Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well, as we glide through these winter days. As the tornado which recently struck North Jefferson County reminds us, our spring tornado season is just around the corner and now is the time to review your plans and procedures for those storms to come.

Take this time brush up on your skills, check and prepare your equipment and make sure that you have reliable methods to receive timely watches and warnings. This includes a NOAA Weatheradio and phone Apps from local broadcast media and other weather sources. This does not include social media posts; as the medium’s algorithm can accidently “bury” a warning in the newsfeed or let long defunct warning mysteriously bubble up. Also, beware of good meaning “amateur weather experts”, including myself. Instead trust the REAL experts at our NWS. They have the training, knowledge and expertise, which you can place your confidence in.

Not to be forgotten are the broadcast meteorologists that serve our community. Whether your favorite meteorologist is James Spann, Jerry Tracey, J-P Dice or Ashley Gann, realize that not every area has the caliber of broadcast meteorologists that we have.

In fact Birmingham is spoiled.

So as the storms of spring approach, let us take stock of our level of preparedness, fill any gaps that appear, and hope we don’t have to use a single resource that we have.

Stay safe!

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Birmingham NWS Spring 2020 Storm Spotter Courses

The Birmingham NWS office will present several online Basic Spotter Courses and a single online Advanced Spotter Course this spring. These online classes allow individuals to complete the courses in the comfort of their own home or office using GoToMeeting.

By attending any course, which runs about 2 hours, individuals or a group of individuals will become SKYWARN Storm Spotters.

Unless you are in need of or just want to attend a refresher Course, you do not need to attend more than one Basic SKYWARN Course, as the material covered is the same; however it is required you to attend at least one Basic SKYWARN Course before taking the Advanced SKYWARN Course.

These courses are two-way, meaning you will be able to interact with the meteorologist leading the training. You will be muted while training is in-progress, and unmuted when applicable (e.g., for questions); or, you can use the built-in chat feature.

How do you Attend an Online SKYWARN Spotter Class?

To avoid being hurried, give yourself at least 15 minutes prior to
the start of the class to complete the following steps:

1. Via the schedule below, register by clicking the link
corresponding to the class you’d like to attend.

2. Select the ‘join webinar’ button on the registration page or
in your confirmation email and follow the prompts.

3. Enjoy the class and ask questions.

The current online schedule is as follows:

Basic Class Thursday, February 25 at 6:30 PM https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/358972267323457548
Basic Class Tuesday, March 2 at 6:30 PM
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8696081857097779212
Basic Class Thursday, March 4 at 1:00 PM
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8615870284828282380
Basic Class Monday, March 22 at 6:30 PM
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/857366594543231756
Advanced Class Wednesday March 31, at 6:30 PM
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/102440811400622348

These classes will help you provide the NWS the vital “ground truth” information they need to verify radar indications, target their attention and help you relay reports in a clear manner to the NWS, either directly via the 1-800-856-0758 Storm Reporting Hotline, online at http://www.weather.gov/bmx/submit_storm_report or amateur radio.

This knowledge helps SKYWARN Net Control stations filter reports, by giving them knowledge of what reporting stations are trying to describe. This way they can tell if the report is a valid report, an invalid report by an overly excited operator or a valid, but, poorly described report, which without this knowledge would be mistakenly dismissed.

For further information on these classes visit: http://www.weather.gov/bmx/skywarnschedule

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The Great Cat Food Can Quarter-Wave

Recently I put the finishing touches on a project I called the “Great Cat Food Can Quarter-Wave” for my General Mobile Radio Service or GMRS setup. The design I used can easily be used for 2 meters, 220 MHz or 440 MHz. The only differences are the dimensions used.

Most of the material used was from parts lying around in the garage or from the trash bin. I took two used and cleaned cat food cans, carefully took the labels off and using an oversized thumbtack made a hole in the center of Cat Can #1, which I then carefully reamed out with a multitool until an SO239 antenna connector could fit snugly when mounted on the bottom of the can.

I then made four more holes for where small #6 bolts holding the antenna connector would fit. I then made four equidistant holes on the outer edge of the can where some larger # 10 bolts and washers would eventually hold the ground radials, which would be made from spare Romex wire.

Actually, I tore Cat Can #1 to smithereens trying to figure out how to do all of this without reaming dime sized holes that made it look like a goat had chewed up the poor can.

Having learned the lessons with Cat Can #1, I proceeded with Can Cat #2, and eyed a third can “just in case”.

The antenna would eventually be cut for the center of the GMRS band or 465.1375 MHz, so it would be as resonant as possible from Channel 1 – 462.5625 MHz, to the repeater input of Channel 22 – 467.7250 MHz. The exact measurements would be 6.03 inches for the vertical radial and 6.75 inches for the ground plane.

I cut the wire to 7 inches, knowing that it is easier to trim a wire that is too long, than to grow a wire that is too short. Also, based on previous projects, wires cut to exact lengths can mysteriously grow shorter when everything is soldered and all of the screws are turned.

If I were making this antenna for the amateur bands I would use different measurements. Being mathematically challenged, I used the following website to obtain my dimensions:

1/4 Wave Ground Plane Antenna Calculator

Using 2 meters as an example:

For 146.520 simplex cut the vertical to 19.14 inches and the radials to 21.44 inches.
For 146.580 simplex cut the vertical to 19.14 inches and the radials to 21.43 inches.

For 144.810, the 41 repeater’s input cut the vertical to 19.37 inches and radials to 21.70 inches.
For 146.160, the 76 repeater’s input cut the vertical to 19.19 inches and radials to 21.50 inches.
For 146.280, the 88 repeater’s input cut the vertical to 19.18 inches and radials to 21.48 inches.
For 146.380, the 98 repeater’s input cut the vertical to 19.16 inches and radials to 21.46 inches.
For 147.740, the 14 repeater’s input cut the vertical to 18.99 inches and radials to 21.27 inches.

For 449.975, the 444.975 repeater’s input cut the center conductor to 6.23 inches. and radials to
6.98 inches.

You get the idea.

Remember you are cutting this for the repeater input frequency, not the output frequency, as the transmitter is more persnickety about resonance than the receiver is. 2 Meter repeaters usually have a minus 600 kHz input below 147.000 MHz, a positive input above 147.000 MHz and a plus 5 MHz input with 70 Centimeter repeaters.

Continuing on, after making the large hole for the SO239 connector, I placed the connector in the hole and using it as a template I marked where the holes for the four #6 bolts would be placed.

I then measured and made four equidistance opposing holes near the outer rim of the Cat Can where the #10 bolts would be placed to secure the ground radials.

Having made these holes, I mounted the SO239 connector to the base side of the Cat Can.

I soldered a 7 inch vertical radial into the SO239 connector and mounted the four 7 inch radials, which had the inside ends curled so they could wrap around the bolts after being sandwiched between two washers on the top of the Cat Can, the third washer being on the inside of the can to provide support when I tightened the bolts up. I then bent the radials to a 45 degree slope and trimmed everything to the correct length.

The finished product gave a 1.2:1 SWR band wide.

Then I put the label back on, with the cat right-side up for artistic effect.

The good thing about this design is that can be scaled up or down size wise and frequency wise using the dimensions that the calculator spits out.

Don’t want to use a cat food can? Use a tuna can, the time honored traditional pie pan, or any other flat piece of metal. All it is used for is a mounting platform for the radials. I’ve made quarter-waves that didn’t even use a mounting plate; I just soldered the radials directly to the holes of a SO239 connector,

So you really don’t need the can or the nuts and bolts.

You don’t really need a SO239 connector either. Just as long as the dimensions and configurations are right and the center conductor of the coax isn’t shorted to the braid, if the SWR is good, you are good.

This is good to know in an emergency when the storm is raging, rain and hail is pelting the windows, the wind has an ominous roar and for some reason two meter reception suddenly becomes as scratchy as sand paper.

When it is safe to do so, with no lightning flashing and no power lines having been blown down, you go to look at the end of your coax cable. After a few minutes you find exactly that – the ragged end of the cable and no antenna in sight.

Not to worry, you read in Mark’s crazy newsletter how to make an emergency antenna.

If you have an SWR meter trim for the proper SWR. But, what do you do in an emergency if you don’t have an SWR meter?

If it is an emergency, not just an inconvenience, the antenna is “probably close enough”. To be safe you should transmit at the lowest possible power that will reach the repeater, (which is what you are supposed to be doing normally anyway) and transmit in short bursts.

“Short bursts” means just that – a couple of words, unkey, pause, a couple of words, unkey, pause, etc.

This will help protect the radios final amplifier. But, it is not a guarantee that they still won’t go up in smoke.

But, remember that if you are in a dire emergency situation trying to get an emergency message out, you are basically shooting off an RF flare. If it’s your best shot at rescue, so go for it!

Remembering again that this is an emergency solution for an emergency situation, not a case of “a temporary solution that becomes a permanent cure”, you are back on the air!

Don’t get all OCD over the materials, as some do, either. Some of my die hard old goats may say “you need this or that kind of wire”, but, the truth is that wire is wire and if it can carry electricity, it will work.

In my “ham career” I have used clothes hangers, “true” antenna wire, speaker wire, lamp cords, transformer wire, test leads, anything that could carry current and it worked.
Possibly the simplest and goofiest answer to the “no antenna problem” I had was when I was a brand new teenage ham, had a radio, but no mobile antenna. I cut a vertical rod the right length, mounted it on a SO239 connector and armed with an SWR meter and a friend at the wheel we would drive around, I would hand the antenna out of the car window and by using my thumb as an insulator and capacitor I would find that one sweet spot where the SWR dipped and would talk to people.

It was 1978 in the peak of the CB boom and I would see CBers looking down at their radios, apparently trying to figure how where in the world I was on the band and I got various and sundry weird looks, But, I was solid copy into the BARC repeater, which was all that mattered and I had a ball.

I did what I had to do.

Don’t be afraid to experiment, to fail and succeed. Everyone has a right to fail, by the way. In life most people, whether they admit it or not got it wrong before they got it right. Things probably will work out fine, but, if they don’t, remember that with each attempt you will learn more and more and eventually you WILL get it right. Then you can teach others.

