ALERT Newsletter

ALERT NEWSLETTER – July 2026

Published 07/01/2026 | By WD4NYL

Hi everyone & an early Happy 4th of July!

Guess what? It’s time for ALERT dues! Yay!!!

To maintain roster records, according to ALERT’s constitution and bylaws, members who have not paid their 2026/2027 dues (which are due on July 2026’s meeting date, per Article IV), will be removed from the roster. After this point, these members may re-apply.

Members who are not currently in good standing may be ineligible for Callouts, NWSchat access, officer positions and the right to vote in the monthly meetings.

In special cases/hardship, members may submit a confidential request to be considered by the board. Such a request will be kept ultra-hush-hush, and can be brought to any board member.

More on dues, including payment address, can be found in the ALERT Bylaws, on the ALERT-Alabama.org website under Join/Documents.

Join ALERT/Documents

The direct link to the application can be found at https://alert-alabama.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Documents/alertapp.pdf

Existing members who are renewing can also use PayPal option:
https://paypal.me/WilliamRodgers1973

If anyone would rather use Venmo, route it via @William-Rodgers-73

Or mail a check to:

ALERT
2101 Pope Ave
Steele, AL 35987

Also, for Operational Members (NWS responders), President Kaila is working on new ALERT badges.

If you have a headshot or can get one taken, (with teeth in and hair ((if applicable)) combed), please send it to Kaila kszmajdaham@gmail.com or Russell kv4s@alert-alabama.org

ALERT ID badges or valid photo IDs such as a driver licenses, non-driver ID, military ID, etc., are require to gain access to the NWS Forecast Office, as it is a government facility.

Until next month, everyone stay safe and cool!

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Alabama Seismic Stations

Last month I covered earthquakes reported in Alabama.

The data from Seismic stations are recorded by helicorders, and is presented in the form of a continuous paper or a digital chart showing ground motion over time.

You may be curious to see what Seismic stations located in Alabama have recorded today and in recent days.

The links below lead to the helicorder or compiled record of vibrations recorded by the stations in various sites in the Eastern US. The websites will list several stations, none of them being in alphabetical order, so you will have search the page for the station you wish to see. Nestled among these listings the Alabama stations will be found.

Some locations have multiple listings as they may provide “Broadband” or BB, “Strong Motion” or SM or “Short Period” or SP displays.

Blount Mountain BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_n4_east/
Brewton BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli_bb_nsn/
Carrolton BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_n4_east/
Fort Payne BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_bb_ceri/
Fort Payne SM https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_sm_ceri/
Grady BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_n4_east/
Hartselle BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_n4_east/
Lakeview BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli_bb_nsn/
Pickwick Lake SP https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_bb_ceri/
Pickwick Lake SM https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli/heli_sm_ceri/
Pickwick Lake BB https://folkworm.ceri.memphis.edu/heli_bb_slu/

For more information see Recent Helicorder Images for Mid-America – CERI courtesy of the University Of Memphis.

These stations record in 12 hour intervals and normally display just fuzzy straight lines, occasionally more fuzzy due to wind, human caused vibrations or electronic interference. But if an earthquake is detected it will suddenly look like a bad EKG (or my handwriting). I find it interesting seeing the main quake and how long it takes for the motion to settle down, or “coda”.

When a major earthquake occurs, it takes time for the Primary Wave or Pressure Wave to travel from the epicenter to the Seismographs location. In the case of the June 24th 7.1 magnitude Venezuelan earthquake, the quake hit at 5:05 PM CDT. The P Wave reached the Blount Mountain Seismograph, 2053 miles away, 5 minutes 30 seconds later. Before the first reading faded a second wave arrived from the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that followed.

With a major earthquake the Seismograph may record two waves. The Primary or P Wave, or compression wave followed by a Secondary or S Wave or shear wave, which travels more slowly.

Seismologists can use the time difference between the two waves multiplied by 8.4 to get the general distance from the epicenter in kilometers. And by triangulating with at least two other stations they can find the location of the epicenter.

Check these site out, and see if, as the old song says there’s “a whole lot of shaking going on.

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National Water Dashboard

We begin with a legend…

It was said that both the Chickasaws and white traders in the Mississippi Territory considered a nearby area particularly perilous, with dense foliage and dangerous wild animals making travel treacherous. With tales swapped of travelers becoming lost or attacked by animals within this area, the stream and perhaps the valley it runs through was called “Shades of Death Creek”.

In 1820 John Coffee, the Surveyor-general of northern Alabama territory, drew the first map of the area and used the name “Shades of Death Cr.”

In the late 1850’s following a population boom in the nearby areas, the name “Shades of Death Creek” was shortened to “Shades Creek”.

Another, more modern theory is that the forested area under the bluffs was simply known for its evocative shadows, and so was named Shades Creek.

But, that’s no fun, is it?

As time passed a dam was erected in 1915 near Green Springs Highway creating Edgewood Lake, which stretched from just west of Green Springs Highway and where the soccer fields and Homewood High School are today. Edgewood Lake was intended to be five times larger than Birmingham’s East Lake, which at time was a resort and was at first a private-members only lake owned by the Birmingham Motor and Country Club, and was stocked with bream and bass for fishing.

The Birmingham Motor and Country Club dissolved in 1923 and the 117 acre lake was opened to the public and attracted crowds of bathers, boaters and picnickers and was the site of large gatherings and celebrations.

Residents would take an electric trolley up Red Mountain near Vulcan into Homewood by Central Park to where Green Springs Highway is today.

Problems began when torrential rains broke the dam in 1923, 1935 and 1946 causing the lake to go dry. The property changed hands several times and though plans were discussed and a few attempts were made to repair the dam and preserve the lake, eventually they gave up and the area was opened for redevelopment in the 1940’s.

And that is why you have a road called Lakeshore Drive, though there is no lake to be found.

One little know resource which you can access online is the stream monitoring station located on Shades Creek.

During times, such as when we were recently deluged with tropical rainfalls, I find it interesting to see what the nearby creek and river levels are.

By accessing the site USGS | National Water Dashboard you can see the river water levels and discharge rates in near real-time.

When you go to this site you will find a map of North America, which lists every monitoring station in the Continental US, Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico.

By using the zoom controls in the upper left portion of the map, you can zoom to a particular location. As you zoom in you will notice a radar overlay, and you can zoom to a street level map of the area of interest.

There are over 30 such stations in the Jefferson & Shelby County area, along the Cahaba River and various creeks.

Using Homewood as an example, the map will show a circle by Shades Creek between I-65 and Columbiana Road. By clicking the circle, you can choose the Monitoring Location Page https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-02423586/#parameterCode=00060&timeSeriesId=228684&period=P7D where you can graph the water level, discharge, temperature and other data.

Or you can choose the NWPS River Forecast or https://water.noaa.gov/gauges/02423586, which gives the water level and describes the various flood stages for this particular location.

Currently, at 3:25 PM June 12, the stream level is 3.78 feet, which is normal.

On June 7 the creek rose from a 3.62-foot lazy stream at 8:30 PM to a 12.25-foot rushing torrent in just 45 minutes. (Which is why, no matter how picturesque it may seem, you never camp right by a creek or river bed. Even if the weather is nice where you are, it may not be so nice 25 miles upstream and all that water will be heading towards your cozy camp.)

The flood record for this location is 19.88 feet on September 4, 2004, followed by 18.79 feet and 17.09 feet floods in 2021.

The Flood Stages for this location are given as follows:

Minor flooding – 14 feet – Water rises above bank full and begins to flood some of the surrounding property including the nature walk (the Shades Creek Greenway).

Moderate flooding – 17.5 feet – Water approaches the right upstream apartment complex with water covering much of the yard and nature walk.

Major flooding – 19.5 feet – Water reaches the edge of the left downstream apartment complex.

About 3000 feet upstream of this monitoring station a small creek, named Griffin Creek, feeds into Shades Creek. On June 7 about 4000 feet upstream on Griffin Creek, the creek spilled over its banks and flooded, blocking Broadway Street and Saulter Road, which is 2500 feet Northeast from my house.

Meanwhile 4000 feet Southwest from my house I-65 was blocked by flood waters and 1 mile north of my house Valley Avenue had standing water.

Being on a small hill, I will probably never need a dinghy or an Ark, but by knowing which areas are prone to flooding and monitoring the current conditions, I might know to divert to point C & D if I was trying to get from point A to B, instead of using the direct route. Which could be crucial in an emergency, especially if I were trying to reach home or a hospital.

This is why, though I love my GPS and mapping apps, I say you should study a map, either online or the old school paper kind, learn and memorize the layout of your various locations and routes – work, home and in between, as trying to find detours in a blinding rain may not be an easy task.

With all the modern technology available, the best navigation too is still that thing between your ears, assuming you “program it” with information beforehand and are not just filling it with Internet dandruff and other useless things.

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NWS Birmingham County Emergency Alert & Weather Radio Directory

The NWS has added a new webpage, the NWS Birmingham County Emergency Alert & Weather Radio Directory, which details every county’s notification methods, how the public can sign up, how to get alerts/updates, weather radio information for each county, links for the different transmitters covering each county, and links river gauge info, and dam info.

This idea was born after the 2016 Gatlinburg fire, where many of the fatalities were people visiting from other areas. Following the 2025 flooding in Texas, the effort was renewed. If someone is traveling to Alabama, evacuating from a different state, or anyone has friends/family in this state, they can go to this page to get what they need.

This page: National Weather Service Birmingham, AL County Notification Information will be updated over time, and frequently, with changes or updates as they become available.

Feel free to use this site and spread the word about its availability. The NWS welcomes any feedback, suggestions, or ideas!

The site is currently very basic, another more colorful site with the same information may be found at National Weather Service Birmingham, AL County River and Dam Information

As time progresses these sites, which are still under construction, will grow and maps and interactive pages will become available.

Check them out!

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Mark’s Almanac

Originally called “Quintilis”, the fifth Roman month, Quintilis was renamed “July” in 44 BC in honor of Julius Caesar.
July is miserably hot, as land temperatures reach their peaks in late July through early August – the Dog Days of Summer.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac lists the traditional period of the Dog Days as the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11.

The Romans on the other hand said that the Dog Days ran from July 24 through August 24, or, alternatively, from July 23 through August 23, coinciding with the Sun and the Dog Star Sirius rising at the same time & their combined heat supposedly adding to the summer misery.

As you endure this heat, remember to drink lots of fluids, hug the shade & avoid the afternoon sun.

Also please resist the temptation to take Fido for a walk during the heat of the day. Remember that the “official” temperature readings are taken 6 feet above ground level. It’s much, much hotter on the ground where Fido & Puss must walk with bare paws, where it could easily be 150 degrees.

Before taking Muttley for a walk, place your hand on the pavement and see how hot it is. If it’s miserable to you, it will be miserable to him also. Just walk him in the morning or wait until the sun is setting and it cools off to a tolerable level and try to stick to grassy areas. Then go have a good time together.

The last week of July is usually the hottest week of the year. Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley.

July and August is the time to test the “Brown Grass Theory”. According to this theory, if the grass remains green the temperature will probably not reach 100, but, if the grass turns brown, get set for triple digits. This is a local Birmingham rule, which the Old Timers at the Birmingham NWS, such as Frank Makosky and J.B Elliott used for years.

In July, the least rainfall falls in the Northern Hemisphere and tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide. July has an average of 103 tornadoes.

Hurricane activity increases, but major hurricanes are not yet frequent. By months end, one hurricane will have occurred. Seven percent of a year’s hurricane total occurs in July.

Long track hurricanes are possible, forming off the African coast and crossing the Atlantic, either to threaten the US East Coast, then eventually veering off towards Bermuda. Or in the case of “Low Latitude” storms, cross the Atlantic, strike the Leeward Islands; enter the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast.

July Tropical Cyclone Breeding Grounds

From 1851 to 2025 there have been 131 Tropical Storms and 62 Hurricanes, 29 of which made landfall in the United States.

Among notable storms are 2005’s Hurricane Emily, the only Category 5 storm to form in July, reaching 160 MPH and striking Mexico.

Hurricane Bertha, a 125 MPH storm holds the record for the longest lifespan for a July hurricane, churning for 17 days.

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon decreases from 78.0 degrees at the beginning of the month to 74.7 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 14 hours 20 minutes on July 1 to 13 hours 49 minutes on July 31, or 31 minutes shorter.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

July 1 Sunrise 5:40 AM Sunset 8:02 PM
July 15 Sunrise 5:47 AM Sunset 7:59 PM
July 31 Sunrise 5:58 AM Sunset 7:49 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Gemini, The Twins.

Mercury, magnitude +0.5 in Gemini, The Twins, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Mercury will reach his furthest point from the Sun, or “Aphelion” on July 1 and will pass between the Sun and the Earth or be in “Inferior Conjunction” on July 12 which will also be his closest approach to Earth, or “Perigee”.

Venus, magnitude -4.2 in Leo, The Lion, is early evening object.

