ALERT NEWSLETTER – February 2020

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well, and that you are enjoying these mild winter days. With the calm period in our weather it is good to remember that our spring tornado season is just around the corner and now is the time to review your plans and procedures for those storms to come.

Take this time brush up on your skills, check and prepare your equipment and make sure that you have reliable methods to receive timely watches and warnings. This includes NOAA Weatheradio and phone Apps from local broadcast media. This does not include social media posts, as the medium’s algorithm can accidently “bury” a warning in the newsfeed. Also, beware of good meaning “amateur weather experts”, including myself. Instead trust the REAL experts at our NWS. They have the training, knowledge and expertise, which you can place confidence in.

Alabama, as we know, is located in the “Dixie Alley”, distinct from the better known “Tornado Alley” and is one of the most active tornado breeding grounds on Earth.

Some statistics you may find interesting are:

Counties with the most tornadoes from 1950 – 2018

1. Jefferson – 98
2. Baldwin – 96
3. Mobile – 84
4. Cullman – 83
5. Madison – 76
6. Tuscaloosa – 74
7. Marshall – 66

Counties with the most EF4 & EF5 tornadoes from 1950 – 2018

1. Tuscaloosa – 8
2. Jefferson & Morgan – 7
3. Madison – 6
4. Marion, Walker, Cullman, Dekalb, Limestone, Jackson, & Lawrence – 4
5. Blount & Pickens – 3

Tornado Percentages, Injury and Mortality Rates

EF5 Tornadoes account for 0.42% of tornadoes, 15% of injuries and 35% of fatalities
EF4 Tornadoes account for 1.78% of tornadoes, 40% of injuries and 43% of fatalities
EF3 Tornadoes account for 6.85% of tornadoes, 28% of injuries and 16% of fatalities
EF2 Tornadoes account for 20.07% of tornadoes, 12% of injuries and 4% of fatalities
EF1 Tornadoes account for 38.76% of tornadoes, 5% of injuries and 1% of fatalities
EF0 Tornadoes account for 32.81% of tornadoes, 0% of injuries and 0% of fatalities

Note that “0%” doesn’t mean there were no injuries or fatalities, just that they are below 1%.

Here’s hoping that your February will be peaceful and safe.
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Primary Entry Point Radio Stations

Here is a little question for you. Do you know the frequency of North Alabama’s Primary Entry Point Radio Station?

“What in the world is a Primary Entry Point Radio Station?” you are probably thinking.

Primary Entry Point, or “PEP” stations, officially known as the National Public Warning System, are a network of 77 privately owned commercial and non-commercial radio broadcast stations, usually in the medium wave AM broadcast band, that cooperatively participate with FEMA to provide emergency alert and warning information to the public before, during, and after a national or local emergency.

PEP stations are located throughout the country and have a direct link to FEMA and serve as the primary broadcast source for Presidential National Emergency Alert System (EAS) messages. PEP stations network to other broadcast stations in order to disseminate messages throughout the country.

In a widespread disaster they would be vital information sources if the local infrastructure is down.

During more localized emergencies State and local public safety officials can utilize EAS and FEMA PEP stations when they are not in use for National EAS warning messages.

PEP stations are “hardened” with additional broadcasting equipment, backup communications equipment, power generators, fuel systems, emergency provisions, a rest area, and an air filtration system. The stations have been enhanced into shelters with increased survivability of from chemical, biological, radiological air protection and protection from an electromagnetic pulse or EMP.

They are designed to enable them to continue broadcasting information to the public during and after a catastrophic national event.

Beginning with WJR 760 kHz in Detroit and WLW 700 kHz in Cincinnati in 2016, FEMA began the process of constructing transportable studio shelters at the transmitters of 33 PEP stations. The network now has 77 stations that can cover 90% of the American population.

This brings us back to our original question and the answer is North Alabama’s PEP station is WJOX 690 kHz in Birmingham, which normally broadcasts at 50,000 watts during the day and only 500 watts during nighttime hours. But, as they say “I bet they can crank that puppy up to full power if they needed to.”

Other PEP stations of note would be WSM 650 kHz in Nashville, TN, which I can receive day or night, WWL 870 kHz in New Orleans and KMOX 1120 kHz in St. Louis, Mo. All of which are standard features of the nighttime AM radio band.

