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Voice Over IP WX Net Report for Hurricane Alex
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Hello to all....
It was an honor and a privilege to serve as a Net Control for Hurricane Alex. We are prepared and looking forward to serving again as a net control in the future. Below is a report that I wrote for our local ARES team and for our Eastern Massachusetts ARRL Section concerning our support during this activation. It also features a lessons learned from our first ever participation in an actual activation. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Per Kevin Anderson-KD5WX and Danny Musten-KD4RAA, the Echolink and IRLP Net Managers for the Voice Over IP WX Net that supports the National Hurricane Center, we were activated to support the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC, with reports from the affected area of Hurricane Alex which was essentially the Outer Banks of North Carolina along with portions of Eastern North Carolina. I worked the mid-afternoon shift from roughly 2:30-5:00 PM EDT accompanied by Tony Duarte, N1XRS, Arthur Irwin-W1AEI, and Mike Mc Donald-KB1NB. Bill Miller-K1IBR was also at SEMARA but he was at the repeater site assisting and monitoring the ongoing tower work that NETCOM is doing. The peak of the hurricane had passed about 2 hours before my net shift but some interesting reports were received from the net as Hurricane Alex departed and they were as follows: Approximately 1500: W8JUK-Bob Kill Devils Hill, North Carolina on the Outer Banks. Average Wind Speed 24 MPH with gusts to 47 MPH. Barometer 29.53" and Falling. Reports from the local EOC in the area indicated South of Oregon Inlet to Cape Hatteras and many power outages. Approximately 1505: Frisco-Hatteras Island. Severe Coastal Flooding. 5-10 feet of water reported near the fire station in Frisco. Approximately 1515: KD4RAA relayed report from the Hurricane Intercept Team's Ham K4JVP: Significant Coastal Flooding in Pamlico Sound. Surge has dropped approximately 6" since past report. Sustained winds 40 MPH. Pressure rising to 999 Millbars. Approximately 1540: W8JUK-Bob reports 5.72" of rain at his location. All reports were forwarded to WX4NHC via the online reporting form. Other anecdotal reports were received and Hurricane Alex Advisory Numbers 13B and 14 were read over the net. The Hurricane Watch Net was monitored on 14.325 KHz. Additional reports were received via HF and forwarded to the National Hurricane Center through this net. WX4NHC allowed the Hurricane Watch Net to secure at 445 PM and the VoIP-WX Net secured at a similar timeframe. Lessons Learned from this first ever SEMARA ARES Activation for Support of the VoIP-WX Net Activation for Hurricane Alex: What Worked -Handling of traffic on the net went very well. -Numerous compliments were given on how the net was run during the period. -Handling of stations wishing to monitor was done correctly. -All reports forwared to WX4NHC in a timely fashion. -Great cooperation with all net participants. What Needs Improvement -Make sure we have correct spellings of locations. (Misspelled Frisco and "Kill" Devils Hill versus "Chill" Devils Hill, NC.) -Make sure we have detailed maps across the coastline of the Southeastern US and other locations that hurricanes could impact for reference. -Make sure to provide detailed descriptions of all reports per the NHC coordinators. Special thanks to Art, W1AEI, Tony, N1XRS and Mike, KB1NB for monitoring with me during this first ever Voice Over IP Activation for a Hurricane done in the Eastern Masaschusetts ARES section. Respectfully Submitted, Robert Macedo (KD1CY) ARES SKYWARN Coordinator Southeast Massachusetts ARES District Emergency Coordinator SEMARA ARES Emergency Coordinator Pager #: (508) 354-3142 Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM) Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM) Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM) Email Address: rmacedo@... |
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Excellent report Rob and I'm very proud of the job ya'll did, along with the other NCO's who participated, like Denyse and Jeff. My stint for an hour or so was minimal and I was inundated with additional business... tasks as fate would have it, which didn't help. All in all... job well done. !
