Hi everyone and Merry 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 hidden from inquiring minds and fingers. People smile more this time of year and are friendlier, as they drift from store to store looking for gifts and treasures. It is a time of Santa, elves and Elvis having a “Blue, blu blu blu Christmas”. Of manger scenes, shepherds and of the Christ Child. And, it is a time when one’s mind and memories drift back to days of childhood, and Christmases now long gone by. And, towards friends and family, some here, some now gone & you long that they were once again near, as it was once upon a time. And, it’s a time to remember that the true “reason for the season” occurred in a manger, long, long ago on that first cold and chilly “Silent Night.” Christmas is still a special time, a magical time…. So as you go about your Christmas preparations remember the magic that was once there when you were a child & don’t let that magic die. For Christmas truly is “the most wonderful time of the year”. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. Mark’s Almanac December, the tenth Roman Month, 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 the 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. December can be cloudy and cold, and, then it can swing back 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. In 122 years of records, from 1851 to 2013 there have been 6 December hurricanes. The last December hurricane being Hurricane Epsilon during the 2005 season, the year in which we ran out of hurricane names. That year also featured Tropical Storm Zeta, the latest forming Tropical Storm which formed on December 30, 2005 and lasted until January 7, 2006. Looking skyward, we are experiencing a temporary planetary dearth as Mercury, Venus and Saturn are currently lost in the glow of the Sun. Mars is still with us however, glowing in the southwest during and after twilight, setting around 8 PM. Jupiter rises in the east-northeast around 10 or 11 PM and shines brightly in western Leo. Uranus is high in the southeast in Pisces just after dark. Neptune is high in the south in Aquarius also the early evening sky. December’s Full Moon occurs on December 6 at 6:27 AM. Decembers Full Moon was called “Full Cold Moon” in Native American folklore. This Full Moon’s name comes 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. The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks on December 13-14. The Geminids is one of the year’s best meteor showers, and my personal favorite. 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 and fireballs an hour, or about one every minute, and 120 per hour at its peak. 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. If you’re game, you can watch the Geminid shower all the way from mid-evening until dawn. This year we will have the disadvantage of a waning Gibbous moon which will interfere with the shower, but, it will still be worth the effort. The Geminid’s are associated with mysterious asteroid 3200 Phaethon. 3200 Phaethon is an asteroid that occasionally sprouts a comet-like tail, which it shouldn’t do and it doesn’t produce enough debris to cause a meteor shower, and yet it does. The day with the least sunlight will occur as Winter Solstice arrives December 21 at 5:03 PM CST. 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 (winter solstice) in the Northern Hemisphere and the first day of summer (summer solstice) in the Southern Hemisphere. One little known fact is that due to the tilt of the Earth’s axis and it’s mildly eccentric egg shaped orbit that the sun will set earlier the first week of December than it does at Winter Solstice, the longest night and shortest day of the year. If one looks at the sunrise/sunset and length of day data from the US Naval Observatory, you will find that the sun sets four minutes earlier on December 7, than it does December 21. This is counterbalanced by sunrise coming later and later in the December mornings, which clips more sunlight off at sunrise than the day gains at sunset. The actual data is: Dec 7 Sunrise 6:38 AM Sunset 4:39 PM Length of day 10 hours 1 minute Dec 21 Sunrise 6:48 AM Sunset 4:43 PM Length of day 9 hours 56 minutes Jan 7 Sunrise 6:52 AM Sunset 4:55 PM Length of day 10 hours 3 minutes Don’t feel bad about our short days, however. Feel bad for poor Point Barrow Alaska, where the Sun has now completely disappeared and won’t reappear until January 22, when it will glow for an entire 23 minutes. New Moon will occur On December 21, at 6:36 PM CST, as the Moon will be directly between the Earth and the Sun and will not be visible from Earth. 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 Ursids Meteor Shower will occur on the night of December 22 & 23. The Ursids is a minor meteor shower producing only about 5 – 10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by comet Tuttle, which was first discovered in 1790. The shower runs annually from December 17 – 25. It peaks this year on the night of the 22nd. This will be one of the best years to observe the Ursids because there will be no moonlight to interfere with the 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. 