Hi everyone & welcome to your ALERT Newsletter.
I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July & that you enjoyed the fireworks over Red Mountain.
As I started thinking about an article for this month’s newsletter the subject of nets and net operations came to mind. I’ve always had a deep interest in Ham nets, both on VHF and HF.
My first exposure to Ham Radio was listening to the old Alabama Emergency Net X-ray on 146.940.  I vividly remember the night of “The Day Of 100 Tornadoes” back in April of 1974, as wave after wave of storms passed through.  I remember the power going out at the house just as the NCS began shouting, “someone kill the autopatch”, which had activated itself just as the line hit, jamming the desperate reports that were flooding in, adding to the drama & chaos of the night.
One of the first things I did as a new ham was become active in the 3.965 Net.  In the course of time I was an NCS on the AENX now the Jefferson County Emergency Net, the AENN now the Shelby County Net, the AENB now the Alabama Section Net fast speed CW Net and the now defunct AEND slow speed CW traffic Net, of which I was also Net Manager.
Nets are interesting creatures.  They are one of the best ways to learn and meet the ham community.If you are shy about rag chewing, they give you a chance to “ham it up”.  They also give you an excuse to blow the dust off the radio and remind everyone that you are still in the Land O’ The Living.
Wild and weird things happen on nets.  I remember an SOS in perfect CW, with callsign, being superimposed on the NCS’s signal one night & the hams responding to the distress call, calling 911 and the paramedics finding the address given being an empty field.
Weather Nets generate interesting critiques.  A vocal few, will get loud and testy that the net has been brought up when their neighborhood is not “under the gun”, and then same dummies will get equally testy that the net isn’t up when a faint peal of thunder from the Mother of All Zephyrs is heard in their nook of the world.
Mostly though, nets are fun.
So be sure to check into our local nets:
BARC Sunday Night Net                       Sunday at 7PM      146.880    Shelby County ARES Net                     Tuesday at 8PM    146.980D-Star Net                                              Tuesday at 7:30     145.410Jefferson County Emergency Net       Tuesday at 9PM    146.880
When you check in, you might also consider taking the next step & try your hand at being a Net Control Station.  There is no better training for emergency net operations than to being an NCS on our local nets.
As an NCS you learn the ebb and flow of nets and net operations. You learn how to handle marginal signal and as you learn the ham community sometimes you will know who is checking in just by the voice or signal quirks and characteristics.   Your ears become trained to pull the signal out.

Someday that can become very important.  “I’m seeing a tornado on the ground at Lakeshore and Highway 280.  This is WD4fttttttttttttttttttttt.”  Though the signal has dumped, you know who it is by the voice and know it’s that crazy old coot that runs the Sunday Night Net.
“Oh I might mess up!” you might say.
Well, in thirty years of doing nets there isn’t a way to mess up a net that I have tried or invented, from dogs howling in the background, calling the net on the wrong repeater & calling it on the wrong night.I dumped ice water in my lap during the preamble one night, and I never missed a word.  True, my voice raised a few octaves in pitch, but still I never missed a word.
So don’t be shy about jumping in.   When Hub N4HUB, Tom W4TCA or I ask for volunteers on our nets, we aren’t asking for politeness sake.  We are actually looking for some willing souls to pitch in.
So when you hear us asking for volunteers, you go for it!
I double dirty dog dare you to….;-)
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Mark’s Almanac
Originally called “Quintilis”, the fifth Roman month, Quintilis was renamed “July” in 44 BC in honor of Julius Caesar.
July is miserably hot, as land temperatures reach their peaks in late July through early August – the Dog Days of Summer.  The last week of July is usually the hottest week of the year.  Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley.
This is the time to test the “Brown Grass Theory”.  According to the theory, if the grass remains green the temperature will probably not reach 100, but, if the grass turns brown, get set for triple digits.  This is a local Birmingham rule, which I learned from the Old Timers at the Birmingham NWS way back when they were on Oxmoor Road.
Tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide.  July has an average of 103 tornadoes.
July Hurricane activity normally increases, but major hurricanes are not yet frequent.  By months end, one hurricane will have occurred.  Seven percent of a year’s hurricane total occurs in July.
Long track hurricanes are possible, forming off the African coast and crossing the Atlantic, either to threaten the US East Coast, then eventually veering off towards Bermuda. Or in the case of “Low Latitude” storms, cross the Atlantic, strike the Leeward Islands; enter the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast.
July’s Full Moon is “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore.
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I’m still looking for some articles for the newsletter.
Send me some items.  After all, you never know when those Pulitzer Committee folk will be reading.
This month’s meeting will be on July 13 at 7PM at the National Weather ServiceForecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

