Skywarn Recognition Day was a 24-hour event where radio amateurs made contact with National Weather Service forecast offices throughout the country on November 30 and December 1. Members of the Naval Postgraduate School Amateur Radio Club, Monterey County ARES, and Santa Cruz County ARES operated the WX6MTR station at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Monterey, California (on the campus of the Naval Research Laboratory).
At its peak more than 15 hams worked on 3 HF radios, one Echolink station, and a VHF rig using two dipoles and one vertical antenna. By 1515 LST on Saturday, December 1, WX6MTR was approaching 150 contacts, including stations from Germany to the Middle East. Rocky W6DNE was logging about 1 QSO every 3 minutes on 40 meters around midday Saturday, while Linda K6GRL and Randolph KC6CGO were busy making contacts from around the world via Echolink. Antennas were provided by Dave W6IIQ and Bob W6HMC. Larry KE6PPE set up his Yaesu FT-897 for work on HF, and Dan W1VXA supplied his "Shack in a Box" including another FT-897 as the second HF workstation, and plenty of coax cable to connect to the antennas.
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Lessons Learned
Dave W6IIQ brought an MFJ antenna tuner to tune his 20 meter dipole for optimal performance on the two FT-897 rigs. When the tuner did not respond to the transmissions of either radio, operators assumed there was a problem with the tuner. Following Skyward Recognition Day, Dave tested the tuner on his Kenwood transceiver and the tuner functioned normally. Jay KG6WIL noted on the Monterey County ARES Net the following Wednesday, that the Yaesu FC-30 external tuner is the only tuner that will work properly on the Yaesu FT-800 Series radios.
Rocky W6DNE indicated that while this year's coordination was improved from SRD 2006, event planners needed a more organized approach to acquiring and managing equipment used in future SRD events. Dan W1VXA noted that while there were several hams willing to lend various equipment for the event, there was no roster of who was bring what, leading to some confusion in the days leading up to the event. It was suggested for SRD 2008 there be one point of contact for personnel and a second point of contact for equipment and supplies.
