severe weather events to assist in warning operations, hurricanes Katrina and Rita have shown us that ham radio operators are equally important during the recovery phase of natural disasters,” Floyd points out.
Floyd also cites the example of the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) on 14.325 MHz. He notes that the HWN, which organized in 1965 during Hurricane Betsy, started out as an informal group of amateurs but has since developed a more formal relationship with the National Hurricane Center in Miami via its Amateur Radio station WX4NHC (formerly W4EHW). HWN ham radio members and volunteers at WX4NHC work together when hurricanes threaten to provide real-time weather data and damage reports to NHC forecasters.
So far, some 75 NWS offices in the US are planning to participate along with the Prairie Storm Prediction Center in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. An official EchoLink/Internet Radio Linking Project (IRLP) reflector is expected to be available for use during SRD.
An 8.5 x 11-inch certificate is available in exchange for a self-addressed, stamped envelope with a list of NWS stations worked. Address requests to SKYWARN Recognition Day, 920 Armory Rd, Goodland, KS 67735. Separate stations also will issue individual QSL cards. For more information, contact Matthew Mehle, KC0TER.
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