I hope to see you there.
Mark
WD4NYL
President
ALERT

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Hi Everyone,

June has arrived & with its arrival begins the North Atlantic Hurricane Season, which will last until the end of November.

Hurricane season predictions are an inexact science, but most soothsayers are saying, that due to El Nino fading away, we will have a severe tropical season.  How severe depends on whom you ask.

NOAA is predicting 23 named systems, with 8 to 14 hurricanes, 3 to 7 of which will be major.

Dr. William Gray & Phillip Klotzbach of Colorado State predicts 18 named systems, with 10 hurricanes, four of which will be major.

Florida State has issued the news that they believe there is an 89% chance of the US being hit by a hurricane that would “cause property damage”.

Personally I predict a 100% chance of hurricane related property damage either wind or water related within a 150 mile radius of landfall, with the greater damage potential occurring on the right side of the storm path, especially if at high tide, on a bay and it being on a full moon, going with the operating assumption that a storm actually forms and that it actually makes landfall on the continental US…

Ok. There you go.  Now where’s my grant money and my “free government <censored>”???

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Hurricane Impact & Hurricane Response

Alabama is impacted by hurricanes in three ways:

1. Direct Impact – Where the core of the storm or the rain / wind field actually strikes or passes through a portion of Alabama.  Examples being Hurricane’s Fredrick, Opal, Ivan or Katrina.
2. Indirect Impact – where the core is not over Alabama, but the feeder bands are passing through and causing havoc.  Rita’s feeder band being a good example, which dropped 20

tornadoes over west Alabama in a 4 hour period.  I was NCS on 88 as Tuscaloosa County

was hit by 10 tornadoes. Some on the ground simultaneously, north and south in the county, during this – the second largest one day tornado outbreak on record.

1. Distant Impact – A storm is not even near Alabama, but, affecting our weather.  Such as with Olivia, a Pacific Hurricane which was off Western Mexico.  Her moisture was captured by the jet stream, crossed the Sonora desert, the Arklatex region & dumped monsoon type rains on Alabama & Mississippi, causing flooding.

ALERT typically will activate during scenarios 1 & 2.  Most of our activity when the storm is near the coast normally has been on HF at 3.965 or the backup 40 meter frequency of 7.225.  However, since we currently are without HF capability and with the ever improving coverage on D-Star, ALERT’s coverage would concentrate on monitoring D-Star directly and HF using a liaison station monitoring HF offsite.

Then as the storm moves northward into the BMX County Warning Area the focus would then shift to the individual county Skywarn Nets, as we would do during a “normal” callout.

HF Gulf Coast Nets to monitor are:

Primary State ARES Frequencies & Nets for Gulf of Mexico & regular meeting times.