It is somewhat reminiscent of the old CONELRAD system of the 1950’s and early 1060’s. In that system, in the event of a nuclear attack most broadcast stations went off the air and those 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, to prevent 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.

With the Global Positioning System and the Russian GLONASS navigation satellite systems available for targeting, that is no longer a concern. Getting information to the public is.

For a full map of PEP Radio Stations go to http://pages.iu.edu/~djwild/pep.jpg

Note that this is a large high resolution map which will be easier to view if you save the image to your computer and then zoom it in.

WJOX’s studio is in Homewood, Alabama but, its transmitter is in Midfield, Alabama. Its towers are an unusual arrangement of one full size tower and one shorter tower. They were originally the same size, but on the afternoon of May 6, 1967 an F3 tornado clipped the northern tower and draped it across the Bessemer Super Highway and it was never rebuilt.

WJOX may be more familiar to some as the former “Mighty Six Ninety” WVOK, which along with WSGN 610 kHz (now WAGG), WAPI 1070 kHz and WBRC 960 kHz (now WERC) were AM radio music powerhouses from the 1940’s through 1980’s, and in the cases of WAPI and WBRC, back to the 1920’s.

This brings up an important point. AM radio receivers are still the simplest receivers that can be built. They can literally be made out of the wreckage of other radio and electronic equipment or from spare parts, as is covered in the article “Stone Age Radios” in the November 2017 ALERT Newsletter. (Which you can search for at https://alert-alabama.org/blog/?cat=12).

There is a proposal by the FCC that would allow stations in the AM broadcast band to voluntarily begin transmitting in a digital format. I hope, not because I’m a fossil, but, because of the existing simplicity for emergency use, that this doesn’t signal the beginnings of the end of the AM format of medium wave broadcasting in the 530 – 1710 kHz band. For as it is, even with a average receiver you have coverage of half the country at during nighttime hours, and 50 to 100 mile range during the day.

How well competing digital and analog stations on the same frequency would coexist is a valid question. As it is, at night regional stations fade in and out, and even if you lose one station another usually comes into reception. Would a digital signal basically jam the frequency?

Plus, not intending to disparage the format, just how essential is it to have “stimulating talk radio” at a higher fidelity if it is at the cost of losing a critical and easily accessible format and resource?

It is my hope that good old reliable rough and ready Ancient Modulation radio stations have a long future ahead.

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What’s The Strangest Thing You Ever Heard On A Radio?

This question was recently posed on an online radio forum and I found it to be an interesting question, for in 42 years of Amateur Radio, and even longer in Shortwave, AM DXing and CB, I have heard some strange things, not to mention some strange people.

Looking back, some memories stand out above the others.

There was the time in 1972 when I was listening to a late night talk show on KDKA 1020 kHz in Pittsburgh. It was 7 below zero in Pittsburgh and a lady called the host Jack Wheeler and seriously asked at what temperature silicone implants froze.

Or that night in 1976 when I actually talked to John The Baptist. Or at least that’s what he called himself. If his name was actually John and he was a Baptist, he might have a valid claim to the name. Or, perhaps there was some exceedingly rare band conditions going on that night.

Another strange incidence was listening to a station in Guyana on 20 meters working a DX pileup in the fall of 1978. The operator was working the pile up smoothly, but, was obviously reading from an alternating script. One script told of the “good work they were doing among the natives and villagers.” The other script told about the location, which was described as a tropical paradise and how “you can call the birds out of the trees and they will light in your hands.”

My puny signal could not compete with the Big Boys of Kilowatt Alley and in the end I’m sort of glad that I didn’t work them, for in the next couple of days the world would come to know them as they, the Peoples Temple Cult of Jonestown, would literally “drink the cool aid” and commit mass suicide under the orders of their leader, Jim Jones.

Those were all interesting, but two episodes in particular take the top spots.

Bear with me, if you will, as we visit that strange RF land of south of the 10 meter border and the episode I rank as the second strangest episode, which occurred on a band not a stranger to strange episodes, which we will call “The Papa Joe Incident”.