That’s how young goats learn what will become old goat knowledge.

(Editor’s Note: There are four pictures of this wonder of technology included. If you do not see them, as the internet does strange things, and wish to see them, you can email me at wd4nyl@bellsouth.net and I will send them to you.)

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Mark’s Almanac

February, or Februarius, as the Romans called it, is named after the Latin term februum, which means “purification”. Ancient Rome celebrated the Februa purification ritual on February 15, which was Full Moon on the old lunar based Latin calendar.

February was not originally included in the Roman calendar, which began in March, but was added, along with January by Numa Pompilius around 713 BC, and until 450 BC was considered the last month of the year.

February was originally 29 days long, but one day was taken and added to August, so the that Emperor Augustus’s month would be equal to Julius Caesar’s month of July. Now only Leap Year, which will next occur in 2024, has 29 days.

Ground Hog Day is on February 2 & believers will watch that flea bitten danged old Yankee Punxsutawney Phil and (if he hasn’t gone to the Great Burrow In The Sky), True Southern Gentleman Birmingham Bill, to see if they see their shadows. If so, prepare for six more weeks of winter.

How did we come up with Groundhog Day anyway?

It is said by one theory that the first day of Spring is about six weeks after Groundhog Day, on March 20 or 21. 1000 years ago when the world used the Julian calendar, Spring Equinox fell on March 16, which is exactly six weeks after February 2. So, if the groundhog saw his shadow on Groundhog Day there would be six more weeks of winter. But, if he didn’t, there would be only 42 more days of winter left instead. Get the calculator out and you will find that 42 days equals six weeks, so Groundhog Day may have started out as a practical joke.

The modern 21 Century version blurs this into saying that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow and fails to see its shadow, winter will soon end. If not, it will return into its burrow, and the winter will continue for 6 more weeks.

It is believed that the Germans in Pennsylvania brought Groundhog Day with them.

Morgantown, Pennsylvania storekeeper James Morris’ diary entry for Feb. 4, 1841 states “Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate.”

So, how accurate is the little goomer?

Well, Groundhog Day believers claim a 75% to 90% accuracy rate. The National Climatic Data Center, on the other hand, says it’s more like 39%.

But, you know how Heathens can be.

If the NCDC is right, maybe they can still use the critter anyway, by flipping the theory around, so if he predicts warmth, you go with winter & vice versa.

I think this is called “Inverse Forecasting”. Or it should be anyway.

In the Southern Hemisphere February is the equivalent of August. But, for us, February is a cold month with more snow falling in February than in any other month.

Statistically speaking, there is a 70% chance of snow flurries, and a 57% chance of snow up to one inch. There is a 13% chance of over one inch, and a 3% chance of 4 inches or more.

There is hope on the horizon though, as the worst of winter weather is usually over by February 15.

North Atlantic Tropical activity is at a minimum. From 1851 to 2020 there has been only one Tropical Storm to occur, 70 MPH Tropical Storm #1, which affected Florida on February 2 & 3, 1952.

Days grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon rapidly increases from 39.5 degrees at the beginning of the month to 48.6 degrees at the end. Daylight increases from 10 hours 35 minutes on February 1 to 11 hours 26 minutes on February 28.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

February 1 Sunrise 6:44 AM Sunset 5:18 PM
February 14 Sunrise 6:33 AM Sunset 5:31 PM
February 28 Sunrise 6:17 AM Sunset 5:43 PM

Looking skyward, the Sun, magnitude -26.8 is in Capricorn.

At the beginning of the month Mercury, magnitude –0.7 in Capricorn, is sinking fast and rapidly fading as he slips below the western horizon. He will not reappear in the evening sky until May.

On February 8 he will move between the Sun and the Earth or be in “Inferior Conjunction” and then will reappear in the morning sky reaching magnitude +1.0 on February 19 and will continue brightening to magnitude +0.05 by February 23.

Venus is hidden deep in the glow of sunrise. Expect her back in the evening twilight in late spring.

Venus will reach aphelion, her farthest distance from the Sun, February 20 when she will be 67,693,000 miles from the Sun.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the Constellation Leo.

Mars, magnitude +0.5, in Aries, shines pale yellow-orange high in the southwest after dark. He sets in the west-northwest around 1 AM. In telescopes Mars is still an 89% sunlit gibbous globe,

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 9.3, is in Aquarius.

Jupiter magnitude is out of sight behind the glare of the Sun.

Saturn also is out of sight behind the glare of the Sun.

Saturn will pass behind the sun or be at “Conjunction” on February 4, and will emerge very low in the east-southeast morning twilight in mid-February in Capricorn at magnitude +0.7.

Uranus, magnitude 5.8, is in Aries. In binoculars Uranus is a little pinpoint “star” and in small telescopes with sharp optics, high power a spell of good seeing, a tiny, fuzzy ball.

Neptune, magnitude 7.9, in Aquarius, is sinking out of sight into the west-southwestern twilight.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.4 in Sagittarius.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, its ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.4 in Bootes.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon faintly shines at magnitude 17.3 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude 18.8 in Cetus the Sea Monster

4331 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of January 11, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

The Moon will be at Perigee or her closest approach to Earth on February 3, when she will be 229,986 miles from Earth.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur February 4.

During the Quarter Moons the Moon is only 10% as bright as a Full Moon.

New Moon occurs February 11 at 1:08 PM CST or 19:08 UTC when the Moon will 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.

As the Moon becomes a thin crescent in the predawn sky approaching her disappearance at New Moon and then reappears in the evening sky as a thin crescent, you may see the darkened portion of the Moon being faintly illuminated.

This phenomenon sometimes called the “Ashen Glow”, “The Old Moon in the New Moon’s arms” or the “Da Vinci glow”.

The actual name is “Earthshine” and it is caused by the light of the Earth being reflected off of the Earth’s clouds and surface reaching the Moon..

Since the light that generates Earthshine is reflected twice, being Sunlight reflected once off the Earth’s surface and then off the Moon’s surface, this light is much dimmer than the lit portion of the Moon.

Only when the Moon is a thin crescent does its sunless portion receive the brilliance of a virtual full Earth. This is partly because there’s less of the bright, sunlit surface to compete with the dimmer Earthshine-lit portion, and partly because the phases of Earth and the Moon are complimentary: when the Moon is a slim crescent in our sky, the Earth seen from the Moon looks nearly full and much brighter.

Though the Moon seems so bright, the Moon only reflects about 12% of the sunlight that reaches its surface. The Earth on the other hand, reflects about 30% of all the sunlight that hits its surface. Because of this, and the fact that the Earth is four times larger in the Lunar sky, the Earth, when seen from the Moon would look about a 100 times brighter than a full Moon does seen from the Earth.

Another interesting note is that the portion of the crescent Moon that is illuminated by Earthshine appears to be part of a smaller orb than the sunlit crescent. This is a mirage caused by our eyes’ response to the differing light levels. It vanishes when you view the crescent through binoculars.

The best time of the year to experience this phenomenon is in late winter and early spring.

This phenomenon also occurs with the outer planets and their moons. In this case it is called Planetshine”.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on February 18, when she will be 251,324 miles from Earth.
First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur February 19.

Full Moon will occur February 27 at 2:19 AM CST or 8:19 UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. February’s Full Moon is “Full Snow Moon” in Native American folklore, since the heaviest snows usually fall at this time of year. Since the harsh weather made hunting difficult, some tribes called it “Full Hunger Moon”.

The February sky is alit with bright stars. Orion the Hunter is overhead, along with his faithful hunting dogs, Canis Major & Canis Minor, the Large & Lesser Dogs. In Canis Major is the blue star Sirius, The Dog Star, which 8.6 light years away, is the brightest star in the night sky.

February and March are the best times of the year for seeing the Zodiacal Light. In the evening away from city lights and after twilight has faded you might see a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow near the sunset point. This is Zodiacal Light, which is formed by the sunlight reflecting off millions of minute particles of cosmic dust aligned with the Earth’s orbital plane.

A kindred, but much fainter glow is the “Counterglow” or “Gegenschein”. This is a glow in the night sky directly opposite the Sun caused by sunlight being reflected by dust and particles in the disk shaped interplanetary dust cloud which lies along the plane of the Solar System. These particles are the debris from comet and asteroid collisions.

To see the Gegenschein you must look around midnight in very dark, non-light polluted skies. In February it is located near base of the head of Leo The Lion.

You will probably have to use “averted vision”, a trick astronomers use to see faint objects.

Averted vision is a technique for viewing faint objects which uses your peripheral vision instead of looking directly at the object.

This technique compensates for fact that the retina of the human eye has virtually no rods, the cells which detect dim light in black and white near the focal point of the eye, but, has mostly cone cells, which serve as bright light and color detectors and are not as useful during the night.
This situation results in a decrease in visual sensitivity in central field of vision at night.

But by looking as an object a little off to the nasal side of the field of view, which avoids the possibility that the object will be imaged on the blind spot, which everyone has at approximately 15 degrees on the cheek side of the field of vison, you can use the most light sensitive part of the eye, which is around 20 degrees off the center of vision.

For right-eyed observers it is best to shift to the right, and for left-eye observers it is best to shift to the left.

I have used this technique for many years and though it can be frustrating not being able to look directly at an object, as they tend to disappear from view when you look directly at them, it does work, and the object appears brighter. This is especially useful for observing diffuse objects such as galaxies, comets and nebulae.
You should give your eyes time to adapt to the dark. It can take typically 7 minutes for your eyes to become used to darkness and up to 30 minutes to become totally adjusted to the dark conditions of observing.

Care should be taken not to ruin this dark adaptation by being exposed to bright lights, such as headlights from passing cars, flashlights or moonlight. Lights with red filters will not harm the eyes sensitivity.

Relaxing your eyes also helps. By straining at objects or squinting eyes we place stress on them which makes it harder for the eye to refocus on objects. By relaxing our eyes when we look through a telescope or by using an eye patch we can improve our vision.