At the first of the month, she is visible in the evening sky, becoming visible around 8:18 PM CDT, 25° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 27 minutes after the Sun at 10:27 PM CDT.

At midmonth she is visible in the evening sky, becoming visible around 8:14 PM CDT, 24° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 18 minutes after the Sun at 8:15 PM CDT.

The Moon will pass near Venus on July 17.

By months end she is visible in the evening sky, becoming visible at around 8:04 PM CDT, 21° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 6 minutes after the Sun at 7:53 PM CDT.

Earth, magnitude -4.0 as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Sagittarius, The Archer.

Earth will reach her farthest distance from the Sun or Aphelion on July 6 at 12:30 PM CDT or 05:30
UTC, when the distance from the Sun’s center to Earth’s center will be 94,502,962 miles from our home star, as she and the Moon wobble through space, the Moon tugging on the Earth like an unruly pup on a leash.

Mars, with his moons Phobos and Deimos, magnitude +1.3, in Taurus, The Bull, is emerging from behind the Sun.

At the first of the month, he will rise at 3:06 AM CDT – 2 hours and 32 minutes before the Sun – reaching an altitude of 20° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:54 AM CDT.
At midmonth he will rise at 2:46 AM CDT – 2 hours and 59 minutes before the Sun – reaching an altitude of 25° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:02 AM CDT.

By months end he will rise at 2:26 AM CDT – 3 hours and 30 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 32° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:14 AM CDT.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude +8.9 is in Taurus, The Bull.
Jupiter, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring magnitude –1.8, in Cancer, The Crab, is low in the in the Western sky at the first of the Month.

At the first of the month, he will become visible around 8:18 PM CDT, 10° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 16 minutes after the Sun at 9:16 PM CDT.

He will become lost in the glow of the Sun on July 6 and will be invisible until mid-August.

Jupiter will pass behind the Sun or be in Conjunction on July 29 and reach his furthest point from the Earth or Apogee on July 30.

Saturn, and his 274 moons and extensive debris ring system, magnitude +0.7, in Pisces, The Fish, is an early morning object.

At the first of the month, he rises at 12:52 AM CDT, he will reach an altitude of 48° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:02 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 11:58 PM CDT, and will reach an altitude of 56° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:11 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 11:50 PM CDT, at an altitude of 10° above the eastern horizon. He will reach his highest point in the sky at 5:07 AM CDT, 59° above the southern horizon. It will be lost to dawn twilight around 05:24 AM CDT.

Uranus, and his 28 moons and ring, magnitude +5.8 in Taurus, The Bull, is hidden in the glow of the Sun at the start of the month.

He emerges into the morning sky on July 10.

By midmonth he rises at 2:20 AM CDT – 3 hours and 25 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 29° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:36 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 1:19 AM CDT and reaches an altitude of 41° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:49 AM CDT.

Neptune, and his 16 moons and ring, magnitude 7.7 in Pisces, The Fish, has emerged into the predawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 12:22 AM CDT and reaches an altitude of 46° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:27 AM CDT.

Neptune enters retrograde motion, or will appear to be backing across the background stars on July 7.

By midmonth he rises at 11:27 PM CDT and reaches an altitude of 54° above the southern-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:36 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:13 AM CDT, and reaches an altitude of 56° above the southern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:49 AM CDT.

Pluto, the largest Dwarf Planet, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.5 in Capricornus, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.2 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.1 in Coma Berenices.

At least seven additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 near Perseus, the Greek hero who beheaded Medusa.

50000 Quaoar, his two rings and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 in Cancer, The Crab.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

25088 Gonggong, the third largest Dwarf Planet, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Pegasus, The Winged Horse.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.0 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Hydra, The Sea Serpent. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

“Dwarf Planet Candidate” 2017 OF201, magnitude 23.2 is in Triangulum, the Triangle.

FarFarOut is currently 12,380,486,086 miles or in Light Time, 18 hours, 27 minutes and 41 seconds from Earth.

The most distant man-made object, Voyager 1, still operating after 48 years, 9 months and 7 days is 15,816,381,434 miles or in Light Time, 23 hours, 58 minutes from Earth as of 2:49 PM CDT, June 16, 2026, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

Near Earth Object, asteroid 99942 Apophis, is expected to pass within 19,794 miles of the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029.

Apophis, magnitude +21.7, in Cancer, The Crab, is 162,873,125 miles or 1032 days from the Earth as of 2:36 PM CDT, June 16, 2026.

There are 1,548,782 known asteroids and 4,068 comets as of June 16, 2026 per NASA/JPL Solar Dynamics Website.

6,298 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of June 4, 2026 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur July 7 at 2:30 PM CDT or 7:30 UTC on July 17.

During the Quarter Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

Though it won’t peak until the night and morning of August 12 & 13, the Perseid Meteor Shower begins July 17, and lasts until August 24. This shower, associated with comet Swift-Tuttle will peak at 60 meteors per hour in August.

The moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on July 13 when she will be 223,141 miles from Earth.

New Moon will occur at 3:45 AM CDT or 09:45 UTC on July 14. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

Since the Moon is near her closest approach to the Earth, this will be a Super New Moon, even though we can’t see it.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur July 21 at 6:05 AM or 11:05 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on July 25, when she will be 251,996 miles from Earth.

The Southern Delta-Aquariid Meteor shower peaks on the night of July 28th into the morning of the 29th. This shower annually occurs from July 12 through August 23 is made up of debris from Comet Marsden Kracht and produces a ZHR or Zenith Hourly Rate of 20 meteors per hour.

Unfortunately, the Full Moon will obscure most of the meteors this year. But if you are patient, you may still be able to catch a few of the brighter ones.

Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

July’s Full Moon occurs July 29 at 9:37 AM CDT or 14:37 UTC, when the Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated.

July’s Full Moon is called “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore. This moon gets its name because the male buck deer begin to grow their new antlers at this time of year. It has also been called “Full Thunder Moon” & “Hay Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

Nighttime arrives late in July, as the days are still long, but if one is able, around midnight and the early morning if you step outside the Summer constellations of Scorpius the Scorpion, the red star Antares, and the Teapot of Sagittarius, the Archer will greet you.

If you are away from the dismal glow of city lights that wash out the night sky, and especially during a New Moon, you can explore the Milky Way, as the Earth is tipped toward the Galactic Core in Sagittarius and we can see it stretching across the sky from the horizon straight up to Cygnus, The Swan, flying overhead, onward though W shaped Cassiopea to the North and to Perseus near the Northern horizon.

A pair of binoculars will reveal rich star fields, nebulae and star clusters as you drift along the length of the galaxy, lost among the stars.

I find 7×35 binoculars, which are low power, but have a wide field of view is close to being a “Rich Field Telescope”. A Rich Field Telescope is a telescope designed to show the maximum number of stars in a given field of view, especially in star‑dense areas like the Milky Way. “Rich Field” is not to be confused with “wide field”, which refers to the widest possible view. “Rich Field” emphasizes star density rather than field of view size.

Other size binoculars may magnify too little or too much, or don’t have lenses wide enough to provide the enough light gathering power, or have lenses so large you could use them for weight lifting.

7×35 binoculars have just the right balance of magnification, light gathering power and weight to give you great views and not wear you out in the process. And, being binoculars, you have twice the light data available for your eyes and brain to process.

Try it, you’ll like it!

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Ham News

HF band conditions continue weak, though 6 Meters has seen several Sporadic E openings.

To me, these openings can produce conditions like bubbles. Bubbles of signals rise to the top, you answer the strong signal and the signal just fades in two seconds never to be heard again. Or they may last minutes or longer. I’ve seen some do both, with stations on top of each another, one a steady strong signal, and other signals bubbling up and rapidly fading away.

The ARRL June VHF Contest came and went. I went to six meters, and the band was alive with signals. I worked a strong station, but had to leave for about 30 minutes. With high expectations, I came back and there was total silence. The band had collapsed that quickly.

Not to be perturbed, I called on the 70 Centimeter SSB & FM calling frequencies, 432.100 & 446.000 MHz, the 1½ Meter FM calling frequency, 223.500 MHz and the 2 meter SSB calling frequency 144.200 MHz and heard nothing. I did work two stations on 146.520 MHz.

Having worked three glorious stations, I called it “success” and moved on to other things.

July contests and events of note are:

July 1 RAC Canada Day 00:00z – 23:59z, July 1
7:00 PM June 30 – 7:00 PM July 1 CDT

July 4 CQ Worldwide VHF SSB/CW 12:00z, July 5 to 12:00z, July 6
7:00 AM July 5 to 7:00 AM July 6 CDT

July 11 IARU HF Worldwide SSB/CW 12:00z, July 11 to 12:00z, July 12
7:00 AM July 11 to 7:00 AM July 12 CDT

July 18 POTA Support Your Parks Saturday & Sunday UTC July 18 & 19

July 25 Alabama QSO Party 15:00z, July 25 to 03:00z, July 26
10:00 AM July 25 to 10:00 PM July 25 CDT

    RSGB IOTA Contest CW & SSB            12:00z, July 25 to 12:00z, July 26
                         7:00 AM July 25 to 7:00 AM July 26 CDT

Two contests which especially pique my interest are the Alabama QSO Party, where folk are hunting for YOU and the IARU HF Worldwide Contest, where conditions permitting, you can work DX stations by the handfuls.

This includes stations rarely heard outside of contests, such as LP1H in Argentina, 8P5A in Barbados, D4Z in the Cape Verde Islands, FY5FY in French Guiana and CN3A in Morrocco.

For more details go to WA7BNM Contest Calendar: WA7BNM Contest Calendar: Home & for the Alabama QSO Party: alabamacontestgroup.org/aqp/

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This month’s meeting will be online July 14 at 7PM. Watch for Russell’s email announcement for details.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

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ALERT NEWSLETTER – June 2026

Published 06/01/2026 | By WD4NYL

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well as we cruise into summer!

As we leave Spring tornado season, our eyes turn towards the Atlantic and Gulf as hurricane season begins.

NOAA released its seasonal outlook on May 21, which calls for a below normal season, with 8 to 14 named storms, 3 to 6 hurricanes and 1 to 3 major hurricanes.

Though hurricane forecasts are calling for a “below normal’ season due to a strong El Niño, it is good to remember the ABCs. Namely Andrew, Betsy and Camille.

Andrew was a Category 5 storm that destroyed 63,000 homes and damaged 100,000 more in Miami-Dade County Florida in 1992. Andrew was the most destructive hurricane to ever hit Florida in terms of structures damaged or destroyed. 1992 was an El Niño year.

Betsy was a Category 4 hurricane that struck South Florida and Louisiana in 1965, pushing a storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain, which breeched the levees in New Orleans flooding neighborhoods, notably the Ninth Ward, causing widespread damage, as Katrina would again do forty years later, with even more devastating results.

Camille was a Category 5 hurricane that struck near Pass Christian Mississippi, producing a 24.6 foot storm surge, killing 348 people from Mississippi to the Virginias.

Both Betsy and Camille occurred during strong El Niños.

So, a strong El Niño doesn’t necessarily mean “don’t worry, this season will be an easy one”, for it takes just one major hurricane to cause widespread grief, “below average season” or not.

So, keep keeping a wary eye towards the tropical waters, in case mischief brews.

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2026-2027 officers for ALERT!

The results of the 2026 ALERT election is in and your Officers are:

President: Kaila Szmajda, KR4BZF
Vice President: Roger Parsons, KK4UDU
Treasurer & Membership: Bill Rodgers, K4FSO
Secretary: Justin Glass, N0ZO
Public Information Officer: Kaila Szmajda, KR4BZF
Training: Steven Moss, KB4FKN

The Board Of Directors is as follows:

President: Kaila Szmajda, KR4BZF
Immediate Past President: Johnnie Knobloch, KJ4OPX
Station Trustee: Russell Thomas KV4S
Board At Large: Two Year: Mark Wells, WD4NYL
Board At Large: Dale Chambers, KD4QHZ

Thank you for your dedication and willingness to serve!

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A Whole Lot Of Shaking Going On

I always take social media posts with a huge grain of salt, as anything can be posted and it be accepted as “true” whether it is or not.

Sometimes something will pique my interest though, such as several recent Facebook posts featuring maps of Alabama with the headlines “BREAKING: STRANGE GROUND SHAKING REPORTED ACROSS ALABAMA”.

These maps have icons resembling a seismograph trace near Birmingham, Montgomery, Dothan, Gulf Shores and Mobile. No source for these reports or the map is given and the symbol for Gulf Shores is over Pensacola, and another has a symbol for Orange Beach hovering over Panama City, which could simply be simply typo.

