Hi everyone,

I will let you in on a closely guarded secret. Promise to tell no one? Fall is soon approaching.

My grass has been as golden brown as the temperatures reached the century mark, but, now with the recent rains there are signs of green hope springing through the withered mats.

Soon the Fall season and the events that come with it will arrive and we will enjoy the not too hot, not too cold days of the Goldilocks of seasons.

Football, camping, cookouts and a slight crispness in the air – do I sound like I am ready for it?

Whatever you are looking forward to, I hope you have a fun safe Late Summer / Early Fall Season.

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Hurricane Dorian Amateur Radio Frequencies

As Hurricane Dorian affects the Bahamas and the Southeastern US, the following net frequencies could and should be active as the storm threatens these areas.

Hurricane Watch Net
7.268 MHz LSB & 14.265 MHz USB

Streaming audio feed information:
https://www.hwn.org/tools/streaming-audio.html

Florida Phone Traffic Net & South Florida Traffic Net
3.940 MHz LSB

North Florida Phone Net & North Florida ARES Net
3.950 MHz LSB

Georgia Single Sideband Net / Georgia ARES Emergency Frequency
3.975 LSB

If the storm enters the Gulf of Mexico, the following frequencies will come into play.

Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net
3.935 MHz LSB

Alabama Traffic Net Mike / Alabama ARES Net
3.965 MHz LSB

If you listen to these nets, unless the Net Control asks for general check ins or for stations with
specific capabilities or for a specific location, DO NOT TRANSMIT.

While we may want to feel we are “part of the action”, unneeded transmissions only hinder net operations, and in an extreme emergency can cost lives by blocking emergency calls or delaying emergency response.

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Enhancing Situational Awareness Capabilities

It was a clear fall day as I arrived at work, which at that time was in the electronics department at Sears. The day was an unusual day, as the sales staffs from the three area stores – Fairfield, Galleria and Century Plaza were to meet at the Century Plaza store to be introduced to the new Christmas electronics products presented by sometimes overly enthusiastic sales representatives.

Sometimes the presentations would be interesting, sometimes not and I remember the one hope I would leave with is “if you advertise it, please make sure you actually ship it to us”. For if anywhere along the supply line, whether at the overseas factory, the ship or seaport, the trucking companies or distribution center, the product didn’t arrive, yours truly would catch the grief, since it was most certainly my fault. And explaining that an earthquake levelled the factory or that the ad featuring the worthless $5 gizmo was printed five months earlier in Chicago would do little to ease the hellacious barrage.

Arriving at my store’s break room, I glanced at the TV to see one of the towers of the World Trade Center with smoke billowing from the side. Turning the sound up I learned that a plane had crashed into the building and my mind went back to the 1945 crash of a B-25 bomber into the Empire State Building. Everyone thought it was an accident. Then the second plane came in.

For the majority of people, whether it was the destruction of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia, assassination attempts, military actions or any other major news, the public’s first notice was “We interrupt this program for a Special Report from ABC News.”

Words that still make me cringe.

By 2013 Smartphones were now in vogue, but, mine was still dumb, so I learned at my new job about the Boston Marathon bombing three hours after the event. This let me know that major events could be taking place without me having a clue or warning, leaving me without any lead time to take appropriate action, if needed, such as head home, take cover, keep your eyes peeled, etc.

My search for information on the way home also validated an opinion I had formed that so called “stimulating news talk radio” was practically useless for finding information during breaking news events, for I found plenty of talk, but, not much news and the banter was not particularly stimulating either.

After getting a smarter phone, to counter this shortcoming, I started organizing apps for news, weather, communications, and loving the outdoors, navigation. But, for this article we will concentrate on the news, communications and weather sources.

When one is at the NWS Forecast Office in Birmingham, one will see six large screen TV’s mounted together on the back wall with programs from six TV stations, such as ABC3340 or WSFA in Montgomery, playing in the background.

This is their “Situational Awareness Display”.

This allows the meteorologists to see what is happening in various locations within their County Warning Areas. If a station’s tower cam is showing a tornado or if a hurricane is making landfall or a tornado touchdown has occurred they can watch the coverage live so that they, along with their normal equipment and resources, can better assess the situation to make the best decisions possible.

My phone and my laptop are my “Situational Awareness Displays”.

On my phone, which is an I-Phone, I have these resources organized in folders. On an I-phone you can create a folder by letting your finger rest on an icon, which will then wiggle and dragging it on top of another Icon. A new folder is then formed which once you tap you can rename. Three I have are “News”, “Weather” and “Communications.”

In the News Folder I installed apps from ABC3340, WVTM, WBRC, CBS42, CBS, AP News, CNN and the BBC.

Now, I try not to venture into politics with these newsletters, as I hate drama and arguments, and I realize that some of these sources may not be everyone’s cup of tea, due to perceived bias, either right wing or left.

I also realize, what many forget, that this is by no means a new complaint. I remember in the 1960’s and 70’s hearing my parents and their friends complaining that the news anchors of those days – Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Frank Reynolds and “that Communist Walter Cronkite” were “as biased as they could be”.

I don’t remember what poor old Walter had done. It might have had something to do with Nixon or Vietnam, I don’t know. I was a kid, and in those days while kids were aware of events happening around them, they weren’t expected to be weighted down with the woes of the world, as are the children of today. We were just expected to be kids, and we had more than enough of our own woes just dealing with schoolyard schmucks and measles.

Besides, if the grownups couldn’t figure the mess out, why should a 10 year old be expected to do so?

So with news bias just realize that nothing ever changes except the names. Thus it has been, and thus it shall always be until the end of time.

Drifting back on topic, I have these apps set to alert me for major events, some feature audible signals, some don’t.

For the Weather Folder, the setup is slightly different for I set up internet shortcuts as well as downloaded apps.

To create a shortcut, go to Safari and type in the web address. After the website loads, tap on the share icon at the bottom of the screen. A list with “copy”, “print” and such will appear near the bottom of the screen. Swipe this to the left and the “add to home screen” icon will appear. Tap this and give the website a name in the first text field and then tap Add from the top right.

Weather related apps in the folder are Earthquake, Quakefeed, the Weather app that came with the phone, and Windy.

The earthquake apps give real-time alerts and the Windy app displays the wind streams over North America, and can be repositioned and zoomed. See https://www.windy.com for the computer version to try it out.

The websites I include are:

https://alerts.weather.gov/cap/al.php?x=1 All Alabama Watches, Warnings and Advisories.

https://radar.weather.gov/ridge/radar.php?rid=bmx&overlays=11101111&product=N0R&loop=yes
NWS Ridge Radar from Birmingham

https://weather.cod.edu/satrad/nexrad/index.php?type=BMX-N0Q-0-6 College of Dupage Radar…..slice up thunderstorms with four selectable beam angles, see cloud top heights, vertical integrated liquid products…

https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/mesoanalysis/new/mobile.php Provides detailed tools and analysis of atmospheric conditions.

https://nwschat.weather.gov/live/?nomap
NWSChat Live to access NWSchat.

https://weather.im/iembot/
NWS text products. Choose the NWS Office from a dropdown Menu.

For Communications my primary tools are Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook I am in contact with friends and family and also follow the NWS Birmingham, the National Hurricane Center, other Government entities, news outlets and groups.

On Twitter, which I rarely tweet on, I follow the NWS Birmingham, the National Hurricane Center, FEMA Region 4, James Spann, Brian Peters, John DeBlock, Wes Wyatt, JP Dice, Jerry Tracy and other meteorologists. Overkill perhaps? Hardly. Some of the best and most timely information I receive is via Twitter.

I am also on MEWE and Instagram.

Now as for the laptop, the world is at my fingertips, as is my website https://weatherlynx.webs.com/ which as its description says, was “created in 2003….designed to give quick access to weather tools for emergency & planning purposes.” It is basically a overstuffed directory of what I consider “great” websites.

I use to get user statistics and found it was being accessed from all over the world. Which I assume is still occurring, and is nifty, I think.
With these resources at hand I can keep my finger on the pulse of the world and be aware of potentially serious situations, whether they are occurring across the globe or across the street.

One final word on Situational Awareness, once a gentleman asked me a question, which I answered. He said “what?” and I answered again. “WHAT?” he said impatiently. Again I answered. Finally on the third time he very angrily looked up from his smartphone, jerked the blaring earbuds out of his ears and yet again I patiently answered him.

Anyone could do anything to or around him and he was so engrossed in fantasyland that he would have been completely unaware until it was too late.

Don’t be like him. In this day and age, if never before, pay attention to the world around you.

