[Email1] Greetings From The President Of ALERT

Thu Jun 13 20:47:23 CDT 2013

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Ed Manley <edmanley at att.net>
To: wd4nyl <wd4nyl at bellsouth.net>
Sent: Wed, June 12, 2013 8:11:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Email1] Greetings From The President Of ALERT

Mark, please forward this to the ALERT mailing list. Thanks.

To all ALERT officers, congratulations on your election! I know that you will 
all do a great job. You certainly have some big shoes to fill... even if they 
are your own from past elections! Thank you to all who are serving and have 
served to make ALERT a valued provider of important information.

Past and current officers along with all of our team members have built ALERT 
into a solid and respected information provider and set the stage for continuing 
excellent relationships with our served clients. I am sure that you will carry 
on the very important work that ALERT does. It's not glamorous or sexy but it is 
essential to the safety of our community.

I ask that our officers lead the club in consideration of two of my concerns, as 
follows...

I hope that we can address antenna issues at the NWS station to extend our HF 
footprint to all of the NWS served areas. My Barker & Williams folded dipole 
erected essentially flat at 12' elevation gives me NVIS MARS coverage from a few 
miles to hundreds. I see no reason that ALERT cannot use something similar for 
NWS regional coverage. 

I have a Butternut HF5B 'Butterfly' antenna that covers 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 
meters that I will donate to ALERT if someone will put it up and we actually use 
it. The hams are out there in these less populated areas, we just have to 
recruit and collaborate - and be able to communicate with - them. 

It is very disappointing to me for the NWS to ask for reports in an area and we 
have to tell them that we have no communications into that area while a 
perfectly good HF rig sits unused in our shack and while the TV stations are 
getting online reports from those areas that we never see. It is frustrating, 
and why I quit going down there, to sit and operate that station when the 
weather the NWS is interested in is in areas where we have no or very limited 
communications. ARES reports to the various weather nets and the EMA for 
Jefferson and Shelby counties are copied to the NWS, those aren't the areas 
where ALERT is essential. In fact in those areas our reporting is almost 
completely redundant. 

We must expand our coverage area to avoid duplication of reporting and actively 
reach out to observers who we currently can't talk to, or who are not on radio 
or on the limited-access chats. The real value of ALERT can only be realized 
when we can provide reliable real-time reporting that they are not already 
getting from other sources. I see no reason that ALERT cannot establish 
relationships with non-hams in areas where we have limited reporting. Call them 
up and ask them to look out the window if that's what it takes. ALERT has been 
too focused on operating VHF radios and has thus limited our value. The NWS 
obviously values ALERT highly but if we want to see them really get excited 
about us we must provide information they don't get from anyone else.

What we do is good and appreciated, and we do it well, but we can't do what 
we've always done and expect to provide our consumers with better service. We 
must expand our capabilities and expand our mindset beyond relaying reports from 
the Jefferson and Shelby club repeaters.

Perhaps ALERT members could rotate to attend the NWS training they provide and 
present both ham and non-ham attendees with ALERT reporting opportunities when 
the NWS presentation is done. If nothing else getting a list of names and 
contact info of those who attend spotter training would give us an opportunity 
for outreach and recruiting. Being unable to do many of the more physical 
support tasks I and others can surely call or email these folks, explain how 
they can help and thereby expand both our membership and reporting base.

In that vein I would ask that ALERT look at adopting and promoting use of the 
free WX Warn and WX Spots software.  Both have been approved by the NWS and are 
installed on our station's computer. Various club members have looked at it but 
I don't think it has been given due consideration as an ALERT tool to open our 
door to eyeball reporting in areas where we have no radio or private chat 
communications. I believe that if ALERT adopted this very powerful yet simple to 
use tool and promoted its use to the public it would become one of our most 
valuable tools. 

When last I looked there was no Alabama Captain appointed to collaborate with 
the makers of that software and its central Alabama users and I think a new 
ALERT position as WX Spot Captain for our coverage area would be beneficial to 
the entire community. WX Warn, when set to show the counties the NWS covers, is 
simply the best near-real-time updated display of active NWS products available 
to the public... for free anyway. Please give this some attention.

Have fun and know that I will help you and ALERT in any way I can.

73 de Ed W4AGA

On 6/12/2013 12:23 PM, wd4nyl wrote:

Hello Everyone. This is your new President of ALERT, Ronnie King WX4RON.
>
>I would like to say Thank You for electing me to this position and I hope that I 
>do as well as expected. I would like to offer my hand in greeting first to all 
>of you. I would also like to say that you may approach me about anything related 
>to ALERT or the NWS regarding ALERT.
>
>
>I hope to increase our membership with a couple of ideas that I have. I also 
>hope to increase our response to call-outs. 
>
>Let me give a brief explanation of what I (personally) think about ALERT. It is 
>MY opinion that ALERT is a "functional" club. ALERT provides a direct service to 
>more than just Jefferson and Shelby counties where the NWS is considered to be 
>housed/home at. ALERT provides communications support to/for the NWS during 
>times of severe weather and extreme situations as a result of, or related to, 
>weather. We are partnered with the NWS for the area covering all of the 
> counties that our local forecast office of the NWS is responsible for covering 
>and providing alerts/warnings for, not just the ones we live in.
>
>
>We have several ways of passing information to and for the NWS: Amateur Radio 
>Emergency Nets, Telephones (cellular or landline based{ PLEASE get familiar with 
>their number}), NWS CHAT (which, if you are not part of or registered 
>for...please do so), Facebook, Twitter.... and other ways I am sure.
>
>
>In order for ALERT to be a bigger and better asset is to be a part of as many 
>ways as possible for us to relay the needed information to and for the NWS. WE 
>just might be providing the one piece of information that is needed to help the 
>NWS decide to issue a warning that can and will save at least one life.
>
>
>I welcome any thoughts and ideas anyone has and will discuss them in private or 
>openly in a meeting if desired.
>
>
>Please help me to remember and act like:  "I" am not ALERT as an individual, "I" 
>am part of the TEAM that makes up ALERT. "I" must be a good representative of 
>YOU in front of and around those who are not members of ALERT.
>
>
>Thank you all, Ronnie King WX4RON
>
>
>-- 
>
>Thank you for your time,
>Ronnie King
>
> 
>
>_______________________________________________ Email1 mailing list 
>Email1 at alert-alabama.org 
>http://alert-alabama.org/mailman/listinfo/email1_alert-alabama.org 
>
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