Hello to all….

Its with great pleasure to let folks on the VoIP-WXNet list know that Dave Cameron-VE7LTD, Inventor of IRLP has won the prestigious Technical Excellence Award as sponsored by the Dayton Amateur Radio Association. This will be given at the Dayton Hamvention. A link to the article appears below and please note that Dave’s mention of his award is halfway down the article:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/03/09/101/?nc=1

IRLP has transformed Amateur Radio and VHF/UHF communications into something that interoperates with the Internet. Along with the gateway technology that allows IRLP reflectors to interface with EchoLink conference servers and with the technology to allow for nodes to be “Echo-IRLP” meaning a node that can do either EchoLink or IRLP connections, these are powerful tools that have been very useful in Emergency Communications for this VoIP Hurricane Net and is being utilized on a local/regional basis around the US and the globe for Emergency Communications. This technology has also opened a new world of fun for VHF/UHF Ham Operators enabling them to talk far greater distances than they could in the past.

Congratulations to Dave on this well deserved award for a mode of operation that has provided greater fun to the Amateur community and a tremendous public service for Emergency Communications.

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net 1
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Hello to all….

A couple of interesting articles are up on NOAA’s main web site that are of interest to those understanding the science and meteorology of hurricanes.

The first link concerns the potential for La Nina conditions to return in the Pacific. One of the key mitigating factors in reducing the number of tropical systems and hurricanes last year was the presence of moderate El Nino conditions. This year appears to be different. The link to the article is listed below:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2805.htm

It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, this news will have on the next Dr. Gray Hurricane Outlook to be issued on Tuesday April 3rd and the NOAA outlook typically issued later in April or May. At this time, the current Dr. Gray outlook calls for an above normal hurricane season in part because of El Nino conditions dissipating.

The second link has to do with a new federal research plan on tropical systems and hurricanes. The link to the article is listed below:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2811.htm

Hope this information is of interest to people on the email list. Thanks for your continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net 1 1
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Hello to all….

We have started Daylight Saving Time this week. The VoIP Hurricane Net will continue to be at its time slot of 0000 UTC. This means the local time for the net will be 0000 UTC minus 4 hours in 24 hour time versus minus 5 hours in 24 hour time like it was previously in US time zones when we were not in daylight savings time. Internationally, it may differ depending on your location.

To give a couple of examples, for folks participating on the East Coast of the US, the net was at 7 PM EST. Instead, the net will now be at 8 PM EDT. For those in other time zones in the US, the net will be an hour later than it was previously. For international time zones depending on where you’re located, it could be an hour later or an hour earlier.

Many will now ask why we don’t simply keep the same local time for the net. The reason we are not doing that is while the US has sprung ahead an hour, other parts of the world are entering fall and have or will be turning their clocks back. Therefore, we keep the time of the net in UTC so that everyone internationally can have a better chance of participating based on an internationally recognized time versus locking the net into a local time zone that may not be good for other areas that check-in regularly.

I realize this always bring confusion but regardless of what we do, I think there will be confusion here. Hopefully, this note will help dispel confusion for those who want to participate in the weekly net.

The Yahoo calendar, which also has its limitations, has been updated to reflect the Eastern Daylight Time net start of 8 PM EDT. The VoIP WX Net web site will be updated similarly as well.

Hopefully, we will get many check-ins on the net and people will adjust to the time change for the net correctly. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net 1 1
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