1773 planets have been confirmed beyond our star system as of November 19, 2014. ………………………………………………………………………………………. This month’s meeting will be on December 9 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport. December’s meeting will feature the ALERT Christmas party! You are all cordially invited to the ALERT Christmas party Tuesday, December 9 at the NWS Forecast Office. This is a Pot Luck affair, which means you bring your own pot, meaning a pot with food in it, a covered dish, or desert, but no booze. Bring your spouse, kids, and perspective members and be prepared to have Christmas fun! If you plan on attending, please contact Johnnie Knobloch, KJ4OPX at 934-7392 or wxjohnnie@gmail.com and let him know how many are coming and what you might be bringing. I hope to see you there. Until then, from the house of Mark WD4NYL & Teresa KQ4JC we wish you a very Merry Christmas! 73 and take care. Mark WD4NYL Editor ALERT NEWSLETTER www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Hi everyone, I hope this finds you well, as you prepare for the upcoming Hobgoblin attack which will occur this Friday. There are a couple of scheduling notes that you should be aware of. The first one being that due to Veteran’s Day, this month’s ALERT meeting has been moved up one day to Monday November 10. There will be a Board of Directors meeting preceding this regular meeting. Also, ALERT will conduct a training session for Operational Members on Saturday November 15 around noon. Do understand that this is not a Skywarn or Stormspotter class. It is training to familiarize our members with the equipment at K4NWS in preparation for the fall severe weather season. We have new radios for 2 meters, 440 & 220 MHz, have had computer upgrades and have new monitors in our cubicle as well. Instead of having 3 small monitors we now have 2 large ones that are 22 or 24 inches wide. Please make plans to attend. As the time to learn to operate the equipment is BEFORE a severe weather episode, not during “the heat of battle”, of a tornado outbreak. I hope to see you there. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………… Useful iPhone Apps For Ham Radio, Emergency Preparedness and Other Applications (Thanks to Roger KK4UDU) Repeater Book Free Amateur Radio Repeater frequencies, PL Tones, and offsets – based on a distance from your current location. Settings can be adjusted for difference bands, modes, distance, etc. Echo Link Free Allows Ham radio operations for iPhone. Adobe Reader Free Allows iPhone to store, recall, read, and mark-up PDF files on the device. When used with iTunes on a PC, it can manually move PDF’s to and from the iPhone. Smart Office 2 $9.99 Can allow iPhone to create and modify Microsoft Excel, Word, and Power Point files. Uses iTunes to move documents between PC and iPhone. Sketch Pad Free Used to create sketches on iPhone and can be exported to PC. My Radar Free Quick easy weather radar data on iPhone, based on current location. Can zoom/pan the data. WunderMap Free Weather Underground’s iPhone App. (Link to NWSBMX) Free National Weather Service link “stored as an icon”. Red Cross – First Aid Free This is a “Dual Purpose” app. It functions as a step by step guide in a first aid emergency and it is a training guide is there is not an emergency. Red Cross – Tornado Free App to have weather warnings reported to your iPhone. Using current location as well as allowing you to monitor any other county. (Does not work on polygon data). Red Cross – Hurricane Free App to have Hurricane warnings reported to your iPhone. Using current location as well as allowing you to monitor any other county. (Does not work on polygon data). Red Cross – Earthquake Free App to have earthquakes warnings reported to your iPhone. Using current location as well as allowing you to monitor any other county. (Does not work on polygon data). Red Cross – Wildfire Free App to have wildfire warnings reported to your iPhone. Using current location as well as allowing you to monitor any other county. (Does not work on polygon data). VisionLink Free This started out as Red Cross – “Shelters” It appears to have been “taken over” by VisionLink Red Cross – Flood Free App to have flood warnings reported to your iPhone. Using current location as well as allowing you to monitor any other county. (Does not work on polygon data). iTrage Free Very similar to a Physicians Desk Reference. Also has locations of nearest hospital, clinic, etc. to your current location. Waze Free Navigation program which uses a “social Media” approach to warn of traffic related issues. Google Earth Free Access satellite images. What Knot Free Handbook of what knots to use and how to tie them. SAS Survival Guide Free The British SAS Survival Handbook by John “Lofty” Wiseman Take Ten Free Colombia Sports check list for various outdoor activities. Flight Aware Free Track private