An eyepatch also helps preserve dark adapted eyesight. There is a theory that the reason so many pirates are depicted as wearing eyepatches isn’t that they typically had the worst of luck in combat with all of them losing an eye, but rather they were preserving their “night eye” so that when they went below the deck, which was very poorly lit, they could still see.

Very few people have actually seen the Gegenschein, for finding a dark enough sky can be a challenge. The least light polluted skies in Alabama are in a crescent shaped area of west Alabama from west of Tuscaloosa to near the Mississippi border and north and south of that line. An especially good area is southwest Alabama from south of Tuscaloosa to north of Mobile. Another area is southeast of Montgomery towards Eufaula.

Light Pollution Map – DarkSiteFinder.com

For the Gegenschein’s position for other months see:

https://earthsky.org/upl/2020/03/Screen-Shot-2020-03-02-at-11.19.39-AM-e1583166166450.png

Another sight to look for which is much more common is the Earth Shadow. At sunset, on very clear days, as the sun goes farther below the horizon, you will see what appears to be a layer of gray cloud rising along the eastern horizon. This is actually the silhouette of the earth’s shadow being cast against darkening sky, sometimes with a pinkish glow along the edge. It fades as twilight fades into darkness.

The pink fringe, which is technically called an “anti-twilight arch” was called in Victorian times “The Belt of Venus” or “Venus’s Girdle” and the shadow itself being “the dark segment”.

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This month’s meeting will be on February 9 at 7PM.

The meeting will be done remotely as was last month’s meeting. Details and instructions will be issued as the time nears.

I hope to see you there!

Mark Wells
WD4NYL & WRJE893
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
Wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

 

Hi Everyone & Happy New Year.

I hope that Santa treated you well and that Father Time will be kind to you also.

What does 2021 hold in store for us? Hopefully peace, prosperity, good health and good DX!

I am glad to say that ALERT is alive and well.

While we cannot respond personally to K4NWS for callouts due to COVID restrictions, we are uniquely suited to provide offsite coverage. I would expect this to continue and to grow.

We have perfected distance meetings, or shall we say that I finally figured out how to make the blessed thing work, after a few misfires and mishaps.

New Years is the time of resolutions and the tweaking of lifestyles. I’ve always made a point of making resolutions I know will fall flat, like gain 300 pounds, take up cliff diving and never taking my meds (I won’t say what they are for) again. That way when I break all the resolutions it is a positive rather than a negative situation.

But, I will say I “hope” to be more active on the air, more active in ALERT, to go hiking and camping and as always keep embracing positivity, which I usually drift towards anyway, and keep leaving negativity in the dust.

So as we enter 2021 I wish you and yours the best.

Happy New Year!

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A Layman’s Guide To The New NWS Radar Site

In mid-December the NWS radar site changed to a new format. This new format has met with mixed reviews, as the older version was fairly simple to navigate and the new one definitely isn’t.

To be fair though, the older site was fairly limited feature wise. It did feature composite reflectivity, base reflectivity, storm relative velocity, base velocity, 1 hour rainfall total, storm total rainfall and long range base reflectivity, all of which could be looped.

You could also choose regional radar and from those sites a full nationwide mosaic.

The newer version, is slower, much slower, very much slower, excruciatingly slower, did I mention it’s slow? It also has many more advanced features available; however, a user guide is not one of them.

But, never fear, Mark is here to reveal some of the closely guarded secrets of “radar.gov”.

The easiest way to access the new radar site, until you bookmark it, is go to your local NWS page which for the Birmingham area is NWS Birmingham, Alabama (weather.gov). Scrolling down the page you will come to a radar display appropriately named “local radar”. Clicking this display will take you to the radar image of the radar site serving the area covered by that NWS office, in this case Shelby County.

To the upper left of the display is a menu. If you click the icon which is three horizontal lines you can change the background. Standard is the default, but, you can change it to topographic, satellite, ocean or dark canvas. At the bottom of this menu is an icon called “advanced” which deals with event logging. I just use the default basic option.

Below the three horizontal lines you will find three dots. By clicking these three dots you can adjust the type of warnings displayed, either storm based or all hazard, the display transparency and whether the radar site icon is on or off.

The most interesting option here is that you have the option of using the NWS WSR-88D radar system or the FAA’s Terminal Doppler Weather Radar system.

The Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) is a Doppler weather radar system of 45 radar sites covering airports in major metropolitan areas across the United Stated and Puerto Rico. It is used
primarily for the detection of hazardous wind shear conditions, precipitation, and winds aloft.

The closest TDWR sites to Birmingham are Atlanta, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. If you choose the TDWR system and click on these sites, by going to the option “BNET (Net)” you can see the height of the thunderstorm tops, or Echo Tops, Long Range Base Reflectivity, Short Range Base Reflectivity, Vertical Integrated Liquid and Composite Reflectivity.

Though Birmingham is out of range in the Short Range Reflectivity mode, if you choose Long Range Reflectivity on the Atlanta, Nashville and Memphis sites the coverage will reach the Birmingham area, though due to the curvature of the Earth it will be limited to the upper levels of the storms displayed.

Of particular interest to me are the sites at Houston, New Orleans, Orlando and Miami, as they can provide additional radar coverage of tropical systems in addition the standard NWS WSR-88D sites that form the coastal radar picket.

Going back to our three dots and choosing WSE-88D, the map will have light blue dots which are the individual NWS radar sites. By clicking the dot to go to that site a disturbing thing happens – namely nothing. The dot just disappears and you sit waiting some seconds, sometimes more than a few, until anything happens. You sit there thinking you have killed the display, but, then suddenly voila! You have radar!

Looking at the menu you will see “BTRF-RAW”. By clicking this you can access advanced radar tools.

These are:

Super Resolution Base Reflectivity – Base Reflectivity is a display of echo intensity or reflectivity at a given radar beam angle. Base reflectivity images in Precipitation Mode are available at four radar “tilt” angles, 0.5°, 1.45°, 2.40° and 3.35° above the horizon. These angles are slightly higher when the radar is operated in Clear Air Mode. In Severe Mode there are up to 14 angles.

Super Resolution Base Reflectivity is an improvement as it shows reflectivity at a much higher resolution than the older site, giving you the ability to see storms at greater detail. You can zoom the map, but, to a limited degree. If one could zoom just one step closer you would have street level mapping, albeit with a very pixelated display

Super Resolution Base Velocity – this mode provides a picture of the wind field of the storm which is useful in determining areas of strong wind from downbursts, derechos or detecting the speed of cold fronts.

One caution in reading this is that it only depicts surface winds in areas close to the radar sight. So if you are 50 miles from the site, a display of high winds does not necessarily mean those elevated winds are actually reaching ground level.

This display provides the highest-resolution velocity available from NEXRAD radars to a distance of 230 kilometers or 143 miles from the radar site.

Dual-Pol Precipitation Type – the radar “best guesses” what type of precipitation it is seeing.

There are twelve possible types:

BI – Biological, such as bug, birds and bats.
GC – Ground Clutter, such as hills, tree and buildings.
IC – Freezing rain
DS – Dry snow –snow with low water content, such as the West and Midwest receive.
WS – Wet snow – snow high water content, as seen with Lake Effect or Gulf enhanced snow.
RA – Rain
HR – Heavy Rain
BD – Big Drops
GR – Graupel, aka “soft hail”
HA – Hail
UK – Unknown – “officially” the radar can’t make up its mind as to what it is seeing. But….my cousin Donnie Ray told me that his uncle Wilbur told him that he saw an expert on the internet revealing the truth about the radar picking up those shape shifting lizard people from Neptune that have been spraying us with chemtrails. Since its online, we know it must be true. But…..shhhh….it’s a secret.
RF – Range Folding – WSR-88D radars can clearly see out to 143 miles. If the radar pulse goes beyond this distance and bounces back off a target, it can return after another pulse has already been sent out causing the radar to see two images at the same time, one of which is correct and one, which is being detected at the wrong time, and therefore interpreted at the wrong distance.

Which one is real?

In my mental imagery I think of the old days of analog TV when because of signals being received at slightly differing times, one directly from the transmitter and the other being reflected off of some object, you would see two images at once. The true image and the “ghost image”. If they are of equal strength and you are trying to associate them with a location, which one would you use?

Crude example perhaps, but you get the idea.

Dual-Pol Differential Reflectivity – a simple explanation I can’t offer, but, let’s just say it compares whether targets are larger in a horizontal or vertical aspect. It is used to help identify hail shafts, detect updrafts, determine rain drop size, and identify the gathering of dry snow within a storm.

High Resolution Echo Tops – this displays an estimate of the highest altitude where the echo signal strength exceeds a specified threshold. The threshold adopted by the NWS and most providers of radar imagery on the Internet is 18.5 dBZ.

“Echo tops” should not be confused with the actual height of the storm. The detectable threshold may be at 50,000 feet, but the actual top at 55,000 feet, remembering that clouds are not solid. The rest of the cloud is still there, just less dense, and therefore not displayed. Not unlike setting a radios squelch to mute a distant signal. The signal is still there, but, you can’t hear it because it is too weak to break the squelch.

One Hour Precipitation Accumulation – this displays accumulated rainfall observed in the last hour.

Storm Relative Motion – this is a measure of the winds in the storm as compared to, for lack of a better word, “background winds” or base velocity. Let’s say that the winds in a storm or system are consistently from the Southwest at 30 MPH. The radar looks for distortions in this wind field. If it starts showing winds moving towards the radar at 70 MPH and right beside this the winds are going away from the radar at 40 MPH (which is the speed you would get after a 70 MPH wind overcomes a 40 MPH headwind from the opposite direction) then it is a good indication that you have a rotation within this wind field.

Storm Total Precipitation – this is the estimated total precipitation accumulation which has occurred since the storm began. It is continuously updated and is used to locate flood potential over urban or rural areas, estimate total basin runoff, and provide rainfall data 24 hours a day.

Base Velocity – this is a measure of the wind direction either toward the radar, which is considered a negative value and displayed in green or away from the radar, which is considered a positive value and displayed in red. This product is used to estimate wind speed and direction, locate boundaries, locate severe weather signatures, and identify suspected areas of turbulence.

