ALERT NEWSLETTER – September 2016

Hi everyone,

Do you have any plans Sunday night?

If not, or if you can squeeze it in, I cordially invite you to join the ALERT Sunday Night Net.

This net, formerly the BARC Sunday Night Net meets every Sunday at 7PM on 146.88 MHz. Glenn Glass, KE4YZK, formed the net about 19 years ago and I took over as Net Manager from Mark Nichols, K7NOA in 2001. BARC has since then donated the net to ALERT for ALERT promotion and visibility.

The ASNN is a “discussion net” and at times we try to slip training snippets in concerning net operations and what the NWS and ALERT does and doesn’t need reported.

We have a dedicated staff of Net Control Stations:

David Hanna – WX4NCS
Jackson Chance – KK4NGD
Dale Wisely – N4HEY
and every now and then Mark WD4NYL

One thing to be stressed is that this net is NOT an emergency net and won’t be activating for emergencies. One should always respond to your local ARES / Skywarn Net when situations arise.

Should the ASNN be in session and a severe weather arise, it will, as it has in numerous cases in the past, clear the frequency for the Jefferson County ARES Emergency Net.

So, once again, if you are available (carry an HT into the choir loft, the minister won’t mind), give the net a try.

I think you will like it!

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Public Information Statement
National Weather Service Birmingham AL
1151 AM CDT THU SEP 1 2016

…NWS Birmingham Webpage Changes Coming September 27th…

On September 27th, 2016, the look and feel of our webpage will be
changing. On this date, our office, along with all Southern Region
NWS Weather Forecast Offices, will migrate to a new layout on the
front page of our web home page. This is in response to a required
web infrastructure consolidation that will occur by the end of the
year. The change will also provide office-to-office consistency
because the layout of the home page will be set across the region.

In addition to the new front page layout, all webpage links will be
changing. You can visit the following webpage for more information
on the forthcoming changes: http://w2-mo.weather.gov/bmx/webpagetransition
We will be updating this page with new information as we approach
the transition date.

Our office is working hard to ensure that the transition will be as
painless as possible, but as with any major change, there are going
to be some initial growing pains. To assist with the transition, a
webpage re-direct will be implemented for high-priority webpages for
at least a few months after the transition date.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your patience as
we go through this major transition. If you have any questions or
concerns, please contact our webmasters at sr-bmx.webmaster@noaa.gov

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Spy & Numbers Stations Decoded

Radio in its various forms has always been a fascinating hobby to me. My first exposure to radio, other than me having the AM radio blasting music, was listening to my brother, Sonny K4FHX’s ham radio, and the weird sounds emanating from his speaker. When he got out of the hobby in the early sixties he gave me his equipment. But, I was six years old, and of course I destroyed every piece of that Hallicrafters gear. All that is left today is the Speed-X straight key, which I still use to this day.

My next exposure to radio was with my Uncle Luther’s shortwave radio, listening to the strange squeaks and squawks and some tick-tocking station with a guy saying “thirteen hours forty five minutes Greenwich Mean Time”.

Seeing that I was hooked, my parents gave me a Ross shortwave radio the Christmas of 1972.

I would stay up into the wee hour of the night listening, usually with the lights turned off, so my parents wouldn’t worry why I wasn’t asleep, listening to stations all over the country and all over the world.

The radio did not have a beat frequency oscillator or BFO, so I was unable to listen to sideband signals. All I heard were people who sounded like they were gargling with wet socks.

One of the mysteries of those days was something called “Spy and Numbers” stations.

These would come on at irregular intervals up and down the band, but, usually just below the 40 meter band. They were always in AM, and though I have heard them in English and German, the strongest were in Spanish, usually female, with a strange regularly spaced clacking sound in the background.

The typical format was as follows:

Either at the top or the bottom of the hour after about 20 minutes of a carrier with that strange clacking sound, the call would begin something like this:

“Attencion, attencion…..quatro cinco uno…..quatro cinco uno…..quarto cinco uno…
uno ocho sies ocho quatro ocho tres uno tres……repeata….. uno ocho sies ocho quatro ocho tres uno tres…..fine…fine…”

And then the signal would disappear as mysteriously as it had appeared.

