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.

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Hi all, just a note to let everyone know that the WICEN (roughly our
equivalent to ARES) HF net, which is part of their disaster relief
effort for the recent fires her, is now being broadcast on Echolink and IRLP.

To access the feed, connect to *VKEMCOMM* (270177) on Echolink or
reflector 9508 on IRLP. There are two main nets, which is when the
bulk of activity occurs. These nets are at

Morning – 1000 local time (2300 UTC)
Evening – 2130 local time (1030 UTC)

Nets typically last 20-30 minutes, with some related traffic after
the main net closes. Everyone is welcome to listen in. Currently,
there is no provision for transmitting on HF. It is technically
feasible, and requires only some minor additions to the system, but
this has not been requested at this stage. The feed is using some
experimental technology I’ve been working on over the past few years,
for linking HF or VHF SSB to IRLP/Echolink style networks. There
will be the occasional issue with unusual QRM, but the system seems
to be coping with sometimes difficult conditions very well.

For more information, here’s a few links:

http://vic.wicen.org.au/updates.php – Net logs and other relevant updates

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/02/18/10656/?nc=1 – ARRL story
on the fires

http://www.wia.org.au – WIA site, with some news updates.

73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL

 

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Hello to all…

A reminder that the Monthly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net will be Saturday March 7th at 7 PM EST/0000 UTC. We will have 2 training topics for the Monthly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net this month. The file sizes are less than 100K for the first topic and 3 Meg for the second topic. For best results, please download the presentations to your computer for viewing.

The first topic will be on the National Hurricane Conference. ARRL Manager of Preparedness and Response and Assistant VoIP Hurricane Net Director of Operations, Dennis Dura-K2DCD, has secured 3 different talks during the week of the conference. We will review the 3 talks, when they will be given and the presenters for the various talks and the approach on promoting Amateur Radio’s involvement in hurricanes to Amateur Radio Operators and Emergency Management. The presentation that can be viewed while listening to the net this evening can be found at the following link:

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

The second topic will be on the December 2008 Ice Storm that affected Massachusetts, Northwest Connecticut, New Hampshire and Southern Maine. It will detail what occurred in the response phase of the operation for reporting and what Amateur Radio Operators did in the recovery phase, the challenges that were faced what was executed well and how improvements will be made for future events. The presentation that can be viewed while listening to the net this evening can be found at the following link:

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Hello to all….

The following is some information on some changes to the National Hurricane Center products for the 2009 Hurricane Season. All of these changes are listed in the NHC Public Information Statements under the following link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns_index.shtml

The exact product changes and links to those product changes are listed below:

Changes to storm surge information in Tropical Cyclone Public Advisories effective May 15th, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns8_2009.shtml

Format Changes to the Tropical Cyclone Public Advisory Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns7_2009.shtml

Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Tropical Cyclone Wind Field Graphics Operational Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns6_2009.shtml

Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Graphical Tropical Weather Outlooks Operational Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns5_2009.shtml

Probabilistic Hurricane Storm Surge Products become Operational and Expand in Thresholds Effective June 1, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns4_2009.shtml

Discontinuation of Special Tropical Disturbance Statements and Beginning of Speical Tropical Weather Outlooks Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns3_2009.shtml

Format Change to the Tropical Cyclone Discussion for the Atlantic Basin Effective June 1, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns2_2009.shtml

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Hello to all..

The VoIP Hurricane Net Janaury 2009 Recording has been posted to the VoIP Hurricane Net web site.  Special thanks to Phil Lichtenberger-W2LIE for providing the recording from the January 2009 presentation. The links have been put in the VoIP WX Net presentations archive link off the Main Menu of the voipwx.net web site and are listed below:

Introduction to D-STAR Power Point:

http://www.voipwx.net/old/local/Introduction_to_D_STAR.ppt

Introduction to D-STAR Recording (File Size about 4.5 Meg):

http://www.voipwx.net/old/local/VoIP_Wx_Net_DSTAR_010409.mp3

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net! Catch everyone on the next net on the first Saturday in February!

73,Rob-KD1CY.

Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

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Hello to all….