Composite Reflectivity – this is a display of the maximum echo intensity detected at any of the radars different angles at a given time. When compared with Base Reflectivity, the Composite Reflectivity can reveal important storm structure features and intensity trends of storms.

One caution when using this product is that, as compared to Base Reflectivity, which normally scans at the lowest radar angle, the Composite Reflectivity, since it includes scan information from all radar elevation angles, may appear to indicate more widespread rain than is actually reaching the ground.

This could indicate one of two things:

It could be detecting Virga: the precipitation, rain or snow, is probably not reaching the ground but evaporating as it falls from very high in the atmosphere. This is a regular situation in winter as snowflakes can easily sublimate in dry air near the ground.

It could be due to strong updrafts: air rising in a thunderstorm updraft will saturate at a higher level than the rest of the cloud forming an overhang region. In case of a very strong updraft, a Bounded Weak Echo Region (BWER) will form and lead to the possibility of severe weather.

High Resolution Vertical Integrated Liquid – this is an estimate of the concentration of liquid water vertically in a cloud. This is used to locate most significant storms, and to identify areas of heavy rainfall. The higher the indicated concentration, the heavier the precipitation potential. If it is nearly off the scale, it is probably a hail shaft.

You will not find Correlation Coefficient, which detects solid objects aloft, which some of our broadcaster friends call “Debris Tracker” nor can you adjust the radar tilt, as you can on some sites.

But, regardless, that a lot of tools at your fingertips to choose from.

 

Here are a few radar hints for you.

1. During severe weather the NWS radar site can become intermittent due to so many viewing the site at one time. I use a different source, College of Dupage COD NEXRAD: BMX as my primary site. It’s from the same source, but, doesn’t get overwhelmed like the NWS site. Plus it does offer the Correlation Coefficient mode, the ability to look at different radar angles and has more flexibility as to looping.

2. All local broadcast stations, one exception, uses the NWS radar information for their broadcasts. They may tinker with it by inserting imitation radar sweep lines, why I’m not sure, call products clever names, or use catchphrases such as “switching our quad Doppler 48 storm vison radar to deep scan mode”, but, when all is said and done, the NWS is the source of their radar data.

3. There is one exception to the above. If the NWS weather site becomes disabled, there is another local weather radar source independent of the NWS. WVTM Channel 13 operates their own radar. In 2017, WVTM constructed a new dual pole Doppler radar in western Tuscaloosa County in Vance, known as “WVTM 13 Live Doppler Radar”. This replaced a one megawatt radar installation they operated on Bald Rock in St. Clair County.

This can be viewed at Central Alabama Interactive Weather Radar – WVTM 13

There is an old saying that the best radar site is the closest radar site. So remember WVTM.

Otherwise switch to another NWS radar site, though it will not be a near ground level image.

4. There will be times you will see inbound intense storms over western Alabama. As time progresses and they near Birmingham they may seem to weaken substantially, pass over and then reintensify over eastern Alabama.

Two things may have happened:

A. The storms, due to the wacky world of inflows and outflows may have actually momentarily weakened and then restrengthened after leaving Birmingham.

Also I’ve seen lines of doom divide once they hit the Warrior River like Moses at the Red Sea and pass North and South of Birmingham,

B. The radar beam is seeing the mid-levels of the distant storm, which is experiencing heavy rain, but, much of this has dissipated by the time it reaches the lower levels, and so when the radar is able to see these lower levels, there is nothing much there. There may still be intense activity 10,000 feet overhead, but, it won’t be detectable until the storm is once again at a distance where the radar beam is once again hitting those mid-levels. It looks like a reintesification, but, it really isn’t.

5. NEXRAD can occasionally show some interesting non-weather returns, such as “bird rings” where hundreds of birds suddenly take off at once in every direction. This usually occurs along rivers at dawn. Smoke from forest fires. UHF band openings, either due to a cold front causing a temperature inversion, or a daily temperature inversion at dawn, cause by the Sun heating the upper atmosphere and the lower levels still being cold, can cause ground clutter to blossom in every direction.

For more information on the new NWS radar site check out the following link:
New Radar Webpage (RIDGE2) Frequently Asked Questions (weather.gov)

The WSR-88D is considered by many to be the most powerful radar in the world, transmitting at 750,000 watts. This power enables the signal to travel long distances, and detect many kinds of weather phenomena. It also allows energy to continue past an initial shower or thunderstorm near the radar, thus seeing additional storms farther away.

Many other radar systems do not have this kind of power, nor can they look at more than one “slice” of the atmosphere. During severe weather, the NWS WSR-88D is looking at 14 different elevations every 5 minutes, generating a radar image of each elevation. That’s about 3 elevations per minute, or one radar image every 20 seconds.

Before this system was established there was only one radar site in Alabama and it was at Centerville. This was the old WSR-57, which had a CRT like a sonar screen in old submarine movies. Someone had to watch the screen constantly when storms were possible to make sure nothing important was missed and the storms were tracked using grease pencils, and the forecasters had to manually turn a crank to adjust the radar’s scan elevation. Any archiving of the imagery was done by taking a picture of the screen using a Polaroid camera.

Back then, in the Stone Age, there were only 66 radar sites nationwide. By the mid 70’s Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville were added as three of the 62 WSR-74C radar sites. These were designed to help fill in the gaps in WSR-57 coverage.

Today we are blessed with a transcontinental network of WSRD88’s. Every weather office has a NEXRAD radar unit – 159 of them. Though experiments continue with at the National Severe Storm Laboratory with Phase Array Doppler Radar, (See:

NSSL EXPERIMENTAL PHASE ARRAY DOPPLER RADAR – Oklahoma Coverage Only

http://wdssii.nssl.noaa.gov/web/wdss2/products/radar/nwrt_ref_loop.shtml Reflectivity
http://wdssii.nssl.noaa.gov/web/wdss2/products/radar/nwrt_vel_loop.shtml Velocity
http://wdssii.nssl.noaa.gov/web/wdss2/products/radar/nwrt_et_loop.shtml Echo Tops
http://wdssii.nssl.noaa.gov/web/wdss2/products/radar/nwrt_azshr_loop.shtml AzShear)

The WSR-8-D system is the most sensitive, most detailed radar network on the planet.

No other nation has this resource that we have. Australia has a good radar picket of their coast, but nothing inland over the deserts. Even our deserts are radar covered. Britain has decent radar system now, but, it only updates every 15 minutes & Europe has radar, but Birmingham’s WVTM radar is a better radar system than they have.

Think of Birmingham for a moment. At any given time we are being painted by radar from Shelby County, Columbus AFB, Montgomery, Hytop/Huntsville & Atlanta/Peach Tree City. Not to mention the TDWR sites & WVTM.

So, next time you are looking at these radar image, just remember how unique it is and realize how totally rotten we are spoiled

 

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Mark’s Almanac

January is named for the Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors, and so openings and beginnings.

January receives more sunlight than December, but the equilibrium between incoming solar heat and the heat radiated into space by the northern snowfields does not peak until late January and early February, six weeks after winter solstice. So the weather continues to cool, with January 8 – 20 being the coldest part of the year.

Typically in January there is a 53% chance of up to one inch of snow and a 25% chance of over one inch of snow.

With the exception of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, all of Canada and roughly one half of the Continental US, or “CONUS”, are now covered with snow. Canada’s Hudson’s Bay is frozen, as is the ocean water between Baffin Island and Greenland.

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif
Barometric pressure is highest in January.

Though the Atlantic Hurricane Season officially ended November 30, every now and then Mother Nature will give us a surprise as there have been 5 tropical storms and 3 Category 1 hurricanes from 1851 to 2019. This includes an unnamed hurricane in 1938 in the Eastern Atlantic & Hurricane Alex which in 2016 effected Bermuda and the Azores.

Birmingham January climatology per Intellicast is monthly rainfall 5.45” inches and snowfall 0.7”. Average high temperature is 53 degrees and the average low 32 degrees. Record high of 81 degrees occurred in 1941 and a record low of -6 degrees in 1985.

Barometric pressure is highest in January.

Days grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily increases from 33.5 degrees at the beginning of the month to 39.2 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 9 hours 59 minutes on January 1 to 10 hours 33 minutes on January 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

January 1 Sunrise 6:52 AM Sunset 4:50 PM
January 15 Sunrise 6:51 AM Sunset 5:02 PM
January 31 Sunrise 6:44 AM Sunset 5:17 PM

Looking skyward, at the beginning of the month, the Sun, magnitude -26.8 is in Sagittarius. The Sun is the beginning stages of Solar Cycle 25, and there should be an increase in solar activity and good HF radio propagation.

At the beginning of the month Mercury, magnitude –1.0, in Sagittarius, is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

He then emerges in the evening sky passing by Saturn on the 9th and Jupiter on the 11th.

Mercury reaches his highest point in the evening sky, or “Greatest Eastern Elongation” of 18.6 degrees from the Sun on January 23. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the evening sky. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset.

He will be at “Dichotomy” or at half lit phase on January 25.

He will reach his closest distance to the Sun or Perihelion on January 28.

Venus, magnitude –3.9, in Ophiuchus, near the head of Scorpius, is very low in the Southeast during dawn.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the Constellation Gemini.

Earth will reach her closest distance to the Sun on Jan 2, when the planet will be 0.98324 Astronomical Units or 91,399,000 miles from the Sun.

Mars, magnitude –0.3, in Pisces, shines very high in the South in early evening. The bright yellow-orange globe is fading and shrinking into the distance. Telescopes will reveal it is gibbous, being
89% sunlit from Earth’s point of view..

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 9.3, is in Aquarius.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.0, in Capricorn, is low in the southwest during and after twilight; he will soon disappear below the horizon and pass behind the Sun on January 28.

Saturn, magnitudes +1.4, in Capricorn, still shines with Jupiter, though their separation is increasing, in the southwest during and after twilight, and like Jupiter will soon disappear from the night sky. Saturn will pass behind the Sun on January 23.

Uranus, magnitude 5.7, in Aries, is high in the south in early evening.