What were these signals?

The leading theory was that they originated in Cuba and were being sent to covert operatives in the US. But, nothing could ever be proved.

Until now.

Recently Dateline NBC had the story of an ex-Soviet spy who defected and fell off the radar and for decades lived and raised a family using an assumed identity. In the story he said he received his instructions “from numbers given in Spanish on a shortwave radio from Cuba”.

Mystery solved. But, how did it work?

The following is what I was told by a gentleman, now deceased who was in the Air Force OSI – Office Of Special Investigations. I feel safe describing this because many years have passed and technology has progressed to where things are delivered via “other means”.

The code was an unbreakable code.

To use it you simply needed two people with two identical books, with the same publisher and edition. Which book didn’t matter really. It could be Macbeth, The Gospel of Luke, The ALERT Newsletter, etc.
They just had to have the same page number, paragraph and word location.

The first three numbers given after the “Attencion” was the operative’s number.

The long sequence of numbers told where to look in the book.

“uno ocho sies ocho quatro ocho tres uno tres” or in English “106040313”

Which mean Page 106, Paragraph 04, Line 03, Word 13

They would simply write down the numbers and look them up in the book.

But, which book? That’s what made it unbreakable. Only they two parties involved knew which book, and they would change that on a regular basis or as needed.

Let’s say Agent 008 (that’s 007’s clutzy partner) needed money. He might use the Gideon Bible, and choose:

“my God will meet all your NEEDS according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” and then
“For the love of MONEY is the root of all evil…”

After deciphering the page, paragraph and locating words 7 & 5 the recipient would that know Agent 008 “needs money”.

And so ends the mystery of the Spy & Numbers stations.

This is 008 signing out…

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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 combination 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.

September Tropical Cyclone Breeding Grounds

Looking towards the sky, Mercury is fading and disappearing into the sunset, below Venus and Jupiter. By the end of the month he will reappear in the morning sky and will reach his highest point above the eastern horizon on September 28, when he will be 17.9 degrees above the Sun. This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest altitude above the horizon in the morning sky. Look for the planet low in the eastern sky just before sunrise.

Venus and Jupiter are very low in bright twilight, shining at magnitudes –3.8 and –1.7 respectively. Venus is creeping a little higher each night and Jupiter sinks farther to Venus’s lower right. Their separation grows by 1° per day.
Mars, magnitude –0.3, in upper Scorpius is moving rapidly eastward away from Saturn, magnitude +0.4 and the red star Antares, magnitude +1.0, below Saturn. Look for them in the southwest after dusk. The triangle they make is again widening.
Uranus shining at magnitude 5.8, in Pisces is well up by midnight in the southeast.
Neptune shining at magnitude 7.8, in Aquarius also is well up by midnight in the south. Neptune will be at his closest approach to Earth on September 3. Due to its extreme distance the giant blue planet will appear as a tiny blue dot in all but the most powerful telescopes.
New Moon occurs September 1 at 4:03 AM CDT when the Moon will on the same side of the Earth as the Sun and will not be visible in the night sky.

There will be an annular solar eclipse on September 1, but, it will only be visible from Africa.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is too far away from the Earth to completely cover the Sun. This results in a ring of light around the darkened Moon. The Sun’s corona is not visible during an annular eclipse.

Fall begins at Autumnal Equinox on September 22 at 9:12 AM CDT, when the Sun crosses directly over the equator and night and day is approximately the same length.

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.

September’s Full Moon will occur September 16 at 2:05 PM CDT. 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”.

There will be a penumbral lunar eclipse on September 16, but, it will only be visible from Eastern Europe, Eastern Africa, Asia & Western Australia.

A penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes through the Earth’s partial shadow, or penumbra. During this type of eclipse the Moon will darken slightly but not completely.

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.

3375 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of August 25, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/.

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This month’s meeting will be on September 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

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