Hello to all…

Hurricane Felicia is about to enter the Central Pacific Ocean and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center (CPHC) area of responsibility. The CPHC is co-located with the NWS Honolulu Hawaii Forecast Office. Felicia is expected to have some level of impact on the big island of Hawaii. Its impact, at this time, is expected to be the impact of a weak tropical storm or tropical depression, however, our knowledge of intensity of tropical systems is limited so Felicia needs to be monitored carefully given its path toward the Hawaiian islands in case she maintains hurricane intensity.

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team will closely monitor the progress of Hurricane Felicia. If Felicia manages to maintain hurricane strength as it approaches the Hawaiian islands, the VoIP Hurricane Net will activate and make contact with Hams in the state of Hawaii through IRLP and Echolink. An update on Felicia will be given on the VoIP Hurricane Prep Net this evening as reconnaisance aircraft will be intercepting Felicia later today.

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

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

Read more

Hello to all..

The April 2009 Net Australia Bushfire Prep Net presentation recording done by Tony Langdon-VK3JED has now been uploaded to the VoIPWXnet web site. The recording and the presentation is available in the VoIP WX Net Presentations archive link off the Main Menu of the web site and have been provided as links below as well:

VoIP Hurricane Net Recording (Approximately 4-Meg in Size): http://www.voipwx.net/files/April_2009_Presentation_Black_Saturday-20090405.mp3

VoIP Hurricane Net Australian Bushfires Power Point Presentation: http://www.voipwx.net/files/Black_Saturday.ppt

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net Training Presentations Archive: http://www.voipwx.net/node/217

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.

Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Read more

Hello to all…

The VoIP Hurricane Prep Net will now be on weekly on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference server node: 7203/IRLP 9219 system as Hurricane Season started on June 1st, 2009. For this week, there will be no training presentation. It is hoped to have a training presentation on the next 1-2 nets and those presentations will be announced ahead of time on the email list and on the web site.

A reminder notice has been put in the VoIPWXNet Yahoogroups calendar. Please note that the calendar has its limitations as far as time zones. The weekly net will take place every Sunday at 0000 UTC which is Saturday Evening at 8 PM EDT/7 PM CDT/6 PM MDT/5 PM PDT across portions of North America.

We are hoping for a quiet 2009 Hurricane Season but will be prepared for any activity the new season brings. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

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

Read more

Hello to all….

Today marks the official start to the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The National Hurricane Center will now begin regular issuances of its Tropical Weather Outlook now that the Atlantic Season has begun. The first Tropical Weather Outlook for the Atlantic Season for 2009 is listed below and includes the 2009 Season Names as well as the listing of products the National Hurricane Center will issue for tropical systems in 2009 and a quick note on the NHC’s 2009 seasonal forecast. See the outlook below:

000
ABNT20 KNHC 011134
TWOAT
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
800 AM EDT MON JUN 1 2009

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC…CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO…

TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

TODAY MARKS THE FIRST DAY OF THE ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON…WHICH WILL RUN UNTIL NOVEMBER 30.  LONG-TERM ANNUAL AVERAGES OF TROPICAL STORMS…HURRICANES…AND MAJOR HURRICANES IN THIS BASIN ARE 11…6…AND 2…RESPECTIVELY.

THE LIST OF NAMES FOR 2009 IS AS FOLLOWS:

NAME          PRONUNCIATION     NAME          PRONUNCIATION
————————————————————–
ANA           AH- NAH           LARRY
BILL                            MINDY
CLAUDETTE     CLAW DET-         NICHOLAS      NIK- O LAS
DANNY                           ODETTE        O DET-
ERIKA         ERR- REE KA       PETER
FRED                            ROSE
GRACE                           SAM
HENRI         AHN REE-          TERESA        TE REE- SA
IDA                             VICTOR        VIC- TER
JOAQUIN       WAH KEEN-         WANDA
KATE

Read more

Hello to all…

On Monday Evening 6/1/09 from 7-9 PM EDT, there will be the Massachusetts Statewide Hurricane Exercise. The New England Reflector system Echolink Conference *NEW-ENG* Node: 9123/IRLP 9123 will be tied together with the Echolink Conference *WX_TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP 9219 system for this exercise. WX4NHC will be active in support of the statewide exercise and we’ve asked some of our net controls to send in reports from the exercise using our reporting form.

Folks are welcome to listen into the exercise this evening. We are hoping for a good test of the capabilities within the state of Massachusetts to prepare for the 2009 Hurricane Season which starts today.

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

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

Read more

Hello to all…

Tropical Depression #1 has formed off the Mid-Atlantic Coast prior to the official start of the 2009 Hurricane Season. TD #1 is currently over the gulf stream and intensification into a tropical storm is possible. If that occurs, the system would be named Ana. TD #1 is expected to past south and east of the 40 North/70 West Benchmark and skip wide of any impact on the Southern New England coast including Cape Cod and the Islands at this time.

