Hello to all...

The VoIP Hurricane Prep Net will now be on weekly on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference server node: 7203/IRLP 9219 system as Hurricane Season started on June 1st, 2009. For this week, there will be no training presentation. It is hoped to have a training presentation on the next 1-2 nets and those presentations will be announced ahead of time on the email list and on the web site.

A reminder notice has been put in the VoIPWXNet Yahoogroups calendar. Please note that the calendar has its limitations as far as time zones. The weekly net will take place every Sunday at 0000 UTC which is Saturday Evening at 8 PM EDT/7 PM CDT/6 PM MDT/5 PM PDT across portions of North America.

We are hoping for a quiet 2009 Hurricane Season but will be prepared for any activity the new season brings. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Hello to all....

Today marks the official start to the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season. The National Hurricane Center will now begin regular issuances of its Tropical Weather Outlook now that the Atlantic Season has begun. The first Tropical Weather Outlook for the Atlantic Season for 2009 is listed below and includes the 2009 Season Names as well as the listing of products the National Hurricane Center will issue for tropical systems in 2009 and a quick note on the NHC's 2009 seasonal forecast. See the outlook below:

000
ABNT20 KNHC 011134
TWOAT
TROPICAL WEATHER OUTLOOK
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
800 AM EDT MON JUN 1 2009

FOR THE NORTH ATLANTIC...CARIBBEAN SEA AND THE GULF OF MEXICO...

TROPICAL CYCLONE FORMATION IS NOT EXPECTED DURING THE NEXT 48 HOURS.

TODAY MARKS THE FIRST DAY OF THE ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON...WHICH WILL RUN UNTIL NOVEMBER 30.  LONG-TERM ANNUAL AVERAGES OF TROPICAL STORMS...HURRICANES...AND MAJOR HURRICANES IN THIS BASIN ARE 11...6...AND 2...RESPECTIVELY.

THE LIST OF NAMES FOR 2009 IS AS FOLLOWS:

NAME          PRONUNCIATION     NAME          PRONUNCIATION
--------------------------------------------------------------
ANA           AH- NAH           LARRY
BILL                            MINDY
CLAUDETTE     CLAW DET-         NICHOLAS      NIK- O LAS
DANNY                           ODETTE        O DET-
ERIKA         ERR- REE KA       PETER
FRED                            ROSE
GRACE                           SAM
HENRI         AHN REE-          TERESA        TE REE- SA
IDA                             VICTOR        VIC- TER
JOAQUIN       WAH KEEN-         WANDA
KATE

Hello to all...

On Monday Evening 6/1/09 from 7-9 PM EDT, there will be the Massachusetts Statewide Hurricane Exercise. The New England Reflector system Echolink Conference *NEW-ENG* Node: 9123/IRLP 9123 will be tied together with the Echolink Conference *WX_TALK* Node: 7203/IRLP 9219 system for this exercise. WX4NHC will be active in support of the statewide exercise and we've asked some of our net controls to send in reports from the exercise using our reporting form.

Folks are welcome to listen into the exercise this evening. We are hoping for a good test of the capabilities within the state of Massachusetts to prepare for the 2009 Hurricane Season which starts today.

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Hello to all...

Tropical Depression #1 has formed off the Mid-Atlantic Coast prior to the official start of the 2009 Hurricane Season. TD #1 is currently over the gulf stream and intensification into a tropical storm is possible. If that occurs, the system would be named Ana. TD #1 is expected to past south and east of the 40 North/70 West Benchmark and skip wide of any impact on the Southern New England coast including Cape Cod and the Islands at this time.

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team will closely monitor the progress of TD #1. Latest advisory information can be found on the National Hurricane Center (NHC) web site at http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

The information can also be seen on the Main Menu of the VoIP Hurricane Net web site under Atlantic Tropical Products. The VoIP Hurricane Net web site is http://www.voipwx.net

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Hello to all...

The WX4NHC Communications Test will take place on Saturday May 30th from 9 AM-5 PM ET (1300-2100 UTC). WX4NHC will be on the *WX-TALK* Echolink Conference server Node: 7203/IRLP reflector 9219 for a portion of the Communications Test from 1-3 PM ET (1700-1900 UTC). We encourage everyone to participate in the test and we are especially looking for coastal stations in the region to participate. As we've done in years past, our net controls will be assisting WX4NHC in taking a list of stations for contacts to test our online reporting form and to use the test as a training opportunity for our net controls.