Neptune, magnitude 7.9, in Aquarius, is lower in the southwest just after dark.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.4 in Sagittarius.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, its ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.4 in Bootes.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon faintly shines at magnitude 17.3 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude 18.8 in Cetus the Sea Monster

4323 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of December 17, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

The Quadrantids Meteor Shower will occur Saturday & Sunday, January 2 & 3. This is an above average shower producing between 40 to 100 meteors per hour radiating from the constellation Bootes, in the area near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper and the head of Draco the Dragon.

The shower runs annually from January 1-5. It peaks this year on the night of the 2nd and morning of the 3rd. The waning gibbous moon will block out most of the faintest meteors this year. But if you are patient, you should still be able to catch a few good ones. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Bootes, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

This shower favors the Northern Hemisphere because its radiant point, or the point where the meteors appear to originated in the sky, is so far north on the sky’s dome.

This shower is believed to be produced by dust grains from burnt out comet 2003 EH1, which may also be the remainder of comet c/1490 Y1, which was lost to history after a prominent meteor shower was observed in 1490, possibly due to the breakup of the comet.

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur January 6.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on January 9, when she will be 228,285 miles from Earth.

New Moon occurs January 12 at 11:02 PM CST on January 12 or 5:02 UTC January 13 when the Moon will 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.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur January 20.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on January 21, when she will be 251258 miles from Earth.

Full Moon will occur Thursday, January 28, at 1:18 PM CST or 19:18 PM UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated.

January’s Full Moon is “Wolf Moon” in Native American folklore. This was also called “Wulf-Monath” or “Wolf Month” by the Saxons, because at this full Moon, packs of wolves howled in hunger outside of the villages.

It has also been called “Old Moon” and “Moon After Yule”.

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This month’s meeting will be on January 12 at 7PM.

The meeting will be done remotely as was last month’s meeting. Details and instructions will be issued as the time nears.

I hope to see you there!

Mark Wells
WD4NYL & WRJE893
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database
https://weatherlynx.webs.com/

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds everyone well as we look forward to the Christmas Season.

As I travel to and from work I notice more and more Christmas decorations appearing on every street and corner, transforming the world into Winter Wonderland.

I don’t know where I stand on the Naughty and Nice List this year. Sometimes it’s hard to trick Old Saint Nick, especially with Alexa and Siri snitching on me, for you do know they are listening, don’t you? I heard them talking about me just the other day.

Will I get a nice new antenna or that large sack of coal, as the mechanical sounding whispers say?

Only time will tell.

I know you are all on the Nice list and are safe.

So I wish you a very safe and Merry Christmas!

 

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Skywarn Appreciation Day!

It’s time for Skywarn Day 2020!

Skywarn Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the ARRL to honor the contributions that Skywarn volunteers make to the NWS mission – the protection of life and property during threatening weather.

During the Skywarn special event, normally hams operate from ham equipped NWS offices nationwide. The object of the event is for all participating Amateur Radio stations to exchange contact information with as many NWS stations as possible on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, 2 meters, 220 MHz and 70 centimeters. Contacts via repeaters are permitted.

These of course are not normal times, and while we won’t be activating K4NWS onsite at the NWS, we WILL be an active bunch during this event.

If you have never participated in SRD you definitely want to give it a go, for this is a fun event.

Details from the Alert Blog alert-alabama.org/blog/ (alert-alabama.org) follows.

“Friday, December 4th, 2020 @ 6PM Central Time (Dec 5 0000z to 2400z), Skywarn Recognition Day kicks off, and continues for the next 24 hours.

The National Weather Service office in Birmingham is represented by ALERT (The Alabama Emergency Response Team) as the callsign K4NWS.

Skywarn Recognition Day is an event celebrates the contribution of SKYWARN volunteers to the NWS’s mission. More information about the event, including Operating Procedures for the contest, Participating Offices, Echolink Info/IRLP info, all can be found at the link below. Also, NWS request you fill out the Registration form so NWS can associate your operation with a specific NWS office, the form can also be found at the following link:
https://www.weather.gov/crh/skywarnrecognition

To make contact with us via Amateur Radio:
HF: 10,17,15,20 Meters
2M FM 146.880 (BARC), 147.320 and 146.980 (SCARC)
220 FM 224.500
70cm FM 444.700
DMR Talk Group 31013 which is available on all DMR repeaters in the Birmingham area but is also available on various repeaters in the BMX county warning area.
D-Star: REF058B or REF090C/XRF334C
AllStar: 48168
EchoLink: K4NWS-L (155003)
IRLP Experimental Reflector: 0091
WinLink: K4NWS (at) winlink (dot) org

In 2020 and in response to COVID, SRD was expanded outside of Amateur Radio to include all Skywarn Storm spotters.
Here are some ways to contact our station that are not Amateur Radio:

Zello: https://zello.com/channels/k/duTMd
Telegram: http://t.me/K4NWS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K4NWS/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/K4NWS
MeWe: https://mewe.com/join/alert

Our participation in SRD in previous years can be found here:
http://alert-alabama.org/SRD/index.htm”

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The Other Bands

After last month’s article “August 21, 1945“ there were several questions which have been asked, which I will answer here.

One question was “what are the MURs (Multi User Radio Service) frequencies?”

Using the unofficial channel designations that have evolved, they are:

MURS 1 151.820 MHz 11.25 kHz Bandwidth
MURS 2 151.880 MHz 11.25 kHz Bandwidth
MURS 3 151.940 MHz 11.25 kHz Bandwidth
MURS 4 154.570 MHz 11.25 or 20.0 kHz Bandwidth
MURS 5 154.620 MHz 11.25 or 20.0 kHz Bandwidth
“You mentioned there are no GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) repeaters in Birmingham, who does have some?”

GMRS does not have a Repeater Council as Amateur Radio does, as things are not organized at all, nor is there an official repeater list.

The following, based on several sources, are all known Alabama GMRS repeaters listed by output frequency.

Channel 15 462.550 MHz Tuscaloosa 30 Mile Footprint 141.3 Hz Tone Open
Cleveland 13 Mile Footprint 141.3 Hz Tone Open
Channel 16 462.575 MHz None
Channel 17 462.600 MHz Oneonta ?? Mile Footprint Unknown Tone Open
Channel 18 462.625 MHz Cullman 20 Mile Footprint 141.3 Hz Tone
Channel 19 462.650 MHz Madison, Co 50 Mile Footprint Unknown Tone Private
Channel 20 462.675 MHz Tuscaloosa 20 Mile Footprint 141.3 Hz Tone Open
Jackson, Co 5 Mile Footprint 141.3 Hz Tone Open
Channel 21 462.700 MHz Lee, Co 18 Mile Footprint Unknown Tone Private
Limestone, Co ?? Mile Footprint 141.3 Hz Tone Open
Madison, Co 18 Mile Footprint Unknown Tone Private
Channel 22 462.725 Cleveland, AL 18 Mile Footprint Unknown Tone Private
Blount, Co 13 Mile Footprint Unknown Tone Private

As with ham repeaters on 440 MHz, the repeater input frequencies are +5 MHz.

On open repeaters all are welcome, though it is proper GMRS etiquette to ask the owners permission to use the repeater first. Private repeaters are closed except for members of the repeaters group members.

“Could you use a Baofeng or similar radio on MURS and GMRS?”

Technically “Yes” you can, but, legally “No” you can’t. They, having an “open VFO” not limited to ham band coverage or any radio that has had a “MARS / CAP Mod” to reach out of the ham bands can reach these frequencies, but, they are not type accepted for those services by the FCC. Nor will they necessarily perform as well as equipment designed exclusively for those bands, as the radio’s tuned circuits are not resonant on those frequencies nor are the antennas used resonant, which can give you a high SWR which could damage your radios final amplifiers. This includes rubber duck antennas. Even operating in band, you really have no clue what the SWR really is.

“Does ALERT monitor GMRS or MURs?”

ALERT doesn’t monitor these frequencies. However if there was a wide coverage GMRS repeater and an there was an organized group of trained storm spotters who used that repeater, then ALERT would find it a valuable asset that could be monitored, perhaps using an offsite ALERT liaison, to gather reports for the NWS. But, this is not the current situation.

“Why don’t YOU put up a GMRS repeater?”

Lack of knowledge, lack of time and certainly lack of funds is a decent reason.

There are those with deeper pockets and stronger pull who perhaps someday might be bitten by the bug and erect a repeater, but, as of yet, I know of no one considering this.

Perhaps that someone may someday be you.

If you do and you hear WRJE893, which is me, using it, make sure to give me a call.

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Mark’s Almanac

December was the tenth Roman Month, from whence it gets its name, “decem” meaning “ten”. Among many Native American tribes it was called “the Moon of Clacking Rocks”, as it was the time when they prepared and manufactured stone tools, implements and weapons, since the growing season was over, and bad weather prevented them from hunting.

December is the cloudiest month of the year, with only 40 to 60% of possible sunshine poking through the clouds. It is also the stormiest month of the year for the Continental US & the Gulf of Mexico. By “stormy” meaning large-scale storms, not necessarily the tornadic storms that they bring, even though we are still in our Second Tornado Season.

A region of heavy rainfall usually forms from Texas to Northwest Florida to Tennessee and Arkansas. Cold waves bringing rain, snow, ice and occasionally tornadoes, sweep across the region.

Average precipitation in Birmingham is 4.47” of rainfall and 0.1” of snowfall.

December can be cloudy and cold, and, then it can swing into spring like warmth, luring plants to bloom early, only to have the frosts and freezes return and the plants are “nipped in the bud”.

Hurricane season is now “officially” over, however Mother Nature sometimes throws a surprise in to make life interesting.

From 1851 – 2019 there have been 19 Tropical Storms and from 1822 to 2019 there have been 8 Category 1 hurricanes, but, none have ever struck the United States.

Two notable December hurricanes are:

Hurricane Alice of 1954, which is the only known Atlantic hurricane to span two calendar years and one of only two named Atlantic tropical cyclones, along with Tropical Storm Zeta of 2005, to do so.

Alice developed on December 30, 1954 from a trough of low pressure in the central Atlantic Ocean in an area of unusually favorable conditions. The storm moved southwestward and gradually strengthened to reach hurricane status. After passing through the Leeward Islands on January 2, 1955, Alice reached peak winds of 90 mph before encountering cold air and turning to the southeast. It dissipated on January 6 over the southeastern Caribbean Sea.