It may keep you in “The Land Of The Living.”

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Mark’s Almanac

September is the ninth month of the year and the seventh month of the Roman calendar, which is where the month gets its name.

Temperatures are still hot at the beginning of the month, but, by months end, fall will definitely be felt.

Noticeable in September will be the thickening of the cat’s fur, as she begins growing her winter coat & the drift of Yellow Giant Sulphur Butterflies as they migrate towards Florida.

Weather starts shifting from the summer to autumn pattern and then back again. Storm activity resembles the August pattern, but the Bermuda High starts shifting southward and begins weakening, which weakens the blocking effect that has hampered fronts attempting to invade from the northwest.

September is the peak of the hurricane season, the actual peak being on September 10. This peak coincides with the time of “syzygy”, when the effects of the solar and lunar gravity and autumnal equinox combine to provide the highest astronomical tides of the year. Add a hurricane’s storm surge on top of this and you can have incredibly destructive flooding.

From 1851 – 2018 there have been 587 Tropical Storms and 407 hurricanes, 112 of which made landfall in the United States.

Some notable September hurricanes are:

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which was a Category 4 Storm whose storm surge overwhelmed Galveston Island, killing 8000 people, and is still the deadliest weather disaster in US history.

The Labor Day Hurricane of 1936, the most intense storm to strike the US, was a Category 5 storm which moved through the Florida Keys and along West Florida, overturning trains and literally sandblasting people to death.

Ivan, the category 3 storm which struck Alabama & Florida in 2004, caused tremendous damage to Gulf Shores and extensive damage to the state’s electrical grid. At the height of the outages, Alabama Power reported 489,000 subscribers had lost electrical power—roughly half of its subscriber base.

Rita, a category 3 storm which struck the Texas – Louisiana border in 2005, and, despite the distance, dropped 22 tornadoes over Western Alabama.

It is entirely possible and is now in fact predicted, that 2019 could be a “back loaded” season with the majority of the storms occurring in the latter portion of the system.

We have Dorian right now. How many brothers and sisters will he invite to the party?

Days continue to grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily decreases from 64.9 degrees at the beginning of the month to 53.6 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 12 hours 52 minutes on August 1 to 11 hours 53 minutes on August 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

September 1 Sunrise 6:21 AM Sunset 7:13 PM
September 15 Sunrise 6:30 AM Sunset 6:55 PM
September 31 Sunrise 6:41 AM Sunset 6:33 PM

Looking skyward, at the beginning of the month Mercury, is hidden in the glare of the Sun and pass behind the Sun reaching “Superior Conjunction” on September 3, when Mercury and the Earth will be on opposite sides of the sun.

By midmonth he will have emerged in the evening sky and on the 28th he will be near Spica, the brightest star in Virgo.

Venus is hidden behind the glare of the Sun.

Mars will pass behind the Sun on September 2.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.3, between the feet of Ophiuchus, is the white dot hanging in the south-southwest as twilight fades away.

Saturn, magnitude +0.3, in Sagittarius, is the steady, pale yellowish “star” in the south-southeast during and after dusk.

Uranus, magnitude 5.8, in Aries, is high in the south just before the beginning of dawn.

Neptune, magnitude 7.8, in Aquarius, is well up in the southeast by 11 p.m. and highest in the south by 2 a.m.

The blue giant planet will be at its closest approach to Earth or “Opposition”, 2,689,200,000 miles, on September 9. It will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long.

Due to its extreme distance from Earth, it will only appear as a tiny blue dot in all but the most powerful telescopes.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on September 13, when she will be 252511 miles from Earth.

September’s Full Moon will occur September 13 at 11:34 PM CDT or 4:34 UTC on September 14. This month’s moon is “Full Corn Moon” in Native American folklore because corn is harvested this time of year.

This year it is also “Harvest Moon”. Harvest moon get its name because the moon is larger and seems to rise at almost the same time every night, which allowed harvesting to continue on into the night.

Most believe that Harvest Moon is always in September; however this isn’t always the case. Harvest Moon is actually the full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox, and so occasionally it can occur with October “Hunters Moon”.

Since this month’s Full Moon occurs at Apogee, it will be a “Micromoon”, which is opposite of a Supermoon. Also called “Minimoon”, “Micro Full Moon” or “Apogee Moon”, this Full Moon will appear slightly smaller than a normal Full Moon.

Fall begins at Autumnal Equinox on September 23 at 2:50 AM CDT or 7:50 UTC, when the Sun crosses directly over the equator and night and day is approximately the same length throughout the world. For the Southern Hemisphere it is Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring.

One term that occasionally pops up is “equinoctial storms”. Which are severe storms in North America and the UK that supposedly accompany the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Where this belief originated is obscure. Some say perhaps from the 1700’s when sailors were greeted by West Indies hurricanes, or due to the coincidence of the first fall severe storms sometimes coming in the latter half of September. At any rate, statistics show no evidence to support the belief.

On this date, if there is sufficient solar activity, and you are away from city lights, the aurora may possibly be seen, as the Equinox dates are the two most favored times of the year for auroral sightings.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on September 7, when she will be 222,328 miles from Earth.

New Moon occurs September 28 at 1:26 PM CDT or 18:26 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.

High in the Southern night sky an asterism or a group of stars appearing clustered together, but not actually gravitationally bound will be seen that resembles a teapot. This is the Teapot of Sagittarius.

To the naked eye, the Teapot is roughly the size of your fist at arm’s length. Above the spout of the Teapot lies a band of light, the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. A pair of binoculars will reveal a sea of stars and faint grayish patches, the largest of which is the Lagoon Nebula. When you look upon these nebulae you are seeing stars in the process of being born.

The spout, which is tilting and pouring to the right, also points towards the galactic center of the Milky Way, located just beyond the Large Sagittarius Star cloud, but largely hidden by the dust clouds, which lie along the plane of the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy.

4043 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of August 15, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/.

Incidentally, at a recent event at the University Of Colorado, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said “Just so you know, in my view, Pluto is a planet.

You can write that the NASA Administrator declared Pluto a planet again. I’m sticking by that, it’s the way I learnt it, and I’m committed to it,”

Though what he said may not count, I happen to agree with him.

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This month’s meeting will be on September 10 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

If for some reason you cannot attend the meeting in person, you can still participate via telephone. The NEW teleconference number is 1-866-231-8384 & and the conference code is
2056215645#.
Hope to see you there!
Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database

Hi everyone,
I hope all is well as we enter these midsummer days. As you bake and broil in the sun, remember
that fall is just a little over a month away, and eventually the heat and humidity will retreat back
towards the tropical realms from whence it came and in about 6 months we will be griping and
wishing we could borrow one of these days for a welcomed winter thaw.
Our next ALERT meeting will be on August 13. Dues are still due, so if you missed the July
meeting, as I did, grab the piggy bank and come to the meeting.
I hope to see you there!
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The Strangers Among Us Revisited

In the February 2018 and March 2019 Newsletters I wrote two articles titled “The Strangers Among
Us” and “Non-Amateur Radio Options For Emergency Preparedness” covering the increasingly
frequent practice of Preppers and others of purchasing ham equipment, most notably $20
Baofeng UV-5R handie talkies to “put in my Bug Out Bag” or for buddies to use covertly in the
woods for hunting, and other activities, all without bothering to obtain an Amateur Radio License.
The problem addressed has not gone away, and in fact is much worse as thousands are
purchasing these radios for their Bug Out Bags, keeping track with buddies on the road and to
keep track of the kids. All of which would really be better suited by MURS, FRS or CB radios.
As mentioned in these articles, if you look at advertisements on Amazon, EBay, Wish and other
online retail sites, unless you read the comments section, if they have one, there is not a single
reference to any licensing requirement. Nor does the operation manual mention one. So, it’s
entirely possible that many, if not most people simply do not realize that an FCC license is
required.
Others simply don’t care. “Just another buck in the governments wallet”, “they just want to be
able to track you”, “my beeswax, not yours” etc, etc.
The most favored justification is “in an emergency, who cares?” quoting the oft used or perhaps
misused excuse “it is perfectly legal to use any radio transmitter on any frequency to seek
emergency lifesaving help.”
But, “Fran, its Mom, you about through in there, the others need to use it too?”, “Hey Joe, when
you pick up the beer, can you get me some tater chips too?” and “Change lanes up ahead Bob, or
you’re gonna end up in Memphis” are not “lifesaving” situations.
Though random operators thinking these are just advanced walkie-talkies might randomly show
up on any ham frequency, there are other groups that take this to another level.

