Hi everyone & welcome to your ALERT Newsletter. I hope everyone had a good Fourth of July & that you enjoyed the fireworks over Red Mountain. As I started thinking about an article for this month’s newsletter the subject of nets and net operations came to mind. I’ve always had a deep interest in Ham nets, both on VHF and HF. My first exposure to Ham Radio was listening to the old Alabama Emergency Net X-ray on 146.940. I vividly remember the night of “The Day Of 100 Tornadoes” back in April of 1974, as wave after wave of storms passed through. I remember the power going out at the house just as the NCS began shouting, “someone kill the autopatch”, which had activated itself just as the line hit, jamming the desperate reports that were flooding in, adding to the drama & chaos of the night. One of the first things I did as a new ham was become active in the 3.965 Net. In the course of time I was an NCS on the AENX now the Jefferson County Emergency Net, the AENN now the Shelby County Net, the AENB now the Alabama Section Net fast speed CW Net and the now defunct AEND slow speed CW traffic Net, of which I was also Net Manager. Nets are interesting creatures. They are one of the best ways to learn and meet the ham community.If you are shy about rag chewing, they give you a chance to “ham it up”. They also give you an excuse to blow the dust off the radio and remind everyone that you are still in the Land O’ The Living. Wild and weird things happen on nets. I remember an SOS in perfect CW, with callsign, being superimposed on the NCS’s signal one night & the hams responding to the distress call, calling 911 and the paramedics finding the address given being an empty field. Weather Nets generate interesting critiques. A vocal few, will get loud and testy that the net has been brought up when their neighborhood is not “under the gun”, and then same dummies will get equally testy that the net isn’t up when a faint peal of thunder from the Mother of All Zephyrs is heard in their nook of the world. Mostly though, nets are fun. So be sure to check into our local nets: BARC Sunday Night Net Sunday at 7PM 146.880 Shelby County ARES Net Tuesday at 8PM 146.980D-Star Net Tuesday at 7:30 145.410Jefferson County Emergency Net Tuesday at 9PM 146.880 When you check in, you might also consider taking the next step & try your hand at being a Net Control Station. There is no better training for emergency net operations than to being an NCS on our local nets. As an NCS you learn the ebb and flow of nets and net operations. You learn how to handle marginal signal and as you learn the ham community sometimes you will know who is checking in just by the voice or signal quirks and characteristics. Your ears become trained to pull the signal out. Someday that can become very important. “I’m seeing a tornado on the ground at Lakeshore and Highway 280. This is WD4fttttttttttttttttttttt.” Though the signal has dumped, you know who it is by the voice and know it’s that crazy old coot that runs the Sunday Night Net. “Oh I might mess up!” you might say. Well, in thirty years of doing nets there isn’t a way to mess up a net that I have tried or invented, from dogs howling in the background, calling the net on the wrong repeater & calling it on the wrong night.I dumped ice water in my lap during the preamble one night, and I never missed a word. True, my voice raised a few octaves in pitch, but still I never missed a word. So don’t be shy about jumping in. When Hub N4HUB, Tom W4TCA or I ask for volunteers on our nets, we aren’t asking for politeness sake. We are actually looking for some willing souls to pitch in. So when you hear us asking for volunteers, you go for it! I double dirty dog dare you to….;-) ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. Mark’s Almanac Originally called “Quintilis”, the fifth Roman month, Quintilis was renamed “July” in 44 BC in honor of Julius Caesar. July is miserably hot, as land temperatures reach their peaks in late July through early August – the Dog Days of Summer. The last week of July is usually the hottest week of the year. Tropical conditions are dominant, with conditions similar to that of the Amazon Valley. This is the time to test the “Brown Grass Theory”. According to the theory, if the grass remains green the temperature will probably not reach 100, but, if the grass turns brown, get set for triple digits. This is a local Birmingham rule, which I learned from the Old Timers at the Birmingham NWS way back when they were on Oxmoor Road. Tornado activity drops sharply, with a 47% decrease nationwide. July has an average of 103 tornadoes. July Hurricane activity normally increases, but major hurricanes are not yet frequent. By months end, one hurricane will have occurred. Seven percent of a year’s hurricane total occurs in July. Long track hurricanes are possible, forming off the African coast and crossing the Atlantic, either to threaten the US East Coast, then eventually veering off towards Bermuda. Or in the case of “Low Latitude” storms, cross the Atlantic, strike the Leeward Islands; enter the Caribbean and then striking the Yucatan, or the Western or Northern Gulf coast. July’s Full Moon is “Buck Moon” in Native American folklore. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. I’m still looking for some articles for the newsletter. Send me some items. After all, you never know when those Pulitzer Committee folk will be reading. This month’s meeting will be on July 13 at 7PM at the National Weather ServiceForecast office at the Shelby County Airport. I hope to see you there. Mark WD4NYL President ALERT www.freewebs.com/weatherlynx/