ALERT NEWSLETTER – January 2020

Hi Everyone & Happy New Year.

I hope that Santa treated you well and that Father Time will be kind to you also.

As we unwind from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, make sure to mark January 14 on your calendar, as that is our next ALERT meeting.

Other important dates to remember and hopefully attend are:

The Blount County Freezefest 2020, Saturday January 4, from 8 to 12 Noon, at the Locust Fork High School, in Locust Fork.

For more information got to: http://freezefest.w4blt.org/

Amateur Radio Exams will be administered at 2:00 PM Sunday January 12, 2020 at the Birmingham Amateur Radio Club’s site which is at the Alabama Historical Radio Society.

For more information go to: https://w4cue.com/vetest.html

Winter Field Day will he held January 25 & 26.

For more information contact Roger Parsons kk4udu@arrl.net or Johnnie Knobloch kj4opx@arrl.net

Winter Field Day and it’s spring counterpart Field Day are to me one of the most valuable events that ham radio operators can participate in, for it helps give actual experience in a “grid down” situation, where hams have to erect their antennas and power their equipment as in an actual post-disaster scenario. Whether it’s a club or group, providing their own generator and food, or an individual setting up and using his own equipment using alternate power sources, whether that be battery power or battery and solar power, this can provide valuable hands own experience and operating experience that someday could prove vital in during an actual emergency.

Oh, and did I mention that it’s a fun event? It is.

The Birmingham Hamfest is only nine weeks away, March 6 & 7, at the Trussville Civic Center.

This event, will as with last year’s event, will be a Friday & Saturday affair. There will be vendors, a flea market, forums, including one by ALERT and ARES, and Amateur Radio Examinations.

For more information go to: http://birminghamfest.org/

The 2020 Black Warrior Hamfest, which is a cooperative effort by Tuscaloosa Amateur community, will be held at the Tuscaloosa High School on May 2nd, 2020.

For more information go to: http://www.blackwarriorhamfest.org/ or their Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bwhamfest

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ALERT Dues

Before the December meeting, which featured the ALERT Christmas party, the subject of delinquent dues was discussed.

To be eligible to respond to ALERT callouts, vote in ALERT elections, hold leadership positions or have access to the NWSChat system under the auspices of ALERT, you have to be current with your membership dues.

In years past enforcement of this requirement was a perhaps a little lax, however this will now be corrected.

To maintain roster records according to ALERT’s Bylaws, effective January 31, 2020, members who have not paid 2019 dues (which were due on July 2019’s meeting date, per Article IV), will be removed from the ALERT roster. After this point, these members may re-apply.
Per the ALERT Bylaws, ALERT offers four levels of Membership: Friend, Support, Operations and Lifetime Membership.

Friend Membership is open to anyone who believes in and helps with ALERT. Friend Members pay no dues & do not have the right to vote.

This level is designed for those interested in ALERT’s mission, but, cannot take an active part in its operations.

Supporting Membership is open to any person interested in Amateur Radio, Skywarn, or Emergency Communications.

Supporting Members pay the appropriate dues and they have a right to vote.

Upon obtaining a valid Amateur Radio License & receiving training by ALERT, Supporting Members will become eligible for Operations Member status.

This level is designed for those interested in participating, but, do not have an Amateur Radio license. Perhaps they can monitor the Central Alabama Spotterchat and Social Media for instance or provide other means of assistance.

Operations Members must hold a valid Amateur Radio license.

Operations Members must be trained by ALERT in order to be designated as a Control Operator at the National Weather Service.

Operations Members must pay appropriate dues and they have a right to vote.

Finally there is Lifetime Membership.

This level is available after five consecutive years of ALERT Membership. Currently there are two Lifetime Members – Ron Arant – N4PHP and Brian Peters – WD4EPR.

Dues for ALERT are $20.00 for Operations & Supporting Members, $10.00 for family members, $10.00 for students and senior citizens over age 65. Dues are prorated by 50% if paid after January 1 of the current membership year.

Dues for Lifetime Membership are $450 after consecutive membership of five years.

In special cases or hardship, applicants or members may submit a confidential written request to the Board of Directors to have the dues waived or reduced. This request, which will be held in strictest confidence, may be brought to any Board Member: Mark Wells, Russell Thomas, Roger Parsons, Johnnie Knobloch, and Casey Benefield.

More information on dues, the ALERT Bylaws, Membership Applications and the payment address, may be found on the ALERT- Alabama.org website under Join/Documents.
https://alert-alabama.org/blog/?page_id=530

If you are a current member, but, forgot to pay the year dues, or a former member interested in becoming active again or if you have never been a member, but, believe in ALERT and ALERT’s mission of helping the NWS receive the vital information they need so they may issue their life saving warnings, I cordially invite to join or rejoin your Alabama Emergency Response Team!

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Mark’s Almanac

January is named for the Roman god Janus, the god of gates and doors, and so openings and beginnings.

January receives more sunlight than December, but the equilibrium between incoming solar heat and the heat radiated into space by the northern snowfields does not peak until late January and early February, six weeks after winter solstice. So the weather continues to cool, with January 8 – 20 being the coldest part of the year.

Typically in January there is a 53% chance of up to one inch of snow and a 25% chance of over one inch of snow.

With the exception of the southern tip of Nova Scotia, all of Canada and roughly one half of the Continental US, or “CONUS”, are now covered with snow. Canada’s Hudson’s Bay is frozen, as is the ocean water between Baffin Island and Greenland.

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_gif/DATA/cursnow_usa.gif
Barometric pressure is highest in January.

Though the Atlantic Hurricane Season officially ended November 30, every now and then Mother Nature will give us a surprise as there have been 5 tropical storms and 3 Category 1 hurricanes from 1851 to 2018. This includes an unnamed hurricane in 1938 in the Eastern Atlantic & Hurricane Alex which in 2016 effected Bermuda and the Azores.