CB in 1977 was the Wild West of the radio dial. It was a chaotic maelstrom of hundreds of stations trying to talk at once on 23 Channels during the peak of the solar cycle. Some operators obeyed the rules, trying as hard as they could to “keep it legal”. Others didn’t care, with some running so much wattage that the power grid dimmed as they transmitted and their signals came over peoples TV’s, stereos and church PA systems.

I was a teenager who had wanted to become a ham radio operator since I first discovered the realm listening to the Alabama Emergency Net X-ray, now known as the Jefferson County ARES Net, during a tornado outbreak in 1973. I was studying the books, and learning Morse Code for the day when I could figure out how and where to take the Novice test. But, I had no clue who I could contact for information or where to get help, so I was stuck. But, the dream was alive and so I studied. Meanwhile my family was getting CB radios for safety, and so did I. Mine was an exceedingly puny setup. Sometimes folk could hear me, but, usually it was an exception rather than the rule.

Among the souls I encountered was another teenager who went to different high school than I, who went by the moniker “Training Wheel”, and seemed like a likeable fellow. He was active. Very active, in fact, for there never seemed to be a time day or night that he wasn’t on the air.

One of the people he frequently talked to went by the name “Roundman”. For weeks I had been hearing them talk, when another operator, with an unusual slightly slurred guttural voice, calling himself “Papa Joe” appeared.

“Papa Joe” soon started dealing them misery, following them all over the dial interfering, harassing and mocking them. This went on for weeks.

Finally one day during a heated argument “Roundman” invited “Papa Joe” to meet and they would “settle this.” They agreed to meet in the parking lot of a doughnut shop in Five Points West, and they talked to and “chest thumped” at each other until they arrived.
Ten minutes passed by when someone called “Training Wheel” and told him he was “Roundman’s” brother-in-law, and that “Papa Joe” had “brought two other guys with him. They beat ‘Roundman’ with 2 by 4’s and he is hurt real bad, and I’m taking him to Lloyd Nolen Hospital.” He said he would let him know how it turned out and signed off.

Almost immediately “Papa Joe” came on and called “Training Wheel” and said “I just took care of ‘Roundman’, now I’m coming after you.” He then called “Training Wheel” by his actual name, “Billy Smith”, told him the street address where he lived, the color of his house and what car his father drove and ended with the warning “I’m coming for you.”

“Training Wheel” then started calling anyone on the air he had talked to and finally went to Channel 9, which back then was actually monitored for emergency calls, got someone, described what was happening and they in turn called the police. Then silence.

A week went by and I heard nothing. Sometime later I finally I heard “Training Wheel” again and I asked him what happened and he said “I can’t talk about it.”

Around this time I took and passed my Novice test and ham radio took over my radio interest and CB radio faded into the background.

Some months later I happened to turn the CB back on and heard two random stations talking to each other. After a rather long exchange one said to the other “you remember a few months back?
We really had “Billy Smith” going didn’t we ‘Papa Joe?” and the other operator changed his voice to that strange guttural tone and laughing said “we sure did ‘Roundman’”.

It had been a hoax. A well thought out, well executed cruel hoax by two students at the same high school designed to torment a fellow student who for whatever reason, or perhaps no reason at all, just didn’t particularly like.

They apparently did receive some form of reprimand by the school, but, what happened after this I will never know, as ham radio then took my full attention.

It was perhaps one of the earliest examples of “social media” bullying.

But, that’s not “The Strangest Thing I Heard On A Radio”.

In 1983 I had reached Extra Class and had discovered CW Traffic Nets. The Alabama Emergency Net Delta was the Section slow speed training traffic net which met in the middle of the 80 meter Novice band daily at 6:00 PM on 3.725 MHz.

The operators were a mix of operators ranging from Novices to operators who had been on the air 40 or 50 years, including World War 2 Navy CW operators. They were the most fun group I have ever been with. CW was just a second language to them, as natural as rain, and they knew how to have fun with it. “ARF, ARF” someone would send barking before the net answered by a “MEOW”, or a chicken clucking “dit…dit…dit dit dah dit…dit…dit dit dah.” I guess you had to be there, but, it was fun.