Below are the details on the WX4NHC Communications Test:

Announcement from WX4NHC
Amateur Radio Station
at the National Hurricane Center

WX4NHC Hurricane Season 2009 On-The-Air Station Test
Saturday, May 30th, 2009 from 9 AM - 5 PM EST (1300z-2100z)

NHC Director Bill Read, KB5FYA is planning to attend and make some on-the-air contacts.

The purpose of this annual Station Test is to test all of our radio equipment, computers and antennas using as many modes and frequencies as possible.

This is not a Contest or simulated Hurricane Exercise.

New equipment and software will be tested and we may be trying multiple frequencies and modes at any give time. Some operator training will also be conducted.

WX4NHC will be On-The-Air on HF, VHF, UHF and 2 & 30 meter APRS.

We plan on testing on the following voice frequencies +/- QRM
3.950 MHz, 7.268MHz, 14.325MHz, 21.325MHz, 28.525MHz.

We will try to stay on 14.325 MHz most of the time and announce when we QSY.

You may be able to find us on HF by using one of the DX Spotting Networks,

Such as the DX Summit Web Site:
http://www.dxsummit.fi/Search.aspx

Hello to all...

A reminder that the Monthly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net will be Saturday April 4th at 8 PM EDT/0000 UTC. Please note the time change due to Daylight Saving Time here in the US so the net is now at 8 PM EDT/7PM CDT/6 PM MDT/5 PM PDT. For this month, we will have one presentation on the Australian Bushfires of 2009 known in Australia as "Black Saturday". The presentation is small in size and should be easily viewable on any Internet connection. For best results, please download the presentations to your computer for viewing even though the size of the presentation is small. The presentation can be seen at either one of the following links:

http://www.voipwx.net/files/Black_Saturday.ppt

http://tinyurl.com/voipwx0904

The presentation will be archived and a recording of the net made for those that cannot be on the net this evening. Since I will be traveling to the National Hurricane Conference and unable to be on the net this evening, I'd like to request some of the net members to record the net and email me a location of where the recording is so I can upload it to the web site. We hope many folks will be able to check-in and listen to the net this evening and if they can't that they will check out the presentation and recording of the net when they have time. Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Hello to all..

The following was posted to the VoIPWXNet email list by Tony Langdon-VK3JED:

The 4 week long WICEN activation for the Victorian fires held its
last net at 2130 local (1030 UTC) Monday March 9, after the last
operators had returned home from the affected areas. The WICEN HF
net on 3.600 MHz will now return to its weekly 2130 local time (1030z
until April, 1130z after) Tuesday evenings. At this time, statistics
on the activation are not available. I am hoping to get hold of
these for next month's VoIP WX Net.

The *VKEMCOMM* conference will be returned to normal operation some
time after tonight's weekly WICEN net. I anticipate completing the
HF link to include transmit capability, and to test this on the WICEN
HF net in the future, once the details have been sorted out. The HF
link was fairly successful, with occasional issues caused by local
noise and birdies - a good result, given that it was thrown together
using the pieces for a VHF SSB link at short notice. There were also
some audio quality issues caused by a quirky Echolink PC. I had
hoped to change to a Linux based EchoIRLP machine, but this one
suffered a disk failure last week and will be offline for some time.

73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL
http://vkradio.com

Hello to all..

We had 26 check-ins for the March 2009 edition of the VoIP Hurricane Prep Net. We thank all those who participated in the net and the compliments on the training topics for the net. Below is a link to a recording of the VoIP Hurricane Net as well as the presentation topics that were done on the March 2009 net. These can also be found off the VoIP Hurricane Net Presentation Archive off the Main Menu of the VoIPWXNet web site. See direct links below for the recording and the presentations:

VoIP Hurricane Net Recording (Approximately 5 Meg in Size): http://www.voipwx.net/files/March_2009_VoIP_Hurricane_Net_Recording.mp3

VoIP Hurricane Net Overview of National Hurricane Conference Topics: http://www.voipwx.net/files/Overview_of_National_Hurricane_Conference_Presentations.ppt

VoIP Hurricane Net New England Ice Storm December 2008 Presentation: http://www.voipwx.net/files/VoIP_Hurricane_Net_December_11th_12thIce_Storm_Presentation.ppt

For April 2009, a reminder that the net will move up one hour due to Daylight Savings Time. The April 2009 net and future nets will be at 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT, 5 PM PT to maintain the 0000 UTC time slot given our international partners may actually be pushing their clock back one hour while North America locations have pushed their clocks ahead.