The last December hurricane to occur was Hurricane Epsilon during the 2005 season, the year in which we ran out of hurricane names. The year also featured Tropical Storm Zeta, the latest forming Tropical Storm which formed on December 30, 2005 and lasted until January 7, 2006.

Days continue to grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily decreases from 34.6 degrees at the beginning of the month to 33.0 degrees at Winter Solstice on December 21 and then the angle begins to lift reaching 33.4 degrees on New Year’s Eve,

Daylight decreases from 10 hours 6 minutes on December 1 to 9 hours 56 minutes at Winter Solstice and then increases to 9 hours 58 minutes on December 31

 

Sunrise and Sunset times for Birmingham are:

December 1 Sunrise 6:33 AM Sunset 4:39 PM
December 15 Sunrise 6:43 AM Sunset 4:40 PM
December 21 Sunrise 6:47 AM Sunset 4:43 PM
December 31 Sunrise 6:51 AM Sunset 4:49 PM

Looking skyward, at the beginning of the month, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Scorpius

Mercury, magnitude –0.8, in Libra, is very low in the eastern dawn, and is sinking farther down and away from sight day by day and by midmonth will disappear behind the Sun.

On December 15 Mercury reach his furthest distance from the Sun in his 88 day orbit or year.

He will be directly behind the Sun or at “Superior Conjunction” on December 19.

Venus, magnitude –3.9, in Libra, continues to shine in the eastern dawn as the bright “Morning Star.” She is getting a little lower every week.

On December 12 she will pass just South of the Moon.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the Constellation Orion

Mars, magnitude –1.1, in Pisces, shines bright yellow in the east-southeast at dusk.

Earth, in her faster orbit is leaving Mars in the distance and he is fading and shrinking into the night.

Widespread yellow dust storms are under way on the Red Planet. Whether they will spread globally is yet to be see.

Dwarf Planet Ceres, magnitude 9.0, is in Aquarius.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.0, in Sagittarius, is in the Southwest during and after twilight.

Saturn, magnitudes +0.6, in Sagittarius sits next to Jupiter as a stately pair. Jupiter is the brighter of the two, with Saturn to the upper left of him.

The separation of the two is shrinking.

On December 21st, Jupiter and Saturn will pass within 0.1° of each other at “Great Conjunction” low in the glow of sunset. Their visibility will not be as good as it has been, as they are moving to the far side of our orbit from them, and steadily lower in-altitude, but, will still be noteworthy.

They will be so close that they will appear to make a bright double planet. Look to the west just after sunset for this impressive and rare planetary pair.

This is a special event in that while the two giants have “Great Conjunctions” about every 20 years, this will be their closest one visible since March 4, 1226.

The Next Great Conjunction, and only Jupiter and Saturn have “Great Conjunctions”, will be November 4, 2040, though they will not be as close as in 2020.

The next time they will be this close will be on March 15, 2080.

What will be best “Great Conjunction” will feature Saturn passing directly behind Jupiter. I ‘m really looking forward for this event, which will occur on June 17, 7541.

Uranus, magnitude 5.7, in Aries, is high in the east-southeast after nightfall

Neptune, magnitude 7.9, in Aquarius, is high but in the south in early evening.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.4 in Sagittarius.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, its ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.4 in Bootes.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon faintly shines at magnitude 17.3 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude 18.8 in Cetus the Sea Monster

4306 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of November 19, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

Last Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Eastern side illuminated, will occur December 7. This is always a reliable navigation tool, as it lets your know where East is and because when the Moon is at her highest point, at Sunset, the dividing line between the light and dark side, or the “terminator” will be on an exact North / South line.

You might say “well if the Sun is setting wouldn’t you know where West is anyway?” Not exactly. You see the Sun only rises and sets directly on an East and West line during the days around the Equinoxes. During the Winter it actually sets towards the West-Southwest, and in the Summer towards the West-Northwest. So if you needed to head directly west, and head towards the Sun at those times, you would miss your target.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on December 12, when she will be 224,798 miles from Earth.

The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks on December 13-14. Geminids are one of the year’s best meteor showers. It is my favorite meteor shower and considered by many to be the best shower in the heavens. It’s a consistent and prolific shower, and usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing the more widely recognized Perseids of August. This shower typically produces 50 or more multicolored meteors an hour, or about one every minute, and at the peak 120 meteors per hour.

As a general rule, the dazzling Geminid meteor shower starts around mid-evening and tends to pick up steam as evening deepens into late night. No matter where you live worldwide, the greatest number of meteors usually fall in the wee hours after midnight, or for a few hours centered around 2 a.m. local time, as the Earth plows headlong into the stream. If you’re game, you can watch the Geminid shower all the way from mid-evening until dawn.

The nearly new moon will ensure dark skies for what should be an excellent show.

The Geminids are produced by debris left behind by an asteroid known as 3200 Phaethon, which was discovered in 1982. The shower runs annually from December 7-17. It peaks this year on the night of the 13th and morning of the 14th. The morning of the 15th could also be nearly as active this year.

Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Gemini, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

New Moon occurs December 14 at 10:18 AM CST or 16:18 UTC December 26 when the Moon will 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.

On December 14 there will be a Total Solar Eclipse. A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon completely blocks the Sun, revealing the Sun’s beautiful outer atmosphere known as the corona.
The total eclipse will only be visible in parts of southern Chile and southern Argentina. A partial eclipse will be visible in most parts of southern South America, the southeastern Pacific Ocean and the southern Atlantic Ocean.

Winter Solstice will occur on December 21 at 4:02 AM CST or 10:02 UTC. The South Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its southernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.44 degrees south latitude. This is the first day of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of summer in the Southern Hemisphere.

First Quarter Moon, or when the moon has only the Western side illuminated, will occur December 21. As with Last Quarter Moon, this phase can be used for navigation also, with the Moon telling you where West is located, and it her highest point, which is at Sunrise, the North / South line.

The Ursid meteor shower, a minor meteor shower, which runs annually from December 17-25 will peak on the night and morning of December 21 – 22 producing about 5-10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tuttle, which was first discovered in 1790.

The first quarter moon should set just after midnight leaving dark skies for what could be a good show.

Best viewing will be just after midnight from a dark location far away from city lights. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Ursa Minor, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on December 24, when she will be 251661 miles from Earth.

Full Moon occurs at 8:30 PM on December 29 or 3:30 UTC on December 30 when the Moon will be fully illuminated. This full moon was known by early Native American tribes as the Full Cold Moon because this is the time of year when the cold winter air settles in and the nights become long and dark. This moon has also been known as the Moon Before Yule and the Full Long Nights Moon.

’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Christmastime is a time of wonder & mystery. A time of bright lights, shining trees and the time of hide and seek, as presents are hid from inquiring minds and fingers.

It is a time when one’s mind and memories drift back to days of childhood, and Christmases now long gone by. Remembering friends and family, some here, some now gone & longing that they were near once again, as it was once upon a time not so long ago.
And, it is a time when, if we allow ourselves and don’t choose to “Grinch out” and be sour pusses, we can become kids once again.

Most importantly though, it’s a time to remember that the true “reason for the season” occurred in a manger, long ago on that first cold and chilly “Silent Night.”

So as you go about your Christmas preparations remember the magic that was there when you were a child & don’t let that magic die. Make it magic once again

For Christmas truly is “the most wonderful time of the year”.

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This month’s meeting will be on December 8 at 7PM.

The meeting will be done remotely as was last month’s meeting. Details and instructions will be issued as the time nears.

I hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
Wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database
https://weatherlynx.webs.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“They say two-thousand-two-zero, party over, oops out of time.
So tonight I’m gonna party like its 1999.”
– “1999” by Prince & The Revolution 1982 (paraphrased)

My version of partying is of course writing the exciting ALERT Newsletter!

Hi everyone,

I hope this finds you well during these tumultuous times.

2020 has certainly proved to be the dud or all duds year wise, hasn’t it?

There are many who truly think normalcy as we know it, if not the world, ends in November 2020. In fact some jabronis almost act like mayhem and chaos would be a desirable thing. After all it all turns out good in the video games, doesn’t it?

I would worry, since everyone else seems to be, but, as I watch the events unfold, things my Mom taught me keep ringing in the back of my mind.

One is my Mom saying “most of the things people worry about never actually happen”, and she, who was born during World War I, lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam years and the events surrounding them, was always singing “God will take care of you, through every day, o’er all the way; he will take care of you, God will take care of you.”

I do believe this. I’ve seen it prove true too many times not to.

Other things she said was “when the ‘wrong guy’ gets elected they never turn out to be as bad as you feared they would be. On the other hand, when the ‘right guy’ gets elected they are never turn out to be as good as you hoped they would be either.” She said this because I was upset because the “wrong guy” had been elected, who I won’t say, except to say that Carter turned out not to be that bad guy after all.

One story she told was that when she was a small girl the 1920 election was near and her Mom’s
lady friends were visiting and teasing one lady of a differing political view. They told her “you know they say that if Harding is elected he is going to have all the baby boys thrown into the Potomac like Pharaoh did in Egypt.”

The lady, easily duped, held her son closely and said defiantly “he’ll never get mine!”

Harding did get elected and the song floated around “Harding got elected, just as was expected. Hard, hard times.”, but, the country survived.

Nothing really changes, just the names.

For instance, in the 1800 election it was said by his opponents that Thomas Jefferson was “planning to close all the churches and convert them into ‘temples of wisdom’ and force all mothers and their daughters into prostitution”, it didn’t prove true.

One favorite memory of mine was during the 1964 election when Goldwater was running against Johnson and an advertisement ran with a little girl was picking petals off of a daisy and counting “seven, eight, nine” and she couldn’t remember what came next. The next voice was of a missile countdown “ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, for, three, two, one” BOOOOOM as the mushroom cloud appeared.

It was hinted that this was your future if Goldwater was elected and since Johnson won the office, I guess the advertisement was somewhat successful. We had no nuclear war. We got the Vietnam War instead.

