SKYWARN Newsletter #20

Hello to all...

SKYWARN STRATEGY MEETING Minutes...
SKYWARN Training Update...
Sending the SKYWARN Document to Those Who Couldn't Attend the Meeting...
Packet Station Down During NWS Renovation...
Format Changes to the SKYWARN Newsletter...

***Newsletter issued: 1/20/97.

SKYWARN STRATEGY MEETING Minutes...

Here are the minutes to the SKYWARN Strategy Meeting of Thursday January
16th, 1997:

The meeting started at 6:37 PM with the following around the room
introductions:

There were 23 ham operators and 2 non-ham operators present.

WA1IDA-Bob Salow-ARRL Assistant Director New England Division
K1KYI-Rick Fairweather-ARRL Section Manager for Rhode Island
N1JMA-Martin Mendelson-ARES Section Emergency Coordinator for Rhode Island
N1OSX-Fred Lightell-ARES SKYWARN Coordinator/Assistant EC for Rhode Island
WA1YSN-Tom Olsson-West Greenwich RI Radio Officer/Fidelity ARC
N1KXJ-Ray Wall-ARES Section Emergency Coordinator for Eastern Massachusetts
KD1CY-Rob Macedo-ARES SKYWARN Coordinator for NWS Taunton
N1VUF-Brad Anselmo-Assistant EC for South Coastal MA area
N1OFD-Jerry Bergeron-Acushnet Emergency Management Agency Director
N1OHG-Ron Moniz-SKYWARN Contact Person to Man NWS Taunton
N1XZJ-Bob Metivier-SKYWARN Contact Person to Man NWS Taunton
N1YJO-Susan Metivier-Fairhaven Weather Net
N1XRS-Tony Duarte-Fairhaven Weather Net
W1ZSA-Roger Turner-Walpole EMA director
N1HGJ-Patricia Kelly-Walpole EMA
N1TZM-Jim Cahill-Fall River EMA/RACES Radio Officer
W1BOJ-Frank Benevides-Fall River ARC
N1FYZ-Carl Aveni-South Shore Massachusetts Emergency Coordinator
N1VMH-Jim Bernotas-Western Massachusetts SKYWARN Coordinator
KD1XP-Richard Strycharz-Vice President of ECARC in Sunderland, MA
N1PTG-Lenoard Mathieu-Assistant SKYWARN Contact for Hartford/Tolland Counties
N1WFX-John Santos-Fall River ARC
N1XKD-Peter Lagasse-Red Cross
Diane Houle
Evelyn Mathieu

The meeting then continued with changes in SKYWARN at NWS Taunton.
The 800 spotter line remains the same number but has dropped from two
lines to one therefore more busy signals are possible. The special line for
Emergency Management has been removed and now EMA officials must use
the observers line.

Compliments on reports, particularly for the last three events, were
extremely helpful in fine tuning forecasts. Packet reports have been
very helpful and the first Criminal Justice Information System report
from the Wareham Police department during the coastal flooding of
Friday January 10th was also extremely helpful.

The coastal flood event of 1/10 was just 2" below the flood control level
at the Providence hurricane barrier. The tide levels for the event
was 3.7 feet above normal. The New Moon tide as well as the effects
of a possible "gravity wave" caused the coastal flooding.

The Weekly Wednesday tone alert test on NOAA Weather Radio has had
problems since the implementation of EAS on the Weather Radio system.
The Johnston, RI transmitter has not received any, and the Soapstone
Mountain transmitter has had double alerts. This problem is to be
rectified in the coming weeks.

The internet web site for NWS Taunton has been changed and is now at
the following address:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/er/box

Spotter reports can be found in the Local Storm Reports and Public
Information Statements issued there.

Glenn Field's email address is glenn.field@noaa.gov if anyone has
questions for him.

Ray Weber, KA1JJM, has been unreachable, as his home or work phone
numbers are not current. The current Western Massachusetts SKYWARN
Coordinator Jim Bernotas has tried to locate him as well and has not.
Ray has been left on the contact list with an addendum that he is
currently unreachable.