Ever curious, I decided to delve into this, and according the United State Geological Survey or USGS, there have been 5 earthquakes effecting Alabama this year:

04/27/2026 Magnitude 2.5 03:55 UTC 7.5 Miles (12km) NNE Trinity, Morgan County, AL
03/20/2026 Magnitude 2.2 05:40 UTC 9.3 Miles (15km) W Rock Creek, Jefferson County, AL
03/16/2026 Magnitude 2.1 19:36 UTC 1.9 Miles (3km) SW Varnell, Whitfield County, GA
01/17/2026 Magnitude 2.3 02:59 UTC 3.1 Miles (5km) NW Addison, Winston County, AL
01/17/2026 Magnitude 2.4 02:18 UTC 3.7 Miles (6km) NW Addison, Winston County, AL

20 Earthquakes occurred in 2025.

12/20/2025 Magnitude 2.1 06:53 UTC 6.8 Miles (11km) SSW Tuscaloosa, Tuscaloosa Co, AL
12/17/2025 Magnitude 1.4 03.42 UTC 4.3 Miles (7km) SE LaFayette, Walker County, GA
12/17/2025 Magnitude 2.4 11.38 UTC 2.5 Miles (4km) SW LaFayette, Walker County, GA
11/13/2025 Magnitude 1.5 21:10 UTC 5.0 Miles (8km) SW Chickamauga, Walker County, GA
11/08/2025 Magnitude 1.7 18:48 UTC 3.7 Miles (6km) WSW Linwood, Walker County, GA
10/31/2025 Magnitude 2.3 09:49 UTC 0.6 Miles (1km) SE Talladega, Talladega County, AL
08/27/2025 Magnitude 2.3 18:14 UTC 3.7 Miles (6km) WSW Linwood, Walker County, GA
08/12/2025 Magnitude 2.0 23:11 UTC 2.5 Miles (4km) NNE Trenton, Dade County, GA
08/03/2025 Magnitude 1.9 12:25 UTC 5.6 Miles (9km) NNW Eton, Murray County, GA
06/29/2025 Magnitude 2.1 19:23 UTC 1.9 miles (3km) ENE Cohutta, Whitfield County, GA
06/22/2025 Magnitude 2.4 00:10 UTC 1.9 Miles (3km) SSW Park City, Walker County, GA
04/22/2025 Magnitude 2.4 17:23 UTC 2.5 Miles (4km) NW Cohutta, Whitfield County, GA
04/16/2025 Magnitude 2.2 04:16 UTC 3.7 Miles (6km) WNW Linwood, Walker County, GA
03/29.2025 Magnitude 2.1 11:58 UTC 3.1 Miles (5km) E Trion, Chattooga County, GA
02/25/2025 Magnitude 2.2 19:44 UTC 5.0 Miles (8km) N Menlo, GA, Chattooga County, GA
02/25/2025 Magnitude 2.6 13:01 UTC 5.0 Miles (8km) N Menlo, GA, Chattooga County, GA
01/25/2025 Magnitude 2.3 18:14 UTC 3.7 Miles (6km) WSW Linwood, Walker County, GA
01/16/2025 Magnitude 1.8 18:49 UTC 2.5 Miles (4km) SE Apison, Hamilton County, TN
11/24/2025 Magnitude 2.4 04:01 UTC 2.5 Miles (4km) WNW Sipsey, Walker County, AL
10/27/2025 Magnitude 2.0 23:16 UTC 0.6 Miles (1km) WSW Collegedale, Hamilton County, TN

This compares to:

19 earthquakes in 2024
10 earthquakes in 2023
13 earthquakes in 2022
12 earthquakes in 2021
23 earthquakes in 2020

A few thoughts:

Of the earthquakes listed affecting Alabama, none are considered unusual, but rather “typical”. Most, unless you are standing on top of the epicenter, are never even felt, especially if they are below magnitude 2.5. Per the USGS, typically people report feeling earthquakes starting at about magnitude 3.0 or greater.

With the exception of the March 30th 2026 Rock Creek earthquake, which was caused by a mine collapse, all of these earthquakes are associated with the Southern Appalachian Seismic Zone, which stretches from Western Alabama along the Appalachian Mountains through Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. Most are clustered near mountains of NE Alabama and NW Georgia.

None of these are associated with the more famous, or infamous New Madrid Seismic Zone, which produced a series of Magnitude 6.1 – 7.5 earthquakes from December 16, 1811 to February 7,1812, in Missouri and Tennessee, which if repeated today could cause significant damage to Northwestern Alabama.

A lesser-known area, the Bahamas Fracture Seismic Zone in Southwest Alabama and North Florida, runs eastward to the Bahamas, and has produced a half dozen or so earthquakes in the last 30 years, most clustered around Alabama and Florida’s Escambia Counties.

The South Carolina Seismic Zone centered around Charleston SC can also potentially affect Alabama. It produced a Magnitude 6.9 – 7.3 earthquake August 31, 1886 just north of Charleston.

The largest earthquakes to strike Alabama are:

Magnitude 5.1 Irondale, Jefferson County on October 18, 1916, causing cracked windows, fallen chimneys, and dried-up wells as the aquifer was temporarily disrupted. While there were no fatalities, the earthquake caused widespread panic, making workers evacuate tall buildings.

Magnitude 4.8 Flomaton, Escambia County on October 24, 1997, which caused large cracks along a beach.

Magnitude 4.6 Valley Head / Fort Payne, DeKalb County on April 29, 2003, which being a deep earthquake causing only minor landslides, sinkholes and masonry damage.

So, whatever is causing the reported “widespread shaking” it’s probably safe to say that it isn’t earthquake related.

What about the “Alabama Boom” then?

The news sources sound the headlines:

“Eglin officials deny sonic boom source…heard and felt in the Mobile Bay area shortly after 8 a.m. Oct. 13, military officials said the jet had been nowhere near Mobile” – AL.com 10/14/2014

“Mysterious Boom Rattles Alabama and No One Knows What Caused It” – Newsweek 11/15/2017
“What are all these loud booms that are being heard across Central Alabama? The noise was reported again on Sunday and Monday in areas from Birmingham to Anniston. Those booms come on the heels of one heard on November 14th.” – WBRC 11/17/2017

“Did SpaceX create the loud boom heard in Alabama and Florida?” – AL.com 5/30/2023

“No reports of injuries after mysterious big boom heard in Shelby County” – 1819news 7/31/2023

The frequently reported Alabama Boom is a mystery to be solved. These “booms” aren’t limited to Alabama of course, and have been reported globally, where they are sometimes called “Mystery Booms” or “Skyquakes”.

The causes are elusive with some possible explanations being:

Sonic Booms, or the shockwave of high-speed military aircraft breaking the sound barrier being heard 100 miles or more.
Meteors & space debris entering the atmosphere producing sonic booms or exploding in the atmosphere
Industrial causes, such as quarry blasting.
Shallow earthquakes
Atmospheric ducting causing distant sounds to come rumbling in, much like VHF radio signals often do.
Distant Thunderstorms
Offshore events, such as geological gas venting from the ocean floor.
Things maybe you don’t really want to know about….

One name for these are “Seneca Guns”, named for Lake Seneca in upstate New York where they have been heard for at least 150 years. These were described in 1850 by James Fenimore Cooper in his short story “The Lake Gun”.

“It is a sound resembling the explosion of a heavy piece of artillery, that can be accounted for by none of the known laws of nature”. “The report is deep, hollow, distant and imposing. The lake seems to be speaking to the surrounding hills, which send back the echoes of its voice in accurate reply. No satisfactory theory has ever been broached to explain these noises.”

In this case I think we can rule out jets.

I have heard some “mystery booms” several times while living in western Birmingham, most with reasonable explanations.

The first was in the early 1960s. It was morning and I was waking up when suddenly a very loud BOOM shook the house and it seemed almost as if the windows were bowing in. “A sonic boom” folk said, “probably from Maxwell Air Force Base”.

The second was on October 31, 1979. I remember hearing “boom, BooM, BOOM!” which rattled the entire house. In this case it was the sound of the Hercules Powder Plant, near Bessemer and Hueytown exploding. The plant never reopened, but Powder Plant Road still exists today.

Every few months the neighborhood would shake from blasts. “They’re cleaning out the ladles at US Steel…they drop a stick of dynamite in them to do it” the old timers would say. Which I guess was true.

One night I was reading about Water Oaks, as we had a huge one in the back yard. At 4:10 AM there was a loud “boom” and the whole house shook. “Earthquake!” I said, “Tree!” my wife said. I turned over to go back to sleep, and Teresa suggested maybe I should check the house. I turned the deck light on and saw that we no longer had a deck and that the roof had a new skylight which wasn’t there the day before. The tree, with no wind or rain to cause it, had just decided to split in to. So, we ended up with a new deck, half a new roof (insurance companies are bizarre) and a lost tree.

So, if you hear a weird boom, or feel the earth move under your feet, just welcome to wonders of Alabama!

And, while we are discussing weird phenomena, let’s not forget the best ones of them all.

Today they call them UAPs or Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. I remember when they were just called “UFOs”, which I will continue to call them.

Recently the government released files and pictures of unexplained weirdness, which could not be explained away as lens flares, blotches made during the photo processing or folk “drunker than Cooter Brown” flying drones.

It reminded me of the early 1970’s. From around 1972 to 1975 there was a flood of UFO and USO (Unidentified Submerged Object) reports from across the Southeast and around the world. Some we’re perhaps due to “chemical induced visions” (in other words high as a kite). Others we’re reported by pilots, police officers, preachers and other folk generally considered sane.

USOs we’re seen glowing at night underwater near the shipyards at Pascagoula, some fishermen near Biloxi swore they had been abducted, as did a lady who passed a polygraph test and under hypnosis drew a star chart of the Zeti Reticulum star system shown to her by “them”, and a policeman near Falkville, swore that a man dressed in a shiny suit outran his patrol car.

Then, just as with the swarms on mystery drones which we heard of a couple of years ago, “poof” the reports we’re suddenly gone. Though occasional reports still come in today, it is nothing like the surge during the early 70’s.

Whether it’s the “mysterious lights” and “airships” that were seen along the west coast in the 1880’s or orbs buzzing US Navy fighters today, what are these things? Aliens, natural, but not yet understood phenomena, secret hush hush weaponry? Beats me, as I have seen some unexplainable things also.

I am an analytical person. If I see or hear something weird, I figure there is a reasonable explanation, though I may not know what it is at that exact moment. And, I’ve been a “sky watcher” whether it’s astronomy or meteorology since I was 5 years old, so what may be “weird” to one person may not be weird to me.

Most things I’ve seen have reasonable explanations, such as the multicolored lights I saw on the horizon in 1973, which ended up being the Goodyear Blimp, or when my sister, Mom and I saw something shiny fall off a DC-3 aircraft in 1963.

Have I seen some “unexplainable” things though? Oh yes.

At the risk of sounding delusional:

In the early 1960’s I was maybe 5 years old playing in a sandpile. I looked towards Birmingham, which you could see in the distance and there was a pinpoint black spot over the city. I thought it was an insect hovering a few feet away, as bug are known to do. But I noticed that if I moved to the right or left the spot’s position did not move. If I was near its location, it should have moved to the left or right as my visual angle changed. Then I looked down, looked back up and it was gone.

One night in the late 1980’s I was sitting at the kitchen table eating and, in the sky, a large object passed over the house at a low altitude. I thought “man that plane is low”. Then it occurred to me “where is the plane’s sound?”. I went outside and there was a low cloud cover, so it had to be just at cloud level and I should have been able to hear something if it was an aircraft. What I saw was circular in shape, like a foggy Frisbie, colored not unlike a yellowish green glowstick, moving east to west at a high rate of speed.

In the spring of 1999, my father was in Lloyd Nolan Hospital in Fairfield. As I sat with him, I was looking out of the window towards Ensley. I saw two white triangular shaped objects tumbling slowly through the sky. I thought they were large pieces of white poster paper that had been picked up by the wind, as it was a very windy day. Then I watched as they went behind the tallest building in downtown Ensley, the Massey building and I realized: 1. These we’re much farther away that I thought, as the building was two miles away. 2. These are much larger than I thought, as they still appeared large as they disappeared behind the building. The mystery grew when they did not reappear. I assumed I was seeing an aircraft breaking apart and watched for a smoke plume that never appeared. Later I watched the news and nothing unusual was ever mentioned.

Lastly, in November 2018, my wife and I and another couple were camping in Tannehill State Park
When we saw an orange shaped light moving slowly just above the tree canopy about 100 yards away. Since there was no sound, that would seem to rule out a drone.

It is possible it someone launched a Sky Lantern. Sky lanterns are floating lanterns made from a thin paper shell, from 12 inches to several yards across, with a 4-to-12-inch opening at the bottom, surrounded by a stiff collar, which suspends a flame fueled by a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material, flammable oil or a similar ignitable material

As the flame heats the air inside the shell, it acts like a hot air balloon, rises and stays aloft as long as the flame is lit, then it crashes, if it doesn’t get hung up in the trees. Which is why this isn’t the wisest thing to try in the middle of a forest, as they have been known to cause fires and serious damage.

In three of these four examples, I have no explanation reasonable or otherwise as to what they could be. I’ll add that I’ve never done drugs and am as sober as my Baptist Mama ever was. I mean, if can I see these things stone sober, who needs any outside help?

