[CQ-Contest] emergency communcations, contesters and the spotting network

[AD5VJ Bob]

Bravo and well said David:

Just got notice today that the National Hurricane Center expects an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season ... 
Details below:
---
 2006 Hurricane Predictions Released
May 22, 2006 Miami , FL - Immediate Release

The National Hurricane Center today predicts an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season...details and map at...

http://www.emergencyemail.org/newsemergency/anmviewer.asp?a=92&z=1

  73 fer nw,
Bob AD5VJ(AAR6VM)
Visit My Ham Blog
http://www.ad5vj.com/

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.




> -----Original Message-----
> From: cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com 
> [mailto:cq-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of David 
> Robbins K1TTT
> Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 5:51 PM
> To: YCCC; reflector cq-contest
> Subject: [CQ-Contest] emergency communcations,contesters and 
> the spotting network
> 
> Ham radio has a long tradition of helping during emergencies. 
>  I have at times suggested that emergency coordinators should 
> team up with contest operators and station owners to improve 
> their capabilities.  However due to busy contest schedules 
> and having a large station to maintain I have been less than 
> active following through.  I think this time I am going to 
> put my foot where my mouth is, or is that get off my high 
> butt, or something like that anyway...  On June 5 there will 
> be a state hurricane emergency drill for Mass.(see 
> http://ares.ema.arrl.org/)  I will have at least the local 
> skywarn coordinator at my station to participate.  I would 
> urge others to contact your local coordinators who may be 
> participating and invite them to visit and see some of your 
> station capabilities.  I will almost guarantee that most of 
> them have no idea of what could be done for HF or even VHF 
> communications from even a moderately well equipped contest station.
> 
> Related to this.
> 
> The original PacketCluster software added a WX command that 
> has proven useful over the years for notifications of severe 
> weather events.  In particular I have actively used it for 
> announcing north east regional severe thunderstorm watches 
> and warnings, and regional radar or lightning detector 
> warnings of thunder storms that may alert cluster users to 
> approaching storms.  During this drill I will be using this 
> facility to deliver short updates and solicit inputs as 
> requested by nets and other participants.  Now is the time to 
> figure out how to set your node or personal filters if you 
> don't want to see announces of this type.  I will be making 
> test announces in the evenings over the next week or so about 
> this so that you may test filter settings in case there 
> aren't any real thunderstorms or other events to announce.  I 
> would appreciate it if New England area sysops made sure that 
> these announces reached their nodes.  While I think the 
> network's emergency capability has been reduced by reliance 
> on internet connections, it may still provide at least some 
> pre-emergency or initial notification capability.  Even when 
> disconnected from the internet, nodes that have RF capability 
> can still serve as local collection points for traffic or 
> bulletins that can be relayed via other HF or VHF methods.
> 
>  
> 
> David Robbins K1TTT
> e-mail: mailto:k1ttt at arrl.net
> web: http://www.k1ttt.net
> AR-Cluster node: 145.69MHz or telnet://dxc.k1ttt.net
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> CQ-Contest mailing list
> CQ-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/cq-contest
>