These examples, along with a completely unrelated one which I will throw in for free, “don’t be the first to welcome new neighbors into the neighborhood. Find out if they are nuts first”, have taught me to be cautiously optimistic during times as these.

So, with the lessons of the past and with eternal hope for the future, I am approaching this time period with my “eyes open and ears peaked”, as one should always be “situationally aware” aka “street smart”, but, also maintaining a peaceful heart.

I hope this is the case with you also.

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August 21, 1945

August 21, 1945 was a momentous day in Amateur Radio history. For on that day Amateur Radio returned from the dead.

“Ham radio is dying”. How many times have we heard this? Well, twice in history ham radio actually has died, and that through no fault of its own.

The beginning of the first death started on June 28, 1914 when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip of Bosnia. This assassination sparked a chain of events among the major alliances of Europe which resulted in Germany declaring war on Russia on August 1, 1914 in support of their Austria-Hungarian allies. France then entered the war in support of Russia as did Britain and Italy entered in support of Germany. The war then spread from a regional conflict to a global conflict as it spread to the countries overseas territories and colonies.

The UK worried about national security risks from uncontrolled experimental wireless transmitting stations around the country and them possibly giving military information to Germany. These licensees were ordered off the air and to dismantle their equipment. Most equipment was confiscated.

The US entered the war on April 6, 1917. On April 7, 1917 President Wilson ordered all private US radio stations to either be shut down or taken over by the government to prevent the airwaves from being used against the US by spies communicating with Germany and her allies. It became illegal for citizens to possess an operational radio transmitter or receiver. In fact in San Jose California it was declared an act of treason to possess radio equipment.

On November 11, 1918, at 11 am – “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month”—a ceasefire came into effect, and World War I, which cost between 15 to 22 million souls ended.

When would Amateur Radio return? In some powerful governmental circles the answer would be “never”, as they wanted to keep the genie in the bottle. But in Congressional hearings after the testimonies of Hiram Percy Maxim and Guglielmo Marconi, it was agreed that Amateur Radio was an asset worth saving. So the Amateur Radio Service was restored on October 1, 1919.

In spite of the Great Depression and renewed saber rattling in Europe, all was going well with the world of Amateur Radio and there was steady progress in both technology and numbers.

On September 1, 1939 there were 52,000 US ham radio operators. On that day Germany invaded Poland, and soon the Soviet Union would attack Poland also, Britain and France soon declared war on Germany and once again a regional war grew into a World War.

As in the beginning of First World War, the US was neutral.

US hams remained on the air, but, were strongly discouraged from communicating with European stations or any British or German dependencies or occupied countries.

In June 1940 the FCC issued Order 72, which restricted US amateurs from engaging in foreign communications. The order stressed four major points:

“1. Do not contact any European station.
“2. Do not relay anything from one country to another: confine any international contact to technical subjects or trivial small talk.
“3. Do not use any code, use plain language, English recommended. Sign each transmission with your assigned call.
“4. Do not talk about the war over the air (even among yourselves).”

In February 1941, the US War Department, watching the world situation deteriorate, sent a questionnaire to every ham listed in the Callbook asking for information about their code proficiency, military status, occupation and dependents.

At 18:18 GMT, now UTC, December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Over the next seven hours there were coordinated attacks on US territories of the Philippines, Guam, Wake Island, and the British in Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong. Eight hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked the FCC issued Order 82 which suspended all amateur radio activity.

Unlike during World War I, hams could still use receivers. This was allowed so hams could listen for people not observing the ban, as they could easily be German or Japanese spies using the ham bands to conduct covert activities both in the US and abroad.

Hams, being knowledgeable in radio and operating techniques proved invaluable as they served in the military all over the world.

Veteran radio operators I met through the years still could easily copy CW sent 40 and 50 WPM by ear. it was a second language to them, as it, with their mentoring, eventually became with me.

As the war was nearing its end, unlike the situation with World War I, there was no doubt that the Amateur Radio Service would be restored. There would be shifts in some frequencies, the loss of one band, 160 Meters, a new band, 15 Meters and a new call area, the Tenth would be created because the Ninth area was running out of call signs. When you heard a Zero call, they are really in the Tenth Call District.

Hostilities stopped on August 15, 1945. On August 21, 1945, 12 days before the end of World War II, the Amateur Radio Service was restored.

Operations were initially limited to 112 – 115 MHz, the old 2 ½ Meter Band, other bands becoming available as the military relinquished them.

The Amateur Radio Service would soon have cousins, as three other radio services were also created, Class A, B & C Citizens Radio, not to be confused with the CB radios of today.

Established in 1948, Classes A & B were 460 – 470 MHz UHF services intended for short range communications, Class A being the forerunner of the General Mobile Radio Service or GMRS radios, and Class B being similar to the Family Radio Service or FRS radios of today. Class C was for non-voice radio controlled models.

Classes A & B proved to be ahead of their time, with the tube type equipment being bulky and too expensive for average use, and eventually the Class B service was discontinued. Class C, with frequencies in the 27 & later the 70 MHz bands still exists today.

Still wishing to have a short range, non-technical communications service, the FCC created the Class D Citizens Radio Service aka Citizens Band in 1958

Much to the chagrin of the hams of that day, the frequencies for this new service were taken from the 11 Meter Amateur Radio band, which stretched from 26.960 to 27.230 MHz.

The 11 Meter band was a secondary allocation in the realm of ISM or Industrial, Scientific and Medical devices and was never a popular band. Partly because it was not harmonically related the other Amateur bands, such as 160, 80, 40, 20 15 or 10 Meters, and largely because of interference from the devices of the primary ISM users which legally created hellacious broadband interference from coast to coast.

But, popular or not, the “we was robbed” sentiment help create the love/hate relationship that some hams have with CB (and by consequence, some CBers have with hams) to this day.

In the 1960’s CB was highly “legalistic”, it wasn’t until the oil shortage of the 70’s, Smokey and The Bandit and songs by CW McCall came along that it became a fad with 20 million users and it sank into the maelstrom that it, though the fad has long ended, is even today.

Why the FCC would put a service designed for short range communications in a DX band is a mystery to me. The upper Low VHF range around 45 MHz would have seemed to be a more reasonable approach.

It is still a valuable realm, however, especially on trips. I’m not allergic to having one, and in fact have had one since 1976. My family had them, and I would talk to my sister as she travelled a dark lonely road at night going to work to make sure she arrived safely. The call sign KAJD8693 predates WD4NYL by one year.

Interesting to note that even though a license is not required, and hasn’t been for years, and people believe that the FCC doesn’t maintain a CB call sign database, the FCC rules state in Part 95.417 “You are encouraged to identify your CB communications by any of the following means: 1. Previously assigned CB call sign”. So the old clunky thing is still valid.

Another interesting item from the late 80’s or early 90’s was when, since any form of malicious interference was blamed on “those darned CBers they are letting in”, the ARRL did a survey and found that 50% of active hams not only had a CB, but, were active on it.

That and the FCC finding that most of the interference was from long term hams whose brain cells had apparently been cooked by RF, granted the CBers a temporary reprieve.

In 1984 Radio Shack proposed a low power radio service for families and the Family Radio Service or FRS band was born. Intended for family use, businesses quickly found they could use it as a much cheaper version of a Business radio. Some describe FRS as a distant cousin of the old Class B service of yesterday.

The Class A service would see changes in bandwidth and heavy use by businesses until around 1987 when due to congestion in the available channels most businesses were forced to relocate to the Business Band to get interference free coverage and the service was renamed as the General Mobile Radio Service or GMRS, and repurposed for business and personal use, allowing 50 Watts output and repeaters. GMRS requires a test free $70 license, which is valid for ten years and covers the immediate family members of the licensee.

Initially FRS and GMRS had slightly different frequencies, with some overlap. Inter-service communications between the two services were technically illegal, but, that didn’t stop many.

In 2017 the FCC basically combined the two services, and though the FCC doesn’t designate channels as with CB, there are 22 combined channels and 8 more for GMRS repeater inputs.

Birmingham incidentally has no GRMS repeaters, nor does Montgomery or Mobile. Blount County and Tuscaloosa do.

The newest addition to the radio family is MURS. In 2003 the FCC created the Multi-Use Radio Service or MURS using some unused frequencies and “borrowing” a couple from the “Color Dot/Star” Itinerant frequencies. Which are business frequencies whose channels are identified by a dot or star on the radio.

MURS uses 5 channels in the 151 – 154 MHz range. MURS channels are according to the FCC “for license free short-distance, two-way communications using small, portable hand-held radios that function similar to walkie-talkies.”

At 2 watts, they have the same coverage as 2 meter HTs on simplex. Whether due to the limited choices of equipment available, or the fact that it is relatively new and not much discussed, there is not that much activity there. Walmart is aid to be one of the prime users, though I have yet to hear “cleanup on aisle 7” or any other radio traffic from them yet.

So, we have five services available, each with their own assets, quirks and foibles which we can use.

On GMRS, which I am licensed for, and FRS which doesn’t need one, you will hear various types of businesses and occasionally families. If you listen on a scanner, if a station doesn’t have a “roger beep or is strong, it is probably GMRS. If it “bledadeeadeps” at you, and is weak, it is probably FRS.
You can set PL tones on both to cut some interference, if needed. I run my equipment without a tone so I can hear what is out there.

Efforts have been attempted to make GRMS Channel 20, which is actually a made up name that seems to have stuck, to be considered the “travel channel and safety channel” with a “Trael Tone” or PL tone of 141.3. It would be a great idea, if it ever becomes popular.

On MURS, if you hear anything at all, it will be occasional business use.

With CB, you may hear anything under the sun, and with ham radio, well, if the truth be told, almost the same there also.

I’ve never heard anything on a CB that I haven’t heard on ham radio also. And, usually it’s my fellow Old Goats who are guilty, not the “digital, no code, mail order, drive through, weather wacko, CBers”.

 

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Mark’s Almanac

With the arrival of November we enter our second tornado season. Alabama and the Southeast are “blessed” by being the only area on Earth having two tornado seasons. The cause of the second season is the same as the spring season – clashes of cold and warm air masses. The cold air of winter is invading and trying to push the warmth of the summer back into the sea, which is the same process of springtime.