Radios with digital readouts were available, but radios using analog dials were the norm. As a result none of the signals were exactly on frequency or “zero beat” with the Net Control Station. Some would be high, some low, some waaaay low, but, the NCS could usually pull them in. Also, some radios had distinctive signals. Some might drift, some might have a slight chirp, key clicks, or uneven power levels, starting low and building up by the end of each character. Add the distinctive sending patterns of hand sent code (which computer code reading programs have difficulty deciphering today) and most of the members could tell who was who just by their signal and rhythm or “fist”, for no two signals were the same.
One night Jake Rosecrans, WA4UCT, now silent key, was the Net Control. He began sending the net preamble and someone immediately began interfering with him, or so we thought.

There was a signal of the exact same frequency and almost the same signal strength filling in the spaces of the CW signal. The first thought was it was a case of “back wave”, which is where a faulty transmitter doesn’t stop transmitting between CW characters, but “fills in the blanks” at a much reduced power level.

But, then we noticed that it wasn’t just Jake’s signal. It was EVERY signal by EVERY station. It was an exact, slightly delayed duplication or mirror image of every signal being sent, regardless of frequency variation, signal variation or rhythm variation. It was like a slightly delayed 80 meter repeater.

We barely managed to finish the net, and, no one could explain what happened.

I know some things it could not be.

It could not have been deliberate manmade interference, for no one could duplicate all of the variations and nuances of the signals being sent. Computers were crude and rudimentary, so they could not have been used to achieve what was heard.

On rare occasions, on some higher HF bands, stations using beams have heard the tail end of their own transmissions as the signals completely circled the Earth. But, this was 80 meters, not 15 meters, where the propagation is decidedly different, and everyone was using long wire antennas. So, this could not be the reason.

It certainly wasn’t EME or Moonbounce, as that requires a bank of beam antennas on VHF or higher, plus the time delay was wrong, as it takes 2.5 seconds for a signal to return to the Earth

The signals had, by my estimate, a 1/16th second delay. Given that radio waves travel at 186,000 miles per second, it would seem by my fuzzy math that something give or take 23,000 miles away was reflecting the signals. Geosynchronous satellites inhabit a realm 22,236 miles above the equator. But, no satellites then or now are designed to reflect or repeat HF radio signals, and if they could, why they would they choose the 80 meter Novice Band in Alabama?

We were never able to explain what happened that night. It never occurred again and I’ve never seen anything even remotely resembling it being mentioned by any source in the years since.

It truly is a mystery, and so “The Echo” takes first place in my list of “Strangest Things I Ever Heard”.

So, what is the strangest thing you have heard?

Let us know.

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Mark’s Almanac

February, or Februarius, as the Romans called it, is named after the Latin term februum, which means “purification”. Ancient Rome celebrated the Februa purification ritual on February 15, which was Full Moon on the old lunar based Latin calendar.

February was not originally included in the Roman calendar, which began in March, but was added, along with January by Numa Pompilius around 713 BC, and until 450 BC was considered the last month of the year.

February was originally 29 days long, but one day was taken and added to August, so the that Emperor Augustus’s month would be equal to Julius Caesar’s month of July. Now only Leap Year, which 2020 is, has 29 days.

In the Southern Hemisphere February is the equivalent of August. But, for us, February is a cold month with more snow falling in February than in any other month.

Statistically speaking, there is a 70% chance of snow flurries, and a 57% chance of snow up to one inch. There is a 13% chance of over one inch, and a 3% chance of 4 inches or more.

There is hope on the horizon though, as the worst of winter weather is usually over by February 15.

North Atlantic Tropical activity is at a minimum. From 1851 to 2018 there has been only one Tropical Storm to occur, 70 MPH Tropical Storm #1, which affected Florida on February 2 & 3, 1952.
Days grow longer as the Sun’s angle above the noonday horizon rapidly increases from 39.5 degrees at the beginning of the month to 48.6 degrees at the end. Daylight increases from 10 hours 35 minutes on February 1 to 11 hours 26 minutes on February 28.

Sunrise and sunset times for Birmingham are:

February 1 Sunrise 6:44 AM Sunset 5:18 PM
February 14 Sunrise 6:33 AM Sunset 5:31 PM
February 28 Sunrise 6:17 AM Sunset 5:43 PM

Looking towards the sky, at the beginning of the month we find Mercury, magnitude -1.0, is rising higher in the Western sky at sunset.

On February 10, Mercury reaches his highest altitude of 18.2° above the horizon in the western evening sky, also called ”Greatest Eastern Elongation” and then begins sinking lower into the sunset.

