Hello to all..

The National Hurricane Center has announced some product changes for the new year and has reiterated some links of interest. This information is available in a PDF document via the following link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/news/20120403_pa_productChanges.pdf

The product changes include:
1.) Minor Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale Modification
2.) Tropical Cyclone Forecast Cone of Uncertainty reduced in size

Other items reiterated was as follows:
1.) Information on the lead times for Tropical Storm and Hurricane Watches and Warnings. These changed in 2010.
2.) Storm Surge Exceedance Products are operational.
3.) Links to the Storm Names Prononuciation Guide
4.) The National Hurricane Center Facebook Page link located at http://www.facebook.com/US.NOAA.NationalHurricaneCenter.gov
5.) NHC is now on Twitter with 2 accounts, one for the Atlantic basin (@nhc_Atlantic) and one for the eastern Pacific @nhc_Pacific)

Additional links and experimental product information was also highlighted. Please check it out via the link above. 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 VoIP Hurricane Net now has a presence on Facebook and Twitter. The Twitter feed is voipwxnet for those that want to follow us and the facebook web site is as follows:

http://www.facebook.com/voipwxnet

When information is posted via the VoIPWXNet facebook site, it will feed to Twitter as well as we have linked both sites. We hope this will provide another additional means to stay informed on VoIP Hurricane Net activities.

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..

A reminder starting with this month’s net, Daylight Savings Time (DST) is now in effect and the VoIP Hurricane Net will be at 8 PM ET/7 PM CT/6 PM MT/5 PM PT/0000 UTC to account for our international partners who may observe different DST rules or may not have DST in their area. We hope you will join us for this evening’s net. There will be no training for this month’s net but there will be several net announcements to include updates from the National Hurricane Conference and the visit to WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center.

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 is coming up next week from Monday March 26th through Thursday March 29th. Amateur Radio will be represented at two sessions during the conference as well as at a function at the Orange County Florida Emergency Operatons Center Monday Evening March 26th where Dr. Richard Knabb of The Weather Channel will be present.

All workshops will be livestreamed. The livestream links that are available are as follows:

http://www.nsradio.org/stream.htm
http://www.voipwx.net/files/stream.htm

Information on the presenters including presenters from the VoIP Hurricane Net are listed via the link below:

http://www.arrl.org/news/2012-national-hurricane-conference-to-feature-amateur-radio-activities

This information is also posted in the ARES E-Letter via the following link:

http://www.arrl.org/ares-el?issue=2012-03-21

We encourage folks to watch the livestream as presenters go through the role of the Amatuer Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC, the WX4NHC group’s role in the Haiti mission, an in-depth review of Amateur Radio’s role in the response to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene and other topics as listed. We will be looking into archiving the information via video on the web for those that cannot watch the livestream as it happens. Thanks to all for their support!

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Eastern Massachusetts ARES Section Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM)
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM)
Work Phone #: 508-346-2929 (8 AM-5 PM)
Email Address: rmacedo@rcn.com
http://ares.ema.arrl.org
http://www.wx1box.org

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Hello to all..

For folks in Mexico and the Caribbean, NOAA will be doing their Air Force Reserve “Hurricane Hunter” Aircraft tour from March 12th-March 17th. The details can be seen at the link below via the NOAA web site:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20120301_hurricaneawaretour.html

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..

There will be minor modifications made to the Hurricane Saffir/Simpson Scale effective May 15th, 2012. See the Public Information Statement posted at the National Hurricane Center web site:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/news/20120301_pis_sshws.php

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..

A recording of the March 2012 Net starting with the presentation of the National Hurricane Conference Amateur Radio Presentations is now available. See the link below for the recording (recording is about 8-Meg in size to preserve audio quality):

Links to the Power Point presentation can be seen at these links below:

Adobe Format:
http://www.voipwx.net/files/National_Hurricane_Conference_Overview_of_Amateur_Radio_2012.pdf

Microsoft Powerpoint format:
http://www.voipwx.net/files/National_Hurricane_Conference_Overview_of_Amateur_Radio_2012.ppt

This information has also been added to the VoIPWXNet presentations archive for those who missed the March 2012 net. We hope you find the presentations 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..

For this evening’s VoIP Hurricane Prep net, there will be a training topic concerning an overview of Amateur Radio presentations for the 2012 National Hurricane Conference which takes place from March 26th-29th 2012. The VoIP Hurricane Net will be represented at the conference once again by Rob Macedo-KD1CY and Jim Palmer-KB1KQW. The presentation for tonight’s net will be available at either one of the following links:

Adobe Format:
http://www.voipwx.net/files/National_Hurricane_Conference_Overview_of_Amateur_Radio_2012.pdf

Microsoft Powerpoint format:
http://www.voipwx.net/files/National_Hurricane_Conference_Overview_of_Amateur_Radio_2012.ppt

This net will also be recorded using the Echolink recording feature for those that can’t attend this evening’s net and posted on the VoIP Hurricane Net web site on Sunday. We hope people will find this presentation helpful and will get Amateurs, particularly near the Hurricane Conference in Orlando to attend the conference.

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..

Last Sunday 1/22/12, portions of the Southeast United States including Arkansas and Alabama were affected by a severe weather outbreak including tornadoes. One of our VoIP Hurricane Prep Net NCOs, Daryl Stout-AE5WX was mentioned in an ARRL story for bringing up the Weather Watch Net, a pre-net for Arakansas SKYWARN. The complete story can be seen at the following link on the ARRL web site:

http://www.arrl.org/news/hams-in-arkansas-and-alabama-help-provide-assistance-to-nws-during-severe-sunday-storms

We are pleased to have Daryl-AE5WX and all of our NCOs who support our VoIP Hurricane Prep Net and Net activations and congratulate Daryl on his great work during last week’s severe weather in Arkansas. We also extend our gratitude to all Amateur Radio SKYWARN groups in the Southeast US and around the country who support SKYWARN operations such as what occurred last Sunday. We also thank everyone 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 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.
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