Season Ending News and Notes

Posted by

Here at WARN we traditionally use September 30 as the end of severe weather season. With that in mind, ham radio operators should be aware that we will now use the off-season monthly training net schedule. Training nets for the Cincinnati area will now be conducted on the first Wednesday of every month beginning at 7:30 p.m. Cincinnati time. All ham radio operators are encouraged to check in. The first monthly net will be tomorrow on the 146.88- repeater. The weekly training nets will resume in March of 2001. Ham radio operators see below for other operational changes.

That being said, we realize that regardless of the season, severe weather can occur at any time. Should the NWS request an actual net, we will activate as usual.

We recently attended a seasonal wrap-up meeting at the NWS office in Wilmington. NWS meteorologists thanked everyone who assisted in making the warning system an effective tool for public safety. All the statistics have not been compiled for the season. I will forward those to the list as soon as I get them. Our meeting was held before the severe that occurred on 9/20 (including the Xenia tornado). As of then approximately 350 warnings had been issued by the Wilmington NWS office. One interesting fact was that about 1/3 of all the warnings issued, as of then, were on August 9th when severe weather moved through in the morning and again in the evening. Mary Jo Parker, Warning Coordination Meteorologist stated that the automated warning system for NOAA weather radio worked wonderfully, keeping right up with the flood (no pun intended) of warnings being issued. She doubted whether it would have been possible to keep up using the manual system.

Ham Radio Operators Note

Effective immediately – Bracken County and Robertson County will be moved to the West Union Section. Coverage of that area has always been sparse at best. With a couple of linked repeaters that are now operational, it is felt that radio coverage is better into the West Union Section than Cincinnati. So, from now on, ham radio operators in this area should attempt to submit reports on the 145.47- repeater or the 146.955- repeater. Neither requires PL.