Hello to all….

The last VoIP Hurricane Prep Weekly Net for 2006 will be December 16th, 2006. Tony-VK3JED will be net control. We will then take a 2 week break for the holidays so everyone can enjoy time with their friends and families during those weekends and hold our next net on January 7th, 2007 at 0000 UTC which is January 6th, 2006 on a Saturday Afternoon/Evening for much of North America and continue weekly nets on that timeframe throughout 2007.

Thanks to all for their support of the VoIP Hurricane Net during the quiet 2006 Hurricane Season! As we enjoy the holiday break and move into 2007, we will need to renew and prepare for the 2007 Hurricane Season and whatever activity it may bring.

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

On Friday December 8th, Dr. Gray’s Seasonal Hurricane Outlook for 2007 was posted. A link to the 2007 forecast and prior forecasts is listed below:

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

The forecast summary is quite detailed and technical. For those that are not that “technical” in terms of weather, Dr. Gray’s team is forecasting an above average 2007 hurricane season. Key risks/issues to that 2007 season being predicted as above average is the current moderate El Nino conditions which are expected to subside as the Hurricane Season starts along with other unfavorable indicators from 2006 becoming more favorable.

One of the main reasons for the lack of tropical systems in the 2006 season was the El Nino conditions of the past year. This resulted in higher than normal activity in the Eastern Pacific with near to below normal conditions in the Atlantic.

As with any long-range outlook, there are risks that the forecast will be wrong or changed as we get closer to the 2007 Hurricane Season. It should also be noted that the number of named systems is less significant than the location and intensity of the systems near land areas. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew caused significant devastation to Florida and Louisiana but was one of only 6 named systems that year. The location and intensity of the systems near land and public impact is typically what people will remember about any hurricane season versus the actual activity level in terms of named systems.

The next outlook from Dr. Gray’s team will be in early April 2007. NOAA typically issues their seasonal Hurricane Outlook in the April-May timeframe of each year.

Hope this information is helpful. 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….

On Wednesday December 6th, NOAA announced that a new National Hurricane Center Director has been named and held a press conference. Bill Proenza has been named the new National Hurricane Center Director replacing Max Mayfield who is retiring on January 3rd, 2007 after 34 years of service to the National Hurricane Center. The following link has audio clips, conference photos and a biography on the new National Hurricane Center Director:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2006/s2752.htm

I’d encourage those interested in hurricanes and living along coastal areas to review the link and check out the audio clips on the press conference. I have reviewed the link and it was interesting to learn about the new director who is moving from the position of long-time Southern Regional Director of the National Weather Service.

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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SKYWARN Recognition Day 2006 will have National Weather Service Forecast Offices from throughout the United States and some Weather Offices in Canada on IRLP Reflector 9219 and *WX-TALK* Node: 7203. Other integrated conference systems may also have NWS Offices on for SRD 2006.

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SKYWARN Recognition Day 2006 will have National Weather Service Forecast Offices from throughout the United States and some Weather Offices in Canada on IRLP Reflector 9219 and *WX-TALK* Node: 7203. Other integrated conference systems may also have NWS Offices on for SRD 2006.

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Hello to all….

….Updated to confirm VE4WWO for its 1300 UTC time slot. Also, Hams on the system may ask NWS offices to make contact with other NWS offices that maybe on the system during a NWS office’s designated time slot. NWS offices, at their discretion, can allow Amateurs who want to make contact with other NWS offices during their time slot, if they so desire when requested by a station or at their own discretion. Remainder below is unchanged….

