VoIP Hurricane Net Activation Policy

The VoIP Hurricane Net is activated when the following criteria are met:

· The National Hurricane Center station, WX4NHC, is active with hurricane net operations.

· There are EchoLink and/or IRLP nodes in or near the affected area of the hurricane or a means to gather information in the affected area of the hurricane.

· An Emergency Management Agency or Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) requests activation for the net.

· The VoIP Net Management determines there is a need for a net and self-activates.
VoIP Hurricane Net Activation Process

The process for activation is as follows:

· The National Hurricane Center (NHC) Coordinators will either send a note to the VoIP-NCO email list or directly to VoIP Net Managers stating the time of their activation.

· The VoIP Net Management self-activates the net to support pre-net or informal net activities if required and formal activation if a tropical system unexpectedly increases to a hurricane near a land area with EchoLink/IRLP nodes in the affected area.

· The VoIP Net Management is notified by an Emergency Management Agency or NGO that they would like the net activated to support their needs.

· The net will activate based on that notice and the requirement that there be EchoLink and/or IRLP nodes or stations within or near the affected area or a means to gather information in the affected area of the hurricane.
VoIP Hurricane Net Activation Policy Notes

NOTE:

If there are no EchoLink/IRLP nodes or stations in or near the affected area or a means to gather information from the affected area of the hurricane, the VoIP Hurricane Net will not be activated since there would be no means to gather information to the National Hurricane Center.

Once a request for activation of the VoIP Hurricane Net is received, the Net Control Scheduler for activations will then put together a schedule of coverage for the hurricane covering a span of 24-36 hours until the threat of the hurricane has passed. For slow-moving hurricanes or consecutive hurricanes that are near each other in time, the scheduler will continue doing scheduling until a deactivation notice is received from the NHC Coordinators and VoIP Net Management decides when to deactivate the net. The deactivation notice of operations for WX4NHC is typically sent by the NHC Coordinators through the VoIP-NCO email list. In addition, if the National Hurricane Center is monitoring the VoIP system, the net control can check in with the National Hurricane Center to determine when they will be deactivating their operations.