The truth is out there…

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Mark’s Almanac

Originally the fourth Roman Month, June at one time had 29 days, until Julius Caesar in a glow of inspiration added the 30th day.

What June was named for is uncertain. Some say it was named for Juno, wife & sister of Jupiter. Juno was the goddess of marriage and a married couple’s household, so some consider it good luck to be married in this month, which is why June has become a month for so many marriages.

The beginning of meteorological Summer is June 1.

Storm activity retains many of the characteristics of spring, but more and more the pattern takes on the summer pattern of pop-up thunderstorms.
Hurricane season begins June 1; however, June hurricanes are usually small and of minor intensity, occurring roughly once every two years.

The centers for June Tropical Cyclone activity are the extreme Western Caribbean, with the storm tracks striking the Yucatan or veering toward Western Florida & the Southwestern Gulf of Mexico, with other storm tracks aiming toward the Mexican mainland.

From 1851 to 2025 there have been 107 Tropical Storms and 34 Hurricanes, of which 20 impacted the United States. The most notable June hurricane was Audrey, one of the deadliest tropical cyclones in US history, which killed 416 as it devastated the southwestern Louisiana coast in 1957.

The center of maximum tornadic activity shifts northward over Kansas and Iowa. Activity in Texas and Oklahoma dies down. There is a 5% decrease in tornadic activity over the May average & by June 4th 50% of the year’s tornadoes have occurred.

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon increases from 78.2 degrees at the beginning of the month to maximum of 79.7 on Summer Solstice on June 21 and then lowering to 79.5 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 14 hours 16 minutes on June 1 to the maximum daylight of 14 hours 25 minutes at Summer Solstice on June 21 and then decreases to 14 hours 23 minutes on June 30.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

June 1 Sunrise 5:37 AM Sunset 7:53 PM
June 15 Sunrise 5:35 AM Sunset 8:00 PM
June 30 Sunrise 5:39 AM Sunset 8:02 PM

The following astronomical data is based on information from In-The-Sky.org, A Complete Guide to the Solar System and the Night Sky | TheSkyLive, Sea and Sky – Explore the Oceans Below and the Universe Above, AstroPixels: Home, https://moonphasetoday.org, 2026 Calendar – Calendar-12.com, Comprehensive Asteroid and Comet Database | Space Reference and others and is based on Birmingham’s latitude. The memes and charts of planetary alignments seen frequently on social media sometimes may be possible for another latitude, but mostly they just AI generated junk hoping to generate a response, ultimately leading to clicks for profit.

That said…

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Taurus, The Bull.
Mercury, magnitude +0.5 in Gemini, The Twins, is low in the northwest horizon at sunset.

At the first of the month, he becomes visible at around 8:13 PM CDT, 11° above the north-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 28 minutes after the Sun at 9:19 PM CDT.

Mercury will reach his highest altitude in the sky on June 11, reaching 19° above the horizon.

At midmonth he will become visible at around 8:31 PM CDT, 12° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 41 minutes after the Sun at 9:39 PM CDT.

Mercury will reach his greatest separation from the Sun, or reach Greatest Eastern Elongation on June 15.

Mercury will disappear from the night sky descending into the glow of the Sun on June 18.

Venus, magnitude -4.0 in Cancer, The Crab, is the bright Evening Star shining over the western horizon.

At the first of the month, she will become visible at around 8:09 PM CDT, 25° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 35 minutes after the Sun at 10:26 PM CDT.

Venus will reach her highest altitude in the sky on June 12, reaching 30° above the horizon.

At midmonth she will become visible at around 8:15 PM CDT, 26° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 34 minutes after the Sun at 10:32 PM CDT.

Venus and the Moon will pass very close to each other, within 0.3° on June 17.

By months end she will become visible at around 8:18 PM CDT, 25° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 28 minutes after the Sun at 10:28 PM CDT.

Earth, and her Moon, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Libra, The Scales.

Mars, with his moons Phobos and Deimos, magnitude +1.3, in Aries, The Ram is lost in the glow of the Sun during the first week of the month.

He will emerge in the predawn sky on June 7th, rising at 3:44 AM CDT – 1 hour and 50 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 12° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:50 AM CDT.

At midmonth he becomes visible rising at 3:31 AM CDT – 2 hours and 3 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 15° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:50 AM CDT.

By months end he becomes visible rising at 3:07 AM CDT – 2 hours and 30 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 20° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:53 AM CDT.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude +8.6 is in Taurus, The Bull.

Jupiter, and his 95 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring magnitude –1.8, in Gemini, The Twins at the first of the month is sinking in the western sky.

At the first of the month, he becomes visible around 8:09 PM CDT, 31° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 3 hours and 1 minute after the Sun at 10:52 PM CDT.

By midmonth he becomes visible around 8:15 PM CDT, 21° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 9 minutes after the Sun at 10:07 PM CDT.

At months end he will become visible at around 8:18 PM CDT, 11° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. It will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 20 minutes after the Sun at 9:20 PM CDT.

Saturn, and his 274 moons and extensive debris ring system, magnitude +0.8, in Pisces, The Fish, is emerging from behind the Sun in the dawn sky.

At the first of the month, he becomes visible in the dawn sky, rising at 2:44 AM CDT – 2 hours and 51 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 27° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:59 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 1:52 AM CDT – 3 hours and 42 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 37° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:58 AM CDT.

At months end he rises at 12:55 AM CDT and reach an altitude of 47° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:02 AM CDT.

Uranus, and his 28 moons and ring, magnitude +5.8 in Taurus, The Bull, regardless of what social media memes may say, is invisible, hidden in the glow of the Sun.

Neptune, and his 16 moons and ring, magnitude 7.8 in Pisces, The Fish is visible using a telescope, in the predawn sky.

At the first of the month, he rises at 2:19 AM CDT – 3 hours and 16 minutes before the Sun – and reach an altitude of 25° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:26 AM CDT.

By midmonth he rises at 1:24 AM CDT and reach an altitude of 35° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:23 AM CDT.

At months end he rises 12:26 AM CDT and reach an altitude of 45° above the south-eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:26 AM CDT.

Pluto, the largest Dwarf Planet, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.6 in Capricornus, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.2 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.1 in Coma Berenices.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 near Aries, The Ram.

50000 Quaoar, his two rings and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 in Canis Minor, The Little Dog.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

25088 Gonggong, the third largest Dwarf Planet, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Pegasus, The Winged Horse.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.0 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Corvus, The Crow. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

“Dwarf Planet Candidate” 2017 OF201, magnitude 23.2 is in Triangulum, the Triangle.

FarFarOut is currently 12,341,407,984 miles or in Light Time, 18 hours, 24 minutes and 11 seconds from Earth.

The most distant man-made object, Voyager 1, still operating after 48 years, 9 months and 7 days is 15,786,453,550 miles or in Light Time, 23 hours, 54 minutes from Earth as of 1:38 PM CDT, May 14, 2026, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

Near Earth Object, asteroid 99942 Apophis, is expected to pass within 19,794 miles of the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029.

Apophis, magnitude +21.7, in Taurus, The Bull, is 155,070,778 miles or 1066 days from the Earth as of 1:43 PM CST, May 14, 2026.

There are 1,542,606 known asteroids and 4,063 comets as of May 14, 2026 per NASA/JPL Solar Dynamics Website.

6,287 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of May 14, 2026 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur June 8 at 5:03 AM or 10:03 UTC.
During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The Moon will be at Perigee, or her closest point from the Earth on June 14 at 221,951 Miles.

New Moon will occur at 9:56 PM CDT June 14 or 02:56 UTC June 15. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere. This will provide the darkest skies of the month.

Because this New Moon will occur near her closest approach to Earth, this will be a Super New Moon.

Summer Solstice will occur at 3:25 AM CDT or 08:25 UTC on June 21. The North Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its northernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude. This is the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur June 21 at 4:55 PM CDT or 21:55 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The June Bootids Meteor Shower will occur from June 26th until July 2nd. It peaks on June 27th. Normally the shower is very weak, with a Zenith Hourly Rate or ZHR of 1 or 2, but occasional outbursts produce a hundred or more meteors per hour. The source of the June Bootids is Comet 7P/Pons-Winnecke, which orbits the Sun once every 6.37 years.

A near Full Moon will wash out most of the fainter meteors of this unpredictable shower. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on June 28, when she will be 252,443 miles from Earth.

June’s Full Moon is “Strawberry Moon” in Native American folklore. This will occur on June 29 at 6:58 PM CDT or 23:58 UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated. It is called “Strawberry Moon” for it signals the time to start harvesting strawberries, as it is peak strawberry ripening time. Other names are “Rose Moon” and “Honey Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

Because this Full Moon will occur at her farthest distance from the Earth, this will be a Micro Full Moon, appearing smaller than normal.

Around 10 PM in mid-June, Libra the Scales will be passing due South. When Alpha Librae, the lower-right of the two brightest stars of Libra, is due south, if you look directly below it you will see nothing but horizon. But, if you were at a lower latitude, say 29°, the latitude of Orlando, or points south would see our brilliant, -0.27 magnitude neighbor Alpha Centauri above the horizon.

At 4.37 light years distance, the Alpha Centauri system is nearest star system to our own.

It is a triple star consisting of Alpha Centauri A, also called Rigil Kentaurus, Alpha Centauri B or Toliman and the closest star to the Sun, Alpha Centauri C also called Proxima Centauri, 4.24 light years from Earth.

Alpha Centauri A is a near twin of our Sun in almost every way, including age, while Alpha Centauri B is somewhat smaller and dimmer but still quite like the Sun. The third member, Proxima Centauri is a much smaller red dwarf star that travels around the A-B pair.

Proxima Centauri has three known planets: Proxima b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone or so called “Goldilocks Zone” – not too hot and not too cold to support some form of life if it has a suitable atmosphere. Proxima c, a super-Earth, which is possibly surrounded by a huge ring system and Proxima d, which orbits very closely to the star.

Alpha Centauri A may have a Neptune-sized habitable-zone planet, though it is not yet known to be planetary in nature and could be an artifact of the discovery mechanism. Alpha Centauri B has no known planets.

From Alpha Centauri the Sun or Sol is a bright yellow star in the broad “W” shaped constellation Cassiopeia.

The Sun adds another leg to the “W” to the right, turning W of Cassiopeia into a /\/\/ shaped celestial zigzag.

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Ham News

HF band conditions continue to be less than prime, or put it another way, about as sorry as they can get.

Still contacts are to be made. My most notable was working AO16DIO in Pontevedra Spain, celebrating World Heavy Metal Day. He was the only strong signal on 20 meters, and he faded out just as quickly as he faded in.

The Sporadic E season has begun on 6 Meters, which will last until August. So, if you have 6 Meter capability, keep an ear tuned to the radio and peek at online propagation reports such as HF Real Time Propagation (which you can fine tune to 6 meters or whatever band you wish) and try to catch a band opening.

The best times to catch a Sporadic E opening is from 10 AM to 2 PM & 4 PM to 8 PM local time.

I worked New York yesterday and on the 6 Meter SSB calling frequency, 50.125 MHz there were three QSO’s going on simultaneously, and none of the stations were aware of the others. On another frequency I called station A, was answered by station B instead and both faded before we could trade signal reports and locations.

Such is life on 6 Meters. Unpredictable, but never boring.

Contests and events of note are:

June 6 Atlantic Canada QSO Party
Kentucky QSO Party
VK Shires Contest (Australia)
IARU Region 1 Field Day – CW
RSGB Field Day – CW

June 13 Asia-Pacific Sprint – SSB
ARRL June VHF Contest
Portugal Day
June 20 SMIRK Contest (6 Meters)
ALL Asia DX Contest – CW
ARRL Kids Day
West Virgina QSO Party
Stew Perry Top Band – CW (160 meters)

June 27 ARRL Field Day
His Majesty King Of Spain – SSB

For more details go to WA7BNM Contest Calendar: Home

On thing I ran across online that I found amusing was a discussion of sideband operations on 75/80 meters.

One gentleman said “operators on 80 meters can talk the hind legs off a donkey.”

Another said “the secret is to tell stories that don’t go anywhere.”

A slightly modified example being: “Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe. So, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So, I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ’em. ‘Gimme five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say. Now where were we… oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have any white onions, because of the war.
YL’s only wanted to talk to fellas with white onion belts., and every stinking restaurant had only red onions. Much too sweet. Might as well have put gummy bears in your salad, except they weren’t invented yet. I remember the headache that the Morganville to Shelbyville name change caused. Oh, the stories I could tell about that and the great Shirt Off Parade. But we should get back to the topic. I have a doctor’s appointment later about my bursitis and need to stop by the prison and see if Aunt Gretchen needs anything. I still say they we’re picking on her and that those parsley plants in her garden that they said was Puerto Rican Lettuce was a just wild variety. That foot cream that old quack doctor gave me hasn’t done even a little bit of good…”

That’s sort of mean.
That’s sort of true.
That’s sort of like the Newsletters you get from me.