Here is the latest update on SKYWARN Recognition Day. 3 NWS offices have been added to the schedule. Please see the update below:

SKYWARN Recognition Day 2006, which will be on Saturday December 2nd, 2006 from 0000-2400 UTC, will feature VoIP operations on *WX-TALK* EchoLink Node: 7203/IRLP reflector 9219 as in past years along with NWS offices making contacts via HF/VHF/UHF, PSK-31 and other digital modes. We currently have 13 NWS Forecast Offices confirmed for various 1 or 2 hour time slots including WX4NHC, the National Hurricane Center in Miami Florida. Here is the schedule as of Monday 11/26/2006:

Time in UTC NWS Office Call-Sign
0000-0100: WX1BOX
0100-0200: WX2PHI
0200-0300: WX4MLB
0300-0400: WX2ALY
0400-0500: Open
0500-0600: WX9GRB
0600-0700: WX0GLD
0700-0800: WX0GLD
0800-0900: Open
0900-1000: WX7PHX
1000-1100: Open
1100-1200: Open
1200-1300: Open
1300-1400: VE4WWO
1400-1500: WX2PHI
1500-1600: WX1BOX
1600-1800: WX4NC (2 hour time slot and time slot is from last year)
1800-1900: WX2ALY
1900-2000: WX4MLB
2000-2100: K0MPX
2100-2300: WX4NHC (2 hour time slot is from last year)
2300-2400: W4IAX (NWS Mobile, Alabama)

The contact from VE4WWO reports that there maybe issues with their IRLP node that may not allow them to do net control so they have been listed as tentative.

The following NWS offices have been contacted and have shown interest in being on the system for a possible time slot:

NWS Sterling, Virginia
NWS Honolulu, Hawaii
NWS Brookhaven, New York

Other NWS offices have contacted as well but its not clear if there is interest in participating on the system. This will be updated as things change. Its also possible that other NWS offices will be monitoring and participating on the system much like last year where various NWS offices got on to the system during open time slots or when NWS offices had exhausted making contacts on the system. If you are a NWS office SKYWARN Coordinator interested in utilizing a time slot for Net Control duties, please contact me and CC: Matt Mehle.

A few technical reminders for folks interested in making contacts with the NWS Forecast Offices:

-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.

For those that want to do listen-only, New England IRLP reflector channel 9129 and the *VKEMCOMM* Node: 270177/IRLP reflector 9508 will be utilized for those that just want to listen to the event.

The New England Reflector system, IRLP reflector 9123, EchoLink Conference *NEW-ENG*, Node #:9123 will also be available for usage as required. NWS Taunton Amateur station, WX1BOX, will be on the system looking for contacts and stations and can designate the use of that system to other NWS offices on an informal basis. From NWS Taunton, we will be able to monitor both VoIP systems during our timeframe for operations during SRD.

Event information on SKYWARN Recognition Day can be found at http://hamradio.noaa.gov and can also be found in the December issue of QST on page 66.

Below is the ARRL Letter Annoncement of SKYWARN Recognition Day:

==> SKYWARN RECOGNITION DAY IS DECEMBER 2

The 8th annual SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) special event will take place Saturday, December 2, 2006. SKYWARN Recognition Day is an event co-sponsored by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League, and it is the National Weather Service’s way of saying “thank you” to Amateur Radio operators for their commitment to helping keep their communities safe.

During the 24-hour special event, amateur radio operators will visit their local National Weather Service (NWS) office, set up Amateur Radio stations, and work as a team to contact other hams across the world.

“Ham radio operators volunteering as storm spotters are an extremely valuable asset to National Weather Service operations since they are cross-trained in both communications and severe storm recognition”, says Scott Mentzer (N***QE), organizer of the event and Meteorologist-In-Charge at the NWS office in Goodland, Kansas.

In typical warning operations, it is the direct communication between mobile spotters and the local NWS office which provides vital ground truth information. Spotter reports of hail size, wind damage and surface-based rotation in real time greatly assists the radar warning operator since that information can be correlated with Doppler radar displays. The result can range anywhere from a more strongly-worded statement to convey a greater sense of urgency, or the issuance of a tornado warning a few minutes earlier than would otherwise have been possible.

