Tag Archives: Hurricane Watch

VoIP Hurricane Net details

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dennis Dura, who shares the following information about the VoIP Hurricane Net in which he is heavily involved:

**VoIP Hurricane Net will activate starting at 9 AM EDT Thursday Morning through 11 PM EDT Saturday Evening for Dangerous Hurricane Florence which is expected to be a major hurricane and will slow its approach to the Southeast North Carolina/Northeast South Carolina Coast Thursday Night through Friday Night with continued hurricane impacts into Saturday.**
**WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center, will activate at 900 AM EDT Thursday 9/13/18 for Dangerous Hurricane Florence**

Here are the VoIP Hurricane Net and WX4NHC Activation Plans for Florence as of Wednesday Evening 9/12/18 at 745 PM EDT/2345 UTC:

The VoIP Hurricane Net will activate starting at 900 AM EDT Thursday Morning through Saturday Evening for Dangerous Hurricane Florence’s impacts to North and South Carolina. WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center, will activate at 900 AM EDT Thursday 9/13/18. Florence is expected to be a dangerous major hurricane and slowing her approach to the North and South Carolina coast Thursday Night through Friday Night with hurricane impacts and landfall some time on Saturday.

Any Amateur Radio Operators in the affected area of Hurricane Florence or with relays into the affected area of Florence are asked to provide surface and damage reports into the VoIP Hurricane Net for relay into WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center. We appreciate any and all support from Amateur Operators in the affected area or Amateur Operators with relays into the affected area. We are looking for reports based on the National Weather Service SKYWARN Reporting criteria. This can be seen on the VoIP Hurricane Net web site at the following link:

http://voipwx.net/voip-hurricane-net-reporting-criteria/

Any pictures or videos of wind damage, river/stream/urban/storm surge flooding etc. can be sent to the following email address: [email protected] and credit will be given to the Amateur Radio Operator, weather spotter or individual that took the photos and media and be shared with the Amateur Radio team at the National Hurricane Center and other agencies and outlets.

Advisories on Hurricane Florence can be seen off of the Atlantic Tropical Products menu selection on the voipwxnet web site, via our Facebook and Twitter feeds, and off the National Hurricane Center web site via the following link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

Reports as obtained via the VoIP Hurricane Net from Amateur Radio Operators in the affected area, relays from the affected area or from APRS/CWOP Weather Station feeds and other social media outlets can be found at the following link:

http://report.voipwx.net/qilan/nhcwx/list_VOIP_records?auth=OK

Stations outside the affected area who would like to listen into the VoIP Hurricane Net can use any of the following systems for listen-only purposes and can connect on either Echolink or IRLP:
*NEW-ENG3* Echolink conference node: 9123/IRLP 9123

Stations outside the affected area who would like to listen into the VoIP Hurricane Net can use any of the following systems for listen-only purposes on Echolink:
*KA1AAA* Echolink conference node: 4439
*WX5FWD* Echolink conference node: 372418
*ARERT* Echolink conference node: 27366

Stations outside the affected area who would like to listen into the VoIP Hurricane Net can use any of the following systems for listen-only purposes on All-Star by dialing *33009123.

We will have an audio livestream as provided by KC4QLP-Bob Carter. That link is listed below:

http://173.249.54.155:9050

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management team continues to closely watch Hurricane Florence. 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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Listen to hurricane watch nets on your shortwave radio

As of time of this posting, Hurricane Irene is on a path that could threaten a large swath of the east coast of the United States. If you have a shortwave radio, even a portable, that can tune in SSB (or Single-Side Band) you can listen to or participate in the Hurricane Watch Net courtesy of your radio.

How to find the Hurricane Watch Net on your portable shortwave radio

Simply tune your radio to 14,325 kHz (or 14.325 MHz). Since these signals are often weaker than AM broadcast signals, you should fully extend your antenna.

Next, turn on the SSB or BFO switch on your radio.  These are labeled in various ways, but when you activate the SSB mode, the audio characteristics of your radio will change rather dramatically.

If there is activity on the frequency (i.e., the Watch Net is busy), you should hear voices. More than likely, you will need to tune the SSB to make the voices intelligible.  Typically, there will be a dedicated fine tuning knob/wheel to allow you to do this.

Keep in mind that if you hear nothing but static, that may only be because there is no current traffic on the net. Patience will pay off.

Participation

Can you participate in the Hurricane Watch Net and make reports on your weather observations if you’re not a licensed amateur radio operator? Of course! In fact, the Hurricane Watch Net states:

The National Hurricane Center collects observations from people in coastal areas who have home weather stations.  Send an e-mail to [email protected] and request information about this program or use their on-line submission form by clicking here.

I will attempt to record some sample audio from the Hurricane Watch Net and post it here (on this page) in the near future.

Also, please note that there are many other frequencies to monitor in the resources section below. Many frequencies are specific to a region, like North Carolina (tune to 3923Khz or  7232Khz SSB), so be sure to try several, not just the HWN.

Resources

 

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