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This month’s meeting will be on June 9, at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Calera.

I hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL

Editor
ALERT Newsletter

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ALERT NEWSLETTER – May 2026

Published 04/30/2026 | By WD4NYL

Hi Everyone, I hope this finds you doing well and enjoying the war April days.

Our May 12 ALERT meeting will feature our annual elections.

Positions to be decided are President, Vice President, Treasurer/Membership and Secretary.

Those recommended by the Nominating Committee and any nominations from the floor (made by a current ALERT Operational Member) and any volunteers for those positions will be voted on by secret ballot, or acclamation if no other nominations exist from the floor.

If you are a paid-up Operational Member or Supporting Member, which is a member interested in Amateur Radio, Skywarn or Emergency Communications, but doesn’t have a ham license, you may vote in the 2026-2027 ALERT leadership elections.

The officers will assume their positions at the July meeting.

July is also when ALERT dues are due. Remember, if you wish to respond to ALERT callouts or serve as an officer you MUST be current with your dues.

May your May be a happy one!

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Updated 2026 Hurricane Outlooks

Colorado State University has issued its outlook for the 2026 tropical season, which runs from June 1 to November 30.

Their forecast predicts a “somewhat below average” season with 13 named storms during the Atlantic hurricane season. Of those, researchers expect 6 to become hurricanes and 2 to reach major hurricane strength of Category 3 or greater, with sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.

2026-04-pressrelease.pdf

There is a 32% chance for at least one major hurricane to strike the United States. The average from 1880 – 2020 is 43%.

There is a 15% chance for at least one major hurricane to strike the US East coast including the Florida Peninsula. The average from 1880 – 2020 is 21%.

There is a 20% chance for at least one major hurricane to strike the Gulf Coast from the Florida Panhandle to Brownsville Texas. The average from 1880 – 2020 is 27%.

There is a 35% chance of a major hurricane striking in the Caribbean. The average from 1880–2020 is 47%.

The forecasters said expectations of a “robust” El Nino in the Pacific Ocean is a primary factor in expectations for a quieter season. El Niño conditions typically increase wind shear across the Atlantic, making it more difficult for storms to organize.

The CSU forecast is largely in line with Accuweather’s expectations for the hurricane season, which was released last month. Accuweather is calling for a near to below average season with 11 – 16 named storms. Of those storms, 4 to 7 are forecast to become hurricanes, 2 to 4 being major hurricanes and 3 to 5 hurricanes likely to hit the United States.

The UK Tropical Storm Risk,com outlook predicts a season 40% below the 1991-2020 30-year norm, with 12 named storms, 5 hurricanes and 1 “intense” hurricane.

TSRATLForecastApril2026.pdf

A “Normal” season sees about 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes, and 3 major hurricanes.

The 2026 North Atlantic Basin Tropical Cyclone names are

Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo, Hanna, Isaias, Josephine, Kyle
Leah, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky & Wilfred

If so many storms occur that the 2026 list is depleted, the storm names will revert to the World Meteorological Organization supplemental list of names: Adria, Braylen, Caridad, Deshawn, Emery, Foster, Gemma, Heath, Isla, Jacobus, Kenzie, Lucio, Makayla, Nolan, Orlanda, Pax, Ronin, Sophie, Tayshaun, Viviana and Will.

The National Hurricane Center will issue their outlook in May.

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PoC Radios – What Are They?

If you have been on social media sites lately you have probably seen advertisements featuring people holding handheld radios with the ads boasting of “nationwide coverage” or “global coverage”. What are these radios and are they all just “Internet smoke and mirrors”?

To be honest, when first I heard the term “PoC” radios, I immediately thought “Piece of Crap”, as the radio market is being flooded with cheap radios, which on the one hand can give a good starting point for new hams, and a source of “throw away radios” that work, but are cheap enough that you won’t go into mourning if it falls off the canoe. On the other hand, they are often touted as “walkie-talkies” in the same vein as FRS radios, with no mention of license or even what service they may be made for.

Many buy these radios not knowing, and in some cases, not caring that you need FCC licenses to use a ham or GMRS radio. One company plainly advertises that they are ham radios, but also plainly states “You can LISTEN on the radios with no FCC license. And USE THEM in an EMERGENCY! (sic)”. While they do explain you need a license to use it if it’s not an emergency, they end with “EVERY CITIZEN in America should own one of these radios – whether they have a license or not, since you can LEGALLY use it – IF and WHEN you need it the most! (sic)”.

These are aimed at the prepper community, and are bought for “doomsday”. Many preppers, (and I sort of count myself as one, specializing in natural disasters and the transmission falling out of the car, rather than alien invasions and irradiated mutants) do go ahead and get their license.

Many, if Internet bluster and chest thumping is to be believed, are of the mindset of “I don’t need a stinkin’ license to use my stinkin’ radio”. Ignoring the fact that you get the stinkin’ license so you can learn how to use the stinkin’ radio, so that when you need to use the stinkin’ radio you will have a stinkin’ clue how the stinkin’ thing works.

I used to worry about the ham bands being flooded by people bootlegging with these radios, and though I did hear some (presumably) bootleg activity, consisting of someone using DMR in the CW portion of 2 meters, I don’t worry anymore.

In most cases these radios just give a false sense of security and after being unpacked and twiddled with for a few days, they end up in a backpack in the basement, only to see the light of day again twenty years later, when someone cleaning the basement out finds a moth eaten, rat chewed backpack, containing burst cans of food, and a flashlight and radio both leaking green corroded battery goo.

PoC or “Push-to-Talk Over Cellular” devices are a totally different class of devices.

First, they are not “walkie-talkies” or handheld radios in a true sense. They are cellphones. They may look like radios, sound like radios, and having a PTT switch may act like radios, and are marketed as radios, but they are actually cellphones.

For purposes of this article, we will still call them “radios”, since that’s what the marketers are calling them.

PoC radios differ from traditional cellphones in that it’s uses a PTT switch, like a radio, where only one person can talk as a time, or “half-duplex”, but, unlike traditional radios, they tie into the cellphone infrastructure. But, unlike traditional cellphones which use only a single carrier, these use multiple paths and carriers to route the signal.

A traditional cellphone is tied to only one network. For instance, my phone is with ATT and so is tied to the ATT network. I can be standing in the shadow of a Verizon or some other carriers tower and my phone may be saying “no service”, as the phone doesn’t recognize the Verizon or other systems. For normally your phone will only work with the carrier you are signed up with.

There is one very important exception which everyone should know about, and that concerns 911 calls. If your phone says “no service” and you still dial 911, if ANY cellphone tower from ANY carrier hears your call, they are required by law to connect you with the nearest 911 center. Your phone may still say “no service”, but here you are talking with the 911 operator plain as day. The location services may not work, so you will need to give your location. But, if there is an emergency, and your phone says “no service”, CALL 911 ANYWAY! It may connect perfectly. You never know until you try.

Don’t pull the old Hollywood stunt of “I’ll just walk somewhere, I don’t know where, or what direction and find reception.” That’s just a good way to get lost in a forest and end up requiring two search and rescue missions instead of one. So, maybe try calling 911 instead, service or not.

PoC radios are not locked to a particular cell network, but use multiple networks and lock onto the network with the strongest signal. It uses 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, LTE, and many other networks and even Wi-Fi networks. This gives them a much larger signal footprint than a traditional cellphone system.

Because PoC radios can access such a large variety of networks, under normal conditions and locations, it’s hard to have a “no service” situation.

So, they can be very effective.

They allow for the creation of talk groups, can send text, voice or video messages, have GPS location sharing and other features, depending on the price.

But, as with all things in life, this technology has plusses and minuses.

Let’s look at a few.

First, unlike ham, GMRS or CB radios you can’t contact random people in a “is anyone around?” “CQ” or “mayday mayday” scenario. You can only contact those within in your group, team, or family that have the same radio setup. This can be viewed either as a limitation, or an asset. It depends of if you want the ability to access others “out of group” or if you want to keep your communications “in house’”.

Cost effectiveness should be considered. The initial cost for a minimum of two units can range from $100 to $300 or more depending on the features. For a group, team or company using these regularly this could be very affordable. If it’s intended for reaching Great Grandma in Tacoma when civilization goes up in smoke, then maybe not, as it will probably never be used, as (assuming it was ever charged) Granny may not be interested in using it or even remember how to use it, and the fluidity of the circumstances may make it the last thing on anyone’s mind.

This, incidentally, is why no matter what communications plan anyone develops for any situation, unless the plans and equipment are used regularly to learn how things work, what does and doesn’t work and how to develop solutions, it is useless. Trying to figure out how something works and wondering why it doesn’t during and after a disaster, when you are dazed, cold, possibly injured and fear has taken all your fine muscle dexterity away, is a recipe for failure.

Subscription pricing may factor in. Many if not most may advertise “no subscription needed”, but after one year many will ask for a fee to renew the SIM card it uses. This may range from $20 to $60 per unit. Again, if it is for a large group, financing may be budgeted in anticipation and it not be a major drawback. If it’s for each radio covering an extended family (that may not even care whether they work or not) then it could cost prohibitive.

Can these fail and what do you do then? These sets are largely dependent on the cellphone infrastructure. A major disaster can destroy or disable the cellphone grid, whether it’s due to the destruction of the sites, onsite generators running out of fuel, or the remaining towers being so overloaded with local calls that the system simply can’t handle the deluge of calls. Also, normal problems such as the dense foliage of a forest blocking signals, being in the bowels of a building, and the reality that there are still areas in the US with little or no cell coverage, can defeat this system.

If a Wi-Fi connection is available, they will try to connect with it, but the network that the Wi-Fi ties into may be out, or if intact already be overloaded to the point of failure.

Some providers provide an optional package giving access to the Starlink satellites. (Some regular cellphones also have a satellite option).

Some radios automatically become FRS radios, with a range of a few hundred feet to a couple of miles.

One company features a phone that includes VHF and UHF transmit/receive capability, from 136 -520 MHz, but how effective, and whether they include features such as PL tones, repeater shifts or are just simplex, they don’t say. They do say they are “NOT responsible for out of band transmissions” and “YOU are solely responsible for what YOU transmit on / ALL bands …”

And, considering how ham radios can’t legally be used on MURS or GMRS since they are not “type accepted” by the FCC, it just sounds a little fishy.

Some have no backup ability at all and just quit working – period. Or as one company gently puts it – “communications are paused.”

Keeping in mind the pros and cons, these units can be a valuable asset. As with all things, if you consider investing in these units, do your homework. Compare the features, options and especially the customer reviews before deciding.

And, ask this question in all honesty. “Will these really see any use?” Or will it be a “Joe’s wanting us to play radio again…” situation. As some have zero interest in the subject.

Oh, am I trying to get you to buy one of these? No. But, since the advertisements keep interrupting my cat videos, I decided to do a little research and thought I would pass my findings along.

They need to leave my cat videos alone…

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Mark’s Almanac

May is the fifth month & third month of the Roman calendar. May is named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with, Bona Dea, the Goddess of Fertility, who was celebrated in May.

Since ancient times the first day of the month, “May Day” has been a time of celebration. In Rome it honored Flora, the goddess of flowers.

On May the fifth Mexican’s celebrate Cinco De Mayo, the celebration of Mexico’s 1862 victory over Napoleon III’s forces at Puebla. This is not, as many assume, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually on September 16.

Rainfall decreases in May as the Azores-Bermuda High strengthens, expands Westward over the Southeastern US & begins rerouting storm systems northward.

The door opens to the Gulf of Mexico & Gulf moisture spreads northward over the continent.

The center of maximum tornadic activity also shifts northward over the Nation’s Heartland. May is the peak tornado month, with a 42% increase over April’s amount.

Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins May 15, and although the North Atlantic hurricane season has not arrived, occasionally a tropical system will form in the Gulf of Mexico. From 1851 to 2025 there have been 27 Tropical Storms and 5 Hurricanes, including an 1863 Category 2 storm, the knowledge of which is based on historical reanalysis by NOAA’s Michael Chenoweth and Cary Mock in 2013 and posthumously given the name Hurricane Amanda, named after, a Union ship the storm washed ashore. It made landfall near Apalachicola Florida.

60% of off-season Hurricanes occur in May.

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon increases from 71.6 degrees at the beginning of the month to 78.4 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 13 hours 34 minutes on May 1 to 14 hours 16 minutes on May 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

May 1 Sunrise 5:57 AM Sunset 7:31 PM
May 15 Sunrise 5:45 AM Sunset 7:42 PM
May 30 Sunrise 5:37 AM Sunset 7:53 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Taurus, The Bull.

Mercury, magnitude +0.1 in Taurus, The Bull, will be lost in the glow of the Sun until reappearing low over the north-western horizon on May 24.

He will pass behind the Sun or be in Superior Conjunction on May 14.

Mercury will reach his closest distance from the Sun in his 88 day orbit, or Perihelion on May 18.