Glenn Field then reiterated the reportable criteria for winter:

Snow accumilations every two inches and especially when the storm is over.
Change in precipitation type from Rain to ice to snow and vice-versa as
radar has a difficult time determining this changeover.
Also any type of thunderstorm is reportable in the winter.

There have been changes in the SKYWARN program at NWS Taunton as the
following operators have been added to the SKYWARN list of contacts:

N1FYZ-Carl-Brockton
N1EDM-Bob-Brockton
N1XZJ-Bob-New Bedford
N1OHG-Ron-Tiverton, RI
N1WUX-Scott-Berkley
N1VUF-Brad-Dartmouth
N1VSJ-Ed-Littleton

This will allow for greater flexibility for the operators and less
chance of people being burnt out.

Changes in the SKYWARN Activation Procedure have been announced. ARES
SKYWARN Coordinator Rob Macedo, KD1CY, will activate the network for
the appropriate areas when specific watches are issued with sufficient
lead time. National Weather Service informal heads up calls will
continue to be done by NWS Taunton meteorologists to give coordinators
out west sufficient lead time for severe thunderstorm and tornadic
events as well as for local callups that only effect one or two counties.
It was also mentioned to follow the levels of activation of the
SKYWARN document and that it was perfectly acceptable to activate
SKYWARN without a call from the SKYWARN Coordinator or NWS Taunton
if conditions are conducive for an activation.

The new Microsoft Access database for SKYWARN spotters was discussed
with Glenn Field through Pat Kelly N1HGJ and Roger Turner W1ZSA. It is
hoped that this database will come online in the coming months.

The Emergency Alert System was discussed and was a large portion of the
presentation.

EAS has already been installed to all Radio and TV stations by the
first of this year, and will be installed at all cable companies in
July of 1997. This is a joint effort of FEMA , NOAA, and the FCC.

The EAS has many different pro's and con's and replaces the EBS or
Emergency Broadcast System. The biggest differences of EAS as opposed
to EBS is that EBS was received by an operator and then retransmitted,
affected a large area, and was ineffective at an unattended station.
EAS allows for msgs to automatically be received and decoded as long as
the headers are programmed into the EAS decoder. Digital coding also
allows for it to be used by area, type of emergency, and originator,
and will display valid messages in any language.

The drawbacks to the EAS system is that there is much confusion over
what EAS Activation should be used for. Glenn Field stated simply
and succinctly that EAS activation should be activated for:

Blizzard Warnings
Hurricane Warnings
First Hurricane Local Statement
Severe Thunderstorm Warnings
Tornado Warnings
Flood Warnings

At this time there is encoding missing for Special Marine Warnings,
and Tropical Storm Warnings are issued in EAS under the same header
as hurricane warnings. Also the first hurricane local statement is
issued when a Hurricane Watch is issued and cause problems in the
EAS Activation scheme as an alert should only occur when a Hurricane
Warning is issued.

Another drawback is that it is possible for TV and Radio Stations to
issue their own tornado or other warnings and the encoding will appear
slightly different then if issued by NWS Taunton and the media does not
need to display any NWS warning but simply leave there decoders on to
log events. This could cause confusion as far as watches and warnings
are concerned and who exactly issues them. We should only honor NWS
watches and warnings as being valid.

EAS can be a potentially useful tool in SKYWARN paging use as it is a
form of packet being used to transmit the watches and warnings but does
not give information on where a storm is tracking. It simply gives
the warning, the area effective, and the time expiration. Until these
things are changed in the coming months, EAS could cause confusion
until all parties involved are adjusted to the system.

The SKYWARN training schedule of confirmed dates was reiterated
at the meeting. There are two more tentative sites in May
scheduled, one on May 1st in Walpole and one at the
Canton Connecticut school. There is also a potential site at
CCRI in Warwick, RI for training spotters in Western Rhode Island.
MEMA Area I in Tewksbury may be used for a site for training,
and there may also be a site at the Brockton VA Hospital for
SKYWARN training in May as well. Further information on training
sites appears in the SKYWARN Training Update section.

On Monday April 28th, 1997 the P3 Hurricane Hunter plane will be going
to Otis AFB with a town meeting in the evening. It is tentatively
scheduled as of this time, but it was expected to be firmed up by
the end of the week.

