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Amateur Radio

Hi Everyone, Yesterday, May 7, the Alabama Dept of Homeland Security, in conjunction with the Alabama Amateur Radio Emergency Service held a statewide Hurricane Drill. ALERT & K4NWS was active from 8:45 to 2:30 in the drill, with Myself & Teresa Wells KQ4JC taking simulated storm reports from the Shelby County Net, Birmingham Net, State EMA and others. The Spotterchat was continuously monitored as was D-Star. A serious concern which we had leading into the drill was that we might encounter “real world” severe weather & have to suspend our portion of the drill. This scenario began to become a reality within an hour of operations as flooding reports began coming in from Montgomery and Elmore County. For a portion of the drill we did double duty taking simulated reports and “real life” reports, but, as the situation deteriorated we went into actual “callout mode”. The Montgomery area received measured rainfall in excess of 9 inches within a few hours time, as storms initiated over Metropolitan Montgomery and moved southward, with new storms continuously backbuiled over the same location for hours on end.Some reports included: Continue reading
ALERT NEWSLETTER – May 2009 Vol 2 Number 11 Hi Everyone, May is here, and there are many opportunities for ALERT and our friends at ARES and CERT. If you have a chance, and I hope you will, a few of the activities in which you can participate are as follows: May 2 & 3 – Birmingham Hamfest 2009 – ALERT and the NWS will have tables at the Hamfest Saturday from 9 AM till Noon. Warning Coordination Meteorologist John De Block will be representing the NWS. We will be needing volunteers to man the ALERT table. Special thanks goes to John Miller KI4VVM, who is our first volunteer. Who will be next? May 5 – For Community Emergency Response Team – CERT members, CERT will hold Triage Training from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM at Calera Fire Station 1, 1310 7th Calera, AL. May 7 — The Alabama Department of Homeland Security and ARES will be conducting the annual state Continue reading
Hi everybody, There are several events & opportunities coming up which ALERT will participate in and that we will need volunteers for. 1. Birmingham Hamfest — Saturday, May 2. ALERT and the NWS will have tables at the Hamfest Saturday from 9 AM till Noon. We need volunteers to man the tables & talk up ALERT. (And to let people see the mugs they hear on the radio). Walkup help is welcome. 2. The Alabama Department of Homeland Security will be conducting their annual state wide hurricane drill on Thursday, May 7 from 7AM and to 4PM. The drill scenario focuses on a category 4 hurricane that comes ashore in Baldwin County and moves due North through the state, remaining at hurricane strength until it reaches the Tennessee line. K4NWS will be activated for this event & we will need operators at the station as well as operators at home – one to monitor the Spotterchat & one with HF capability to act as a liason / relay between K4NWS and the state ARES net on 3.965 MHz.If you can participate in these events contact me at wd4nyl@bellsouth.net. Continue reading
In accordance with Article V, Section 1 of the Bylaws & Constitution of ALERT, a nominating committee was appointed at the March 2009 meeting. This committee has completed it’s work & presented the nominees for the 2009 – 2010 term at the April 14 meeting. The nominees are: President Mark Wells – WD4NYL Vice-President Russell Thomas – KV4S Operations Ron Arant — N4PHP Treasur Continue reading

ALERT / National Weather Service Birmingham Coverage Area

  • ALERT covers the BMX county warning area. Presently, this includes: Autauga, Barbour, Bibb, Blount, Bullock, Calhoun, Chambers, Cherokee, Chilton, Clay, Cleburne, Coosa, Dallas, Elmore, Etowah, Fayette, Greene, Hale, Jefferson, Lamar, Lee, Lowndes, Macon, Marengo, Marion, Montgomery, Perry, Pickens, Pike, Randolph, Russell, Shelby, St Clair, Sumter, Talladega, Tallapoosa, Tuscaloosa, Walker, Winston