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Introduction Procedures Links: |
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
William E. Smith, W3NWS - Coordinator IntroductionThe purpose of Anne Arundel County Skywarn Subnet is to feed information on weather conditions to The National Weather Service Office in Sterling, VA. Skywarn observers provide "ground-truth" and supplement the data received from Doppler radar and other tools. Although the subnet is responsible for Anne Arundel County, in Maryland, the subnet will accept any storm reports from nearby locales as well. The main Skywarn net will be activated when severe weather is in the Baltimore-Washington forecast area. The county subnet will be activated only when severe weather is occurring in, or is approaching, Anne Arundel County, so as not to unnecessarily tie up the local repeaters. The subnet will be activated at the request of The National Weather Service, the Northeast Maryland net manager, or by the county coordinator when severe weather is actually present. The role of Skywarn is not to provide forecast products to other amateur operators or the general public. There are better channels of communication to provide that information. ProceduresThe Maryland Mobileers 2-meter repeater (146.805+ PL 107.2) is the primary repeater. The Davidsonville 2-meter repeater (147.105+ PL 107.2) of The Anne Arundel Radio Club, along with the north county machine (147.075+ PL 107.2), are used for back-up. When the net is activated, the net control operator will establish another station as an alternate net control. The net criteria will then be announced and check-ins will be logged. All check-ins will be accepted even if they are untrained and/or unregistered Skywarn observers. The National Weather Service values all observations. Observations are then recorded. The net will be handed off to the alternate net control while the primary reports to The NWS. The alternate will take observations and then report, etc. Reports to The National Weather Service Office in Sterling, VA, are made directly to the 147.300+ repeater, through AOL Instant Messenger, e-mail, or by telephone. Weather conditions should be monitored by net control using either TV or the internet. Once severe weather has moved out of the county, the subnet will be closed. If a watch or warning is still in effect for the county, it will be announced that the net may come up again if conditions warrant. If there is a concurrent ARES or RACES net, Skywarn will be operating as another resource to ARES / RACES with operating more or less in the Report Mode, with ARES / RACES NCS taking the calls and passing them over to the Skywarn NCS. Observers should not proceed to locations where severe weather is occurring to collect data, nor should they be encouraged to do so. Reports may also be sent via the WXSpots software. My UID is Bill-W3NWS and the group is MD ANNE ARUNDEL. Weather ReportsObservers should give their Skywarn ID (if assigned), and location (this includes city AND state, nearest town, road or intersection). Landmarks should not be used as a method of location. Major highways are acceptable. Observers should not check-in if they have nothing to report. During the summer months, The National Weather Service is interested in the following weather phenomena:
In the winter months, they include the above conditions and:
Net Control OperatorsAny licensed amateur radio operator, with a knowledge of general net operations and Skywarn, may volunteer for net control.
NOAA Weather RadioThe following is information for the local NOAA Weather Radio stations:
History
Copyright © August, 2012, William E. Smith, Last revised: August 18, 2012 |
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