In addition to HF frequencies, the following frequencies are listed or promoted on various sites as
“Prepper”, “Patriot” and “Redoubter” frequencies.
146.420 MHz x
146.520 MHz x
146.530 MHz
146.550 MHz x
146.680 MHz
445.975 MHz
446.000 MHz
446.025 MHz
446.030 MHz x
x most frequently referenced frequencies.
Now if private individuals, family groups or participants in an organization have a ham licenses
and follow the FCC rules and don’t use it for questionable or illegal purposes, there’s no problem.
It’s the influx of people lacking a license and the consequently lacking any knowledge of radio
protocols and procedures or even what Amateur Radio is about, or wanting to use it, for example
for purposes ranging from off-roading to paramilitary operations, that is the problem.
Curious as to whether any such activity is occurring locally, I dug out an old scanner and began
monitoring these frequencies. On July 18 I heard two men navigating through traffic on I-65,
trying to find the correct lane to turn onto I-59/20 heading for Tuscaloosa. “Dad, will you please
just follow me?”
For a couple of weeks, off and on, I have repeatedly heard a faint dead carrier on 146.880, possibly
the same person who likes blowing into the microphone, as heard last week.
I am told that there is a fellow using foul language and threatening people on several area
repeaters.
So, if nothing else, shenanigans are afoot.
So how do we address this problem?
1. Be aware that the problem exists. You can’t address something, if you blissfully ignore it.
2. If you become aware of someone planning on getting a radio minus a license, educate them.
Tell them how to become a ham and invite them. One of three things will happen, they may give
up the idea, they may brush you off and do it anyway or they may study and get their license and
become a valuable member of the ham community.
Tell those getting these radios for preparedness purposes that obtaining a license allows them to
use and become knowledgeable about their equipment and radio properties in general, allowing
them to become proficient in operating procedures before disaster strikes, giving them an edge in
preparing. This seems to be effective, while promising them that the FCC paddy wagon will be
showing up for them does not.
3. If you find a person bootlegging on the air, don’t talk to them. If you are already talking to them
and figure out that they are bootlegging simply say “I’m sorry, but you have to have a valid FCC
Amateur Radio license to be on this frequency. This is K#4### clear.”

Call the repeater trustee or a club officer, and let them know what is going on. Talking to them will
only encourage them to continue and the “I’m gonna open a can of whoop butt on you” approach
can backfire and inspire them to interfere with every net and QSO in central Alabama.
As to deliberate interference and which is basically “RF trolling”, simply ignore the person. Do
not acknowledge them or even hint that you know they exist. They will figure they their efforts are
ineffective and eventually get bored and leave. If you engage with them and argue with them, you
have satisfied their need for attention, and as the say “you ain’t seen nothing yet”.
I’ll throw this in. Over the years I have been a ham, hams that have been caught deliberately
interfering, in more cases than not, turn out being someone who has been licensed for years, and
sometimes even decades, not turn new hams or CBers as it assumed and loudly proclaimed.
Why they became soured with the hobby and perhaps life in general, we never know. To put years
into a hobby and then only to throw it all away is sad, to say the least.
4. Clubs and groups, if you are not active in “foxhunting” and direction finding, you may want to
get involved in this activity. Those already involved in these need to hone their skills so you can
locate these individuals so you can turn them and the evidence you gather over to the FCC.
Remembering that though tarring and feathering may be tempting please let the FCC be the one
that does it.
We really don’t want to see you on the evening news.
The frequencies 27.025 and 7.200 MHz, though in different radio services, have something in
common.
27.025, CB Channel 6, is known by CBers as the “Superbowl”. Though CB has much improved
over the wild and wooly days of the 1970’s, Channel 6 is still a radio free-for-all of people using
echo mics, roger beeps, excessive power levels, audio splattering over half the CB band,
repetitive nonsensical blathering, and radio procedures that would make the Three Stooges
proud.
7.200 MHz, ham radio’s version of CB Channel 6, is not much better with foul language, deliberate
interference, and every type of radio garbage you could think of being transmitted.
Given these shining examples of how bad things can be, let’s work to see that two meters doesn’t
become a radio wasteland that these two other shining beacons have become.
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Mark’s Almanac

August was originally named “Sextilis”, the sixth Roman month. It was renamed August in honor
of Caesar Augustus and lengthened to 31 days, to equal Julius Caesar’s month of July.
August is hot and humid and summer temperatures remain at or near their summer peak.
The rapid vegetation growth of spring is over, and, since conditions are now perfect for the
growth of mold, fungi & germs, plants have a “used” look, which is enhanced if rainfall is scarce.

In August the choir of cicadas whine in the afternoon & towards the end of the month the big
Yellow Sulphur Butterflies will begin heading to the South-Southeast, giving hints of their soon
upcoming fall migration & cats will begin to hint of growing their winter coats.
Hurricane breeding grounds in August are the Atlantic, with Low Latitude “Cape Verde” storms
forming off of Africa crossing the Ocean and either threatening the Eastern Seaboard or striking
the Leeward Islands, entering the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or
Northern Gulf coast. Breeding grounds also include the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.
August is second only to September in the number of Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. From 1851
to 2018 there have been 391 Tropical Storms and 246 Hurricanes, 81 of which made landfall in the
United States, the most notable storms being Hurricanes Camille and Katrina in 1969 and 2005,
which devastated Mississippi and Louisiana and Hurricane Andrew which ravaged South Florida
in 1992.
21% of a year’s Hurricanes occur in August, however, 85 to 95% of land falling Hurricanes have
not occurred by August 15.

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily decreases from 74.4
degrees at the beginning of the month to 65.0 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases
from 13 hours 48 minutes on August 1 to 12 hours 54 minutes on August 31.
Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:
August 1 Sunrise 6:00 AM Sunset 7:47 PM
August 15 Sunrise 6:09 AM Sunset 7:34 PM
August 31 Sunrise 6:20 AM Sunset 7:14 PM
Looking skyward, at the beginning of the month, Mercury is hidden behind the glow of the Sun.
Mercury then emerges into dawn and by on August 9 He will reach his highest point above the
Eastern horizon or “Greatest Western Elongation” when he will be 19.0 degrees from the Sun.
This is the best time to view Mercury since he will be at his highest point above the horizon in the
morning sky. Look for the planet low in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Mercury will be at his closest approach to the Sun or Perihelion on August 20.
Venus, is hidden behind the Sun. Venus will be at her closest approach to the Sun on August 8.
She will pass directly behind the Sun or be at Superior Conjunction on August 14.
Mars is also hidden behind the Sun.
Mars will be at his farthest distance from the Sun or Aphelion on August 25.
Jupiter, magnitude –2.4, between the legs of Ophiuchus, is the white point glaring in the south
during and after dusk.
Saturn, magnitude +0.1, in Sagittarius, is the steady, pale yellowish "star" in the south-southeast
during and after dusk, 31° left of Jupiter. Look lower right of Saturn for the Sagittarius Teapot.
In a telescope Saturn's rings are tilted a wide 24.7° to our line of sight.
Saturn will pass directly behind the moon at 5:07 AM on August 12.
Uranus, magnitude 5.8, in Aries, is high in the southeast before the first beginnings of dawn.
Neptune, magnitude 7.8, in Aquarius, is high in the south as dawn breaks.
The moon will be at Perigee or her closest approach to Earth on August 2, when she will be
223,319 miles from Earth.
The Perseid Meteor Shower peaks on the night of August 12 & 13, with 50 to 60 meteors per hour.
This shower, produce by debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, which was discovered in 1862, ranks as
the best of the best, famous for producing bright meteors. The shower runs annually from July 17
to August 24. It peaks this year on the night of August 12 and the morning of August 13.
This year the shower coincides with a nearly Full Moon, which will wash out all but the brightest
meteors. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Perseus, but can appear anywhere in the sky.
August’s Full Moon will occur August 15 at 12:30 UTC or 7:30 AM CDT. August’s Full Moon was
called “Fruit Moon” in Cherokee Folklore, “Women’s Moon” among the Choctaw, “Sturgeon
Moon” by the Algonquin because the large sturgeon fish of the Great Lakes and other major lakes
were more easily caught at this time of year. This moon has also been known as the Green Corn
Moon and the Grain Moon and at one time was called “Dog Days Moon” by the Colonial
Americans.
The moon will be at Apogee or her farthest distance from Earth on August 17, when she will be
252,428 miles from Earth.
On August 30 the Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be
visible in the night sky, which is known as New Moon. This phase occurs at 10:37 UTC or 5:37 AM
CDT. 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.
Though July’s New Moon was on July 31 at 10:12 CDT, it was also at 3:12 UTC, August 1.
Therefore by UTC time August will have two New Moons.
You may remember that a second of Full Moon in a single month is popularly called a “Blue
Moon”, but what about two New Moons in a single month?