This second season is often more destructive than the spring season. From 1950 to 2018 there have been 275 November tornadoes in Alabama resulting in 52 fatalities and 1069 injuries. The third largest tornado outbreak occurred on November 24 – 25 2001 when 36 tornadoes occurred and 21 tornadoes occurred during the outbreak of November 23 – 24 2004.

November was Alabama’s leading tornado month from 2001 to 2011 until the dual outbreaks of April 15 and April 27 2011 erased that record.

So beware of a warm & muggy November day. Especially one with a south wind, as something may really be “in the air”.

The Hurricane threat greatly diminishes, with hurricane activity occurring mainly in the open Atlantic, threatening the Eastern Seaboard, but usually veering off into sea as cold fronts off the East Coast deflect them. Hurricanes can still form in the Caribbean, which usually visit the Yucatan, but can enter the Gulf.

From 1851 – 2019 there have been 100 Tropical Storms and 47 hurricanes, 5 of which made landfall in the United States.

Some notable November hurricanes are:

The 1932 Cuba hurricane, known also as the Hurricane of Santa Cruz del Sur or the 1932 Camagüey Hurricane. Although forming as a tropical depression on October 30, it became the only Category 5 Atlantic hurricane ever recorded in November, and was the deadliest and one of the most intense tropical cyclones in Cuban history. On November 6, the tropical cyclone reached its peak intensity as a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 175 mph. The storm weakened to Category 4 intensity as it came ashore in Cuba’s Camagüey Province on November 9 with winds of 150 mph. The storm took 3,033 lives.

Hurricane Ida, in 2009 was the strongest land falling tropical cyclone during the 2009 Atlantic hurricane season. Ida formed on November 4 in the southwestern Caribbean, and within 24 hours struck the Nicaragua coast with winds of 80 mph. It weakened significantly over land, although it restrengthened in the Yucatán Channel to peak winds of 105 mph. Ida weakened and became an extratropical cyclone in the northern Gulf of Mexico before spreading across the southeastern United States. The remnants of Ida contributed to the formation of a nor’easter that significantly affected the eastern coast of the United States.

1985’s Hurricane Kate was the latest Hurricane in any calendar year to strike the United States.
Kate formed on November, 15 and reached hurricane intensity on November 16, and reached Category 2 intensity three days later. Kate struck the northern coast of Cuba on November 19. Once clear of land, she strengthened quickly, becoming a Category 3 storm and reached its peak intensity of 120 mph. On November 21 Kate came ashore near Mexico Beach, Florida, as Category 2 hurricane with winds of 100 mph.

Hurricane Lenny, or Wrong Way Lenny, occurred in 1999. It is the second-strongest November Atlantic hurricane on record, behind the 1932 Cuba hurricane. Lenny formed on November 13 in the western Caribbean Sea and moved retrograde from the West to East passing South of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. He reached hurricane status south of Jamaica on November 15 and rapidly intensified over the northeastern Caribbean on November 17, attaining peak winds of 155 mph near Saint Croix in the United States Virgin Islands. It gradually weakened while moving through the Leeward Islands, eventually dissipating on November 23 over the open Atlantic Ocean.

1994’s Hurricane Gordon claimed 1122 lives in Haiti when it passed just west of the country as a tropical storm on November 13, 1994.

Figure 2 – November Tropical Cyclone Breeding Grounds

Both the Atlantic and Pacific Hurricane seasons ends November 30.

Days rapidly grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily decreases from 40.9 degrees at the beginning of the month to 34.8 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 10 hours 40 minutes on November 1 to 10 hours 07 minutes on November 30.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

November 1 Sunrise 7:06 AM Sunset 5:55 PM
November 15 Sunrise 6:19 AM Sunset 4:45 PM – After Daylight Savings Time Ends
November 31 Sunrise 6:33 AM Sunset 4:39 PM

The blooms of summer have faded, but you may find yourself still sneezing, due to ragweed and mold.

Mold is a fall allergy trigger. You may think of mold growing in your basement or bathroom – damp areas in the house – but mold spores also love wet spots outside. Piles of damp leaves are ideal breeding grounds for mold.

Oh, and did I mention dust mites? While they are common during the humid summer months, they can get stirred into the air the first time you turn on your heat in the fall. Dust mites can trigger sneezes, wheezes, and runny noses.

November welcomes the peak of fall colors. For Birmingham the peak occurs around November 15, but the date can vary depending on your elevation & latitude.

Indian Summer and Squaw Winter continue to battle it out, but the cool or cold weather will eventually win, with the first average frost being on November 11.

The usual fall effects occur in North America with Canada’s Hudson Bay becoming unnavigable due to pack ice & icebergs. Navigation in the Great Lakes becomes perilous due to storms bringing the “Gales Of November” made famous in the Gordon Lightfoot song “The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald”.

And, don’t be surprised if you hear ducks overhead & see wedges of Canadian geese heading south for the winter. And if you see strange birds appearing in your front yard, remember that for 336 species of birds Alabama IS south for the winter.

 

Looking skyward, at the beginning of the month, the Sun, magnitude -26.7 is in Virgo.

Mercury, magnitude 0, in Virgo, rapidly emerges into dawn. Mercury will be at his the closest distance to the Sun or Perihelion on November 1 and by the morning of Wednesday November 4th he will be low in the east-southeast, well below Venus, about 45 minutes before sunrise.

In telescopes Mercury will appear at “dichotomy” or half phase on November 8.

On November 10 Mercury will reach “Greatest Western Elongation”, or his highest point above the horizon, in this case 19.1 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the morning sky. Look for the planet low in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Venus, magnitude –4.0, in Virgo, rises about an hour before dawn as the “Morning Star” and shines brightly in the east before and during dawn.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in Cetus.

Mars, magnitude –2.0, in Pisces, is three weeks past opposition or the closest approach to Earth and is noticeably less bright. He is slowly shrinking in size, but is still large enough to display good surface detail when viewed with a telescope.

He is climbing higher in view earlier each night and by dusk is fiery orange in the east-southeast. He is highest and brightest around 10 PM.

Dwarf Planet Ceres shines at magnitude 7.7 in Aquarius.

Jupiter, magnitude -2.2 and Saturn, magnitude +0.6, sit together in Sagittarius in the west-southwest during and after twilight. Jupiter is the brighter of the two and they are only 5 degrees apart and closing.

They are sinking lower in the southeast in the evening and are growing smaller in a telescope.

Uranus, magnitude 5.7, in Aries, is high in the east by 8 PM. He appears as a tiny fuzzy ball, not just a point of light, at high power in even a good small telescope.

He will reach his closet approach to Earth, or opposition on November 4.

Neptune, magnitude 7.8, in Aquarius, is high in the south by 9 PM.

Dwarf Planet Pluto, with his five moons shines at a dim 14.3 in Sagittarius.

Dwarf Planet 136108 Haumea, its ring and moons Hiʻiaka and Namaka, shines at a faint magnitude of 17.3 in Bootes.

Dwarf Planet 136472 Makemake with his moon faintly shines at magnitude 17.0 in Coma Berenices.

Dwarf Planet 136199 Eris and her moon Dysnomia is barely visible in the most powerful telescopes at magnitude 19.0 in Cetus the Sea Monster

The Last Quarter Moon occurs October 8.

The Northern Taurid Meteor Shower will occur November 11 & 12. The Northern Taurids is a long-running minor meteor shower producing only about 5-10 meteors per hour. This shower is, however, famous for producing a higher than normal percentage of bright fireballs, It is also unusual in that it consists of two separate streams. The first is produced by dust grains left behind by Asteroid 2004 TG10. The second stream is produced by debris left behind by Comet 2P Encke.

The shower runs annually from September 7 to December 10. It peaks this year on the night of November of the 11th and morning of the 12th. The thin crescent moon will not be much of a problem this year leaving dark skies for what could be a really good show. Best viewing will be just after midnight from a dark location far away from city lights. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Taurus, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on November 14, when she will be 222,351 miles from Earth.

New Moon will occur November 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 phase occurs at 5:08 UTC or 12:08 AM CST. 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 annual Leonid meteor shower occurs from November 6 – 30 and peaks on the night of November 16 & the morning of the 17th. Though the Leonids are an “average shower”, producing only an average of 15 meteors per hour, they are well known for producing bright meteors and fireballs.

This shower is also unique in that it has a cyclonic peak about every 33 years where hundreds of meteors per hour can be seen. That last of these occurred in 2001. The Leonids are produced by dust grains left behind by Comet Tempel-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1865.

Its productivity varies per year, but it can deposit 12 to 13 tons of particles across the planet. Which is why having an atmosphere to shield us is such a nifty thing.

The crescent moon will set early in the evening leaving dark skies for what should be an excellent show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Leo, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

The Last Quarter Moon occurs October 21.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on November 26, when she will be 252,209 miles from Earth.

Full Moon will occur at 3:43 UTC November 30 or 9:43 AM CST November 29. November’s Full Moon is called “Beaver Moon” in Native American folklore, because this was the time of year to set the beaver traps before the swamps and rivers froze. It has also been known as the Frosty Moon and the Hunter’s Moon.

Also on November 30 there will be a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. A Penumbral Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth’s partial shadow, or penumbra. During this type of eclipse the Moon will darken slightly but not completely.

The eclipse will be visible in North and South America, Australia, and parts of Asia.

In Birmingham the eclipse will begin at 1:32 AM CST or 7:32 UTC.
Maximum eclipse will occur at 3:43 AM CST or 9:43 UTC
The eclipse ends at 5:53 CST or 11:53 UTC.

4296 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of October 22, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/.

Finally, don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour at 2 AM, Sunday morning November 1st, as Daylight Savings Time ends and the clock goes back to the way the Good Lord intended.

Look up Hezekiah 4:7, I dare you.

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This month’s meeting will be on November 10 at 7PM.

The meeting will be done remotely as was last month’s meeting.

Details and instructions will be issued as the time nears.

I have had difficulty joining in, but, hopefully my technical issues will be resolved and I can will
see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database
www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/