By months end he will become visible around 6:10 PM CDT, 10° above north-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting roughly 1 hour and 21 minutes after the Sun at 9:11 PM CDT.

Venus, magnitude -3.9 in Taurus, The Bull, is steadily rising into the evening sky and will dominate the western horizon as the bright Evening Star.

At the first of the month, she will become visible around 7:45 PM CDT, 21° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 11 minutes after the Sun at 9:40 PM CDT.

Venus will reach her closest distance from the Sun in her 225 day orbit, or Perihelion on May 14.

By midmonth she will become visible at around 7:56 PM CDT, 23° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 25 minutes after the Sun at 10:05 PM CDT.

By the end of the month, she will become visible at around 8:07 PM CDT, 25° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 34 minutes after the Sun at 10:24 PM CDT.

Earth, and her Moon, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the constellation Libra, The Scales.

Mars, with his moons Phobos and Deimos magnitude +1.2, in Pices, The Fish, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude +8.9 is in Aries, The Ram.

Jupiter, and his 101 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring, magnitude –2.1 is in Gemini, The Twins, dominates the early evening sky, slowly descending towards the west as the weeks progress.

At the beginning of the month, he will become visible around 7:45 PM CDT, 57° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 12:35 AM CDT.

By midmonth he becomes visible around 7:56 PM CDT, 45° above your western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 11:48 PM CDT.

By the end of the month, he will become visible around 8:07 PM CDT, 33° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 3 hours and 9 minutes after the Sun at 10:59 PM CDT.

Saturn, and his 285 moons and extensive debris ring system, magnitude +0.9, in Cetus, The Sea Monster, is lost in the glow of the Sun during the first week of the month.

He will become visible low in the predawn sky May 6, rising at 4:16 AM CDT – 1 hour and 34 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 11° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:15 AM CDT.

By midmonth he becomes visible rising at 3:46 AM CDT – 1 hour and 58 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 16° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:08 AM CDT.

By the end of the month, he will become visible rising at 2:51 AM CDT – 2 hours and 45 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 25° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 5:00 AM CDT.

Uranus, and his 29 moons and ring, magnitude +5.8, in Taurus, The Bull, is hidden in the glow of the Sun.

He will pass behind the Sun or be in Conjunction on May 22.

Neptune, and his 16 moons and ring, magnitude +7.8 in Pisces, The Fish, will be hidden in the glow of the Sun until May 28 when he emerges in the predawn sky.

At months end he will be visible in the dawn sky via telescope, rising at 2:27 AM CDT – 3 hours and 9 minutes before the Sun – and reaching an altitude of 23° above the eastern horizon before fading from view as dawn breaks at around 4:27 AM CDT.

Pluto, the largest Dwarf Planet, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.6 in Capricornus, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.2 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.0 in Coma Berenices.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 in Triangulum, the Triangle.

50000 Quaoar, his two rings and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 between Gemini, The Twins and Canis Minor, The Little Dog.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

25088 Gonggong, the third largest Dwarf Planet, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Pegasus, The Winged Horse.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.0 in Eridanus, The River.

120347 Salacia, and her moon Actaea glows at magnitude 20.7 in Crater, The Cup. Salacia is considered a “borderline” Dwarf Planet. Some astronomers saying she “most certainly is a Dwarf Planet”, while others disagreeing based on her size, saying she is too small to have compressed into a fully solid body, to have been resurfaced, or to have collapsed into “hydrostatic equilibrium”, that is to assume spherical shape like a planet.

“Dwarf Planet Candidate” 2017 OF201, magnitude 23.2 is in Triangulum, the Triangle.

FarFarOut is currently 12,301,160,418 miles or in Light Time, 18 hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds from Earth.

The most distant man-made object, Voyager 1, still operating after 48 years, 8 months and 15 days is 16,060,600,067 miles or in Light Time, 23 hours, 57 minutes 09 seconds from Earth as of 4:27 PM CDT, April 22, 2026, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

Near Earth Object, asteroid 99942 Apophis, is expected to pass within 19,794 miles of the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029.

Apophis, magnitude +21.5, in Taurus, The Bull, is 146,996,305 miles or 1093 days from the Earth as of 3:06 PM CST, April 17, 2026.

There are 1,520,356 known asteroids and 4,061 comets as of April 17, 2026 per NASA/JPL Solar Dynamics Website.

6,160 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of April 16, 2026 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive.

May’s first Full Moon will occur May 1 at 12:24 PM CDT or 17:24 UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated. May’s Full Moon is “Flower Moon” in Native American folklore, because of the abundance of spring flowers. It has also been called “Corn Planting Moon” & “Milk Moon”.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

This month’s Full Moon is a Micromoon, as it is occurring when the Moon is near her farthest distance from the Earth 249,621 miles. It will appear smaller than other Full Moons.

The Moon will be at Apogee, or her farthest point from the Earth on May 4 at 252,179 miles.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur May 9 at 4:13 PM or 21:13 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower, an above average shower, peaks May 6 & 7. It can produce up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak, but most of the activity is seen in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rate can reach about 30 meteors per hour, which is still a decent shower. It is produced by dust particles left behind by comet Halley, due to return in a mere 35 years in the summer of 2061. The shower runs annually from April 19 to May 28. It peaks this year on the night of May 6 and the morning of May 7.

The waning gibbous moon will block out many of the fainter meteors this year. But if you are patient, you should still should be able to catch some of the brighter ones. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur May 9 at 4:13 PM CDT or 21:13 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

New Moon will occur on May 16 at 3:03 PM CDT or 20:03 UTC. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

Because this New Moon will occur near her closest approach to Earth, this will be a Super New Moon.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest distance from Earth on May 17, when she will be 222.497 miles from Earth.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur May 23 at 6:12 AM or 11:53 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

May’s second Full Moon will occur May 31 at 3:46 AM CDT or 8:46 UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be fully illuminated. Since this is the second full moon in the same month, it is sometimes referred to as a Blue Moon. This rare calendar event only occurs one every few years, giving rise to the term “once in a blue moon”.

Because this Full Moon will occur at her farthest distance from the Earth, this will be a Micro Full Moon, appearing smaller than normal.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on May 31, when she will be 252,506 miles from Earth.

In the Northern Sky the Big Dipper, part of Ursa Major, the Great Bear, begins the month upside down, “spilling its water” on Polaris, the North Star, which is the tip of the handle of the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor, the Little Bear.

Interestingly, the Big and Little Dippers are arranged so that when one is upright, the other is upside down. In addition, their handles appear to extend in opposite directions. The Big Dipper is by far the brighter of the two, appearing as a long-handled pan, while the Little Dipper resembles a dim ladle.

The Big Dipper is called by other names across the world. In the Netherlands it’s the “Saucepan”, “The Plough” in England and “The Great Wagon” in other parts of Europe.

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Ham News

In the world of HF radio, both ham, CB and SWL, as the calendar flipped to April, Mother Nature flipped the switch turning the ionosphere off. Band conditions have been atrocious due to the Suns misbehaving. Also, warm weather is allowing hams to leave the safety of their lairs, basements and bat infested caves to do fun and not so fun things, such as mowing the grass and battling weeds, so the pool of available operators is undergoing its normal seasonal shrinkage.

As the upper bands, 15 through 10 meters wither, the lower bands, 40 through 17 become more active. 160 through 60 meters become difficult to use at night due to the static produced by a few thousand lightning strikes from thunderstorms hundreds of miles away.

Since this also affects AM Broadcast reception, there is an old trick some outdoorsmen would use when out for a day trip. They would pack a small AM radio, tune it to the far end of the AM band and just keep it on. If static started appearing after noon, they knew thunderstorms were building. If they sounded like aluminum foil being crushed, they weren’t nearby. If it was loud and sharp then better head indoors. Consider it the “poor man’s lightning detector”.

Then we come to 80 meters, which has a little mystery.

I’m an Olde Goat ham and have been in the hobby nearly 50 years. In the 1970’s and 80’s you would always find CW stations on 80 meters in the afternoon and at night it would be crawling with CW signals. In the day you could easily work your state and the surrounding states out to 150 miles and at night 500 to 800 miles was just the normal range, using a simple 134 foot dipole, maybe a tuner and 100 watts.

Today, with the exception of some morning sideband activity, you never hear a signal during the day. At night the sideband traffic nets come faithfully blasting in, proving that one’s antenna does indeed work, but other than a few guys who seem to have known each other since wagon train days and never ever change frequency, there is not much activity. Especially on CW. 40 Meters will be active, but 80? Nothing to be heard. And as I said it was once a heavily used band.

Where did all the people go? The band hasn’t changed; it was noisy then and it’s noisy now. The technology is the same, if not better and as POTA stations prove, CW is still popular and code is still being learned.

Is it that folk just assume the band is dead and stay away in droves? Or, do they just listen for a few seconds and hearing nothing switch elsewhere? A “nobody’s there because nobody’s there” situation?

Occasionally I see people online asking “how can I contact someone just 125 miles away on HF?” Invariably someone will say “20 meters with a NVIS antenna”. And I will sit there thinking “get on 80 meters, that’s how we always did it when wooly mammoths roamed the Earth.”

How can we get operators interested again 80 meters again?? An 80 meter contest perhaps?

This Olde Goat misses them 🐐

Major upcoming ham radio contests and state QSO parties for May 2026 are:

May 2 10-10 International – Spring – CW
7th Call Area QSO Party
New England QSO Party
Indiana QSO Party
Delaware QSO Party
ARI International DX – Italy
May 9 Canadian Prairies QSO Party
CQ-M International DX – Russia
May 16 Arkansas QSO Party
His Majesty King Of Spain – CW
May 30 CQ Worldwide WPX Contest – CW

These are great chances to work DX galore (especially the CQ Worldwide WPX contest) and find those elusive stations you may need for working all states and provinces. Just be aware that not everyone in contests “confirm the QSO”, as they may be more interested in QSO numbers, rather than “confirmation” for awards. Though my main interest isn’t awards, but the wonder that someone that far away can hear on an antenna that looks like my Mom’s clothesline, I wish they would confirm.

Don’t be shy about trying CW contests either. They may send like a woodpecker on steroids, but usually they will slow down to reply to you, either out of courtesy or to get you out of their hair. Just listen until you are sure of the callsign and give them a call, or two, or three. For the CQ WPX contest the exchange will be the RST and QSO number.

The RST will always be 599 even if they ask for sixteen repeats until they get things right. It’s just the nature of the beast. The QSO number is exactly that – if they are the first station you contact, they are number 1, if they are the second station they are number 2.

CW contests used to intimidate me. My wife Teresa, KQ4JC said “you never know until you try.” I like them now, even if I do send at the speed of snail.

For more details go to WA7BNM Contest Calendar: Home

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This month’s ALERT meeting will be online at 7 PM, May 12.

Watch for the meeting notification email from Russell KV4S, which will include the link for the meeting.

I hope to see you there!

Mark Wells
WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

Articles and suggestions are welcome!

Posted in ALERT Newsletter | Leave a comment

ALERT NEWSLETTER – April 2026

Published 03/31/2026 | By WD4NYL

Hi everyone,

April has arrived!

And with its arrival the birds that wintered farther south are now migrating Northward. I’ve seen Thrashers, Cardinals, Finches, Robins, Doves, Geese, Nuthatches and have heard hawks, crows, Redneck Roosters, or rather Red Headed Woodpeckers tap tap tapping away.

Snakes are crawling, mosquitoes are buzzing and wasps are building a nest on my mailbox, a problem which I will remedy very shortly.

Soon there will be storms blowing and lightning crackling as we move through the heart of our Spring severe weather season.

Just as the first warmth of Spring can deceive you into thinking the cold weather is over, the pretty days of April can deceive you into thinking that the severe weather season is over or that it is going to be a mild one.

But, as past April storms have proven, we are a long way from being “safe”, if we ever truly are. So, keep your eyes turned towards the sky and stay “weather aware”, for danger can always be just around the corner.

Stay safe!

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How I Write The ALERT Newsletter

In June 2007 ALERT Members were greeted with an email attachment which said:

“Welcome to the new ALERT Newsletter!

This newsletter is designed to keep members & interested “lurkers” informed as to the news and activities of your ALERT. Comments, suggestions & additions are more than welcome.”

With that simple introduction, the current ALERT Newsletter was born.

This is the second incarnation of an ALERT newsletter. When ALERT was founded in May 1996 there was a short-lived newsletter called the “ALERT News”.

The current newsletter was designed to be “friendly spam” invading peoples email inboxes, gently tapping them on the shoulder to remind them that “ALERT is still here, don’t forget about us”. Reverse psychology of the “out of sight, out of mind” principle.

Even if one never opens the email, you can’t ignore us…were still here!

It was also created to update our activities, provide some interesting articles and serve as a training tool.

The ALERT Newsletter has been well received, with very few negative comments through the years.