A second New Moon in a month is a “Black Moon”.
Now a more persnickety definition, is the third Full Moon in a season which has four Full Moons is
a Blue Moon and the third New Moon in a season which has four New Moons is a Black Moon.
A third definition says a Black Moon is a month with no Full Moon
A fourth definition states that it is a month with no New Moon, which last happened in 2014, and
will next occur on February 2033.
No one writes songs about Black Moons. “Black Moon, you saw me standing alone….”
It just doesn’t “sing”,
The Black Moon will be at her second Perigee or closest approach to Earth on August 30, when
she will be 221,939 miles from Earth.
4025 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of July 25, per NASA’s
Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/
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I’m looking for articles and suggestions and ideas for articles for our newsletter. What would you
like to see? Send suggestions to wd4nyl@bellsouth.net
Thanks for your help!
This month’s meeting will be on August 13 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office
at the Shelby County Airport.
If for some reason you cannot attend the meeting in person, you can still participate via
telephone. The teleconference number is 1-877-951-0997 & and the participant code is 741083.
Hope to see you there!
Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

Hi everyone & an early Happy 4th of July!

I hope you are staying cool and hydrated as we wind our way through the heat of Summer.

Our next ALERT meeting will be July 9, when our new Officers take office. Let’s make sure to support, help and encourage them as they steer ALERT into the future.

Dues time also arrives with the July meeting.

So join me as I dust off the wallet, shoo away the moths and cough up some dough, so I will remain current.

See you there!

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Storm Spotting vs Storm Chasing

One sunny day in 1943, on a small atoll in the Solomon Islands, a fisherman sat on a pier mending his nets. Suddenly his attention was captured by the whine of propellers and he looked up and saw a formation of aircraft passing over.

Rushing to his radio shack he looked at charts to determine if it was American, British or Japanese aircraft and by comparing the size of the image with the size of the aircraft he had seen he estimated the aircrafts approximate altitude.

He then flipped a switch and the tubes of an HF radio began glowing. Reaching for the microphone he called the base taking the reports in Port Moresby, New Guinea and said “This is Red Robin, Red Robin, eight Mitsubishi bombers at 11,000 feet moving Northeast, over.”

The report was acknowledged and he powered down his radio and after getting a drink of water he headed back to the pier and his nets, keeping an eye on the horizon beyond the palm lined beach and an ear towards the sky.

The fisherman was just one of dozens of people, average civilians, scattered across the Southwestern Pacific islands, called Coast Watchers. Their only job was to report when they spotted enemy ships passing by or enemy planes flying overhead. They were not interceptors, they were spotters only.

Though the circumstances and targets are certainly different, they almost could be thought of as the ancestors of the Storm Spotters that you see today.

Storm Spotters play a vital part in the NWS storm warning process by providing “ground truth” to confirm what the meteorologists are seeing on radar and in some cases spotting severe storm activity when the radar shows nothing overly unusual.
Radar, for its tremendous capabilities is blind to ground level activity beyond the radio horizon. Meteorologists can see a suspicious storm, but what is really happening beneath that storm?

Many situations can affect and limit radar capability.

For instance radar returns can be blocked or shadowed by physical obstructions.

If one looks at Birmingham Nexrad you may occasionally see a blank area or spike on the radar display extending to the Northeast of the radar site at close to a 40 degree radial.

According to a 2014 NBC13 report, there is a company in Calera, Lhoist North America, which is a major supplier of lime, limestone and clay products. It reportedly began a stockpile mound or dump near the Waterford community and it grew and it kept growing, and growing and growing, until it has grown tall enough to interfere with the NWS radar.

Other Nexrad sites have similar shadowing due to buildings and close mountain ranges. Each site has its own quirks and peculiarities.

Physical distance is another major factor.

The farther the radar is from the storm, the higher the radar beam, which travels in a straight line, strikes the storm. The radar in Calera for instance, may show a line of very heavy thunderstorms on the Alabama – Mississippi line, and as the line grows closer to the radar site the radar shows less and less precipitation, the line passes over with nothing remarkable happening and then as it passes farther from the radar site it begins looking just as ominous as it approaches the Georgia line as it did when exiting Mississippi, as the radar is once again scanning the midlevel of the storms

Did the storm really die down and then pulse back up? Depending on the time of day and other factors, sometimes yes. Or it may be the precipitation at the midlevel of the storm was much heavier than the lower levels which by the time it reached ground level had largely evaporated.

This is why meteorologists look at radar returns from other radar sites and at different angles for a more accurate idea as to what is really going on.

There is a saying that “the best radar is the closest radar”. But, some areas have no close radar to switch to. For instance in Southwest Alabama an area generally around Choctaw, Clarke and Marengo county is covered by radar from Birmingham, Columbus, Jackson and Mobile. But, none of them are close enough to show what is happening near the ground. It is a low level blind spot.

This is why having eyes on the ground is vital. By actually seeing what is occurring and reporting this to the NWS it increases warning lead time, which is potentially lifesaving.

Storm Spotters may observe from their homes or workplace. They may report as they are travelling to or from work. In some cases they may preposition themselves to get a better DISTANT view of the storm to describe the storm structure.

But, Storm Spotters DO NOT CHASE storms.

There is a difference between storm spotting, which helps the NWS mission and amateur storm chasing, which does not.

The NWS offices regularly train Storm Spotters in classes, both in person and online.

They do NOT train, certify, encourage or endorse storm chasing and do not want their name associated with amateur storm chasers, their actions or the consequences of those actions.
Storm chasing in the Southeast is extremely difficult as compared to the Midwest, where roads are straighter, horizons are not obstructed by trees and the population density is much more spread out.

If you try to chase a storm in Alabama, you can easily wreck your or someone else’s car, strike someone or since you literally can’t see the storm for the trees, can easily misjudge and be at the wrong place at the right time.

I know this from personal experience, and after having light wires arcing and snapping above me and me hiding behind a building wondering if the aluminum siding being torn off would decapitate me, I never vowed never to be such a dimwit again.

Also, I had to pray about it a little, for when young teenage Mark told his mother “I want to be a ham operator” she said “that’s fine as long as you promise to never go chasing a tornado”, to which I agreed. I wasn’t lying…well, maybe I was, I don’t know. At any rate I quit doing it 16 years ago.

Keep in mind that most Alabama tornadoes, unlike the Midwest variety, are rain wrapped and obscured.

The Tuscaloosa portion of the April 27, 2011 EF4 Tuscaloosa/Jefferson County tornado was unique in that it was not rain wrapped as it tore through that area. Horrible as it was, it was also strangely picturesque. By the time it reached the Birmingham suburbs, it was an ugly rain wrapped mass of clouds.

Perhaps this is why even though the tornado was shown live nationwide as it swept through Jefferson County; Jefferson County is seldom mentioned when retrospectives are shown. I watched an entire network program concerning the April 27 tornadoes and watched as they discussed in detail Tuscaloosa and its recovery and I waited for them to move on to the Jefferson County devastation and recovery. They rolled the credits instead. It is as if they thought the storm dissipated, when in fact it continued wreaking havoc flattening communities for miles beyond.

If you choose to chase storms, it’s on your own responsibility. Again do not associate the NWS name with your actions or their consequences.

They don’t need people plastering “Official NWS Storm Chase Vehicle” on their light bar equipped, porcupine looking SUV, or folk bragging online “Certified NWS storm chaser here”. As there is no such animal, and it puts the NWS’s reputation and credibility in jeopardy.

And, if you tell the news media “I’m a NWS certified Storm Chaser”, they know better, and your credibility with them just went down the tubes.

On a related note, there is a trend in some areas, very isolated I hope, of EMCOMM groups sporting shiny badges and “security” type uniforms.

While I certainly see nothing wrong with a group having unique team clothing, when it looks “official” or “police like”, as if they have some sort of authority, it sends the wrong message and can cause confusion and harm.

In the past, and I’ve been in this a long time, I have encountered and dealt with a few EMCOMM folk who tried to exercise authority they did not have and them in ordinary clothes. Let them try it with a badge and uniform and it could easily damage trust, confidence and relationships between organizations that have taken years, if not decades to build. Sometimes it doesn’t very much for this to happen, either.

