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CURRENT AND UPCOMING AMATEUR RADIO EVENTS
Tornado Spotted During Eastern New Mexico Severe Thunderstorm Event
Severe thunderstorms moved across eastern New Mexico on May 28, 2008. The stsorms formed along the eastern slopes of the Sandia and Manzano Mountains and moved generally in an eastward direction. During the storm chase, I spotted and took pictures of a tornado that briefly touched down along Highway 84 between Santa Rosa and Las Vegas. Click here to view the storm chase report.
W1VXA Base Station Now Transmitting on 2-Meters and 440 MHz From New Mexico
APRIL 28, 2008: I have installed a Tran Model 1480 2m-440 MHz Dual Band Antenna on the roof of my house. After connecting the feed line and performing SWR testing, the base station is up and running on the 2 m VHF and 70 cm UHF bands. My current plan is to have an HF antenna in place by the summer.
Digital Weather Station Presentation Slideshow Now Available
JANUARY 14, 2008: During the January 2008 NPSARC meeting was a presentation on personal weather stations. The accompanying slideshow Digital Weather Stations for the Ham Shack (Powerpoint) is now available for download.
Severe Weather Outlook
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The Role of Amateur Radio in Emergency Preparedness
Amateur radio is often the first and only means of communication during severe weather events, storm spotting, and storm chasing. During a major storm or other disaster, commercial communications networks (i.e., cellular phones, landline phones, mass media, and Internet) cease to function either by becoming overwhelmed by the flood of people trying to make contact with loved ones, or by physical damage to the network infrastructure. The September 11 Terrorist Attacks and Hurricane Katrina taught us a valuable lesson that it took several days (and for some places weeks) until commercial communications networks were fully restored. Meanwhile, critical information was passed to and from these disaster-stricken areas via amateur radio operators in the days and weeks following these horrific events.
Why? Because the amateur radio service is a self-sustaining network of amateur radio operators and stations, whereby information can be passed with great flexibility. For example, if one amateur radio station becomes inoperable, there are several other stations readily available to fill in the void, creating multiple levels of redundancy that is not present in cellular or landline phone, TV, Internet or commercial radio networks. More importantly, most amateur radio equipment is portable, so amateur radio stations can be quickly moved to locations where they are most needed. In contrast, cellular phone, Internet, and mass media rely on fixed transmission sites, that cannot be moved without great expense. When severe weather strikes, ham radio operators relay storm information and damage reports to the National Weather Service and authorities. The information radio amateurs provide is used to alert the public to protect lives and property.