ALERT NEWSLETTER – May 2018

Published 04/28/2018 | By KV4S

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you doing well & that you have been enjoying these coolish spring days.

Our next ALERT meeting will be May 8 and will feature our annual elections.

If you are a paid up Operational or Supporting Member, which is a member interested in Amateur Radio, Skywarn or Emergency Communications, but doesn’t have a ham license (yet), you may vote in the 2018 – 2019 ALERT leadership elections.

The officers will assume their positions at the July meeting.

We will also be voting on Proposed Amendment 7, which was published in last month’s newsletter at the May 8 meeting.

I hope to see you there!

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Then & Now
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Monitoring Distress Frequencies

The concept of regularly monitoring certain frequencies for distress signals has been around for a long time, for over a century, in fact. After the sinking of the RMS Titanic, the Third International Radiotelegraphic Convention set regulations designating 500 kHz or 600 Meters as an international distress frequency, and for 86 years, from 1913 to 1999 the US Coast Guard, similar services of other nations and vessels at sea would maintain a 24 hour watch on 500 kHz, handling countless SOS calls and medical emergencies at sea, at first using spark gap CW transmissions and later the standard CW signals which we are familiar with today.

One problem that was encountered was that non-emergency communications were also allowed and routinely being conducted on this single frequency. How could a distress signal hope to break through the racket?

To solve this, the following rule was implemented: “Coastal stations engaged in the transmission of long radiograms … and shipboard stations working under the conditions….shall suspend work at the end of each period of 15 minutes and listen in with a wave length of 600 meters during a period of three minutes before resuming the transmission.”

When working distress traffic, all non-distress traffic was banned from 500 kHz and adjacent coast stations then monitored 512 kHz as an additional calling frequency for ordinary traffic.

The silent and monitoring periods were soon expanded and standardized. The 1914 “Radio Communication Laws of the United States”, stated ”operators of all coast stations are required, during the hours the station is in operation, to ‘listen in’ at intervals of not more than 15 minutes and for a period not less than 2 minutes, with the receiving apparatus tuned to receive this wave length, for the purpose of determining if any distress signals or messages are being sent and to determine if the transmitting operations of the ‘listening station’ are causing interference with other radio communication.”

As a visual memory aid, in a ship’s radio room would have a clock that would have the silence periods marked by shading the sectors between hour +15 to hour +18 and hour +45 to hour +48 in RED. Similar sectors between hour +00 to hour +03 and hour +30 to hour +33 marked in GREEN were added later which was the corresponding silence period for the new 2.182 MHz USB voice communications distress signals.

Another problem that was encountered was interference from the broadband spark gap transmissions from non-commercial radio experimenters. There is a theory that the marine radio operators coined a derogatory term for these “amateur radio operators”. “I can’t hear anything for these ‘hams’”, they would say. This may be the reason why we are called “hams” today.

To solve this problem, the pesky “hams” were shifted to the “useless wavelengths” above 200 Meters, or 1500 kHz.

The use of the 500 kHz frequency was discontinued in 1999 in favor of The Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), which set safety procedures, types of equipment, and communication protocols used to increase safety and make it easier to rescue distressed ships, boats and aircraft.

GMDSS consists of several systems, including Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacons (EPIRBs) using the Cospas-Sarsat satellite-based search and rescue system on 406.0 & 406.1 MHZ, Navtex, an international, automated system for instantly distributing via text maritime safety information, including navigational warnings, weather forecasts and weather warnings, search and rescue notices and similar information to ships.

A small, low-cost and self-contained “smart” printing radio receiver is installed on the bridge, or the place from where the ship is navigated, which monitors 518 kHz in English. 490 kHz is sometime used to broadcast in a local language.

MF and VHF maritime radio still play a vital part of the GMDSS system, including VHF Marine Channel 16 156.800 MHz and 2.182 MHz USB used for distress, safety and calling.

Though the requirement to maintain a listening watch aboard GMDSS-equipped ships on 2.182 MHz ended in 1999, it is still required that ships operating off the U.S. coast and radio equipped vessels operating on inland rivers and lakes monitor Marine Channel 16.

This is very similar to aviation protocols of ground stations and aircraft monitoring the aircraft distress frequencies 121.500 MHz for civilian aircraft and 243.00 MHz for military aircraft.

Hams & CONELRAD

During the Cold War another monitoring program involved hams.