Or, perhaps even worse, people might think they really ARE Security Officers and expect them to act in that capacity, since they appear to be wearing the uniform. “’Security Officer stands by while looters fight over silver urn’. ‘I told the security guard over there that they were taking Gramma’s ashes and he just stood there mumbling about ham and radio. Guess he was too busy thinking about ham sandwiches to be bothered to help us.’ ‘More details to follow on WKRP Action News.’”

This isn’t far a fetched idea either. I could tell you some stories.

This is why we really don’t need “Sergeant Skywarns” running around wreaking havoc any more than the NWS needs “official storm chasers” doing so. The NWS needs storm spotters to report storms and ALERT needs operators to take those storm spotters reports.

When the fall sessions resume consider attending an NWS storm spotter class near you and become a Skywarn Storm Spotter.

For information on Alabama County Warning Area training and classes see:

Birmingham https://www.weather.gov/bmx/skywarnschedule
Mobile https://www.weather.gov/mob/skywarn
Huntsville https://www.weather.gov/hun/skywarn
Tallahassee https://www.weather.gov/tae/taeskywarn

For the current Birmingham’s presentations see:

https://www.weather.gov/media/bmx/skywarn/BasicSpotterGSAT.pdf
https://www.weather.gov/media/bmx/skywarn/Gerald_Satterwhite_Advanced_WEBPAGE.pdf

I also invite you to attend the next ALERT meeting and learn about who we are and what we do.

Are you willing to step up to the challenge and be a part of the action?

The NWS and ALERT needs YOU!

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Is Two Meters In Jeopardy?

Currently on Ham Radio social media groups there is an outcry due to a French proposal at the recent World Radiocommunication Conference 2023 (WRC-23) held in Prague, Czech Republic, to reassign the 144 to 146 MHz Amateur Band as a primary Aeronautical Mobile Service allocation in ITU Region 1 which covers Africa and Europe.

Of the countries represented only Germany voiced opposition.

The International Amateur Radio Union (IARU), which was represented at the Prague meeting, expressed “grave concern” to any proposal that would include 144 – 146 MHz in the proposed Aeronautical Mobile Services agenda item.

Currently the 144 – 146 MHz band is allocated globally to the Amateur and Amateur Satellite services on a primary basis, and is the only globally harmonized Amateur Radio VHF band. Other bands are shared or may be included in only certain ITU regions. For instance there is a 4 Meter Amateur radio allocation in ITU Region 1, but, not ITU Region 2 where we are located. British Amateurs may use 70.0 to 70.5 MHz.

The proposal will be carried forward to the higher-level CEPT Conference Preparatory Group (CPG) meeting in August, and the IARU is expected to brief member-societies, requesting that they discuss the French proposal with their governments in advance of the August CEPT-CPG meeting.

What does this mean for the US 144 – 148 MHz band? Nothing, for right now, for it only covers Europe and Africa.

The potential problem that may arise in the future is that are entities in the US competing for spectrum space that may also eye the band and toy with the idea that since it is underused in the US they may try the same thing.

What can we do about this?

Well, the current knee jerk reaction of “let’s sign an online petition and let them know what we feel” is useless. The ITU Region 1 inhabitants really don’t care what ITU region 2 hams think. It’s like Lithuanian hams sending a petition to the FCC to reinstate code testing for American hams. It’s not their chunk of the globe to be worrying with and so they really don’t care what they may think.

If it were proposed in the US, hopefully it would raise a howl and protest. But, until then there is definitely something we can do to protect our spectrum.

What we can do is USE the frequencies we have. Whether you prefer SSB, CW, FM, Digital Modes, AM or Spark Gap, get on the air, use your equipment and quit carping that “ham radio is dying” and about newcomers not having to “pass test I did” and that “people don’t know squat anymore”. Encourage people, don’t discourage them. Mentor them. Be a force for good for heaven’s sake.

Throw your call out and talk to people. If you get no response try again at another time. Eventually you will get someone. Be friendly. Be approachable and inclusive. Don’t be an old Fuddy Duddy, talk to and encourage the new hams. Make them know they are welcomed.

From the 1980’s to 2000’s there was an informal group affectionately called the “Nut Net”. It was not really a net, as such, it was just an online haunt of operators young and the young at heart that would get on, talking to each other, carrying on and aggravating each other in friendly ways and just plain having fun.

The Old Fudds hated us, threatened to “turn you over to the FCC”, “did you know the repeater owner has a tape of every QSO on here”, etc, etc. Which I wish was true, so I could listen to those days. Thing is, we weren’t doing anything wrong, morally or legally. We were just having fun, as opposed to discussing politics, carbuncles and the general sorry state of things, especially “these new hams, the bunch of CBers, they all are.”

We were young, and we acted like it. The Nuts of The Nut Net eventually became BARC, SCARC and ALERT Presidents and Officers.

So, as an official alumnus of the Nut Net, I recommend folk get on the air, started it again, and have some fun. If old goats complain, let them. They are going to anyway, so why not ham it up?!

Maybe it will spread and start a nationwide trend and in doing so, help preserve our RF haunts and stomping grounds. If nothing else, you will have fun!

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Mark’s Almanac

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In July the least rainfall falls in the Northern Hemisphere.

Tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide. July has an average of 103 tornadoes.

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

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

July Tropical Cyclone Breeding Grounds

From 1851 to 2018 there have been 120 Tropical Storms and 57 Hurricanes, 25 of which made landfall in the United States.

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

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

Days grow shorter as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon decreases from 79.6 degrees at the beginning of the month to 74.7 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight decreases from 14 hours 20 minutes on July 1 to 13 hours 49 minutes on July 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

July 1 Sunrise 5:41 AM Sunset 8:01 PM
July 15 Sunrise 5:48 AM Sunset 7:58 PM
July 31 Sunrise 5:59 AM Sunset 7:48 PM

Looking skyward, Mercury is fading into the sunset. He will fade from magnitude 0.8 at the beginning of the month from magnitude to 1.5 on July 6. He will then pass from view crossing between the Earth and Sun at “Inferior Conjunction” on July 21.

Venus is very low in the bright dawn, just above the east-northeast horizon about 20 or 30 minutes before sunrise.

Earth will reach her farthest distance from the Sun or Aphelion on July 4, when she will be 94.5 million miles from our home star.

Mars (magnitude 1.8 in Capricornus) is low in the west-northwest as twilight fades.

Jupiter (magnitude –2.6, in southern Ophiuchus) is the white point glaring in the south-southeast as the stars come out. Jupiter is highest in the south by about 11 or midnight, with the red star Antares to his lower right.

Saturn (magnitude +0.1, in Sagittarius) is the steady, pale yellowish “star” low in the southeast after dark

The ringed planet will be at its closest approach to Earth, or “Opposition” on July 9. His face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. It will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long. A medium-sized or larger telescope will allow you to see Saturn’s rings and a few of its brightest moons.

Saturn will pass just north of the Moon on July 16 at 8:27 PM.

Uranus (magnitude 5.8, in Aries) is low in the east just before the first sign of dawn.

Neptune (magnitude 7.9, in Aquarius) is well up in the southeast before dawn.

New Moon will occur 2:16 PM CDT July 2 or 19:16 UTC July 2. The Moon will be located on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

On July 2 there will be a Total Solar Eclipse visible in parts of the Southern Pacific Ocean, central Chile, and central Argentina.

The Moon will pass just North of the Beehive Star Cluster at 4:02 AM CDT or 9:02 UTC, July 4.

The moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on July 4, when she will be 226,010 miles from Earth.

July’s Full Moon occurs July 16 at 4:38 PM CDT or 21:38 UTC and is called “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore. This moon gets its name because the male buck deer begin to grow their new antlers at this time of year. It has also been called “Full Thunder Moon” & “Hay Moon”.

On July 16 there will be a Partial Lunar Eclipse. A partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth’s partial shadow, or penumbra, and only a portion of it passes through the darkest shadow, or umbra. During this type of eclipse a part of the Moon will darken as it moves through the Earth’s shadow. The eclipse will be visible throughout most of Europe, Africa, central Asia, and the Indian Ocean.

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

The moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on July 20, when she will be 251,953 miles from Earth,

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

The waning crescent moon will not be too much of a problem this year. The skies should be dark enough for what could be a good show. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

4009 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of June 27, per NASA’s
Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

By the way…

On June 22nd at 21:25 UTC or 4:25 PM CDT, a small asteroid entered Earth’s atmosphere and exploded south of Puerto Rico. Airwaves recorded by the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization’s infrasound station in Bermuda recorded the energy of the blast as being between 3 and 5 kilotons of TNT. The explosion was captured as a bright flash by the GOES-16 weather satellite.