and commercial flights and airport information by the FAA airport abbreviations. Friend Finder Free “Big Brother” tracking app. Lets you share your location with other people. iTalk Free Voice recording app. Used to record notes and then have the program transpose them into a Word document and then use iTunes to copy to the PC. Angle Meter Free App to get an angle of the object on the screen. (Can be used to get the takeoff angle of an antenna). Zello Free Multi person push-to-talk app. Editor’s Note: One fun app that Teresa introduced me to is “Tap-Tap-See”. Using the built in accessibility functions of the phone, namely the “voice over” function, using this app you can point the camera at an object, take the picture and the phone will tell you what you are targeting. Such as “large yellow cat on chair”. This is a useful function as well as being just plain fun to tinker with. These apps may be obtained via the “App Store” icon on your iPhone. …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 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. And, 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, just in reverse. This second season is often more destructive than the spring season. 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. Hurricane season ends November 30. 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, Mercury is low above the eastern horizon in mid-dawn. This will be it’s best morning appearance of 2014. It is best viewed about an hour before sunrise. Venus is hidden in the glare of the Sun. Mars is low in the southwest as twilight fades into darkness. Giant Jupiter rises in the east-northeast around 1 AM and shines brightly at the Cancer-Leo border in the east. By dawn it shines brightly high in the southeast. Saturn is sinking away into the sunset, just above the west-southwest horizon. Uranus is high in the southeast in Pisces in early evening. Neptune is high in the South in Aquarius also in early evening. Full Moon will occur at 4:23 PM CST November 6. 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. The Moon will disappear from view as New Moon occurs on November 22 at 6:32 AM CST. The annual Leonid meteor shower occurs from November 10 – 21 and peaks on the night of November 17/18. Though the Leonids is 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. 1763 planets have been confirmed beyond our star system as of October 15, 2014. Finally, don’t forget to set your clocks back one hour Sunday Morning November 2nd, as Daylight Savings Time ends. ………………………………………………………………………………………. This month’s meeting will be on November 10 at 7PM at the National Weather Service Forecast office at the Shelby County Airport. Now 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. I hope to see you there. Until then, 73 and take care. Mark WD4NYL Editor ALERT NEWSLETTER www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/

Hi everyone and welcome to the October ALERT Newsletter. Fall has arrived and with it we can look forward to the changing of the fall leaves, the occasional nip in the air, and the Hobgoblins that will visit us at the end of the month. October is a fun time of the year, being not to hot and not to cold – the “Goldilocks” of seasons. It is a time to enjoy fall football, baseball playoffs and the last outdoor adventures of the year. Here is hoping that you enjoy the days that this season brings, and the pretty weather October brings. Letting you rest before the storms of Fall. ………………………………………………………………………………………. Free Weather Stations!!! Would you like a free weather station? How about a whole network of them? Well you are in luck; allow me to introduce you to the realm of Automated Weather and Surface Observation systems. These include AWOS, ASOS, AWSS and ATIS stations. Let’s look at them one by one. Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS) – AWOS stations are operate Continue reading →

Hi Everyone, We have exciting news this month. Thanks to the generosity of our served agency, the National Weather Service, we are in the process of upgrading our equipment at K4NWS. We now have new Alinco 2 meter, 220 MHz & 440 MHz radios! Make sure to attend this month’s meeting as we begin the familiarization and training process as we prepare for the upcoming fall severe weather season. We also wish to thank the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club who provided ALERT the Kenwood VHF and UHF radios we have used through the years in the NWS & ALERT’s mission to save lives. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. Malicious Interference or When The Trolls Come Marching In At some point in your amateur radio experience you will run into some poor souls who for whatever reason seems to take delight in jamming, interfering and just being a pain in the posterior. In ham speak we call them “lids”. On the internet they would be “trolls”. Either way, the terms fit. They are annoying, but it is a part of ham life & you as a ham or a Net Control Station Continue reading →