This is the best time to view Mercury since it will be at its highest point above the horizon in the evening sky. Look for the planet low in the western sky just after sunset.

Mercury will reach Perihelion or his closest approach to the Sun in his elliptical orbit on February 11, when he will be 28,537,000 miles from the Sun.

He will then begin lowering in the sky and by the 25th He will slip below the horizon and pass between the Earth and Sun, or be in “Inferior Conjunction.”

Venus, magnitude –4.1 in Aquarius, is the brilliant Evening Star shining in the southwest during and after twilight. In a telescope Venus still appears small and gibbous or 75% sunlit. But she will enlarge in size and wane in phase as she shines in the evening for the next four months.

Earth, magnitude -4.0, as viewed from the Sun, is in the Constellation Capricorn.

Mars, magnitude +1.4, the feet of Ophiuchus, glows in the southeast before and during early dawn. To his right is the Mars colored star Antares, at magnitude +1.1.

Antares will be twinkling; Mars won’t, for planets normally don’t twinkle.
Jupiter, magnitude –1.9, in Sagittarius is very low in the glow of sunrise. About 40 or 30 minutes before sunup, look for Him just above the southeast horizon. Nothing else in the vicinity is nearly as bright.

Saturn is lost in the glow of sunrise.

Uranus, magnitude 5.8, in southern Aries, is high in the southwest right after dark.

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

3108 planets beyond our solar system have now been confirmed as of January 16, per NASA’s Exoplanet Archive http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

Full Moon will occur February 9 at 1:34 AM CST or 7:34 UTC. February’s Full Moon is “Full Snow Moon” in Native American folklore, since the heaviest snows usually fall at this time of year. Since the harsh weather made hunting difficult, some tribes called it “Full Hunger Moon”.

This is also the first of four Supermoons for 2020. The Moon will be at its closest approach to the Earth and may look slightly larger and brighter than usual. But, they are never as dramatic or prophetic as social media tends to claim them to be.

The Moon will be at Perigee or its closest approach to Earth on February 10, when she will be 223,982 miles from Earth.

New Moon will occur at 9:33 AM CST or 15:33 UTC on Monday, February 23, as the Moon will be 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 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 on February 26, when she will be 252,489 miles from Earth.
The February sky is alit with bright stars. Orion the Hunter is overhead, along with his faithful hunting dogs, Canis Major & Canis Minor, the Large & Lesser Dogs. In Canis Major is the blue star Sirius, The Dog Star, which 8.6 light years away, is the brightest star in the night sky.

February and March are the best times of the year for seeing the Zodiacal Light. In the evening away from city lights and after twilight has faded you might see a faint, roughly triangular, whitish glow near the sunset point. This is Zodiacal Light, which is formed by the sunlight reflecting off millions of minute particles of cosmic dust aligned with the Earth’s orbital plane.

Another sight, much more common is the Earth Shadow. At sunset, on very clear days, as the sun goes farther below the horizon, you will see what appears to be a layer of gray cloud rising along the eastern horizon. This is actually the silhouette of the earth’s shadow being cast against darkening sky, sometimes with a pinkish glow along the edge. It fades as twilight fades into darkness.

The pink fringe, which is technically called an “anti-twilight arch” was called in Victorian times “The Belt of Venus” or “Venus’s Girdle” and the shadow itself being “the dark segment”.

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The next Volunteer Exam Amateur Radio testing session will be 2:00 PM Sunday, February 9, 2020, at SCARC’s site in Pelham. For more information go to http://w4shl.com

This month’s meeting will be on February 11 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.

A final notice or warning, if you will, if you have not paid your dues, you need to do so. For, you WILL be dropped from the roster if you haven’t by this meeting.

There will be a Basic NWS Storm Spotter class on February 24 at 6:30 PM. Go to https://www.join.me/ and follow the prompts and use the Session Code 399-450-619
Last but, not least, the Birmingham Hamfest http://birminghamfest.org/ is now only five weeks away, Friday and Saturday March 6 & 7 at its new home at the Trussville Civic Center. For more information go to http://birminghamfest.org/

Hope to see you there!

Mark / WD4NYL
Editor
ALERT Newsletter
wd4nyl@bellsouth.net

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