On Saturday March 11, 2017 five member of the Brainerd Area Amateur Radio club participated in the annual Northland Skywarn Amateur Radio Meeting and planning session.
Members from BAARC that attended included the following:
John: W0WY Terry: KI0FW Al: W0RC Dave: K0ISZ Steve: N0CRM
The Northland Skywarn Amateur Radio community leaders (18 counties of coverage from the Duluth National Weather Service Network) met with the NWS to discuss past practices and plan for the upcoming severe weather season.
This meeting is also a medium for Northland Hams to meet and discuss their area-wide communications practices.
Meeting activities included the following:
Introductions
Review of last year’s meeting action items
Review of the Duluth NWS Network
Activation Review/Updates
Review of Situational Awareness and weather reporting tools
• CoCoRaHS – Measure and report rainfall
• mPING – is an app for your Smartphone Android or IOS; Enable GPS, This began as a precipitation tool but has expanded
We also learned about some of the members favorite tools that they use:
• Google Voice: This tool allows you to create a single
You can choose a brand new number from Google or use your existing mobile number to get the full set of Google Voice features, like:
• one number that rings all your phones
• online voicemail with transcriptions, sent to you by email or text
• custom greetings and call blocking, and much more
• Radar Scope Very good reports about radar accuracy
• Spotternework.org Many storm chasers and spotters use this. You must answer some questions regarding spotting before you are allowed.
Severe Weather Awareness Week is April 17-21st
There will be a drill on April 20th.
• The test tornado watch will be issued at 1:00 PM
• All spotter groups will be officially activated at 1:15 PM
• The test tornado warning will be issued at 1:45 PM
• The test warning will end at 2:00 PM
Please note that a second test tornado warning will be issued at 6:45 PM