One unique thing about the ALERT Newsletter is that IT STILL EXISTS. Once upon a time there were quite a few newsletters being produced by various local clubs and groups. The Shelby County Amateur Radio Club had a newsletter and the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club had a newsletter called “The BirmingHam” sporting a mascot reminiscent of Porky The Pig. Now they are all gone, or have evolved into monthly email meeting reminders and meeting summaries.

Though at some point I will pass the torch to someone else and (hopefully there will be someone there to take the torch), today I’m still churning out the newsletter as my little contribution to our efforts.

Hopefully the newsletter, now in its 19th year, will in whatever form my eventual successor chooses, be here for decades to come.

I’m not going anywhere, by the way, but for whoever may come after me, or those who may be curious, here is how Mark WD4NYL writes the ALERT Newsletter.

The header

 ALERT NEWSLETTER – April 2076     Vol. 69 No.10 826th EDITION

http://alert-alabama.org

This I brazenly stole from an ALERT Application and modified it for my nefarious use, and update the date and stats each month.

I have all the past ALERT Newsletters stored and, using this April’s Newsletter for example, I pull the previous year’s April Newsletter and this year’s March Newsletter and use them as templates.

I try to write an introduction that is timely and hopefully coherent. Then comes the main article(s).

Occasionally, very occasionally, rare as hen’s teeth occasionally, someone has submitted an article for the Newsletter. And sometimes I have used emailed announcements, edited them a little and added them as articles. But, 99% of the time it’s my problem to unravel.

There have been times I have written articles weeks in advance. Other times I have articles pop in my head in a perfect timely manner, and sometimes they are last minute things that come screeching into my mind on two wheels at the last possible moment.

I try to write in a folksy, friendly manner and knowing that my punctuation and grammar skills are woefully lacking, I hope it will be interesting and even useful. Oddly I seem to write better when I’m running a fever, why I have no clue. Maybe if I took up drinking you would get a better newsletter. But I don’t think I will do that.

Over the years we’ve dealt with training, procedural problems, ham political problems, emergency preparedness, ham radio in general and subjects directly pertaining to what we do and some that had nothing to do with it at all, but I felt might be interesting, or was running short on ideas.

The Almanac is very largely based on notes I’ve taken over 50+ years. The climatology doesn’t change. Winters are cold, Spring is stormy, Summer is Hot, and Autumn is dryish, with leaves turning colors and pumpkins, ghosts, ghouls and turkeys popping up everywhere. I may and do add things or omit things, but basically that part of the Newsletter remains the same. April is April, whether it’s 2016, 2026 or 2036.

The astronomical information, I obtain from NASA, NOAA, observatories, various and sundry websites, weeding through squirrely ones and much straight from memory.

Sometimes the sources may prove contradictory, and I have to dig very deep in order to straighten out what is accurate and what are “nice try, but you are wrong” situations. Some sites are very site specific and I have to correct things for 33° latitude. Which is why some astronomical events hyped on social media may be true for Boston or Sydney but are not necessarily true for Birmingham.

If they are true at all, for anything posted on social media, YouTube, Tik-Tok or anywhere else online whether astronomy or especially weather-related information, should be verified before being believed, let alone SPREAD.

One guy I know was posting pure hocus pocus and someone asked him why he didn’t check the sources before posting things. He said “I don’t have to time to go around verifying things. I just go ahead and post it ‘just in case’”. Which is how folk end up believing in lizard people.

Someone once said “If you copy from one book, that’s plagiarism; if you copy from many books, that’s research”, I don’t know said it, but it gives me comfort as I pilfer and plod onward.

Then I wrap it up, lately adding a list of ham radio contests and (hopefully) the correct ALERT meeting date and location or method.

Then comes the hard part. EDITING.

Is it:

Too long?
Too short?
Going to get the NWS sued or picketed?
Going to get ALERT sued or booted out of the NWS?
Going to get Mark sued, tarred and feathered?
Could “this or that” be offensive??
Could “this” be taken as obscene?
Could “this” be taken as too political?
Too religious?
Too heathenish?
Is “this” so out of the focus with ALERT and its mission that it’s unrecognizable?
Would “this” tempt the NWS to tie me to a weather balloon and say “bon voyage”?
Bad smelling? I mean spelling?
Is the grammar, like, you know, like dismally deplorable, like duh?

Reminding myself that “literally” is literally the most overused word today. Almost as surreal as “surreal” was when it was all you heard was something was “surreal”. With the old saying “look, someone’s learned a new word” ringing in the back of my mind.

Sometimes the newsletter articles that you get were originally twice the size than the form you finally see. Sometimes I pull articles with the intention of including them in a future Newsletter and sometimes after writing a lengthy article I end up deciding that “this is just garbage”, as I whisk it over to File 13.

After spellchecking and grammar combing, I email the sucker out, hoping I put the right month in the email subject line and that I actually remembered to attach the Newsletter to the email this time, which I have forgotten to do in the past.

Then, after emailing it, I reread it and find I missed a dozen mistakes and I make unkind gestures at the computer screen.

But, when I recently saw a major news outlet issuing a statement concerning “black ‘specs’ and other contaminants” found in pain medications, I found some comfort knowing that I am not alone in the world of typos.

Occasionally I will get comments and feedback, which I truly appreciate, as it lets me know that someone is actually reading this mess.

And, that is how the Newsletter is created.

Hopefully this will help whoever comes after me, or will help someone thinking about writing a newsletter for their group or organization.

I enjoy researching the information I include in the Newsletter. I am constantly learning and relearning new things. And it helps sweep some of the cobwebs from my dusty old brain.

That said, I would appreciate material and articles for this newsletter. It’s YOUR newsletter, after all.

So, come on, send me something! Give it a try!

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Early 2026 Hurricane Outlook

AccuWeather, an American media company that provides commercial weather forecasting services worldwide, has issued it’s 2026 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook.

Their outlook calls for a near to below average season with 11 – 16 named storms. Of those storms, 4 to 7 are forecast to become hurricanes, 2 to 4 being major hurricanes and 3 to 5 hurricanes likely to hit the United States.

They believe a developing El Niño will tend to suppress tropical development.

Typically, an El Niño creates stronger upper level winds or wind shear across the Atlantic, making it harder for tropical storms to form. With the El Niño forecast to develop and strengthen throughout the summer and autumn, it is likely there will be fewer storms during the second half of the hurricane season compared to the first half.

Colorado State University will issue its 2026 outlook on April 9th & NOAA’s forecast will be released in late May.

To help in their preparedness and warning efforts, the National Hurricane Center will implement a new version of its cone graphic which will now include all land-based (coastal and inland) tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings in effect for the continental United States, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The older version only depicted coastal U.S. tropical storm and hurricane watches and warnings.

It is hoped that addition of inland watches and warnings to the cone graphic will help communicate wind risks during tropical cyclone events while not overcomplicating the graphic with too many data layers.

For more information see: National Hurricane Center to issue new forecast cone graphics for 2026 hurricane season | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

The Atlantic Hurricane season will begin June 1 ending November 30.

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Mark’s Almanac

The Romans called April “Aprilis”, probably from the word “aperire”, which means, “to open”. This time of year being when buds open. It was originally the second month of the Roman calendar, before Roman King Numa Pompilius added January & February in 700 BC.

Freezing weather comes to an end as Birmingham’s average last freeze is April 1, while Tuscaloosa’s is March 26. The record for the latest freeze date is April 21, 1953 for Tuscaloosa and April 23, 1986 for Birmingham.

Snowfall is still possible though, as April 3, 1987’s 5 inches proves. The latest trace of snow was April 25, 1910.

April is less wet than March & rain becomes more localized and less widespread in nature. The sun heats the lower atmosphere near the ground and since the upper atmosphere is still cold, the warm air rises, reaches the dew point line, forms clouds & then it may rain. April is the first time in the spring season that favors local convective activity, which is why you have “April Showers”.

North Atlantic Tropical activity remains at a minimum. From 1851 to 2025 there has never been an April Hurricane and only two Tropical Storms – Ana in 2003 and Arlene in 2017 which affected only shipping.

April is peak tornado month, with wide scale outbreaks possible. There are 2 ½ times the number of tornadoes as in March. 25% of the year’s tornadoes will have occurred by April 28.

From April 1950 to 2025, 3127 tornadoes were reported in Alabama. From 1950 – 2025 there were 692 direct and indirect deaths, and 8,469 direct and indirect injuries.

Some notable occurrences include:

April 23, 1908, a “generational” outbreak began that would be called the “Dixie Tornado Outbreak” which killed 320 people. Though Alabama was struck by only 4 of the 29 tornadoes spawned, one was an F4 or a family of long track tornadoes that stayed on the ground for 105 miles for nearly an hour and a half from Walker & Jefferson County, though Blount, Marshall and Dekalb Counties killing 35 and injuring 188.

April 20, 1920, a major tornado outbreak that produced at least 17 tornadoes in the Southeast. Three F4 tornadoes struck north Alabama killing 136 and injuring 850, with homes obliterated and totally swept away. The worst tornado of the day first touched down in eastern Mississippi. It stayed on the ground for 130 miles as it cut a swath across Marion, Franklin, and Colbert counties.

April 15, 1956, “The McDonalds Chapel Tornado”, an F4 tornado that, killed 25 and injured 200.

April 3 – 4, 1974, also known as “The Day of 100 Tornadoes” or the 1974 Super Outbreak, which killed 315, including 86 in Alabama, which endured 8 of the 148 tornadoes spawned. Of particular note was the F5 tornado that devastated the town of Guin. This was the longest-duration tornado recorded in the outbreak at one hour forty minutes, travelling 79 miles, and is one of the most violent tornadoes ever recorded.

The devastation was so complete in one six block area that NWS damage surveyor Bill Herman, remarked that “It was just like the ground had been swept clean. It was just as much of a total wipeout as you can have”. J.B. Elliot noted that the destruction was so complete that even some of the foundations were “dislodged, and in some cases swept away.”

April 4, 1977, the F5 “Smithfield” tornado struck Jefferson County, killing 22 and injuring 130. One of seven tornadoes that day. This tornado was so devastating that Dr. Ted Fujita initially considered assigning it a rating of F6.

Only two tornadoes have ever had a preliminary F6 rating. The Lubbock Tornado of May 11, 1970, and the Xenia Ohio Tornado of April 3, 1974, both of which were downgraded to F5. The Enhanced Fujita Scale now in use goes to EF5 and, like the Saffir-Simpson hurricane Scale is an open-ended scale.

April 8, 1998, an outbreak produced five tornadoes including the F5 “Oak Grove Tornado”, which killed 32 and injured 259.

April 15, 2011, the “forgotten outbreak”, which was overshadowed by the outbreak that would follow ten days later. Alabama saw 46 tornadoes killing 7 and injuring 14.

April 25-28, 2011, would see the next and latest “generational” outbreak producing 360 tornadoes, peaking with 217 on April 27. Of Alabama’s 62 tornadoes, 29 occurred in central Alabama in two distinct waves.

This includes the EF4 tornado, which tore through Tuscaloosa and Jefferson County. A photogenic storm causing heavy damage in Tuscaloosa County and after entering Jefferson County rapidly intensifying to its maximum intensity and width, appearing as an ugly massive wedge tornado as it reached the suburbs of Birmingham, in total killing 64 and injuring 1500.

The Jefferson County portion of the damage path I’ve always felt is largely glossed over by documentaries, as they focus on the Tuscaloosa damage, which is certainly worthy of note, but they tend to forget or only barely mention Concord and Pleasant Grove, where houses were swept away leaving only slabs and debris, McDonalds Chapel which had blocks of houses destroyed and the damage in Smithfield, areas previously swept by tornadoes in 1956 and 1977.

The last April tornado occurred in Barbour County on April 6, 2025, part of a mini outbreak from April 5 to April 6 2025, which saw four tornadoes striking North Alabama and five striking South Alabama, causing one injury.

So, as past Aprils remind us, keep an eye to the sky!

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon rapidly increases from 61.3 degrees at the beginning of the month to 71.5 degrees at the end. Daylight increases from 12 hours 33 minutes on April 1 to 13 hours 29 minutes on April 30.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

April 1 Sunrise 6:34 AM Sunset 7:07 PM
April 15 Sunrise 6:16 AM Sunset 7:18 PM
April 30 Sunrise 5:59 AM Sunset 7:29 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Pisces, The Fish.

Mercury, magnitude 0.0, is in Pisces, The Fish, is hidden in the glow of the Sun.

Venus, magnitude –3.9, is in Auriga, The Charioteer, has emerged into the evening sky, and as the months progress will begin to dominate the evening skies of spring and summer.

At the first of the month, she becomes visible around 7:23 PM CDT, 15° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 34 minutes after the Sun at 8:42 PM CDT.

By midmonth she becomes visible at around 7:33 PM CDT, 18° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 1 hour and 50 minutes after the Sun at 9:07 PM CDT

By the end of the month, she becomes visible at around 7:45 PM CDT, 21° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. She will then sink towards the horizon, setting 2 hours and 10 minutes after the Sun at 9:38 PM CDT.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, and her Moon is in the constellation Virgo, The Virgin.

