Hello to all….

The following was sent out to the NWS Taunton County Warning Area SKYWARN email list and an abridged version has been sent via the VoIPWXNet/VoIP-WX email lists. Generic details on the NOAA P3 Hurricane Hunter Plane Tour can be seen at the following link:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2843.htm

Below are particulars on Amateur Radio activities for this event for the plane’s first stop at Quonset State Airport in North Kingstown, RI:

The P3 Hurricane Hunter Aircraft will be at Quonset State Airport in North Kingstown, RI. The tour will be open to the public from 3-6 PM. Amateur Radio Operators from the Taunton Amateur Radio Group, ARES, SKYWARN, MARS and SATERN will be present with a special event station and assisting with event communications and logistics on behalf of the National Weather Service in Taunton.

We will be attempting to make contact with the National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio station, WX4NHC in Miami Florida via HF and Voice Over IP from 130-430 PM EDT/1730-2030 UTC. The following frequencies will be utilized for HF for contacting WX4NHC:

Primary HF=14.325 MHz USB (Propagation Dependent)
Backup HF #1=7.268 MHz LSB (Propagation Dependent)
Backup HF #2=21.325 MHz USB (Propagation Dependent)

On VoIP, we will be utilizing the EchoLink *NEW-ENG* Node: 9123/IRLP 9123 or the New England Network/Reflector system.

Below is the generic press release posted to the SKYWARN email list several weeks ago:

The Public Information Statement on the Hurricane Awareness Tour with the P3 Hurricane Hunter Aircraft was posted by NWS Taunton on Thursday March 29th, 2007. Earlier in the week a web-site on the tour was also posted via the SKYWARN Newsletter. The link to the Hurricane Awareness Tour web site is listed below:

http://www.erh.noaa.gov/box/announcement/HAT07WebRelease.htm

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Pager #: (508) 354-3142
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://users.rcn.com/rmacedo
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Hello to all….

The Hurricane Hunter Aircraft Caribbean Tour was announced on NOAA’s web site earlier this week. The tour will be going through Mexico, Grand Cayman Island, Dominican Republic, St. Croix and Puerto Rico. A posting to the press release and schedule of where the plane will be each day next week can be seen at the following link:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/s2833.htm

The US East Coast Hurricane Tour will be Monday April 30th-Friday May 4th, 2007. The tour’s first stop will be at Quonset State Airport in North Kingstown, RI and a large Amateur Radio component is planned for the plane tour when it arrives in Rhode Island. Further details on the East Coast Hurricane Tour will be posted in the next week or two.

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….

Dr. Gray’s revised Hurricane Outlook was posted early last week as discussed on the VoIPWXNet email reflector and his forecast increases the number of named systems. His reasoning for increasing the number of named systems is due to favorable Atlantic ocean conditions and El Nino’s dissipation into a more favorable La Nina pattern in the Pacific which allows for more tropical systems to form in the Atlantic. His forecast can be seen at the following link:

http://typhoon.atmos.colostate.edu/forecasts/2007/april2007/

Dr. Gray’s next forecast update will be posted on Thursday May 31st, 2007. NOAA will issue its Hurricane Outlook in the May timeframe.

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

Join us for this week’s VoIP Hurricane Net as Danny Musten-KD4RAA, IRLP Net Manager and partner with John Van Pelt-K4JVP in the StormStudy program will be with us to conduct a debriefing of the National Hurricane Conference. This will be an opportunity to hear from Danny on what he saw at the conference and discuss his experience there.

We will conduct the session like we did with Mike “Sparky” Leger-N1YLQ where we’ll have Danny give a general debrief, ask him a set of questions and then open the net to questions from those checked into the net. During the check-in round, we will just get call-signs and not take weather reports to save time with the check-in portion of the net as we’ve done for past presentations.

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 National Hurricane Conference will be held this week April 2nd-April 6th, 2007 at the Hilton Hotel Riverside in New Orleans, Louisiana. Amateur Radio will be well represented with National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio
Coordinator, John McHugh-K4AG, former Hurricane Watch Net Manager, Mike Pilgrim-K5MP and ARRL Field Services Director, Steve Ewald-WV1X, chairing an Amateur Radio Disaster Communications Workshop from 1:30-5 PM on Tuesday April 3rd, 2007. Many other training programs and workshops on hurricanes, preparedness, meterology of hurricanes and engineering of buildings and structures to withstand hurricanes will be done throughout the conference.

In addition, Danny Musten-KD4RAA, IRLP Reflector 9219 co-owner and IRLP Net Manager for the VoIP Hurricane Net along with John Van Pelt-K4JVP will be at the Conference as their stormstudy program has entered a new relationship with Energizer. They will be at the workshop in the Energeizer booth which will be one of many booths from many vendors, non-profit organizations and government entities that will be at the conference. Danny intends to provide information on the conference at a future VoIP Hurricane Net weekly net session. The net meets every Saturday Evening at 0000 UTC/8 PM EDT.

The web site for this event can be seen at the following link:

Homepage

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….

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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Hello to all….

The New England May Floods of 2006 presentation and recording of the VoIP Hurricane Net from February 10th, 2007 is now posted in the VoIP WX Net Presentation section off of the Main Menu of the web site. The new was well attended with 30 checkins and it appeared everyone enjoyed the presentation.

Special thanks to all who listened and checked into the net! 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….

Thanks to the efforts of our Public Information Officer, Lloyd Colston-KC5FM and the efforts of Sparky-N1YLQ and Charlie-W4CFH, an article on the Central Florida ARES efforts and the interview of Sparky on the VoIP Hurricane Prep Net concerning the Central Florida Tornadoes appeared in the ARRL Letter and the ARRL web site. A link to the article appears below:

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2007/02/08/100/?nc=1

Additional updates to the 2/2/07 Central Florida Tornado outbreak have been added to the NWS Melbourne, Florida web site. Damage photos do not appear to have been added as of yet but the tracks, some additional statistic and summary information have been added. Below is a link to the information:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/surveys/020207/index.html

The net last week and the interview with Sparky-N1YLQ was recorded and is in the archive on our web site at http://www.voipwx.net under the Main Menu selection VoIP WX Net Presentations archive.

Thanks to all who assisted in the ARES relief efforts and the PR for those efforts and for the interview on the VoIP Hurricane Prep Net by Sparky-N1YLQ.

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