From 1957 to 1962, hams were required to monitor a local broadcast station at intervals of 10 minutes or less whenever they were operating, and if the broadcast station went off the air due to an emergency, hams had to leave the air as well.

Several companies marketed special receivers that monitored local broadcast stations, sounding an alarm and automatically deactivating the amateur’s transmitter when the broadcast station went off the air.

One was the Heathkit CA-1 “’Automatic’ CONELRAD Alarm Kit

In the event of an incoming nuclear attack by the Soviet Union, to prevent the Soviet long range bombers form using America’s broadcast stations as homing beacons, as the Japanese did when they used the signals from Honolulu’s KGMB (now KSSK) 590 kHz and KGU 760 kHz to lead their aircraft to Pearl Harbor, or as German bombers also did when attacking cities in Europe.

In the event of an emergency, all United States television and FM radio stations were required to stop broadcasting.

Most AM medium-wave stations would shut down, and a system called CONELRAD – Control of Electromagnetic Radiation, would be implemented.

CONELRAD had a simple system for alerting the public and other “downstream” stations, consisting of a sequence of shutting the station off for five seconds, returning to the air for five seconds, again shutting down for five seconds, returning to the air again for five seconds, and then transmitting a 1 kHz tone for 15 seconds. Key stations would be alerted directly. All other broadcast stations would monitor a designated station in their area.

The stations that stayed on the air would transmit on either 640 or 1240 kHz. They would transmit for several minutes and then go off the air, and another station would take over on the same frequency in a “round robin” chain. The 640 and 1240 AM frequencies were selected to confuse enemy aircraft Radio Direction Finders or RDF’s, as it would be very difficult for enemy aircraft with RDF to get a “lock” on any signal accurately.

By law, radio sets manufactured between 1953 and 1963 had these two frequencies marked by the triangle-in-circle, or “CD Mark”, the symbol of Civil Defense.

As simplistic as it may sound now, it wasn’t a bad idea for the time.

The CONELRAD system ended with the implementation of the Emergency Broadcast System in 1963, which in turn was superseded by the Emergency Alert System in 1997, which is in use today.

REACT

At this point in our discussion, an honorable mention should be given to a group called REACT – the Radio Emergency Associated Communication Team.

Starting in 1962 these souls took on the unenviable task of monitoring 27.065 MHz, also called CB Channel 9, for emergency calls.

During the 1960’s very little activity was heard on the CB band. This I know because one Christmas, when I was 7 or 8 years old, I was given some Channel 14 walkie talkies (no one called them HT’s back then) which I and my brother played with. These, sets, while being crystal controlled for transmit, had very wide open receivers, receiving anything in the 11 Meter band, because they were basically junk. During the brief time we used them, I heard only one other station come through the ether.

Ten years later, in 1976, I found one of the pair in the closet and out of curiosity popped a 9 volt battery in and thought the receiver must have been shot, as there were dozens upon dozens of people doubling, tripling, cussing and screeching on top of each other.

The CB Boom was booming.

Two factors made the CB Boom the disaster that it was. One being that it was the fad of the day which suddenly plopped two million people into 23 channels, soon to be increased to 40, seemingly drawing every lunatic on the planet. The second factor was that the boom hit just as the sunset cycle was heading towards its peak. So not only did you have to deal with the local nut cases, you had a few hundred thousand intimate friends from California dumping in on you via the ionosphere as well.

Why the FCC would create a service meant for local communications in a DX band is still hard to comprehend.

If you have a CB, which I still do, the same old 23 channel Midland from 1976, and you listen, while you can still on occasion hear some of the same shenanigans you could hear back “in the day”, it is a pale comparison to the muddled maelstrom of muck it was back then. But, to be fair, even back then, though it didn’t seem as such, more operators than not wanted and tried to operate in as “proper a fashion” as they knew how, as many were or later would became hams.

Though REACT is still in existence, there are no longer any REACT Teams in Alabama. The closest listed teams are Units 4623 in Macon GA, 6251 in Etowah, TN & 6191 in Crestview FL.

Those still active rarely use CB, having added FRS, GMRS, Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS), Trunked radio systems, business band radio (LMR) and even amateur radio to their operations. Their original purpose, to monitor CB, has largely gone by the wayside.

Through it all REACT has tried their best to pull signals out of the chaos and help their fellow man. Which is to be commended.

The BARC Notification Proposal

Back to ham radio, in the 1980’s, before the idea of ALERT was conceived, there was a proposal among some of the local hams involved in Emergency Communications, namely the operators which BARC would send to the NWS when it was located in Homewood, that a system be implemented where hams could be better alerted if an emergency arose and that they needed to activate.