3.965 MHz       Alabama Emergency Net Mike                 4:00 PM Sunday

3.940 MHz       Florida Amateur Single Sideband Net     6:00 PM

3.975 MHz       Georgia Single Sideband Net                   7:30 PM

3.910 MHz       Louisiana Traffic Net                                 6:30 PM

3.862 MHz       Mississippi Section Phone Net                 6:00 PM

3.873 MHz       Texas Traffic Net                                       6:30 PM

Wide Coverage Nets

14.235 MHz       Hurricane Watch Net                               As Needed

3.935 MHz       Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net          1:00 UTC

The Hurricane Watch Net is only activated when a storm is within 300 miles of a populated land mass.  This net is one where you don’t check in to, only listen.  Only if you have a legitimate need to check in do you do so – emergency/priority traffic or if the NCS specifically calls for a station in Central Alabama, only then should you pick the microphone up.  Or, if they do actually give a call for general checkins.

Some Internet resources you should have in your armory include:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ – The National Hurricane Center out of Coral Gables, FL

http://www.hurricane.alabama.gov/ – The Alabama Hurricane Center has loads of links for

when a storm visits our well oiled beaches.

http://euler.atmos.colostate.edu/~vigh/guidance/ Hurricane Forecast Models

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html Satellite imagery and data – worldwide

http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/trop-atl.html Storm centered satellite imagery

Many other resources, including coastal radar picket, Caribbean & Mexican radar,

charts and satellite imagery can be found at www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/ and

clicking on “Tropics, Charts & Satellites”.

This is my own website, which I am shamelessly hawking.   I created it so I could access weather resources at K4NWS and offsite.

At 4600 plus hits (4550 of which are mine) it can’t be too wrong.

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Mark’s Almanac

Originally the fourth Roman Month, June at one time had 29 days, until Julius Caesar in a glow of inspiration added the 30^th day.

What June was named for is uncertain.  Some say it was named for Juno, wife & sister of Jupiter.

Storm activity retains many of the characteristics of spring, but more and more the pattern takes on the summer pattern of pop-up thunderstorms.

Hurricane season begins, however June hurricanes are usually small and of minor intensity, occurring roughly once every two years.

The centers for June Tropical Cyclone activity are the extreme Western Caribbean, with the storm tracks striking the Yucatan or veering toward Western Florida & the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico, with the storm tracks aiming toward the Mexican mainland.

The center of maximum tornadic activity shifts northward over Kansas and Iowa.  Activity in Texas and Oklahoma dies down. There is a 5% decrease in tornadic activity over the May average & by June fourth 50% of the years tornadoes have occurred.

So far, as of June 2, 544 tornadoes have been reported, 24 of which occurred in Alabama.

Summer Solstice will occur at 11:28 UTC on June 21.

June’s Full Moon is “Strawberry Moon” in Native American folklore.

Remember June 25^th and mark it on your calendar & on that date remember Christmas, for this is what Christmas day feels like in Northern Australia.

Now for the most important Nugget O’ Knowledge that you will get from this newsletter. In June ducks loose all their flight feathers at once and are incapable of flying.

Now aren’t you glad to know that?

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This month’s meeting will be on June 8 at 7PM at the National Weather Service

Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
President
ALERT
www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Hi everyone,
At tonight’s ALERT meeting elections for the 2010-2011 term were held.

The Officers for 2010-2011 are:
President                 Mark Wells
Vice-President         Russell Thomas
Membership             Russell Thomas
Treasurer                 Ed Pitchford
NWS Liason           Nathan Jones
Secretary                 Steven Moss
Operations               Steven Moss
Public Information    John Miller
Training                   Jeff Drew

I wish to thank our outgoing officers Ron Arant and Howard Moss for their services for ALERT.  We appreciate you. 

Mark
WD4NYL
President Of ALERT

Hi Everyone,

The last few weeks finally saw active weather, which produced callouts.  I want to thank all who participated in the callouts.  From the feedback I’m getting we did well.  For those who where unable to respond, don’t be discouraged.  Just keep on keeping on & stand by for the next callout.  For others, will surely come & things will finally work out where you can get in on the action.

A couple of “housekeeping notes” I’ll pass along.  We have had a few requests for access to NWSchat lately from non-ALERT members.  To have access you must be a paid up Operational ALERT member, which includes being a currently licensed amateur radio operator, who can respond to callouts.  If you are reading this and are not a member, I invite you to join.  We welcome you and we need you.  For more details visit our website given above.