While National Weather Service offices utilize the real-time reporting of severe weather events to assist in warning operations, hurricanes and tropical storms have shown us that ham radio operators are equally important during the recovery phase of natural disasters.
There are countless stories where ham radio worked in tandem with more conventional technology to relay emergency traffic.

SKYWARN Recognition Day will be held on December 2, 2006, from 0000 UTC to 2400 UTC.

The object is for all radio amateur stations to exchange QSO information with as many National Weather Service Stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, and 2 meter bands plus the 70 centimeter band. Contacts via repeaters are permitted.

The exchange should include call sign, signal report, location, and a one or two word description of the weather occurring at your site (“sunny”, “partly cloudy”, “windy”, etc.). NWS stations will work various modes including SSB, FM, AM, RTTY, CW, and PSK31. While working digital modes, special event stations will append “NWS” to their call sign (e.g., N***A/NWS).

We hope to hear many Amateurs on VoIP and all other modes that will be utilized during SKYWARN Recognition Day 2006. Thanks to all for their continued support for the VoIP Hurricane Net as well.

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

As stated in previous announcements via email and on the web site, Tony Langdon-VK3JED, gave a presentation on the Weather and Bushfire Threats in Southeast Australia for the 11/4/06 edition of the VoIP Hurricane Weekly Prep Net which meets weekly at 0000 UTC Sunday which is Saturday Evening for much of North America. Below is a link to the Power Point presentation:

Summer Weather and Bushfire Threats in SE Australia

You can also reach the Power Point presentation at the following link:

Summer Weather and Bushfire Threats in SE Australia via vkradio web site

A recording of the net can now be heard via the following link:

VoIP Weekly Net Australia Fire Weather Presentation Recording

You can also get to the presentation and net recording by clicking the VoIP WX Net Presentations archive link from the main menu. 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….

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….

Given the quiet Hurricane Season of 2006 in the Atlantic, it has given the net management team some additional time to focus on initiatives that the net management team as put together and worked on for the past year. All of you have seen the efforts made in PR, Web Site reorganization, Net Control recruitment and solicitation of stations from the affected area of hurricanes to participate in our net. Another piece of that work is to do more presentations on the weekly net to generate interest.

Tony Langdon-VK3JED, our VoIP Hurricane Net Technical Coordinator, will be doing a presentation for this week’s net on the Australia High Fire Danger and Summer Weather given the El Nino pattern. Some of Australia’s worst fire weather comes from El Nino patterns. Tony will walk us through that scenario and the issues associated with it.

The Power Point presentation will be posted on the VoIP Hurricane Net web site prior to the net. The net will be recorded and archived on the web site.

This will be the first in a series of presentations that we hope to do roughly on a monthly basis. For December, a presentation may not be done because of planning of activities on VoIP for SKYWARN Recognition Day.

I hope many will check into the net this Saturday. Also, with daylight savings time, the time of the net will change locally as the net will remain at its time slot of 0000 UTC. A separate note will be put out on that fact shortly.

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….

The National Hurricane Center has been monitoring a strong tropical wave in the Central Caribbean Sea. While tropical development is not expected, it is being monitored. Below is the Special Tropical Disturbance Statement:

000
WONT41 KNHC 291307
DSAAT
SPECIAL TROPICAL DISTURBANCE STATEMENT
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
815 AM EST SUN OCT 29 2006

SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS HAVE INCREASED THIS MORNING IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE TROPICAL WAVE OVER THE CENTRAL CARIBBEAN SEA. THERE ARE NO SIGNS OF ORGANIZATION AND TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED AT THIS TIME. HOWEVER…LOCALLY HEAVY RAINS WILL LIKELY SPREAD ACROSS HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC TODAY…WHICH COULD PRODUCE LIFE-THREATENING FLASH FLOODS AND MUDSLIDES.

$$
FORECASTER BROWN/BEVEN

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management team will closely monitor the progress of this system and provide further updates if needed. 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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