This event reminded me of another, much larger event called the Tunguska Event.

111 years ago at 7:15 local time on the morning of June 30, 1908, something happened in the skies above the Stony Tunguska River in Siberia.

Within a 900 mile radius, thousands observed a fireball in the sky, similar to, if not larger than the size of the Sun, and a series of explosions “with a frightful sound”, followed by shaking of the ground as “the earth seemed to get opened wide and everything would fall in the abyss.”

Various meteorological stations in Europe recorded both seismic and atmospheric waves, and for days later strange phenomena were observed in the skies of Russia and Europe, such as glowing clouds, colorful sunsets and a strange luminescence in the night.

Russian newspapers reported a supposed meteorite impact. International newspapers speculated about a possible volcanic explosion, as similar strange luminous effects were observed also after the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.

Due to the inaccessibility of the region and Russia’s unstable political situation at that time, it wasn’t until March of 1927 that researchers were able to examine the area located at 60°55′N 101°57′E. They found a large area covered with rotting logs. A huge explosion apparently flattened more than 80 million trees across 820 square miles. Only at the epicenter of the explosion, in the “Forest of Tunguska”, so called “telegraph pole trees” were still standing, with all branches and the bark burned off.

If anyone had been living in the area at that time the shockwave, or blast overpressure would have killed them either due to debris impacts or damage to hollow organs such as auditory, respiratory, and gastrointestinal systems.

Even today, there is no definite explanation for what caused the explosions.

The leading theory is that a meteorite hit the area or more probably that an asteroid or comet of low density, and a diameter of between 100 to 250 feet exploded at a height of 4 to 9 miles above ground creating a nuclear type airburst and for this reason there is no impact crater.

Other nifty theories are:

A black hole hit the Earth
A chunk of antimatter hit the Earth
Radio pioneer Nikola Tesla tested a “death ray”
A UFO crashed (those darned Klingons)

Whatever caused it, it explains why I we built that underground bunker built under the house.

(But, don’t tell anyone)
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This month’s meeting will be on July 9 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

If for some reason you cannot attend the meeting in person, you can still participate via telephone. The teleconference number is 1-877-951-0997 & and the participant code is 741083.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

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

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well.

The results of our May ALERT elections are in and I wish to welcome our new leaders as they lead ALERT into the future.

President: Johnnie Knobloch, KJ4OPX
Johnnie is active in the amateur radio emergency communication serving as Jefferson County Emergency Coordinator for ARES, Latter Day Saints Emergency Coordinator, Vice-President of the Central Alabama Chapter of the National Weather Association and very active with the Healthcare Amateur Radio Club.

Vice President: Peter Shaw, KX4LB
Peter is active in amateur radio, disaster recovery and preparation, part of the health care community, and active with call-outs and weather nets.

Treasurer & Membership: Bill Rodgers, K4FSO
Bill sets up amateur radio demonstrations in schools, allowing middle school students talk to astronauts on the International Space Station, among other projects.

Secretary: Justin Glass, N0ZO
Justin is a Volunteer Examiner for Laurel VEC, administering free amateur radio license exams, with Central AL ARC.

NWS Liaison: Russell Thomas, KV4S
Russell, one of our longest term members, has brought us much greater digital amateur radio integration, bridging modes such as DMR, Echolink, AllStar, D-Star (XRF), in an effort to make it easier for areas not reachable via VHF/UHF to connect with ALERT and the NWS.

A special thanks should be given to our outgoing President, Casey Benefield, NZ20. He and Russell have brought ALERT into the digital age, helping keep ALERT relevant in the rapidly evolving Amateur Radio Emergency Communication world. One of the major accomplishments of Casey’s terms of office is opening a dialogue our counterparts at NWS Mobile – the Rural Radio Preparedness Association. This opens tremendous possibilities for Amateur Radio communications and the NWS mission of saving lives.

ALERT is alive and well!

Our Newsletter will continue as it has, and I invite your ideas and articles!

In this month’s newsletter will present our annual review tropical weather as we enter the hurricane season.

I hope you enjoy!

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2019 Atlantic Hurricane Season Begins

The Atlantic Hurricane Season officially begins June 1. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center is predicting a near-normal Atlantic hurricane season this year. NOAA predicts a likely range of 9 to 15 named storms, of which 4 to 8 could become hurricanes, including 2 to 4 major hurricanes. NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence. An average hurricane season produces 12 named storms, of which 6 become hurricanes, including 3 major hurricanes.

As mentioned last month, Colorado State University predicts 13 named storms, 5 of which could become hurricanes this year and 3 storms may reach Category 3 or stronger.

In the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really how many storms actually do form, what matters is where they end up arriving. A year with 28 storms that never reach land isn’t overly significant, where a year with only one named storm and it being a repeat of Katrina, Camille or Andrew is.

With the 2019 North Atlantic Hurricane Season beginning it is a good time to review our preparedness plans.

Hurricane Impact & Hurricane Response

Alabama is impacted by hurricanes in three ways:

1. Direct Impact – Where the core of the storm or the rain / wind field actually strikes or passes through a portion of Alabama. Examples being Hurricane’s Fredrick, Opal, Ivan and Katrina.

2. Indirect Impact – where the core is not over Alabama, but the feeder bands are passing through and causing havoc. Rita’s feeder bands being a good example, which dropped 21
tornadoes over west Alabama in a 4-hour period.

3. Distant Impact – A storm is not even near Alabama, but affecting our weather. Such as with Olivia, a Pacific Hurricane which was off Western Mexico. Her moisture was captured by the jet stream, crossed the Sonora desert, the Arklatex region & dumped monsoon type rains on Alabama & Mississippi, causing flooding.

ALERT typically will activate during scenarios 1 & 2. ALERT’s coverage would concentrate on monitoring D-Star directly and using a liaison station to monitor HF offsite on 3.965 MHz or the backup 40-meter frequency of 7.243 MHz.

Then as the storm moves northward into the BMX County Warning Area the focus would then shift to the individual county Skywarn Nets, as we would do during a “normal” callout.

HF Gulf Coast Nets to monitor are:

Primary State ARES Frequencies & Nets for Gulf of Mexico & regular meeting times.

3.965 MHz Alabama Emergency Net Mike 4:00 PM Sunday*
3.940 MHz Florida Amateur Single Sideband Net 6:00 PM
3.975 MHz Georgia Single Sideband Net 7:30 PM
3.910 MHz Louisiana Traffic Net 6:30 PM
3.862 MHz Mississippi Section Phone Net 6:00 PM
3.873 MHz Texas Traffic Net 6:30 PM

* Note that this is also the frequency of the Alabama Traffic Net Mike, meeting daily at 6:30PM Central & Sunday’s at 8:00 AM Central and the Alabama Day Net, which meets daily at 10:00 AM Central Time.

Wide Coverage Nets

14.235 MHz Hurricane Watch Net As Needed
3.935 MHz Central Gulf Coast Hurricane Net 1:00 UTC

The Hurricane Watch Net is only activated when a storm is within 300 miles of a populated land mass. Normally you shouldn’t check into this net, but you only listen. Only check in if you have a legitimate need to do so. A legitimate need being emergency or priority traffic or if the NCS specifically calls for a station in Central Alabama, only then should you pick the microphone up. Occasionally, if there is a lull in activity, they may actually give a call for general check-ins. But, don’t be surprised if they don’t. Helping stations in the affected area is their primary concern.

Once upon a time a, which if I remember correctly was in 1988 when Gilbert, was rearranging Jamaica, the NCS asked “do we have any stations in the affected area, the affected area only?” Some fellow from Zero-land, piped in and very slowly drawled out “This is Kay Zero Que Arr Emmm, Homer over in Tulsa Oklahoma, just wanting to tell you fellers what a fine job, a fine job you fellers are doing. And, if I can be of any help, any help at all just let me know. This is Homer, K0QRM, over in Tulsa Oklahoma on frequency and standing by on the side.”

Fifteen distress calls probably could have been received and handled in the time it took Homer to ooze over “on the side”.

Learn from a bad example. Don’t do this.

Some Internet resources you should have in your toolbox include:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ – The National Hurricane Center out of Coral Gables, FL

http://www.hwn.org/tools/streaming-audio.html – Hurricane Watch Net Streaming Audio.
Note that the audio feed is only active when the net is active.

http://derecho.math.uwm.edu/models/ & http://www.ral.ucar.edu/hurricanes/realtime/current/
– Hurricane Forecast Models

http://www.nrlmry.navy.mil/TC.html – Satellite imagery and data – worldwide

https://www.hurricanezone.net/ – Storm centered satellite imagery

Many other resources, including coastal radar picket, Caribbean & Mexican radar,
charts and satellite imagery can be found on my website www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/
and clicking on “Tropics, Charts & Satellites”.