Elections are here!  If you are a paid up Operational or Supporting Member (which is a member interested in Amateur Radio, Skywarn or Emergency Communications, but doesn’t have a ham license (yet) you may vote in the 2010 – 2011 ALERT leadership elections.  Be sure to attend.

Finally, before we proceed, this newsletter needs some articles.  My creative juices sometimes run low, and sometimes dry out.  Some might argue that they appear to be in a perpetual drought.  So if you have any short articles you can submit, please do so.

Thanks in advance!

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Free Weather Stations!!!

Would you like a free weather station?  How about a whole network of them?  Well you are in luck; allow me to introduce you to the realm of Automated Weather and Surface Observation systems.

These include AWOS, ASOS, AWSS and ATIS stations.  Lets look at them one by one.

Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) – AWOS stations are operated by the Federal Aviation Administration, state & local governments and some private agencies.  The NWS and Department of Defense play no part in the deployment or operation of these stations.  These are the oldest automated weather systems. 

Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) – ASOS stations are operated cooperatively by yhe NWS, FAA & DOD. This is a primary climatological observing network.   Deployment of the system began in 1991 and was completed in 2004. 

Automated Weather Sensor System (AWSS) – These units are operated independently by the FAA & are similar to ASOS stations.

Automated Terminal Information Service (ATIS) – These are continous broadcasts of recorded airport information, featuring weather & NOTAMS or Notices To Airmen which can include airport facility notices, nearby bird activity (also called BIRDTAMS), temporary obsticles such as cranes, unlit

towers, etc.  These generally update every hour and are given a phonetic letter designation starting with “alpha” each day.

All of these stations use a similar format for reports.  “Birmingham Airport Automated Weather Observation. One six five three zulu.  Wind 180 degrees at 7 gusting to 20.  Visibility 7.   Light rain, mist.  Sky condition 700 scattered, 1700 broken, 3500 overcast.  Temperature 29 Celsius, Dew Point 12 Celsius. Altimeter 29.64.  Remarks distant lightning South West through west. Wind variable between 230 and 150.” 

These reports are very useful in getting an idea of the conditions both now and just upstream of you.

I have them programmed in my phone.  The local numbers and frequencies being.

Alabaster / Shelby County                    205-663-5881        134.325 MHz  

Bessemer / Jefferson County               205-424-3127        118.825 MHz

Birmingham / Jefferson County           205-591-6172        119.400 MHz

The following link gives you all of the AWOS and ASOS Frequencies and Telephone by city or airport for Alabama and Mississippi.

http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/asos/?state=AL

http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/weather/asos/?state=MS

Now there are a few drawbacks to these stations:

1. The weather given is the weather where the station is located, and does not necessarily agree with the weather where you are.  I remember during an SET where K4NWS was giving wind directions during a simulated chemical spill 10 miles away & having some souls complain that what I was reporting was not what they were seeing.   Just as the NWS can’t observe weather conditions at ground level 10 miles away, neither can a single weather station.   Truth be known, if you have two identical stations within visual range of each other, they may not necessarily give the same readings.   Wind currents and eddies, trees, shadows, unknown or unseen elements all of which make up the microclimate of the location will throw curve balls into the readings.

1. Cloud layer altitudes are interesting to know.  But, they are measured using a laser beam ceilometer that shoots a laser beam straight up & measures return “echo”.  This bugger is good and accurate, but has tunnel vision.  I have seen times it would say “clear” and it was really ringing a doughnut hole in an otherwise overcast sky.  This device has a maximum range of 12000 feet.  Low Altocumuli can be detected; higher altocumulus levels will be missed.