Remembering that in the 1980’s email & cellphones did not yet exist and pagers were few and far between, most notifications were done by a telephone call tree, which was cumbersome, but, the best method they had.

Birmingham’s ham radio landscape had grown to include six repeaters, the BARC repeater then 146.94 MHz, Hop Hayes K4TQR and Henry Wingate K4HAL’s 146.76 MHz repeater, Ronnie Pitts 146.88 MHz repeater, which would later to be donated to BARC. 146.94 had a better location and 146.88 was a better frequency which wouldn’t interfere with Huntsville, as would occasionally happen, and since the 94 & 88 repeaters were identical, they swapped crystals, and 94 became the 88 we know and love today. 94 later became the 145.45 repeater and years later was converted to D-Star. There was also the 147.14 aka the “Hueytown Repeater”, WA4MHO’s 147.33 repeater and 147.28, the Telephone Pioneer Repeater. There were also one, maybe two 440 MHz repeaters.

None of these repeaters were “toned”, for with the exception of repeaters on the West Coast, PL toned repeaters were not in vogue, or really necessary at that point. In fact, PL toned repeaters were sometimes mistakenly considered a sign of ham radio snobbery, akin to the imagery of the term “closed repeater”. Which in turn was viewed, rightly or wrongly, as a “we want us four, no more on here”, approach which did and does exist in certain locales and circles.

The Shelby County repeater had not yet found a permanent home on the radio dial, which is worthy of a story of its own.

Shelby County needed a repeater and the Repeater Council gave them a frequency. But, as luck and bad Karma would dictate, that frequency did not work out, nor would the next, nor would the ones that followed. Try as they may, every pair they were given would interfere with someone over the horizon, or vice versa or end up having a spur from an FM broadcast station blasting in.

The radio terminology has evolved over the years, and at this time when referring to a repeater frequency they would mention the input as well as output, as some repeaters had reverse offsets. For instance 146.88 MHz was called 28/88, 146.76 MHz was 16/76 and so on.

Using the terminology of the day, Shelby County tried 147.63/03, 147.715/115, and some weird 43 frequency, as I recall, all to no avail. Then they decided to try 147.385 MHz or 985/385. It was a “splinter frequency” ending in a 5 and was a reverse combination of anything out there.

That would cure the problem….almost, anyway.

As is the natural cycle of things, every morning as the Sun rises, the Sun heats up the upper and then mid layers of the atmosphere, while the lower levels remain cold or colder. Warm air topping cold air is a temperature inversion, and those will trap radio signals, sending them far beyond the horizon. It’s a daily occurrence, sometimes weak, sometimes strong. Sometimes only a few minutes, sometimes beyond noon, but, it is fairly reliable, and is independent of the Sun’s quirky ways.

There was this one stinking repeater in Kentucky on the exact opposite frequencies, 385/985. Every morning someone here or there would key up one repeater which in turn would key up the other repeater and they would lock up. They would time each other out, revive, and do it again, hour upon hour, with a screech that the memory of makes my skin crawl today.

Finally, perhaps in desperation they decided to reverse the frequency pair and detune it down 5 kHz to 146.38/98 MHz, which by some miracle worked, which is why the Shelby County repeater is on 146.98 MHz today.

But, back to the BARC proposal, it was proposed that they take a repeater, probably on 2 meters, maybe on 440, and normally run it without a PL tone. If an emergency occurred the Net Control Station or Repeater Trustee would activate a transmit PL tone, the purpose of which was to break the PL toned squelches of radios at home, which would be monitoring 24/7, but, normally remain silent, as the normal signal and random chitchat wouldn’t break the PL toned squelch and drive operators crazy, especially at 3 AM in the morning.

The plan, though interesting, was never implemented. Possibly due to the cost of the equipment, as tone encoding radios were still fairly new and expensive, and perhaps due to the NWS moving to Shelby County, and then ALERT being formed not that long after.

Incidentally, ALERT used Alpha pagers for callout notifications in its early days, and now of course we use text messaging and email for callout announcements.

One thing we learned to avoid was accidentally saying “we will need help at the NWS” as you could easily get random guys just showing up, usually well meaning, sometimes just to impress their buddies, but clueless in either case, the babysitting of which would just hamstring operations.