Birmingham January climatology per Intellicast is monthly rainfall 5.45” inches and snowfall 0.7”. Average high temperature is 53 degrees and the average low 32 degrees. Record high of 81 degrees occurred in 1941 and a record low of -6 degrees in 1985.

Barometric pressure is highest in January.

Days grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon steadily increases from 33.5 degrees at the beginning of the month to 39.2 degrees at the month’s end. Daylight increases from 9 hours 59 minutes on January 1 to 10 hours 33 minutes on January 31.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

January 1 Sunrise 6:52 AM Sunset 4:50 PM
January 15 Sunrise 6:51 AM Sunset 5:02 PM
January 31 Sunrise 6:44 AM Sunset 5:17 PM
Looking towards the sky, Mercury is hidden deep in the glare of the Sun. He will reach “Superior Conjunction” located directly behind the Sun on January 10. He will then begin moving towards the dusk sky.

Venus, magnitude –4.0, is crossing central Capricornus. She shines in the southwest in evening twilight, rising higher each week and is coming into a grand “Evening Star” apparition that will continue all winter and into the spring. As impressive as she will be, she is still nearly on the far side of the solar system from us.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the Constellation Gemini near the 3.6 magnitude star Lambda Geminorum, 101 light years distant.

Earth will reach her closest distance to the Sun on Jan 4, when the planet will be 0.98324 Astronomical Units or 91,398,199 miles from the Sun.
Mars, magnitude +1.6, in Libra, is fairly low in the southeast before and during early dawn. He, like Venus is still on the far side of the solar system from us and so is appears very tiny in telescopes, but, by October he will be on our side of the solar system and will 50 times brighter than now.

Jupiter is hidden behind the Sun.

Saturn will be directly behind the Sun on January 13.

Uranus, magnitude 5.7, in southern Aries, is high in the south-southeast after dusk ends.

Neptune, magnitude 7.9, in eastern Aquarius, is in the southwest right after dark.

4104 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of December 5, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth on January 1, when she will be 251394 miles from Earth.

The Quadrantids Meteor Shower will occur Wednesday & Thursday, January 3 & 4. This is an above average shower producing between 40 to 100 meteors per hour radiating from the constellation Bootes, in the area near the end of the handle of the Big Dipper and the head of Draco the Dragon.

It peaks this year on the night of the 3rd and morning of the 4th. The first quarter moon will set shortly after midnight, leaving fairly dark skies for what could be a good show

This shower favors the Northern Hemisphere because its radiant point, or the point where the meteors appear to originated in the sky, is so far north on the sky’s dome.

This shower is believed to be produced by dust grains from burnt out comet 2003 EH1, which may also be the remainder of comet c/1490 Y1, which was lost to history after a prominent meteor shower was observed in 1490, possibly due to the breakup of the comet.

Full Moon will occur Monday January 10, at 1:23 PM CST or 19:23 PM UTC.

January’s Full Moon is “Wolf Moon” in Native American folklore. This was also called “Wulf-Monath” or “Wolf Month” by the Saxons, because at this full Moon, packs of wolves howled in hunger outside of the villages.

It has also been called “Old Moon” and “Moon After Yule”.
Also on January 10 there will be a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse. 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.

The eclipse will be visible throughout most of Europe, Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, and Western Australia. So get your jet ready!

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on January 23, when she will be 237,399 miles from Earth.

New Moon occurs January 25 at 3:44 PM CST or 21:44 UTC, when the Moon will 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 objects such as galaxies and star clusters because there is no moonlight to interfere.

The Moon will be at Apogee or its farthest distance from Earth again on January 29, when she will be 251,898 miles from Earth.

Now we come to the strange case of Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse or Alpha Orionis is the bright red star marking the left shoulder of Orion The Hunter.

Sitting 640 light years away, Betelgeuse is normally the ninth most luminous star in the sky. However since December it has suddenly and rapidly dimmed to the point that it doesn’t even break the Top Twenty in luminosity.

Betelgeuse is a variable star, known for wild fluctuations, but, not at this rapid a shift.

Betelgeuse is also believed to be on the brink of going supernova and exploding and becoming briefly the brightest nighttime star ever seen. This could happen at any moment, but, with human lifespans being just a flicker of time, this has been the case since long before the days if the Pyramids and may not occur for another thousand millennia.

Or it could be tonight.

More than likely though, it will wait until it’s been raining for a week, as that often tends to be my luck with these kinds of things, for instance the Total Solar Eclipse of March 7, 1970, Comet Kohoutek of December 1973, and others that I could whine about, but I guess I won’t.

One thing that I am especially looking forward to in 2020 is the United States is expected to regaining manned spaceflight launch capability, with both SpaceX and Boeing scheduled to launch crews to the International Space Station.

This will be the first crewed missions the United States has launched into orbit since the conclusion of the Space Shuttle program on July 21, 2011, with the landing of the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Since that date, all American astronauts entering space have been launched aboard Russian Soyuz craft, at currently $86 million per seat.

Using Boeing the cost is $90 million and SpaceX $56 million per seat.

But, it eliminates our foreign dependency for manned spaceflight access, which is good, in case Russia decides that they don’t particularly like us anymore.

Later in this decade, NASA’s Artemis program is scheduled to begin as we return to the Moon and aim towards sending a manned mission to Mars.

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This month’s meeting will be on January 14 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 NEW teleconference number is 1-866-231-8384 & and the conference code is
2056215645#.

Don’t use the old number given in previous newsletters, as it won’t work.

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

Mark’s Weatherlynx
Weather Resource Database
www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/