Requirement for the community:
NWS Birmingham requests that all Storm Spotters, weather enthusiasts, and amateur radio operators refrain from calling themselves “Certified NWS Storm Chasers.”
The NWS does train storm spotters but will never train, certify, encourage, or endorse storm chasing. No such training exists for storm chasing, and doing so is a risk to your own life and property, especially with Alabama’s geography.
If you choose to chase, you do so at your own risk. Please do not associate the NWS brands with your personal actions, or results of those actions.
Let’s ensure that we are appropriately representing the brand, as well as ourselves and our community. Continue reading
In ALERT/K4NWS’s last callout activation 4/14/2019, K4NWS was joined on the D-Star reflector 058B by the NWS Mobile, AL Skywarn group – Rural Radio Preparedness Organization (web | facebook). We’re happy to hear another Skywarn group coming back up to speed.
There were a few questions after the event from Birmingham operators/spotters. After discussing with RRPA, we feel we have a good plan for directing spotter report traffic to the appropriate NWS station, ahead of the upcoming severe weather event Thursday 4/18/2019 Afternoon.
If you’re a Skywarn spotter or NWS Station Operator, check out the article here on how K4NWS would operate when sharing digital:
Operating Digital with Multiple Served Agencies
(Note: Document is subject to change, based on feedback from our partner NWS offices, Skywarn groups, storm spotters, reflector users, and K4NWS members. Feel free to direct comments to the email provided in the article!)
We appreciate the work that our other regional and county Skywarn groups, such as RRPA and NALSW (North Alabama Skywarn). Thank you all for your continued partnership as we all work toward the mission of the National Weather Service: Protect life and property.
We had another successful Skywarn Recognition day and with our new digital assets we pulled in even more contacts via DMR, EchoLink, and IRLP.
Thank you to our volunteers who made this another great event!
On site we had Ron Arant N4PHP, Stephen Moss KB4KKN and Bill Rodgers K4FSO. Offsite we had Russell Thomas KV4S and Rodger Parsons KK4UDU.
Ron setup the R9 6m thru 80m antenna. The 3 onsite members operated HF and D-Star.
Due to hotspot issues on site, Russell handled the DMR/Echolink contacts off site.
Rodger handled Winlink for us.
Hope you all had fun and we look forward to next year!
Here are a few pictures:
This Friday, November 30 @ 6PM Central Time (Dec 1 0:00z), Skywarn Recognition Day kicks off, and continues for the next 24 hours.
The National Weather Service – Birmingham Office (BMX) is also celebrating their 25th Anniversary of being at the Shelby County Airport location.
To commemorate this milestone we have a special event callsign! NWS Birmingham and ALERT, The Alabama Emergency Response Team, will be W4A (Weather 4 Alabama).
Skywarn Recognition Day is an event celebrates the contribution of SKYWARN volunteers to the NWS’s mission. More information about the event, including Operating Procedures for the contest, Participating Offices, Echolink Info/IRLP info, all can be found at the link below:
https://www.weather.gov/crh/skywarnrecognition
There will be a Special Event QSL Card for making contact with W4A, National Weather Service – Birmingham / Alabama Emergency Response Team.
To make contact with us:
HF: 10,17,15,20 Meters
2M FM 146.880 (BARC), 147.320 and 146.980 (SCARC)
220 FM 224.500
DMR Talk Group 31013 which is available on all DMR repeaters in the Birmingham area but is also available on various repeaters in the BMX cwa.
D-Star: REF058B and XRF334C
AllStar: 48168
EchoLink: K4NWS-L (155003)
IRLP Reflector: 9666
WinLink: KK4UDU@winlink.org
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