The Wilderness Protocol

In February 1994 N6XMW, William Alsup of Oakland California proposed in QST Magazine a “’Wilderness Protocol’ for the effective simplex use of handheld VHF and FM transceivers in the Backcountry.””

The proposed frequency range was two meters, with the National Simplex Calling Frequency 146.52 MHz being suggested.

It was reported in the August 1995 QST that there was “’enthusiastic support of the proposal’ and it was reminded to spread the use of the protocol.”

QST feature editor Brian Battles, WS1O added “Remember, though, this protocol won’t work if it’s only used by hams who need to call for help – someone else has to be listening.” Alsup’s original proposal was only for 2 meter use, but Battles urged hams to, “Check the national calling frequencies on all bands for which you’re equipped, and give your call sign once or twice so that others will know you’re there.”

The Wilderness Protocol is now included in the ARRL ARES Emergency Resources Manual. Per the manual, the protocol is:

“The Wilderness Protocol calls for hams in the wilderness to announce their presence on, and to monitor, the national calling frequencies for five minutes beginning at the top of the hour, every three hours from 7 AM to 7 PM while in the back country. A ham in a remote location may be able to relay emergency information through another wilderness ham who has better access to a repeater.”

Though this concept was originally designed to be used mainly in the wilderness settings, it’s not just for hikers, back packers, or similar situations. It is also available for anyone anywhere to use anytime assistance is needed.

Recommended procedures for the “Wilderness Protocol” are as follows:

MONITOR THE PRIMARY CALLING FREQUENCY: 146.520 MHz and or any of these
SECONDARY FREQUENCIES: 52.525 MHz, 223.500 MHz, 446.000 MHZ and 1294.500 MHz.

MONITOR TIMING: Every 3 hours starting from 0700 Hours local time, on the hour until 5 minutes past the hour. Listen from 7:00-7:05 AM, 10:00-10:05 AM, 1:00-1:05 PM, 4:00–4:05 PM and 7:00-7:05 PM.

ALTERNATE TIMING: From 06:55 to 07:05, etc., beginning at 5 minutes before till 5 minutes after, to allow for differences in peoples watch settings. You can always listen for longer if you wish.

ENHANCED MONITORING: Some suggest extending the monitoring time by extending adding 10:00-10:05 PM. Fixed stations or portable stations with enough battery power levels listen every hour. Continuous Monitoring is also an option.

LISTENING / MONITORING: Listen to the calling frequencies until 4 minutes past the hour, and then make a few calls asking if there are stations listening that may need assistance. This calling traffic should only start at 4 minutes after the hour preceded by listening for 30 seconds, unless of course you’re the one making an emergency call.

LISTEN FIRST: Then call CQ with short transmissions.

Note: 146.520 MHz is a CALLING FREQUENCY. Make your Calls, and then move off the frequency so others can use the frequency. Suggested frequencies to move to: 146.550 MHz, 146.430 MHZ, etc.

PRIORITY TONE SIGNALS: Suggested for Priority Radio Transmissions ONLY, using LONG TONE ZERO (abbreviated LiTZ).

USING THE LONG TONE ZERO: Begin calls for assistance with about 10 seconds of tone by keying up and holding down the zero key to continuously transmit the zero DTMF tone (hence: LONG TONE ZERO). Then proceed to make your emergency call. This should help those listening to realize that an emergency or priority call is coming through.

Some addition thoughts by Bob Witte, K0NE of Colorado are:

“The Wilderness Protocol is a good idea but is overly complex for practical use. Here’s my proposal to make it much simpler for practical backcountry use:

Principle #1: Don’t ever rely on a radio or mobile phone to get you out of trouble in the backcountry. Your primary strategy must be self-sufficiency. Avoid trouble. Be prepared for the unexpected.

Principle #2: Know what repeaters are available in your area. We have many wide coverage repeaters available but you need to know the frequency, offset and CTCSS tone (if any)….

Principle #3: In remote areas, monitor 146.52 MHz as much as possible. This applies to backcountry travelers, mobile stations and fixed stations.”

Distress Signals

One subject that should be emphasized in ham training is how to get help via amateur radio. Do you really know how to seek help?

Just saying “Hey can someone out thar call the pair of medics over to the Wall Smart” just might not suffice, especially if they don’t say which Wall Smart they mean.

This is as useless as someone calling you on the phone and saying “CALL 911!” and hanging up. Send them where? Why? Who – police or fire department?

How do you transmit a distress call on a radio? I’m glad you asked.