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Kevin KD5WX * REPLY SEPARATOR * On 8/3/2004 at 10:58 PM Rob Macedo wrote:
Hello to all.... It was an honor and a privilege to serve as a Net Control for Hurricane Alex. We are prepared and looking forward to serving again as a net control in the future. Below is a report that I wrote for our local ARES team and for our Eastern Massachusetts ARRL Section concerning our support during this activation. It also features a lessons learned from our first ever participation in an actual activation. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Per Kevin Anderson-KD5WX and Danny Musten-KD4RAA, the Echolink and IRLP Net Managers for the Voice Over IP WX Net that supports the National Hurricane Center, we were activated to support the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC, with reports from the affected area of Hurricane Alex which was essentially the Outer Banks of North Carolina along with portions of Eastern North Carolina. I worked the mid-afternoon shift from roughly 2:30-5:00 PM EDT accompanied by Tony Duarte, N1XRS, Arthur Irwin-W1AEI, and Mike Mc Donald-KB1NB. Bill Miller-K1IBR was also at SEMARA but he was at the repeater site assisting and monitoring the ongoing tower work that NETCOM is doing. The peak of the hurricane had passed about 2 hours before my net shift but some interesting reports were received from the net as Hurricane Alex departed and they were as follows: Approximately 1500: W8JUK-Bob Kill Devils Hill, North Carolina on the Outer Banks. Average Wind Speed 24 MPH with gusts to 47 MPH. Barometer 29.53" and Falling. Reports from the local EOC in the area indicated South of Oregon Inlet to Cape Hatteras and many power outages. Approximately 1505: Frisco-Hatteras Island. Severe Coastal Flooding. 5-10 feet of water reported near the fire station in Frisco. Approximately 1515: KD4RAA relayed report from the Hurricane Intercept Team's Ham K4JVP: Significant Coastal Flooding in Pamlico Sound. Surge has dropped approximately 6" since past report. Sustained winds 40 MPH. Pressure rising to 999 Millbars. Approximately 1540: W8JUK-Bob reports 5.72" of rain at his location. All reports were forwarded to WX4NHC via the online reporting form. Other anecdotal reports were received and Hurricane Alex Advisory Numbers 13B and 14 were read over the net. The Hurricane Watch Net was monitored on 14.325 KHz. Additional reports were received via HF and forwarded to the National Hurricane Center through this net. WX4NHC allowed the Hurricane Watch Net to secure at 445 PM and the VoIP-WX Net secured at a similar timeframe. Lessons Learned from this first ever SEMARA ARES Activation for Support of the VoIP-WX Net Activation for Hurricane Alex: What Worked -Handling of traffic on the net went very well. -Numerous compliments were given on how the net was run during the period. -Handling of stations wishing to monitor was done correctly. -All reports forwared to WX4NHC in a timely fashion. -Great cooperation with all net participants. What Needs Improvement -Make sure we have correct spellings of locations. (Misspelled Frisco and "Kill" Devils Hill versus "Chill" Devils Hill, NC.) -Make sure we have detailed maps across the coastline of the Southeastern US and other locations that hurricanes could impact for reference. -Make sure to provide detailed descriptions of all reports per the NHC coordinators. Special thanks to Art, W1AEI, Tony, N1XRS and Mike, KB1NB for monitoring with me during this first ever Voice Over IP Activation for a Hurricane done in the Eastern Masaschusetts ARES section. Respectfully Submitted, Robert Macedo (KD1CY) ARES SKYWARN Coordinator Southeast Massachusetts ARES District Emergency Coordinator SEMARA ARES Emergency Coordinator Pager #: (508) 354-3142 Home Phone #: (508) 994-1875 (After 6 PM) Home/Data #: (508) 997-4503 (After 6 PM) Work Phone #: 1-800-445-2588 Ext.: 72929 (8 AM-5 PM) Email Address: rmacedo@... Yahoo! Groups Links |
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Bill Turner, WB4ALM
Rob Macedo wrote:
Hello to all....Excellent report... You might want to add some notes to your VOIP project as well... I choose to make use of your Streaming audio, ( ) as oppossed to connecting to echolink to monitor the goings on - primarily because I was interested, but also knew that I was not in good position "to do" anything, should anything be needed... As my interconnection to the Internet is a dial-up, this was only partically successfull. The audio as received my me as "choppy" and full of "echos" a condition that I recognize as a bandwidth limitation. You might want to add a couple of notes to the web site to assist "newcommers" as to necessary bandwidth and/or some recommended software packages that can be used to listen to the audio. I found that QUICKTIME under windows was a reasonable audio presentation package for the conditions that I was under (low bandwidth). There may be better packages out there, don't know and never thought about it before. Now I know it is an issue, and I will start looking around for what I consider to be necesary software enhancements for my network design (and bandwidth constrants). I would also like to throw in my ytwo cents worth, that overall I found the NET to have been very well run, and I appreciate the effort that it took to do it correctly, and the effort of those how put the echolink, irlp link, and streaming audio facilities together... Well Done! /s/ Bill Turner, wb4alm |
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