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. Our first net of the 2009 season will be this Saturday January 3rd at 7 PM ET/0000 UTC. The presentation will be on an Introduction to DSTAR as presented by VoIP Hurricane Net Technical Coordinator, Tony Langdon-VK3JED. Tony’s presentation will focus on the DSTAR mode and interoperability with Echolink and IRLP. This will be a great presentation for anyone interested in DSTAR and future plans involving this mode and Echolink and IRLP. The Power Point presentation is a small file available at the following link:

http://www.voipwx.net/old/local/Introduction_to_D_STAR.ppt

Hope to hear many folks on our first net in 2009. A reminder that the net is monthly on the first Saturday (US Time) of every month from January through May. The net will return to weekly status from the beginning of June through the end of November.

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 Hurricane Paloma Net Activation was secured from all formal/informal operations overnight as Paloma weakened to a tropical storm after causing extensive damage over portions of Cuba and the Cayman Islands. We are all hoping that this will be the last hurricane activation of 2008 but are prepared to support additional activations for hurricanes if they develop this year.

We were able to gather a number of reports from the Cayman Islands Friday Afternoon through Saturday Morning. Many of these reports were used in official National Hurricane Center advisories written by Hurricane Specialist Stacey Stewart. A complete list of reports that were received from Hurricane Paloma in the Cayman Islands can be seen in the report viewer off the Main Menu of the web site.

While no reports were directly received in Cuba during Hurricane Paloma, we have been able to make contact with Arnie-CO2KK and we are hoping to work with him further to establish an Echolink and/or IRLP connection so he can connect directly to our net in the future. This is encouraging as we have only received an extremely small number of reports from Cuba and these were relayed reports from other Caribbean Amateurs who were able to gather traffic off of HF or able to monitor Cuban Radio Broadcasts.

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team would like to share with you a note from Julio Ripoll-WD4R, Assistant National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio Coordinator for WX4NHC thanking the net for its efforts:

Please extend our sincere thanks to all of the VoIP Hurricane Net Controls for their effort and time during Hurricane Paloma.

The efforts of the VoIP Hurricane Net were very helpful, especially during Paloma’s track through the Cayman Islands.

The information relayed by your Net gave the Hurricane Center Forecasters additional insight of what Cayman residents were actually going through.

Your multi-tasking, multi-mode, methods of combining EchoLink & IRLP VoIP, HF monitoring, Internet Web Blogs and direct Email is a great example of information gathering without limitations.

These hybrid communications efforts, before and during the hurricane, to contact Hams and non-Hams was successful in promoting awareness that they had alternate means of sending and receiving hurricane information during the event. Some of these new contacts will be better prepared for future storms because of your interaction with them during Paloma. Some may become Hams.

Here is an excerpt from the official Hurricane Advisory #10 which was a result of the information received from the VoIP Net:

“…HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 30 MILES…45 KM…FROM THE CENTER…AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES…185 KM. UNOFFICIAL REPORTS OF SUSTAINED WINDS OF 80 MPH…130 KM/HR…WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 100 MPH…160 KM/HR…HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FROM AMATEUR/HAM RADIO OPERATORS ON GRAND CAYMAN DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS.”

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….

…VoIP Hurricane to activate formally at 7 PM EST Saturday November 8th for Hurricane Paloma’s Impact on Cuba….
…WX4NHC Operations Will Activate By 8 PM EST Saturday November 8th for Hurricane Paloma’s Impact on Cuba….

Hurricane Paloma is approaching Cuba with outer rain bands affecting Cuba. Paloma is expected to make landfall later this evening and rip through portions of Cuba overnight and into Sunday Morning. The VoIP Hurricane Net will activate informally at 6 PM EST and formally at 7 PM EST. Operations at WX4NHC will be active by 8 PM EST.

We could use any relays and stations that can assist with reports from Cuba tonight into Sunday. Any Amateur Radio Operators with contacts in the affected area or can monitor and relay traffic heard on 40 and 80 Meters would be very helpful to our operations.