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Hurricane Tracking Gleams And Glints From Mark’s Crystal Ball

I’ve always enjoyed trying to second-guess the National Hurricane Center. It’s fun! Many times our forecasts agree, they have outguessed me an honorable number of times & every now and then, when Divine Providence intervenes, I have beaten them.

The following are some random hints and items I have stored in my dusty brain, which every now and then come into play as I gaze into my tropical crystal ball:

The maximum number of tropical systems that the Atlantic Basin (which includes the Gulf and Caribbean) can simultaneously contain and support is four storms.

If major tropical systems get too close to one another they don’t merge as thunderstorms often do. The upper level winds associated with each storm counteract or buffets each other preventing this from occurring.

If you have a large storm and a smaller storm enters the influence or wind field of the larger storm, the smaller storm will tend to rotate counterclockwise around the primary storm in a process called the Fujiwhara Effect.

If the smaller storm is very weak, say a tropical storm versus a Category 4 storm, it is possible that the smaller storms circulation can be totally disrupted by the larger storm and then it can be absorbed into the larger storms circulation. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNjUSsqJgek&feature=relmfu as Typhoon Ma-On gobbles up Tropical Storm Tokage in 2011.

Tropical systems, for all of their tremendous energy, are totally without an engine or steering mechanism, but are at the mercy of the whims of the upper level winds. A tropical system can spin all it wants to, but unless the storms thunderstorm columns reach high enough to snag the upper level winds, and then act as a sail, the storm is going nowhere fast. If the upper level winds die down, the storm can drift aimlessly for days.

If the storm sits still long enough, it will begin to dissipate due to it stirring up the deeper cooler waters beneath it and it cooling the sea surface temperature below the 80 degree critical threshold needed to sustain a tropical storm. This is “upwelling”. The one exception to this rule is if it is sitting over the Gulf Stream, as the incoming current will continually replenish the warm water beneath the storm.

A well-formed storm will have a perfectly circular Central Dense Overcast or CDO, an area of thunderstorms surrounding the eye wall, with “feeder bands” of thunderstorms spiraling inward counterclockwise, parallel to the storm’s inbound horizontal winds, and “feeding” energy from the warm tropical ocean into the storm.

The winds being drawn into the eye, once arriving, can only go in one direction – up – and in a well formed storm the system will be capped by high pressure, which helps evacuate these winds as they reach the stratosphere. This forms a false cirrus shield of clouds rotating in a clockwise fashion, as the winds are vented outward. If the storm has a tear drop shape or a long plume of clouds extending from the storm, this indicates heavy shearing, which will limit its growth, or shred the circulation. The storm will be veered by the shearing and try to deflect towards the direction of the plume.

A poorly organized storm can have a completely exposed center, with the cloud shield nowhere near the center. Until it starts “stacking up” it will remain a weak storm.

Intense, Category 3 or greater hurricanes will go through a process called an “eyewall replacement cycle”. In this case the eyewall contracts so small that some of the outer rain bands may strengthen and form an outer eyewall, causing the storm to weaken by robbing energy from the inner eyewall and will eventually choke it out completely and replace it, causing the storm to re-intensify.

This is a common occurrence. Less common is when you have a triple eyewall, as was the case with Typhoon June and Hurricane Juliette.

The fastest intensification from a Tropical Storm to a Category 5 Hurricane occurred with Hurricane Wilma in 2006, which in 16 hours went from 70 mph to 155 mph and then vacationed in the Yucatan.

The fastest intensification from a Tropical Depression to a Category 5 Hurricane occurred with Hurricane Felix, which took just 51 hours to bloom and then blessed Nicaragua with its presence in 2007.

Tropical systems cannot penetrate frontal boundaries. If a tropical system is threatening the coast, and you see that a front will be approaching the coast from the West, don’t worry about the coast, as it will either stall the storm, deflect it to the Northeast or as in the case of 2009’s Tropical Storm Danny, it can absorb a weak storm.

When looking at hurricane forecast model ensembles, such as http://derecho.math.uwm.edu/models/ & http://www.ral.ucar.edu/hurricanes/realtime/current/,
you can judge the “confidence” of the models by the grouping of the plotted tracks. If the plots are tightly grouped together, you can have “high confidence” in the reliability of the track and if the timing given by the plots agree, that also. The narrower the spread, the greater the confidence, and the wider the spread, the lesser the confidence. Some tracks will be obviously wrong, those you can dismiss. If the forecast tracks go look like they were written by a drunken spider, with paths going in every direction at once, that storm is heading nowhere fast.

Theoretically Tropical Storms will lose strength over land. The 1997 version of Danny (which came up I-65 reached Birmingham and then turned East heading along I-20 towards Atlanta, as if He knew what he was doing) forgot this and strengthened while over the swamps of South Carolina and then moved into the Atlantic as a rejuvenated system heading for New England. The theory at that time was that the swamps were so warm and humid that the storm “thought” it was over the sea. Now they say it was due to the effects a frontal system closely following the storm. I always preferred the first explanation, as it seemed more logical, if not niftier.

Storms named “Danny” and I are old companions, incidentally. In 1985 I accidentally managed to intercept Hurricane Danny a few hours after it struck Louisiana. I remember the feeder bands passing with heavy rain and gusts, and then it calming and clearing in between waves. “Looks like it can’t decide whether it’s coming or going” said the old guy at a truck stop where I was refueling. I also remember making a ham sandwich for an old dog at a rest stop. Old Shep looked hungry, so I fixed him one. He woofed it down, thanked me kindly and then disappeared into the mist.

If a storm strikes just West of Alabama, expect sorry weather. If it strikes just East of Alabama, expect dry weather and lowering humidity, as the storm drags the moisture away with it.

If a 120 MPH storm is moving North at 20 MPH the wind field around the eye will be effected as follows. The winds on the Eastern side combine and are in effect 140 MPH, while the winds to the West subtract and are in effect 100 MPH. This is the “fast moving hurricane rule”.

If the Eastern Pacific Basin is active, the Atlantic Basin will be quiet & if the Atlantic Basin is active the Eastern Pacific Basin will be quiet.

Category 5 storms have never occurred in both the Atlantic & Pacific Basins in the same year.

Hurricanes can cross Central America from either the Atlantic or Pacific Basins, enter the other Basin and restrengthen and be renamed. The last being in 1996 when Category 1 Hurricane Cesar which scraped Northern South America, crossed Central America & restrenghtened into Category 4 Hurricane Douglas.

Then there is the case of 1961’s Hurricane Hattie, which formed in the Caribbean, stuck Central America on Halloween, dissipated, then after reaching the Pacific, her remnants helped generate Tropical Storm Simone on November 1. Simone then turned Northwest striking Southern Mexico on November 2, dissipated and her remnants crossed Mexico, entering the Gulf of Mexico. These remnants in turn helped generate Tropical Storm Inga, which dissipated on November 8.

Alphabetical name position can’t be used as an indicator of possible storm strength. Andrew and Opal, both unruly guests, with names toward the opposite ends of the alphabet, are good examples.

Never underestimate the potential impacts of late season storms. Category 5 Hurricane Mitch was active from October 22 – November 5, 1998, with maximum sustained winds of 180 MPH. This storm struck Central America, Yucatán Peninsula & South Florida causing 6.2 billion dollars in damage and caused 11,000 deaths.

Remember that winds do not blow OUT of a hurricane; they are drawn INTO the storm in a spiraling motion. By factoring in the Coriolis Effect of the Earth’s rotation and the counter-effects of surface friction you can determine the general direction of any tropical storm or non-tropical low pressure center using the surface wind direction as follows:

Wind Direction Storm Center Location

South North West
Southeast West
East Southwest
Northeast South
North Southeast
Northwest East
West Northeast
Southwest North

Calm winds suddenly occurring during a hurricane indicates the eye is over you. The winds will return just as suddenly, often stronger in the opposite direction.

My sister’s family was living at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines in 1974, when Typhoon Bidang passed directly over. When the winds suddenly died down they knew they were in the eye. Suddenly there was a knock on the door and opening it she found a delivery van with the furniture she had ordered. The Filipinos crew unloaded everything, said “thank you” and drove off into the darkness as the rear of the eyewall appeared and began blowing at full force.

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NHC Hurricane Tracking Chart PDF’s

Here are handy hurricane tracking charts from the National Hurricane Center.