Now the following is to be used only for bonifide EXTREME emergencies. Using it in any other case and you could end up making license plates.

Distress calling procedure:

1. Tune to your local Club, ARES / Skywarn frequency or the most heavily populated frequency you know of or 146.520 Simplex.
2. If you hear stations on frequency, break in and attempt to contact them.
3. If they hear and acknowledge you, calmly give your situation, remembering the “who, what, where, when and why” rules. Then wait at the location for help. Don’t wander off. That turns a rescue into a search and rescue. In 99% of the cases STAY PUT.
4. If it seems no one has heard you, or you can’t hit the repeater, then you will have to “broadcast in the blind”. Don’t let the words “broadcast in the blind” scare you. You do this every time you send a CQ or throw your call out on a silent repeater seeking a contact. If you are on a repeater frequency and can turn the offset or frequency shift off, transmit Simplex on the repeater output. That’s where people listen. They may hear your faint signal.
5. Say slowly and clearly the words “MAYDAY” three times.
6. Say, “This is” and give your call sign three times and your name once.
7. Give your position as exact as possible. Give your address, or street / cross street, or highway mile marker (you do you pay attention to those little green signs, don’t you?) or if you have GPS, your latitude and longitude. Or give your distance to any well-known landmark that may help rescuers locate the incident location. Use the best or most logical options you have. Giving latitude and longitude, when you know the street and cross street is a little kooky. Use common sense.
8. Give the nature of the emergency – medical, fire, criminal, etc.
9. Indicate the type of assistance required – police, EMS, etc.
10. Say “over” and listen.

Example:

“Mayday – Mayday – Mayday. This is WD4NYL, WD4NYL, WD4NYL. My name is Mark Wells. I’m located on Highway 45 near Johnson Road. I’ve just been in an accident and I’m trapped in my car. Please call 911 and send the fire department. Over”.

If someone responds, great! If not, there is a decent chance someone listening on a scanner could be calling 911.

If you hear no response, repeat the above for two minutes and then listen for three. If still no answer, to save your batteries, cut off the radio and wait until the top of the hour and begin calling again. It’s good if you indicate that you are going to do this, so someone listening will know to listen again.

Now let’s complicate things a bit. Suppose you are the only one who can hear the distress signal, but, no one can hear you either. Guess it’s just tough luck for that Dude, right? “Oh well, probably an <insert team of your choice> fan anyway. Cest le vie and all that…”

Not necessarily, as there is also a procedure for relaying a Mayday.

Example:

“Mayday Relay – Mayday Relay – Mayday Relay. This is WD4NYL, WD4NYL, WD4NYL. My name is Mark Wells, I am receiving a Mayday from Joe Blow. He is located on Highway 45 near Johnson Road. He has been in an accident and is trapped in his car. Please call 911 and send the fire department. Over”.

This method is the recommended procedure for marine radios and can be effectively used on both the ham bands or on the 11-meter band.

And, yes, even though we may cuss it, every amateur in emergency communications or planning on going on a trip, should have a CB radio stashed somewhere in their “tool chest”.

Repeaters may die; whole forests of repeaters may be uninhabited just when you need someone the most, or you may get stuck somewhere between the Podunk and Possum Hollow repeaters. But, chances are some Bubba is listening on Channel 9 or even more likely on Channel 19. He may call 911…. or he may just come in his dually and help haul you out of that ditch.

Giving oneself multiple options is savvy move, one that could save your life someday.

Always have one or more backup plans.

(Special Thanks to Michael Lamb, KK4OHW who suggested this article.)

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Mark’s Almanac

May is the fifth month & third month of the Roman calendar. May is named for the Greek goddess Maia, who was identified with, Bona Dea, the Goddess of Fertility, who was celebrated in May.

Since ancient times the first day of the month, “May Day” has been a time of celebration. In Rome it honored Flora, the goddess of flowers.

On May the fifth Mexican’s celebrate Cinco De Mayo, the celebration Mexico’s 1862 victory over Napoleon III’s forces at Puebla. This is not, as many assume, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually on September 16.

Rainfall decreases in May as the Azores-Bermuda High strengthens, expands Westward over the Southeastern US & begins rerouting storm systems northward.

The door opens to the Gulf of Mexico & Gulf moisture spreads northward over the continent.

The center of maximum tornadic activity also shifts northward over the Nation’s Heartland. May is the peak tornado month, with a 42% increase over April’s amount.