For the latest advisory information including watches and warnings, you can go to the VoIPWXNet web site and click Atlantic Tropical Products and click on the advisory information for Paloma under the Atlantic Tropical Products section. You can also gather the advisory information from the National Hurricane Center web site at the following link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

The reporting criteria and activation policy for our net during hurricane net activations can be found on our web site at http://www.voipwx.net

Listen Only IRLP/EchoLink capability include the following systems:

IRLP:
Reflector 9508 Sydney Australia Reflector channel 8.
Reflector 9129 New England Reflector channel 9.

EchoLink:
*KC4QLP-C* Node: 290251
*VKEMCOMM* Node: 270177
*N5API* Node: 77433
*IRESC* Node: 278173
*N1TAI* Node: 269929

A streaming audio feed has been setup thanks to the assistance of David McAnally-WD5M. The links are listed below:

WD5M Streaming Audio Feed Main page
WD5M Direct link to Streaming Audio using OGG Format
WD5M Direct Link to Streaming Audio using MP3 Format

Bob Carter-KC4QLP has also setup an online stream for up to 32 listeners at the following link:

KC4QLP Streaming Audio Feed

An EQSO listen-only feed is also available via KC4QLP-R.

Lu Vencl-KA4EPS has also set up streaming audio capability. See links below:

KA4EPS Streaming Audio Feed
KA4EPS Streaming Audio Feed

Links to the WD5M streaming audio feeds have also been provided in the Main Menu of the VoIPWXNet web site.

Below is the typical activation announcement from WX4NHC Assistant Coordinator, Julio Ripoll-WD4R:

WX4NHC ANNOUNCEMENT – HURRICANE PALOMA OPERATIONS

WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, will be activating it’s HF and EchoLink/IRLP station on Saturday, November 8th , 2008 at 8 PM EST (0100z).

PLEASE RELAY TO STATIONS IN THE AFFECTED AREAS.

We request all land based stations as well as ships at sea in the areas affected to send us weather data (measured or estimated) and damage reports.

If you are in the affected area and normally monitor on a local Net on VHF, 40 or 80 meters, we would appreciate your checking into the HWN NET or EchoLink/IRLP Net once per Hour to receive the latest Hurricane Advisories and to report your local conditions.

Please do not venture outside during the hurricane to gather weather data.

Your safety is the first priority.

There are many constantly changing atmospheric variables that affect the storm’s track and strength.

Please refer to the National Hurricane Center Advisories for official information. www.nhc.noaa.gov

WX4NHC will be monitoring the Hurricane Watch Net www.hwn.org on 14.325 MHz.

Secondary HF frequencies will be 7.268 MHz and 3.950 MHz +/- QRM, should we loose propagation on 20 meters.

EchoLink “WX-Talk” Conference Room and IRLP node 9219 will also be monitored. www.voipwx.net

WX4NHC will also monitor CWOP, APRS and MADIS/MESONET Automated weather stations in the affected area.

Surface Reports using our On-line Hurricane Report form will be monitored.

Amateur Weather Enthusiasts and ON-NHC Volunteers may report directly to WX4NHC on-line.

http://www.wx4nhc.org/WX-form1.html

ON-NHC Volunteers are both Ham Radio Operators and Non-Ham weather observers that use their own weather instruments to submit “Surface Reports” directly to NHC over the Internet via the WX4NHC on-line report form. These “Surface Reports” are very important as they give Hurricane Specialists at NHC a better idea of what is actually happening on the ground level during the storm.

The WX4NHC Group continues to expand its efforts to increase the quantity and quality of surface reports to include many different modes of reception and groups of people; including HF, VHF/UHF IRLP & EchoLink, VHF & HF APRS, CWOP NOAA Program and ON-NHC Weather Observers Network.

(see our web site for more information on these programs): www.wx4nhc.org

WX4NHC is very proud to have maintained an active Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center for the past 28 years.

We appreciate all of the volunteers who help with our efforts.

OUR MISSION: TO HELP SAVE LIVES.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Julio Ripoll Architect WD4R
WX4NHC Amateur Radio Asst. Coordinator
www.wx4nhc.org

National Hurricane Center
www.nhc.noaa.gov
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

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

The weekly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net for this Saturday at 7 PM EST/0000 UTC is cancelled due to the fact that we will be activated for Hurricane Paloma as she approaches Cuba. Additional details on activation status and a situation report will follow 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
1
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