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team will closely monitor the progress of TD #1. Latest advisory information can be found on the National Hurricane Center (NHC) web site at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

The information can also be seen on the Main Menu of the VoIP Hurricane Net web site under Atlantic Tropical Products. The VoIP Hurricane Net web site is http://www.voipwx.net

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

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

Read more

Hello to all…

The WX4NHC Communications Test will take place on Saturday May 30th from 9 AM-5 PM ET (1300-2100 UTC). WX4NHC will be on the *WX-TALK* Echolink Conference server Node: 7203/IRLP reflector 9219 for a portion of the Communications Test from 1-3 PM ET (1700-1900 UTC). We encourage everyone to participate in the test and we are especially looking for coastal stations in the region to participate. As we’ve done in years past, our net controls will be assisting WX4NHC in taking a list of stations for contacts to test our online reporting form and to use the test as a training opportunity for our net controls.

Below are the details on the WX4NHC Communications Test:

Announcement from WX4NHC
Amateur Radio Station
at the National Hurricane Center

WX4NHC Hurricane Season 2009 On-The-Air Station Test
Saturday, May 30th, 2009 from 9 AM – 5 PM EST (1300z-2100z)

NHC Director Bill Read, KB5FYA is planning to attend and make some on-the-air contacts.

The purpose of this annual Station Test is to test all of our radio equipment, computers and antennas using as many modes and frequencies as possible.

This is not a Contest or simulated Hurricane Exercise.

New equipment and software will be tested and we may be trying multiple frequencies and modes at any give time. Some operator training will also be conducted.

WX4NHC will be On-The-Air on HF, VHF, UHF and 2 & 30 meter APRS.

We plan on testing on the following voice frequencies +/- QRM
3.950 MHz, 7.268MHz, 14.325MHz, 21.325MHz, 28.525MHz.

We will try to stay on 14.325 MHz most of the time and announce when we QSY.

You may be able to find us on HF by using one of the DX Spotting Networks,

Such as the DX Summit Web Site:
http://www.dxsummit.fi/Search.aspx

Read more

Hello to all…

A reminder that the Monthly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net will be Saturday April 4th at 8 PM EDT/0000 UTC. Please note the time change due to Daylight Saving Time here in the US so the net is now at 8 PM EDT/7PM CDT/6 PM MDT/5 PM PDT. For this month, we will have one presentation on the Australian Bushfires of 2009 known in Australia as “Black Saturday”. The presentation is small in size and should be easily viewable on any Internet connection. For best results, please download the presentations to your computer for viewing even though the size of the presentation is small. The presentation can be seen at either one of the following links:

http://www.voipwx.net/files/Black_Saturday.ppt

http://tinyurl.com/voipwx0904

The presentation will be archived and a recording of the net made for those that cannot be on the net this evening. Since I will be traveling to the National Hurricane Conference and unable to be on the net this evening, I’d like to request some of the net members to record the net and email me a location of where the recording is so I can upload it to the web site. We hope many folks will be able to check-in and listen to the net this evening and if they can’t that they will check out the presentation and recording of the net when they have time. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

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

 

Read more

Hello to all..

The following was posted to the VoIPWXNet email list by Tony Langdon-VK3JED:

The 4 week long WICEN activation for the Victorian fires held its
last net at 2130 local (1030 UTC) Monday March 9, after the last
operators had returned home from the affected areas. The WICEN HF
net on 3.600 MHz will now return to its weekly 2130 local time (1030z
until April, 1130z after) Tuesday evenings. At this time, statistics
on the activation are not available. I am hoping to get hold of
these for next month’s VoIP WX Net.

The *VKEMCOMM* conference will be returned to normal operation some
time after tonight’s weekly WICEN net. I anticipate completing the
HF link to include transmit capability, and to test this on the WICEN
HF net in the future, once the details have been sorted out. The HF
link was fairly successful, with occasional issues caused by local
noise and birdies – a good result, given that it was thrown together
using the pieces for a VHF SSB link at short notice. There were also
some audio quality issues caused by a quirky Echolink PC. I had
hoped to change to a Linux based EchoIRLP machine, but this one
suffered a disk failure last week and will be offline for some time.

73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL
http://vkradio.com

Read more

Hello to all..

We had 26 check-ins for the March 2009 edition of the VoIP Hurricane Prep Net. We thank all those who participated in the net and the compliments on the training topics for the net. Below is a link to a recording of the VoIP Hurricane Net as well as the presentation topics that were done on the March 2009 net. These can also be found off the VoIP Hurricane Net Presentation Archive off the Main Menu of the VoIPWXNet web site. See direct links below for the recording and the presentations:

VoIP Hurricane Net Recording (Approximately 5 Meg in Size): http://www.voipwx.net/files/March_2009_VoIP_Hurricane_Net_Recording.mp3

VoIP Hurricane Net Overview of National Hurricane Conference Topics: http://www.voipwx.net/files/Overview_of_National_Hurricane_Conference_Presentations.ppt

VoIP Hurricane Net New England Ice Storm December 2008 Presentation: http://www.voipwx.net/files/VoIP_Hurricane_Net_December_11th_12thIce_Storm_Presentation.ppt

For April 2009, a reminder that the net will move up one hour due to Daylight Savings Time. The April 2009 net and future nets will be at 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT, 5 PM PT to maintain the 0000 UTC time slot given our international partners may actually be pushing their clock back one hour while North America locations have pushed their clocks ahead.

Read more