The Severe WX Awareness Week for 1997 has not been determined, and a
SKYWARN drill to focus on areas where SKYWARN groups have just been
formed will be done in May. The SKYWARN Drill will be worked out with
Eastern Mass. SEC Ray Wall, SKYWARN Coordinator, Rob Macedo, and
Glenn Field. Western Massachusetts and Northern Connecticut will not
be included in the drill as they drill for SKYWARN once a year
in conjunction with ARES and RACES drills in that region. The SKYWARN
Drill will be aimed at getting areas that have not been as active in
SKYWARN such as the North Shore and Rhode Island, some practice
in running SKYWARN Nets.

Six meters will now be explored more vigorusly as a possible liaison
frequency. There has been interest in the Boston area as well as
Worcester County and it was learned from N1PTG-Len that Connecticut
is using it for liaison to Connecticut EMA. 6 Meter experimentation and
use will be a new project for SKYWARN.

APRS was also discussed briefly and its advantage of being able to send
reports point to point WITHOUT the use of links or digis, this will also
be a new project explored for SKYWARN.

We then reviewed a few videoes before the meeting adjourned around 9 PM.

The next SKYWARN Strategy Meeting will be held Thursday June 5th at
NWS Taunton at 6:30 PM.

SKYWARN Training Update...

Canton Connecticut: To be confirmed by Glenn Field.

Middlesex County: Awaiting word from Kevin Tully of Area I, MEMA HQ for
word on a site there. It was also suggested to see if he could get a
VA Hospital in the region. Will also attempt to get a site in the
Littleton area through a contact person that Glenn Field provided.

Southern New Hampshire: Dave Day, and Don Dillaby to confirm a date
for training sometime in May at the Nashua City Hall Auditorium
provided by Nashua EMA.

Rhode Island: Western RI to be confirmed by N1JMA-Martin Mendelson and
K1KYI-Rick Fairweather for a site possibly at CCRI in Warwick, RI.

Windham County CT: To be Confirmed by Connecticut EMA.

Greater Boston Area: To be Confirmed by the Northeastern Amateur Radio Club.

Walpole, MA: To be confirmed by Roger Turner-W1ZSA. Looking at a
possible date at the Walpole Town Hall on Thursday May 1st from 7-9:30 PM.

Cape Cod and the Isles: To be confirmed by N1SNH-Henry, VP of the Falmouth
Amateur Radio Club.

Sending the SKYWARN Document to Those Who Couldn't Attend the Meeting...

In the next two to four weeks I will be sending out the SKYWARN Document
to those who did not attend the meeting. For those who have email,
I will send via email, else I will send a disk and hardcopy form of
the document.

Packet Station Down During NWS Renovation...

The W1JVW-1 packet station will be down until further notice while the new
AWIPS system is prepared for installation at NWS Taunton. Please use the
spotter line until further notice, and I will inform everyone when it is
back online.

Format Changes to the SKYWARN Newsletter...

There will be some format changes to the SKYWARN Newsletter, but it will
still be issued on a weekly basis.

Here are the changes:

1.) The SKYWARN Training schedule will not be reiterated in the newsletter
again until the complete list is done. For updates as it happens,
please reference my web page where the address appears below in my closing.

2.) Spotter reports will no longer be in the newsletter that is emailed but
WILL appear in the newsletter that's on my web page. This will reduce the
size of the newsletter. I will summarize storms and how SKYWARN reacted
in the newsletter on email.

This is hoped to continue reader interest in the newsletter.

That concludes this week's edition of the SKYWARN Newsletter,
Comments, Questions, or Suggestions are always welcome. The next
SKYWARN Newsletter will be issued in the January 26th/27th timeframe.

Respectfully Submitted,

Robert Macedo (KD1CY)
ARES SKYWARN Coordinator
Greater New Bedford ARES Emergency Coordinator
Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875
Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503
Work Phone #: (508) 435-1000 Ext.: 3411
Email Address: rmacedo@ma.ultranet.com
Packet Address: KD1CY @ AA1FS
http://www.ultranet.com/~rmacedo

Back to the SKYWARN Newsletter Archive