Eastern Pacific hurricane season begins May 15, and although the North Atlantic hurricane season has not arrived, occasionally a tropical system will form in the Gulf of Mexico. From 1851 to 2016 there have been 23 Tropical Storms and 5 Hurricanes, including an 1863 Category 2 storm, the knowledge of which is based on historical reanalysis by NOAA’s Michael Chenoweth and Cary Mock in 2013 and posthumously given the name Hurricane Amanda, named after, a Union ship the storm washed ashore. It made landfall near Apalachicola Florida.

60% of off-season Hurricanes occur in May

After the costliest Atlantic hurricane season in history last year, early forecasts indicate 2018 will be above average.

Look for 14 named storms, and there’s a greater than normal chance of a major system striking the U.S., according to Colorado State University.

Seven storms could become hurricanes this year and three storms may reach Category 3 or stronger according to the forecast. There’s a 63 percent chance the continental U.S. will get hit by a major hurricane, compared with the 20th Century average of 52 percent.

Days continue to grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon increases from 71.43 degrees at the beginning of the month to 78.6 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 13 hours 31 minutes on May 1 to 14 hours 13 minutes on May 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

May 1 Sunrise 5:59 AM Sunset 7:30 PM
May 15 Sunrise 5:47 AM Sunset 7:40 PM
May 30 Sunrise 5:38 AM Sunset 7:51 PM

Looking towards the sky, Mercury is very low, deep in the glow of sunrise.

Brilliant Venus, magnitude -3.9 shines brightly in the west in twilight. It doesn’t set now until about a half hour after nightfall becomes complete. On May 15th Venus well be at perihelion, or her closest distance to the Sun, 66.8 million miles.

In a telescope Venus is slightly gibbous, being 90% sunlit.

Mars, magnitude -0.2 in Sagittarius rises around 2 AM.

Mars is brightening on its way to an unusually close opposition, or close distance to Earth in late July.

Jupiter, shining very brightly at magnitude -2.5 in Libra, rises around the end of twilight after dark and shines as the brightest point in the sky after Venus sets. He is approaching his closest approach to Earth, or Opposition, 409 million miles, on May 9th so it appears about as bright and big as he will get this year. He is highest in the south, presenting the sharpest views in a telescope, being fully illuminated by the Sun around 1 or 2 AM daylight-saving time.

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, appearing as bright dots on either side of the planet.

By dawn he is getting low in the southwest.

Saturn, magnitude +0.4 in Sagittarius rises around 2 AM, with Mars to the lower left.

This region of the sky has always been one of my favorite places to explore with binoculars, as you are looking into Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way and toward the center of the galaxy. Give me a dark sky away from the city lights, a pair of binoculars, and I will easily become lost for hours draped on a car hood drifting among the star clouds and nebulae of Sagittarius. It’s almost like really being “up there”.

Uranus is hidden in the glare of the Sun.

Neptune is deep the glow of dawn.

The Moon will be at Apogee, or her farthest point from the Earth on May 5 at a distance of 251319 Miles.

The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower, an above average shower, peaks May 6 & 7. It is capable of producing up to 60 meteors per hour at its peak, but, most of the activity is seen in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Northern Hemisphere, the rate can reach about 30 meteors per hour, which is still a decent shower. It is produced by dust particles left behind by comet Halley, due to return in a mere 43 years in the summer of 2061. The shower runs annually from April 19 to May 28. It peaks this year on the night of May 6 and the morning of the May 7. The waning gibbous moon will block most of the fainter meteors this year, but you should be able to catch quite a few good ones if you are patient. Best viewing will be from a dark location after midnight. Meteors will radiate from the constellation Aquarius, but can appear anywhere in the sky.

New Moon will occur May 15 at 6:48 AM CDT or 11:48 UTC. The Moon will 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 deep sky objects such as galaxies and star clusters, as there will be no moonlight to wash out the evening sky.

The Moon will be at Perigee, or her closest point from the Earth on May 17 at a distance of 226041 Miles.

Full Moon will occur May 29th at 9:19 AM CDT or 14:19 UTC. The Moon will be located on the opposite side of the Earth as the Sun and its face will be will be fully illuminated. May’s Moon is “Flower Moon” in Native American folklore, because of the abundance of spring flowers. It has also been called “Corn Planting Moon” & “Milk Moon”.

3725 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of April 26, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/.

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This month’s meeting will be on May 8 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.

ALERT NEWSLETTER – May 2018

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