Hi all, just a note to let everyone know that the WICEN (roughly our
equivalent to ARES) HF net, which is part of their disaster relief
effort for the recent fires her, is now being broadcast on Echolink and IRLP.

To access the feed, connect to *VKEMCOMM* (270177) on Echolink or
reflector 9508 on IRLP. There are two main nets, which is when the
bulk of activity occurs. These nets are at

Morning - 1000 local time (2300 UTC)
Evening - 2130 local time (1030 UTC)

Nets typically last 20-30 minutes, with some related traffic after
the main net closes. Everyone is welcome to listen in. Currently,
there is no provision for transmitting on HF. It is technically
feasible, and requires only some minor additions to the system, but
this has not been requested at this stage. The feed is using some
experimental technology I've been working on over the past few years,
for linking HF or VHF SSB to IRLP/Echolink style networks. There
will be the occasional issue with unusual QRM, but the system seems
to be coping with sometimes difficult conditions very well.

For more information, here's a few links:

http://vic.wicen.org.au/updates.php - Net logs and other relevant updates

http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2009/02/18/10656/?nc=1 - ARRL story
on the fires

http://www.wia.org.au - WIA site, with some news updates.

73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL

Hello to all...

A reminder that the Monthly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net will be Saturday March 7th at 7 PM EST/0000 UTC. We will have 2 training topics for the Monthly VoIP Hurricane Prep Net this month. The file sizes are less than 100K for the first topic and 3 Meg for the second topic. For best results, please download the presentations to your computer for viewing.

The first topic will be on the National Hurricane Conference. ARRL Manager of Preparedness and Response and Assistant VoIP Hurricane Net Director of Operations, Dennis Dura-K2DCD, has secured 3 different talks during the week of the conference. We will review the 3 talks, when they will be given and the presenters for the various talks and the approach on promoting Amateur Radio's involvement in hurricanes to Amateur Radio Operators and Emergency Management. The presentation that can be viewed while listening to the net this evening can be found at the following link:

http://www.voipwx.net/files/Overview_of_National_Hurricane_Conference_Presentations.ppt

The second topic will be on the December 2008 Ice Storm that affected Massachusetts, Northwest Connecticut, New Hampshire and Southern Maine. It will detail what occurred in the response phase of the operation for reporting and what Amateur Radio Operators did in the recovery phase, the challenges that were faced what was executed well and how improvements will be made for future events. The presentation that can be viewed while listening to the net this evening can be found at the following link:

Hello to all....

The following is some information on some changes to the National Hurricane Center products for the 2009 Hurricane Season. All of these changes are listed in the NHC Public Information Statements under the following link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns_index.shtml

The exact product changes and links to those product changes are listed below:

Changes to storm surge information in Tropical Cyclone Public Advisories effective May 15th, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns8_2009.shtml

Format Changes to the Tropical Cyclone Public Advisory Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns7_2009.shtml

Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Tropical Cyclone Wind Field Graphics Operational Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns6_2009.shtml

Atlantic and Eastern Pacific Graphical Tropical Weather Outlooks Operational Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns5_2009.shtml

Probabilistic Hurricane Storm Surge Products become Operational and Expand in Thresholds Effective June 1, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns4_2009.shtml

Discontinuation of Special Tropical Disturbance Statements and Beginning of Speical Tropical Weather Outlooks Effective May 15, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns3_2009.shtml

Format Change to the Tropical Cyclone Discussion for the Atlantic Basin Effective June 1, 2009:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pns2_2009.shtml

Hello to all..

The VoIP Hurricane Net Janaury 2009 Recording has been posted to the VoIP Hurricane Net web site.  Special thanks to Phil Lichtenberger-W2LIE for providing the recording from the January 2009 presentation. The links have been put in the VoIP WX Net presentations archive link off the Main Menu of the voipwx.net web site and are listed below:

Introduction to D-STAR Power Point:

http://www.voipwx.net/old/local/Introduction_to_D_STAR.ppt

Introduction to D-STAR Recording (File Size about 4.5 Meg):

http://www.voipwx.net/old/local/VoIP_Wx_Net_DSTAR_010409.mp3

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net! Catch everyone on the next net on the first Saturday in February!

