Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to All from the VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team!
Hello to all..
On behalf of the VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all. Thanks to all of you for your support of the VoIP Hurricane Net during 2011.
The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season was active and featured several activations for Hurricane Irene as Irene impacted portions of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and the region from the Carolinas northward to New England. With the impact to New England, several net management team members stepped up to perform critical functions so that New England net management team members could prepare for Irene’s impact. Those net management team members were NODRC-Dustin Cox and N0UAM-Jim Sellars. Also, several new net controls joined the net during the Irene activation and we appreciated their support as well. Irene was the worst tropical system to hit New England since Hurricane Bob in 1991 causing significant inland flooding in Western New England and significant wind damage and power outages in Southern New England with power outages lasting 2-4 days in many locations with some locations without power for close to one week. Similar power outages, damage and flooding occurred from the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic northward to New York State. Irene also caused widespread power outages and damage on Puerto Rico as well as the Bahamas.
The net was then activated for Hurricane Maria which impacted Newfoundland Canada but the highest winds stayed offshore of Newfoundland with only minor impact to the province. The net was also activated for Hurricane Rina which weakened to a tropical storm prior to impacting portions of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and Rina’s main impact to their region was heavy rainfall. The VoIP Hurricane Net was active for 3 named storms, with a total of 6 activations, 3 of which were for Hurricane Irene.
Hello to all..
On behalf of the VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all. Thanks to all of you for your support of the VoIP Hurricane Net during 2011.
The 2011 Atlantic Hurricane Season was active and featured several activations for Hurricane Irene as Irene impacted portions of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and the region from the Carolinas northward to New England. With the impact to New England, several net management team members stepped up to perform critical functions so that New England net management team members could prepare for Irene’s impact. Those net management team members were NODRC-Dustin Cox and N0UAM-Jim Sellars. Also, several new net controls joined the net during the Irene activation and we appreciated their support as well. Irene was the worst tropical system to hit New England since Hurricane Bob in 1991 causing significant inland flooding in Western New England and significant wind damage and power outages in Southern New England with power outages lasting 2-4 days in many locations with some locations without power for close to one week. Similar power outages, damage and flooding occurred from the Carolinas and Mid-Atlantic northward to New York State. Irene also caused widespread power outages and damage on Puerto Rico as well as the Bahamas.
The net was then activated for Hurricane Maria which impacted Newfoundland Canada but the highest winds stayed offshore of Newfoundland with only minor impact to the province. The net was also activated for Hurricane Rina which weakened to a tropical storm prior to impacting portions of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico and Rina’s main impact to their region was heavy rainfall. The VoIP Hurricane Net was active for 3 named storms, with a total of 6 activations, 3 of which were for Hurricane Irene.
WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center, monitored the net activations frequently and surface reports given to the station for use by the hurricane specialists. At times, this information appeared in National Hurricane Center Advisories. As our main client, we appreciate WX4NHC’s support of our net and thank WX4NHC Coordinators, Julio Ripoll-WD4R and John McHugh-K4AG for their support.
We also had another successful SKYWARN Recongition Day event on the home of the VoIP Hurricane Net, Echolink conference: *WX-TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP 9219. Many NWS offices rotated on the system making contacts with Amateur Radio Operators and SKYWARN Spotters from around the country thanking them for their support as well making contact with different NWS offices around the country.
As we move into next year, we will again have a presence at the 2012 National Hurricane Conference in Orlando Florida. We will also look into restarting the NCO training and recruitment processes as we move into the new year.
We look forward to working with everyone again in 2012. Our first regular net of 2012 will be Saturday January 7th, 2012 at 7 PM ET/6 PM CT/5 PM MT/4 PM PT which also equates to 0000 UTC Sunday. The net will meet monthly through May and then become weekly during the Atlantic Hurricane Season. We again wish all of our reporting stations, net controls and supporting stations that listen to the VoIP Hurricane Net Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a Happy Holiday season!
73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net