Hurricane Paloma Net Activation Secured – Thanks for Support
Hello to all….
The Hurricane Paloma Net Activation was secured from all formal/informal operations overnight as Paloma weakened to a tropical storm after causing extensive damage over portions of Cuba and the Cayman Islands. We are all hoping that this will be the last hurricane activation of 2008 but are prepared to support additional activations for hurricanes if they develop this year.
We were able to gather a number of reports from the Cayman Islands Friday Afternoon through Saturday Morning. Many of these reports were used in official National Hurricane Center advisories written by Hurricane Specialist Stacey Stewart. A complete list of reports that were received from Hurricane Paloma in the Cayman Islands can be seen in the report viewer off the Main Menu of the web site.
While no reports were directly received in Cuba during Hurricane Paloma, we have been able to make contact with Arnie-CO2KK and we are hoping to work with him further to establish an Echolink and/or IRLP connection so he can connect directly to our net in the future. This is encouraging as we have only received an extremely small number of reports from Cuba and these were relayed reports from other Caribbean Amateurs who were able to gather traffic off of HF or able to monitor Cuban Radio Broadcasts.
The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team would like to share with you a note from Julio Ripoll-WD4R, Assistant National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio Coordinator for WX4NHC thanking the net for its efforts:
Please extend our sincere thanks to all of the VoIP Hurricane Net Controls for their effort and time during Hurricane Paloma.
The efforts of the VoIP Hurricane Net were very helpful, especially during Paloma’s track through the Cayman Islands.
The information relayed by your Net gave the Hurricane Center Forecasters additional insight of what Cayman residents were actually going through.
Your multi-tasking, multi-mode, methods of combining EchoLink & IRLP VoIP, HF monitoring, Internet Web Blogs and direct Email is a great example of information gathering without limitations.
These hybrid communications efforts, before and during the hurricane, to contact Hams and non-Hams was successful in promoting awareness that they had alternate means of sending and receiving hurricane information during the event. Some of these new contacts will be better prepared for future storms because of your interaction with them during Paloma. Some may become Hams.
Here is an excerpt from the official Hurricane Advisory #10 which was a result of the information received from the VoIP Net:
“…HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 30 MILES…45 KM…FROM THE CENTER…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES…185 KM. UNOFFICIAL REPORTS OF SUSTAINED WINDS OF 80 MPH…130 KM/HR…WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 100 MPH…160 KM/HR…HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FROM AMATEUR/HAM RADIO OPERATORS ON GRAND CAYMAN DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS.”
Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!
73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net
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Hello to all….
The Hurricane Paloma Net Activation was secured from all formal/informal operations overnight as Paloma weakened to a tropical storm after causing extensive damage over portions of Cuba and the Cayman Islands. We are all hoping that this will be the last hurricane activation of 2008 but are prepared to support additional activations for hurricanes if they develop this year.
We were able to gather a number of reports from the Cayman Islands Friday Afternoon through Saturday Morning. Many of these reports were used in official National Hurricane Center advisories written by Hurricane Specialist Stacey Stewart. A complete list of reports that were received from Hurricane Paloma in the Cayman Islands can be seen in the report viewer off the Main Menu of the web site.
While no reports were directly received in Cuba during Hurricane Paloma, we have been able to make contact with Arnie-CO2KK and we are hoping to work with him further to establish an Echolink and/or IRLP connection so he can connect directly to our net in the future. This is encouraging as we have only received an extremely small number of reports from Cuba and these were relayed reports from other Caribbean Amateurs who were able to gather traffic off of HF or able to monitor Cuban Radio Broadcasts.
The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team would like to share with you a note from Julio Ripoll-WD4R, Assistant National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio Coordinator for WX4NHC thanking the net for its efforts:
Please extend our sincere thanks to all of the VoIP Hurricane Net Controls for their effort and time during Hurricane Paloma.
The efforts of the VoIP Hurricane Net were very helpful, especially during Paloma’s track through the Cayman Islands.
The information relayed by your Net gave the Hurricane Center Forecasters additional insight of what Cayman residents were actually going through.
Your multi-tasking, multi-mode, methods of combining EchoLink & IRLP VoIP, HF monitoring, Internet Web Blogs and direct Email is a great example of information gathering without limitations.
These hybrid communications efforts, before and during the hurricane, to contact Hams and non-Hams was successful in promoting awareness that they had alternate means of sending and receiving hurricane information during the event. Some of these new contacts will be better prepared for future storms because of your interaction with them during Paloma. Some may become Hams.
Here is an excerpt from the official Hurricane Advisory #10 which was a result of the information received from the VoIP Net:
“…HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 30 MILES…45 KM…FROM THE CENTER…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES…185 KM. UNOFFICIAL REPORTS OF SUSTAINED WINDS OF 80 MPH…130 KM/HR…WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 100 MPH…160 KM/HR…HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FROM AMATEUR/HAM RADIO OPERATORS ON GRAND CAYMAN DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS.”
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