73,Rob-KD1CY.

Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

Hello to all....

I hope everyone had a Happy New Year. Our first net of the 2009 season will be this Saturday January 3rd at 7 PM ET/0000 UTC. The presentation will be on an Introduction to DSTAR as presented by VoIP Hurricane Net Technical Coordinator, Tony Langdon-VK3JED. Tony's presentation will focus on the DSTAR mode and interoperability with Echolink and IRLP. This will be a great presentation for anyone interested in DSTAR and future plans involving this mode and Echolink and IRLP. The Power Point presentation is a small file available at the following link:

http://www.voipwx.net/old/local/Introduction_to_D_STAR.ppt

Hope to hear many folks on our first net in 2009. A reminder that the net is monthly on the first Saturday (US Time) of every month from January through May. The net will return to weekly status from the beginning of June through the end of November.

Thanks to all for their continued support of the VoIP Hurricane Net!

73,Rob-KD1CY.
Director of Operations for the VoIP Hurricane Net

After more than two years of operation using the phpWebSite content management system (CMS), this site is now powered by Drupal, a powerful, database-driven open-source system in widespread use on the internet. Over the next few days, you might see minor changes to the home page and some added functionality.

Thanks in large part to the efforts of Phil McNamara, N1XTB, posts from previous years have been converted over onto this new site. You may find a few things missing and/or broken links over the next few days, but we'll endeavor to fix all problems you bring to our attention.

You'll note that any web story links from the old site will automatically map over to the new site; e.g., a story with a URL of http://voipwx.net/article.php?sid=158 will display in your browser as http://voipwx.net/node/158. So if you've linked to any of our stories, there's no need to make any edits on your own site.

Old accounts have been removed, but you're welcome to re-apply for a user account and comment on stories, or submit material for new stories to the site.

73, K9HI

Hello to all....

The Hurricane Paloma Net Activation was secured from all formal/informal operations overnight as Paloma weakened to a tropical storm after causing extensive damage over portions of Cuba and the Cayman Islands. We are all hoping that this will be the last hurricane activation of 2008 but are prepared to support additional activations for hurricanes if they develop this year.

We were able to gather a number of reports from the Cayman Islands Friday Afternoon through Saturday Morning. Many of these reports were used in official National Hurricane Center advisories written by Hurricane Specialist Stacey Stewart. A complete list of reports that were received from Hurricane Paloma in the Cayman Islands can be seen in the report viewer off the Main Menu of the web site.

While no reports were directly received in Cuba during Hurricane Paloma, we have been able to make contact with Arnie-CO2KK and we are hoping to work with him further to establish an Echolink and/or IRLP connection so he can connect directly to our net in the future. This is encouraging as we have only received an extremely small number of reports from Cuba and these were relayed reports from other Caribbean Amateurs who were able to gather traffic off of HF or able to monitor Cuban Radio Broadcasts.

The VoIP Hurricane Net Management Team would like to share with you a note from Julio Ripoll-WD4R, Assistant National Hurricane Center Amateur Radio Coordinator for WX4NHC thanking the net for its efforts:

Please extend our sincere thanks to all of the VoIP Hurricane Net Controls for their effort and time during Hurricane Paloma.

The efforts of the VoIP Hurricane Net were very helpful, especially during Paloma’s track through the Cayman Islands.

The information relayed by your Net gave the Hurricane Center Forecasters additional insight of what Cayman residents were actually going through.

Your multi-tasking, multi-mode, methods of combining EchoLink & IRLP VoIP, HF monitoring, Internet Web Blogs and direct Email is a great example of information gathering without limitations.

These hybrid communications efforts, before and during the hurricane, to contact Hams and non-Hams was successful in promoting awareness that they had alternate means of sending and receiving hurricane information during the event. Some of these new contacts will be better prepared for future storms because of your interaction with them during Paloma. Some may become Hams.

Here is an excerpt from the official Hurricane Advisory #10 which was a result of the information received from the VoIP Net:

“…HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 30 MILES...45 KM...FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 115 MILES...185 KM. UNOFFICIAL REPORTS OF SUSTAINED WINDS OF 80 MPH...130 KM/HR...WITH GUSTS TO NEAR 100 MPH...160 KM/HR...HAVE BEEN RECEIVED FROM AMATEUR/HAM RADIO OPERATORS ON GRAND CAYMAN DURING THE PAST COUPLE OF HOURS.”

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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