Now the Birmingham Airport ATIS which is manually done with a real person reading the observation, unlike in years past when they would give a complete observation, will just say “ceiling better than five thousand five”. Apparently not giving much of a rip as to giving more detail as they might run the risk of missing the Simpsons by taking the time to so.  These are not the NWS folk doing this, by the way.  I don’t want to get fired. 

Just label this as Mark’s gripe #572.

1. Weird observations can come in.  Once, way back in the late 70’s the automated system at the Birmingham airport kept saying the temperature was 129 degrees.  They finally sent someone out to see why and found a semi sitting there unloading and the exhaust plume of the truck cooking the thermometer.

1. The heathen communists apparently having won, the temperatures readings are now given in Celsius, instead of Fahrenheit, like the Good Lord intended.  So keep a conversion chart handy.

Another resource I find useful or interesting, me being a weatherholic, is the HIWAS or Hazardous In-flight Weather Advisory Service.  This is a continuous broadcast of a summary of hazardous weather information including AIRMETS, SIGMETS & PIREPS.

AIRMETs – Airmen’s Meteorological Information – which is a description of the occurrences or expected occurrences of en route weather phenomena which may affect the safety of flight operations. 

SIGMETs – Significant Meteorological Information – which is an advisory containing weather information concerning the safety of all aircraft

These may be Convective SIGMET’s or Non-Convective SIGMET’s.

Non-convective SIGMET’s are issued when there is severe or greater turbulance over a 3,000 square-mile area, or severe or greater icing over a 3,000 square-mile area or blind flying conditions over a 3,000 square-mile area due to dust, sand or volcanic ash.

Convective SIGMET’s are issued for thunderstorm activity over the Continental U.S, aka CONUS. These are issued for an area of thunderstorms affecting an area of 3,000 square-miles or greater, a line of thunderstorms at least 60 nautical miles long, and/or severe or embedded thunderstorms affecting any area that are expected to last 30 minutes or longer.  Thunderstorm line length, width, storm height, wind speed, projected hail size, direction of travel and forward velocity are given.

A SIGMET forecast is valid for up to four hours and are are assigned an alpha numeric designator from November through Yankee, excluding S and T.

Last but not least PIREPS or Pilot Reports of actual significant weather conditions encountered inflight.

This information is available on 114.400 MHz, transmitted by the “Vulcan” Visual Omnirange Station or VOR.  You have to be just Northwest of Birmingham to pick it up, or on a high elevation.

I’ve looked, but not yet found the text product that they read from an online source. 

There also is a weather station on 162.550 MHz that’s pretty good.  I think it’s run by some guy named Noah.

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Mark’s Almanac

May is the fifth month & third month of the Roman calendar.  Since ancient times the first day of the month, “May Day” has been a time of celebration.  In Rome it honored Flora, the goddess of flowers.

It isn’t celebrated as much as it once was in the United States, but I, being older than dirt, remember Maypoles, festivals & such.

On May the fifth Mexican’s celebrate Cinco De Mayo, the Celebration of Mayonnaise.  Or perhaps celebrating Mexico’s 1862 victory over Napoleon III’s forces at Puebla.  Take your pick.

Rainfall decreases in May as the Bermuda High strengthens & begins rerouting storm systems northward.

The door opens to the Gulf of Mexico & Gulf moisture spreads northward over the continent.

The center of maximum tornadic activity also shifts northward over the Nation’s Heartland.  May is the peak tornado month, with a 42% increase over April’s amount.

For 2010 as of May 3, nationwide there have been 298 tornadoes reported.  Alabama is fifth in the nation in tornado touchdowns.  Current standings being:

Mississippi   49

Arkansas      33

Texas            32

Missouri       26

Alabama       24

Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins May 15, and although the North Atlantic hurricane season has not arrived, occasionally a tropical system will form in the Gulf of Mexico.  In 110 years there have been 14 named storms.

May’s Full Moon is “Flower Moon” in Native American folklore. 

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This month’s meeting will be on May 11 at 7PM at the National Weather Service

Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

I hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL

President

ALERT

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/