Hello to all….

On behalf of the entire VoIP Hurricane Net Management team, I wish to extend everyone a very Happy and Safe Thanksgiving holiday. Among the many things I have to be thankful for, I’m very thankful to all of you who have supported the VoIP Hurricane Net in 2007 and made this one of the more successful years that we’ve had since we’ve started providing a service to the National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio station, WX4NHC. Best wishes on this Thanksgiving to you and your family from the VoIP Hurricane Net Management team and thanks again to all of you for your support!

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

…Updated to add WX2PHI to the 1000-1100 UTC time slot. Remainder below is unchanged…

SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) is December 1st, 2007 and EchoLink and IRLP will be playing a role in SRD as it has in past years. SKYWARN Recognition Day is an opportunity for National Weather Service Forecast Offices across the United States to thank SKYWARN Spotters for their efforts in obtaining timely severe weather reporting for the protection of life and property. This is the SKYWARN program’s main mission.

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. Details on SKYWARN Recognition Day can be found on page 64 of the December 2007 issue of QST and can also be found at the following web page links:

http://hamradio.noaa.gov
http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/11/20/100/?nc=1

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.

There are still some time slots open on the system for NWS offices who might be interested in acting as a net control. If you’re interested, please contact Rob Macedo-KD1CY at kd1cy@voipwx.net and the time will be scheduled.

Below is the updated schedule for this year as of 11/21/07:

Time in UTC NWS Office Call-Sign
0000-0100: WX1BOX
0100-0200: WX1GYX
0200-0300: WX4MLB
0300-0400: KH6SW
0400-0500: KH6SW
0500-0600: WX9GRB (Confirmed)
0600-0700: WX4HUN
0700-0800: Open
0800-0900: Open
0900-1000: WX7PHX (Confirmed)
1000-1100: WX2PHI
1100-1200: WX6MTR
1200-1300: K0MPX
1300-1400: VE4WWO (Confirmed)
1400-1500: WX4HUN
1500-1600: WX1BOX
1600-1800: WX4NC (2 hour time slot and time slot is from last year)
1800-1900: WX0GLD
1900-2000: WX4LWX
2000-2100: WX4MLB
2100-2300: WX4NHC (2 hour time slot is from last year)
2300-2400: W4IAX (Confirmed)

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.

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. In addition, The NWS Honolulu, HI office, KH6SW, will be frequently monitoring the Hawaiian IRLP/EchoLink gateway system on IRLP reflector 9254/Echolink Conference *HI-GATE* Node: 357564 when they are not on the *WX-TALK*/IRLP 9219 system. 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
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Hello to all….

We completed 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 5 hours in 24 hour time versus minus 4 hours in 24 hour time like it was previously in US time zones when we were 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 8 PM EDT. Instead, the net will now be at 7 PM EST. For those in other time zones in the US, the net will be an hour earlier 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 fallen back an hour, other parts of the world are entering spring and have “sprung” their clocks ahead. 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 verus 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 and hear Tony-VK3JED’s talk on Australian Fire/Summer Weather in an El Nino pattern for this week’s net.

The Yahoo calendar, which also has its limitations, has been updated to reflect the Eastern Standard Time net start of 7 PM EST. 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
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Hello to all….

Extratropical Noel slammed Eastern New England Saturday and continues to slam Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Canada. Hurricane force wind gusts occurred on Cape Cod and Nantucket island with an 89 MPH measured wind gust reported in Barnstable, Massachusetts by Frank-WQ1O before the wind instrument was blown off the tower and destroyed. A 92 MPH measured gust was recorded on Nantucket Island. SKYWARN was active with Operations at NWS Taunton Amateur Radio Station, WX1BOX, from 7 AM EDT through 11 PM EDT, which was a total of 16 hours. Cape Cod ARES had a call-up at 8 PM Friday Evening and was active from 930 AM Saturday through 1230 AM Sunday. Wind damage was recorded as far west as Northeast Connecticut and through much of Southeast Massachusetts through the Boston area and North Shore of Massachusetts. Links to the Storm Reports are listed below:

NWS Taunton Local Storm Report
NWS Taunton Public Information Statement

Nova Scotia Canada along with portions of Newfoundland and New Brunswick Canada are now being significantly impacted by Noel. Below are links to the Canadian Hurricane Centre statements on Extratropical Noel:

CHC Complete Hurricane Information Statement

CHC Intermediate Hurricane Information Statement

Further details on our operations in Southern New England will follow in the next couple of days.

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

Noel intensified into a hurricane as it pulled away from the Bahamas Thursday Evening. Noel is expected to become a large and powerful extratropical storm bringing strong and damaging winds to portions of New England as well as the Canadian Maritimes. The latest NHC advisory urges interests from North Carolina northward to New England to monitor NWS Products and for people in the Canadian Maritimes to monitor products issued by the Canadian Hurricane Centre.

As many of you are aware, I live in South Coastal Massachusetts. We are preparing for a long duration SKYWARN Activation Saturday with the potential for possible ARES activation on Cape Cod and the Islands where there is the potential for wind gusts of 75 MPH and possibly higher in that area. We are anticipating an activation of Operations at NWS Taunton under call-sign, WX1BOX on Saturday as well. From a VoIP perspective, we intend to use the New England EchoLink Conference, *NEW-ENG* Node: 9123, IRLP reflector 9123 for our operations. Updates on the storm’s impact can be heard there and updates will be posted when possible on our NWS Taunton SKYWARN Home Page which is at the following link:

http://www.wx1box.org

This will be the last update on Noel for the VoIPWXNet web site and email lists as extratropical transition is underway. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricnae Net!

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