Did you know, that if you are a SKYWARN spotter, that even if you aren’t a ham radio operator, you can report information through a chat room?
When the National Weather Service calls on ALERT, we also monitor a chat room, commonly called “BMXSPOTTERCHAT,” and pass that information to the National Weather Service. This is just one of the many ways that you can get your report directly to the National Weather Service. This is also useful for ham radio operators on the outer fringes of repeater coverage area.
You do NOT have to be an ALERT member to participate in this chat. However, we ask that participants take at least one of the basic SKYWARN storm spotter training’s, for your safety and report quality reasons.
Click here to view the information, how-to videos, and guidance for the chat room.
Also, feel free to contact ALERT by sending a message through our Facebook page (facebook.com/K4NWS) if you are interested in becoming an amateur radio operator, for an open line for your storm reports that will work when everything else fails.
OLD INFO! Check the Storm Spotter Chat tab at the top of this page for a newer guide!
Special Note: as of February 2, 2009
Please add bmxspotterchat@muc.appriss.com as a buddy for continued access to the chat room.
Adding chat to your buddy list.
- Click Buddies
- Click Add Buddy
- Enter this in Buddy username: bmxspotterchat@muc.appriss.com
- Click Buddies
- Click Add Chat
- Account be sure your XMPP acct from above shows here
- Room: bmxspotterchat
- Server: muc.appriss.com
- Check to ensure that your handle is as above (e.g. brown-west_alabaster, porter-jasper, david-livingston)
- Alias: Arbitrary. You can change this if you want to see something other than bmxspotterchat@muc.appriss.com for the name (try “bmxspotterchat”).
- Select Add
- Group: You might see this if the chat client lets you add room links to your list. In this case, this is the buddy group it will be listed under.
- double-click the link your buddy list to the room. You should see iembot as one of the people in the room, and, if your chat client supports it, backlogged reports from the iembot.
I got the following email from Brett Adair who is one of our spotters in the chat room he did a chase for the recent storms i though you would like to see.
73,
Russell Thomas, KV4S
ALERT Membership
The ALabama Emergency Response Team
“
4/11/2008 was a big day for the Alabama Storm Trackers especially on an exposure level.“ We just wanted to direct everyone to our blog and show some of the coverage that we were able to capture on our live stream.“ We are basically taking this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors who have supported us.“ This post will also be featured on the 33/40 blog page.“ With the help of GRLevelX, Allisonhouse products, SevereStreaming.com, Autonet Mobile, Cyfre and Maximum Signal we were able to intercept and relay video of this dangerous weather in a timely fashion.“ Our coverage was watched by the National Weather Service as well during this event.“ The spotternetwork also proved to play a key role in one of our critical storm reports as it always does.“ Thanks again everyone!
http://www.alabamaweather.org/blog
“
—
Brett Adair
Alabama Storm Trackers
Thanks to a report from Kris Gardner from our storm spotter chat room.“ His report lead to an LSR from the NWS. I think it will be a matter of time before we can get some preemptive reports as well!
Thought I would pass along the news I have also including the LSR and the Chat print screen!
73, Russell — KV4S
“NWUS54 KBMX 090137
LSRBMX
“PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT…SUMMARY NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BIRMINGHAM AL
737 PM CST TUE JAN 08 2008
“..TIME…“ “ …EVENT…“ “ “ “ “ …CITY LOCATION…“ “ “ “ …LAT.LON…
..DATE…“ “ ….MAG….“ “ “ “ “ ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. …SOURCE….
“ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ ..REMARKS..
“0708 PM“ “ “ “ HAIL“ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ MILLPORT“ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ “ 33.56N 88.08W
01/08/2008“ M1.00 INCH“ “ “ “ “ “ LAMAR“ “ “ “ “ Continue reading
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