Mars, with his moons Phobos and Deimos, magnitude +1.2, in Piscis, The Fish, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 9.1, is in Piscis, The Fish.

Jupiter, and his 101 moons and (invisible from Earth) ring, magnitude –2.1 is in Gemini, The Twins, dominates the evening night sky.

At the beginning of the month, he will become visible around 7:22 PM CDT, 79° above the southern horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 2:21 AM CDT.

By midmonth he becomes visible around 7:33 PM CDT, 71° above the south-western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 1:30 AM CDT.

By the end of the month, he will become visible around 7:45 PM CDT, 58° above the western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting at 12:38 AM CDT.
Saturn, and his 285 moons and extensive debris ring system, magnitude +0.9, in Cetus, The Sea Monster, is lost in the glow of the Sun.

Uranus, and his 29 moons and ring, magnitude +5.8, in Taurus, The Bull, is an early evening object, receding towards the Sun.
At the beginning of the month, he will become visible around 8:06 PM CDT, 31° above the
western horizon, as dusk fades to darkness. He will then sink towards the horizon, setting 3 hours and 41 minutes after the Sun at 10:48 PM CDT.

He will become unobservable on April 12, as descends the glow of the Sun.

Neptune, and his 16 moons and ring, magnitude +7.8 in Pisces, The Fish, is hidden in the glow of the Sun.

Pluto, the largest Dwarf Planet, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.6 in Capricornus, The Sea Goat.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, her ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.2 in Bootes, The Herdsman.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon S/2015 (136472) 1, nicknamed MK1 by the discovery team, shines faintly at magnitude +17.0 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris, the second largest Dwarf Planet, and her moon Dysnomia, originally referred to as Xena and Gabrielle, is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude +18.6 in Cetus the Sea Monster.
At least seven additional bodies with the preliminary criteria for identifying dwarf planets, and though not “officially” declared as such, are generally called dwarf planets by astronomers as well.

90482 Orcus, and his moon Vanth shines at magnitude 19.1 in Triangulum, the Triangle.

50000 Quaoar, his two rings and his moon Waywot shines at magnitude +18.6 in Gemini, The Twins.

90377 Sedna, the coldest, and at one time, the most distant known place in the Solar System, glows faintly at magnitude +20.8 in Taurus, The Bull.

25088 Gonggong, the third largest Dwarf Planet, originally nicknamed Snow White by the discovery team, and his moon Xiangli glows dimly at +21.5 magnitude in Pegasus, The Winged Horse.

2014 UZ224 nicknamed “DeeDee” for “Distant Dwarf” is 8.5 billion miles from the Sun, at magnitude +23.0 in Eridanus, The River.

“Dwarf Planet Candidate” 2017 OF201, magnitude 23.2 is in Triangulum, the Triangle.

Currently the most distant observable known object in the Solar System, an asteroid unofficially called Asteroid 2018 AG37, and nicknamed FarFarOut, glows at a barely detectable +25.5 magnitude in Lynx.
FarFarOut is currently 12,260,535,962 miles or in Light Time, 18 hours, 16 minutes and 57 seconds from Earth.

The most distant man-made object, Voyager 1, still operating after 48 years, 6 month and 15 days is 16,040,599,550 miles, or in Light Time, 23 hours, 55 minutes 09 seconds from Earth as of 2:00 PM CDT, March 20, 2026, sailing 38,027 miles per hour through Ophiuchus the Serpent Bearer.

Near Earth Object, asteroid 99942 Apophis, is expected to pass within 19,794 miles of the Earth on Friday, April 13, 2029.

Apophis, magnitude +21.3, in Aries, The Ram, is 139,668,798 miles or 1121 days from the Earth as of 2:06 PM CST, March 20, 2026.

We have been tracking Asteroid 2024 YR4, which will pass though the Earth – Moon system on Wednesday, December 22, 2032. At one time it was believed there was a 3% chance it would strike the Earth and a 4% chance it would strike the Moon. But observations by the Webb Space Telescope have reduced the chances of any impact to 0%.

So, we will let 2024 YR4, currently dimly glowing at magnitude +29.8, in Virgo, The Virgin, fade from our Newsletter.

There are 1,519,232 known asteroids and 4,057 comets as of March 20, 2026 per NASA/JPL Solar Dynamics Website.

6,150 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of March 19, 2026 per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive.

April’s Full Moon will occur on April 1 at 9:13 PM CDT or 02:213 UTC April 2 This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Pink Moon because it marked the appearance of the moss pink, or wild ground phlox, which is one of the first spring flowers. This moon has also been known as the Sprouting Grass Moon, the Growing Moon, and the Egg Moon. Many coastal tribes called it the Fish Moon because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn.

This moon has also been known as the Full Crow Moon, the Full Crust Moon, the Full Sap Moon, and the Lenten Moon.

During a Full Moon the Moon’s magnitude is -12.7.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on April 7, when she will be 251,639 miles from Earth.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur April 9 at 11:55 PM CDT or 04:55 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

New Moon will occur on April 17 at 6:54 PM CDT or 11:54 UTC. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

The Moon will be at Perigee or her closest approach to Earth on April 19, when she will be 221,707 miles from Earth.

The Lyrid Meteor Shower which, runs annually from April 16 – 25, peaks on the evening of April 22 and morning of April 23. This is a average shower, with only 12 to 24 meteors per hour. These meteors sometimes produce bright dust trails that last for several seconds.

This shower is produced by dust particles left behind by comet C/1861 G1 Thatcher, which was discovered in 1861.

The first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight leaving dark skies for what should be a great show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Lyra, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

Fireballs have been in the news recently.

For reasons not known, Spring is fireball season. There seems to be a variation in the meteoroid population along Earth’s orbit, with a roughly February to June peak in large, fireball producing debris.

Per NASA “For reasons we don’t fully understand, the rate of very bright meteors climbs 10% to 30% during weeks around the Vernal Equinox.” Now and then they will fall over populated areas, such as those seen recently in Ohio, Texas, California and Georgia, but most go unnoticed because they occur over oceans or remote regions. The source of this extra debris is unknown. The Ohio and Texas meteorites are geologically different, and are from different orbits.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur April 23 at 9:33 PM CDT or 02:33 UTC.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon’s magnitude is -10.0.

April is the best time to view the largest northern constellation, Ursa Major, which contains the asterism “The Big Dipper”, known also as “The Plough” in Britian and Ireland. Ursa Major is a circumpolar constellation for northern observers, meaning that it stays visible throughout the year. For observers living south of latitude 30° such as Argentina, Australia and Southern Africa it is invisible, just as the Southern Cross and the Milky Way’s satellite galaxies, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, are invisible to us, as we are too far north.

The Winter constellations, Taurus the Bull, Orion the Hunter, his faithful hunting dogs Canis Major and Minor and Gemini the Twins are exiting to the West, and the Spring constellations of Leo the Lion and Virgo the Virgin along with fainter constellations are now moving in.

The area of Virgo and Coma Berenices just north of Virgo is a galaxy rich area, as it contains the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. About 2000 galaxies lie in this cluster, which is 53.8 million light years away.

The Virgo Cluster lies at the heart of a larger and more massive structure, the Virgo Supercluster, which contains over 47,000 galaxies, including the Local Group – a cluster of 50 galaxies which includes Andromeda, the Milky Way and the Triangulum Galaxy.

The Virgo Supercluster is one of 10 million superclusters interconnected across the universe by webwork of strands and filaments of galaxies on a scale that pushes the limits of human comprehension.

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Ham News

As mentioned in the March Newsletter, around the time of Vernal Equinox, the Russell-McPherron Effect, which is where the interplanetary magnetic field or IMF links up with Earth’s magnetic field, can pry open cracks allowing the solar wind to pour in causing auroras even without a geomagnetic storm. The last few weeks we also have had an increase in solar activity triggering geomagnetic storms. The combination of these two factors has caused dismal HF band conditions, with the Maximum Usable Frequency plummeting and the solar noise level soaring.
I am hoping for conditions to improve as Spring continues, as they did last year. Meanwhile, remember that just because a band seems “dead” doesn’t mean it’s really dead or dead in every direction.

Sometimes operators assume the bands are dead because they are hearing no one, and let a contest arrive and suddenly the “dead” bands suddenly erupts in activity. The bands were open all along, just no one was transmitting. Also, a dead band can develop a “hot spot” and there will be one signal or region coming through when no others are heard. For example, earlier this week I worked the only station I heard on 10 Meters, a Spanish station that was 20 dB over S9. A couple of days later I snagged the only signal on 15 Meters, the Austral Islands, French Polynesia. Which is not bad for a “dead band”.

The moral to the story is “you never know till you try”. So, try and keep on trying. Don’t just call CQ twice and give up. Make yourself annoyingly obvious. Give folk using waterfall displays time to track you down or old fossils like me to stumble upon you as we twist VFO knobs listening for signals. (Signals often missed by waterfall displays, by the way.)

Major upcoming ham radio contests and state QSO parties for April 2026 are:

April 4 Louisiana QSO Party
SP DX (Poland) – CW & SSB
April 11 Georgia QSO Party
New Mexico QSO Party
Missouri QSO Party
North Dakota QSO Party
JIDX Contest (Japan) – CW
April 18 POTA Support Your Parks
Worked All Provinces of China DX Contest – SSB
Michigan QSO Party
Ontario QSO Party
Worldwide Holyland Contest (Israel) – CW & SSB
April 19 Quebec QSO Party
ARRL Rookie Roundup – SSB
April 25 Florida OSO Party
Nebraska QSO Party
Helvetia Contest (Switzerland) CW / SSB
UK/EI DX Contest (UK & Ireland) – CW

These are great chances to work DX galore and find those elusive stations you may need for working all states and provinces.

For more details go to WA7BNM Contest Calendar: Home

Not all contest DX stations will “confirm” a contact, but I find that more DX stations than not eventually will, on either the ARRL’s LOTW or Logbook Of The World, QRZ, Club Log or all of them. But sometimes the confirmation may be delayed due to the sheer number of stations they have worked, or real life intervening and other priorities taking precedence. So, though we live in an “instant society”, don’t get too discouraged if you don’t see a confirmation right away. I’ve had some confirm right away and some come two years after the contact. And, I once received a QSL card for a contact I had made 10 years earlier.

A dilemma that I and others run into is that while there are various groups and methods of confirming contacts, none of these various groups recognize QSOs confirmed by the other groups, organizations, sites or methods. For example, QRZ will let you send your log from their site into LOTW but they don’t recognize LOTW confirmations and LOTW doesn’t recognize QRZ confirmations. Also, many DX stations use neither, preferring Club Log and OQRS – Online QSL Requests (with payment) instead. Also paper QSL cards are still being sent via snail mail or through the ARRL QSL bureau. ARRL 4th Call Area QSL Card Bureau

I have Alaska confirmed many times on LOTW, but never on QRZ, and I have South Africa confirmed on QRZ, but not LOTW. Then there are many confirmations on Club Log never to be seen on LOTW or QRZ, or they may post on Club Log first and then to LOTW six months later, as the DXexpedition to the British Virgin Islands did.

Also, I have paper cards from Israel and Sao Tome & Principe Island that aren’t confirmed anywhere else. The ARRL will accept paper cards if verified by a “card checker”, but to my knowledge they still won’t be listed on LOTW, because I don’t think there is a way to manually enter the cards information and the program recognize them as “confirmed”, since the other station didn’t upload their log to LOTW

Then there is eQSL, where you basically trade pictures of QSLs, which is the only way I have the Falkland Islands confirmed. Some love them, some hate them and no one accepts them, but I find them fun to receive anyway.

If I was chasing “operating awards” I would be pulling my hair out. But though they are nice to have or qualify for, and I do qualify for “some”, I’m too cheap to pay for them, and since they would just end up in the basement anyway, it’s not a major deal with me. I just keep a list of what countries I have worked and how they we’re confirmed, if indeed, they are. Some contacts have never been confirmed, but I know I worked them, so that’s good enough for me, as my logbook never lies.

I have no idea how many stations I have worked during my “ham career” which stretches from 1977 to 2026. Several logbooks are missing and I didn’t log repeater or net related contacts, such as check-ins with me serving as the Net Control Station, which were in the hundreds, at least and maybe a thousand or so, at the most. I log only direct station to station QSOs. And, my ham activity has mirrored my life. Sometimes “real life” meant little or no radio for Mark. So, I’m limiting this to the current century.

As for confirmation of 21st Century QSOs, since 2005 to 3/27/2026, I have:

1662 direct QSOs which received:

853 LOTW Confirmations
540 QRZ Confirmations
394 Club Log Confirmations
238 eQSL Confirmations

Confirmations are nice, so, keep those cards, letters and keyboard clicks coming in!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

This month’s ALERT meeting will be online at 7 PM, March 14.

Watch for the meeting notification email from Russell KV4S, which will include the link for the meeting.

Mark Wells
ALERT Newsletter

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