Skywarn Recognition Day 2016

[KA2ODP/7]

Here is a heads-up for Amateur Radio operators in the Great Falls and North Central Montana area.

The Great Falls Area Amateur Radio Club (GFAARC) will be participating in Skywarn Recognition Day on Saturday, 3 December 2016. The location is at the National Weather Service (NWS) office up on Gore Hill near the Great Falls airport. Skywarn Recognition Day is co-sponsored by the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) and the National Weather Service as a way to recognize the commitment made by Amateur Radio operators to help keep their local communities safe from dangerous weather conditions. The Great Falls Area Amateur Radio Club (GFAARC) supports the local NWS office by providing volunteers to operate the HF/VHF/UHF Amateur Radio equipment installed at their facility.

How do Amateur Radio operators make a difference with the National Weather Service? The upgraded Doppler weather radar at Gore Hill can “see” weather activity from many miles away. Yet, the forecasters always seek confirmation from ground observers to validate what they are seeing on the radar return images. They want to be 100% certain that no weather anomaly is being missed by the weather radar. Through the Skywarn program, ham radio operators act as “eyes on scene” to provide “ground truth” feedback to the NWS.

This year will mark the 18th annual Skywarn Recognition Day. Amateur Radio operators can visit their local participating NWS office, working as a team to contact other hams at other NWS offices across the United States during the 24-hour event on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6 and 2 meters, as well as 70 centimeters. The event will start at 5:00 PM Friday, 2 December 2016 and run until 5:00 PM on Saturday, 3 December 2016. This is not a contest – we just want to see how many other NWS offices we can contact via ham radio. This is a low stress, fun event! It is also a good opportunity for newly licensed Technicians to see what its like to operate on the shortwave, or "High Frequency" (HF) bands.

The address for our local NWS office is 5324 Tri-Hill Frontage Road. From Great Falls just head out on I-15 towards Helena and take the airport exit ramp (Exit 277). At the stop sign, turn left and cross over the bridge towards the two truck stops. Just before the Pilot Truck Stop, turn right onto the frontage road and head south. The NWS office is about 1.5 miles down on the left side, just past the UPS building. Look for the white radar “golf ball” behind the main building.

This event is being organized by our local Skywarn coordinator, Ken Wolfslau (W7WOF). If the weather cooperates with reasonable temperatures and winds, we will be setting up the GFAARC antenna tower trailer with a tri-band Yagi beam antenna in the field next to the NWS office a few days prior to the event. Everyone is encouraged to stop by and help with the antenna set-up prior to Friday and tear-down on Saturday evening. Stay tuned to the Thursday evening ARES net on the 146.740 MHz repeater at 7:00 PM for further updates. Sometime around Wednesday a QST announcement will probably go out over the 146.740 MHz repeater concerning the antenna set-up project.

Ken is also coordinating with the NWS office to arrange for a tour of the weather facility on Saturday at 3:00 PM. The tour will show all the instruments and computer displays used by the forecasters to predict the weather. The tour will conclude with the launch of a weather balloon supporting an instrument cluster that will radio back to the NWS office the atmospheric conditions at various altitudes across north central Montana.

So if you would like a “backstage pass” to the world of weather forecasting, be sure to stop by the NWS on Saturday around 2:30 PM so we can get the tour group organized and ready to go. Better yet, stop in early and get on the air with our HF station! There will be plenty of control operators present, so now is your chance to make some contacts with distant locations on the shortwave bands. There is a whole different world out there besides the local 2-meter FM repeaters!

This is also an invite to those hams living outside the Great Falls area. If you have plans to be in Great Falls on Saturday, 3 December 2016, please stop in at the National Weather Service and say "Hello". Just look for all the vehicles with 2-meter antennas and call sign license plates; you'll know that you are in the right place.

See you there!

73 de

Bruce, KA2ODP/7
ARES Emergency Coordinator

[KA2ODP/7]

Thanks to everyone who stopped by at the National Weather Service for Skywarn Recognition Day. The band conditions were not the best, but we managed to make contact with 23 other NWS locations that were also hosting Amateur Radio operators. The most notable was with WX0X, operating from the back of a C-130 on a flying mission. We also made 26 contacts with non-NWS stations that were participating in the event. Our efforts at contacting other participating NWS locations earned us the "Super Cell Thunderstorm" certificate. Several of us got to watch the routine launch of the afternoon weather balloon. The on-board sensor package transmitted weather conditions back to the NWS, allowing them to use the information to create the weather forecast for the next 24-hours.

A big "Thank You" to Ken, W7WOF, for coordinating the event with the NWS in Great Falls. They even provided cupcakes and other goodies for our enjoyment. Special thanks to the folks who helped Ken get the antenna trailer set-up and the dipole antenna hoisted up the side of the tower. Everything went well and we all had a good time!