For the Atlantic Ocean: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/tracking_chart_atlantic.pdf
For the Pacific Ocean: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/tracking_chart_epacific.pdf

Someone once asked me “why do you bother tracking the Pacific ones?” For practice, so that when the Atlantic ones do appear you are already ahead of the game experience wise.

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Let’s Nerd It Up!

In last month’s article “Zone Assessment For Emergency Preparedness And Mitigation”, I, as is normally the case, reviewed the article and deleted anything that could be offensive, get me or ALERT sued, tarred and feathered or seems too nerdy, verbose or out totally disconnected with ALERT’s purpose or mission.

Most omissions are simply to cut down on newsletter size, as I can have a tendency to “run on”,

In talking with a dear friend and loyal reader, I mentioned some of what I left out of the article, as it seem too nerdy, and it was suggested that perhaps the nerdiness would have been a worthy addition to the piece.

Ever wanting to please our audience, beginning where I left off, here are those missing gems!

“I know home is on a 220 degree compass bearing if I had to hike overland through areas where all normal landmarks have been obliterated.

However, I would not head on a direct compass heading. There are several reasons for this.

One reason is that unless one has the destination in sight, if one heads directly towards a distant object chances are excellent, due to avoiding obstacles and other factors, that you will miss the target either to the right or to the left. Which way do you turn?

A second reason for not taking a direct route is that without a visible target; even under perfect conditions no human can walk a straight line over a long distance. Even if your compass heading is correct, there is a tendency to gradually drift sideways, which is how people end up walking in circles.

Humans will drift to the right if right handed and left if left handed, a phenomena known as “lateral drift”.

By deliberately introducing a predictable error, in this case heading on a slightly more Northerly course of 245 degrees, to the right, you can eliminate one wrong direction, since you purposely veered to the right, you will know that your target is to the left of you.

This is actually using an old, almost forgotten, navigation technique of the pioneers, called “Off Aiming”.

Using the old pioneer methods I would use a “Baseline”, “Handrail” and “Backstop”.

A “Baseline” is a feature or landmark you identify to mark your starting point in case you have to reverse course and head back.

I work on Red Mountain which would be my “Baseline”. Red Mountain is a hard feature to miss.

Any road I could use to go in the desired direction I would use as a “Handrail”, or an easy path in the desired direction. When I reached Green Springs, I’m on target, and will turn left, which is South. If I reach I-65, my “Backstop” or a prominent landmark which lies beyond my target, I woul know that I have overshot, and would backtrack on a reverse course until I reached Green Springs again and then I would turn right towards the South.

Another factor, if it were a very long distance, is “magnetic declination”, which is where the magnetic North on a compass and the geographic North on a map do not match, since the poles are not located at the same location. The geographic pole is at the center of the Earth’s axis of rotation, the Magnetic North is in Arctic Ocean North of Canada.

In the Birmingham area all magnetic compasses are off 3.34 degrees to the West. So you set the compass North a little over 3 degrees to the East to get true North. In cases of small areal coverage this doesn’t matter, over long distances it would, as the effect of the error magnifies with increasing distance.

This magnetic declination error is increasing over time as the magnetic pole is shifting North Westward due to “Polar Drift”.

The Earth has a molten iron core. Variations in the flow of the molten iron in the outer core cause changes in the orientation of Earth’s magnetic field, and the position of the magnetic north and south poles.

The pole drifts considerably each day, and since 2007 it moves about 34 to 37 miles per year towards Asiatic Russia as a result of this phenomenon.

For reasons not fully understood this drift is increasing.

With all this said one might ask “why not just use a GPS or phone app?”

That’s exactly what I would do – if they work. If they don’t, I already have my backup plan.”

So there you go. With these gems and nuggets of wisdom you have now been officially nerded up.

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Mark’s Almanac

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

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

The beginning of meteorological Summer is June 1.

Storm activity retains many of the characteristics of spring, but more and more the pattern takes on the summer pattern of pop-up thunderstorms.

Hurricane season begins, June 1, however June hurricanes are usually small and of minor intensity, occurring roughly once every two years.

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

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

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon increases from 78.5 degrees at the beginning of the month to maximum of 79.9 on Summer Solstice on June 21 and then lowering to 79.6 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 14 hours 14 minutes on June 1 to the maximum daylight of 14 hours 23 minutes at Summer Solstice on June 21 and then decreases to 14 hours 21 minutes on June 30.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

June 1 Sunrise 5:38 AM Sunset 7:52 PM
June 15 Sunrise 5:37 AM Sunset 7:59 PM
June 30 Sunrise 5:40 AM Sunset 8:01 PM

Looking towards the sky, at the beginning of the month Mercury is hidden deep in the sunset. He will emerge into the evening sky passing very close to Mars on June 18.

On June 23 Mercury will be at “Mercury at Greatest Eastern Elongation” or his highest point above the horizon 25.2 degrees from the Sun. This is the best time to view. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset.

Brilliant Venus, magnitude -3.9, is buried very low in bright dawn. About 15 or 20 minutes before sunrise, scan for it with binoculars a little above the east to east-northeast horizon.

Mars, magnitude +1.7 near the feet of Gemini, is low in the west during and shortly after dusk.

Mars will pass just North of the Moon on June 5.

Jupiter, magnitude –2.6 in the eastern leg of Ophiuchus, The Serpent Bearer, rises in the southeast in late twilight. He shines highest in the south around 2 AM.

On June 10 Jupiter will be at “Opposition” or its closest approach to Earth and its face will be fully illuminated by the Sun. He will be brighter than any other time of the year and will be visible all night long.

This is the best time to view and photograph Jupiter and its moons. A medium-sized telescope should be able to show you some of the details in Jupiter’s cloud bands. A good pair of binoculars should allow you to see Jupiter’s four largest moons, Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet. Each night their positions will shift as they continue a waltz that has been going on for millennia uncounted.

On June 16 Jupiter will pass just to the South of the Moon.

Saturn, magnitude +0.3, in Sagittarius, rises around 11 or midnight. In the hours before dawn, He is the steady, pale yellowish “star” about 30° or three fists at arm’s length left of Jupiter.

Saturn will pass very close to Moon on June 18.

Uranus is hidden in the glow of the dawn.

Neptune, magnitude 7.9, in Aquarius, is low in the east-southeast before the beginning of dawn.

New Moon will occur June 3 at 5:02 AM CDT or 10:02 UTC. This is the best time of the month to observe faint objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

The Moon will be at Perigee, or her closest point from the Earth on June 7 at a distance of 228980 Miles.

Also on June 7, he Moon will pass very close, 0.2° of the Beehive Star Cluster or Praesepe, also known as Messier 44, a naked eye open star cluster in the constellation Cancer at 2:19 AM CDT.

Don’t ask me how to pronounce Praesepe. I’ve been trying to figure that one out for 50 years.

June’s Full Moon is “Strawberry Moon” in Native American folklore. This will occur on June 17 at 3:31 AM CDT or 8:31 UTC June 28. It is called “Strawberry Moon” for it signals the time to start harvesting strawberries, as it is peak strawberry ripening time. Other names are “Rose Moon” & “Honey Moon”.

Summer Solstice will occur at 10:54 AM CDT or 10:54 UTC on June 21. The North Pole of the earth will be tilted toward the Sun, which will have reached its northernmost position in the sky and will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at 23.44 degrees north latitude. This is the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of winter in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Moon will be at Apogee, or her farthest point from the Earth on June 22 at a distance of 251375 Miles.

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

The Moon, being two days after Last Quarter will not pose a major problem.

3970 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of May 16, per NASA’s
Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

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The Atlanta Hamfest scheduled for Saturday, June 1 has been cancelled, due to the venue not being ready. They will return in 2020.

Helena Hamfest will be Friday, June 14th from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM & Saturday, June 15th from 8:30 AM to 3:00 PM at the Helena Community Center, 100 Sports Complex Drive, Helena AL 35080.

Huntsville Hamfest will be Saturday, August 18 from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM & Sunday, August 18 from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Von Braun Civic Center South Hall, 700 Monroe St SW, Huntsville AL 35801.

Montgomery Hamfest will be Saturday, November 9 at the Alcazar Shrine Temple, 555 Eastern Boulevard, Montgomery, AL 36101

This month’s ALERT meeting will be on June 11 at 7 PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport.

If for some reason you cannot attend the meeting in person, you can still participate via telephone. The teleconference number is 1-877-951-0997 & and the participant code is 741083.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter

Comments, articles and suggestions are welcome.
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

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