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Should QCARC continue giving VE Exams before club meetings in even months?
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Even though the hurricanes are well south of Pennsylvania, amateurs in our area may still be able to help pass health and welfare traffic. The hurricane watch net should be active as you read this. The net will be active on 14.325 MHz, then switch to 7.268 as conditions change. Check for the latest updates and additional information at www.arrl.org and look for the links on that page relating to the hurricane response.
Area amateurs recently had an opportunity to actually test preparedness at the Baker Trail Ultra-Marathon where amateurs provided communications along a 50 mile trail where cellular communication was mostly unavailable. This was the real deal in testing the functionality of equipment and abilities of the operators to set up effective station to provide needed communications from areas that were really out in the sticks. Setting up in the driveway is easy, it is pretty much a known quantity with few if any surprises that will need to be contended with. When amateurs are out in real conditions all bets are off that it will be easy, there are typically issues that will have to be addressed that are difficult to anticipate and simulate in the driveway.
This year we were a few stations short, even though the event was promoted soon enough to plan to help and learn. The learning process does not stop once a person obtains a call sign, it actually ramps up. With the license folks can actually press the microphone button and learn to communicate. That learning can also be obtained by participating in contest which are to some folks find scary and something they shy away from. Contests also provide a great environment for on the air training due to the variety of signal strengths you encounter and sometimes the varying accents from across the country as well as around the world. The bottom line is that practice makes perfect, in most activities, in our lives. Actually you can believe that practice makes perfect in our hobbly. Think about practicing at an event or a contest so when the real deal occurs you will more likely be prepared.
Sometimes things do not all ways as they appear. SkyWarn training may conjure up ideas of intense detailed training for the likes of those who are meteorologists. No so! This training is for the everyday person on the street, so to say. The training gives the everyday person the background to recognize and report on severe weather issues that may impact themselves, families, friends and neighbors. Since severe weather is one of those events that can happen to everyone, not just someone else, getting the training to help prevent injuries and maybe even damages can be an asset. Whether you are part of an organized group that participates in SkyWarn or an individual who would rather do it on their own, you need the training to pass along the appropriate information to the Weather Service Forecast Offices, or to be able to protect yourself. The training that is made available is not something intuitive that we are born with.
Register by sending an email advising that you want to attend the SkyWarn training to the Clearfield County Assistant EMA Director at: “smignot at clearfield911 dot com” The training is scheduled for July 19, 2017 at 6:30 PM at the Clearfield County 911 Center at 911 Leonard Street just east of Clearfield off Rte. 322. Talk-in on the 147.315 repeater.
The SkyWarn presentation has been rescheduled for July 19, 2017. This training is open to amateur radio operators as well as the general public. See the following information from Peter Jung, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, State College : 1 – SkyWarn Training: July 19th at 6:30 pm. Registration in this method is important so that we can get an accurate count of who will attend, and a way to directly reach out via email should we need to do a last minute cancellation or change. GENERAL REMINDERS FOR SKYWARN CLASSES
Since the National Weather Service outline for Severe Weather Week encompasses the weather that we encounter in our area, it might just be a great idea to The topics covered each day will be: Monday – Tornadoes, Tuesday – Severe Thunderstorms, Wednesday – Flash Flooding, Friday – SkyWarn™ Spotters. You can click on the weekdays a few lines below the icons.
The National Weather Service Flood Safety Awareness Week Begins March 27. Considering we experience flooding in our area rather often, it is likely worth your time to check out the National Weather Service flood safety week web page at http://www.weather.gov/ctp/floodSafetyWeek The week starts out with information on the continuing effort to modernize the hydrologic information that enables the general public to be aware of water levels in bodies of water in their areas. An interactive, real time hydrologic map of PA. Toward the bottom of Monday’s page are a couple downloads in .pdf format that may be of interest. One of my favorite topics is the “Turn Around Don’t Drown” information that is available, that EVERYONE should follow. If people do not follow the simple phrase they are risking not only their own life and those who may be in the vehicle with them but also the lives of the rescue responders. The “Turn Around Don’t Drown” campaign is highlighted Tuesday. The balance of the week includes; the causes and severity of floods, flood insurance and flood safety. Please take some time to refresh yourself of flooding issues and the safety points that everyone should be aware of.
If there is anything true about our world it is change! The changes on the NWS pages has been moved to April, as the information states.: As part of our continued effort to modernize weather.gov, the National Weather Service (NWS) is upgrading our point forecast, zone forecast, and product pages. Once these changes go live on March 7, all existing bookmarks to forecast.weather.gov will change. Links to a forecast page will display an error message that includes a URL to the new location. You will need to update your bookmarks to continue to access our forecasts quickly after the upgrade. After March 7, the new URL can also be found by searching for your location from forecast.weather.gov or www.weather.gov. These changes will not impact office pages located at www.weather.gov If you run an automated process to get NWS data from forecast.weather.gov, you will need to switch to the new developer API by March 7. Specifications for the new API can be found here. The primary focus of the upgrade is to make the forecast pages more reliable during weather events, but there are some new benefits of new forecast pages that include:
As we’ve seen this winter, the weather can change rather quickly. Especially when traveling, we need to be prepared for those extremes during our winter travels. One of the biggest issues this winter has been the occurrence of white-outs. Often times these winter squalls materialized so fast there is no time to react and the ensuing results can be catastrophic, as we have seen in our locale. Preparing for winter travel includes both the folks in the vehicle as well as the vehicle. Click on the Getting Traction graphic for more information about preparing yourself and your vehicle for travel during the winter. You can never be too safe!
With hurricane Matthew’s track that effected Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba, it is probable there will also be issues in the Bahamas, Florida and points north Remember that 7.268 MHz & 14.325 MHz are used for the Hurricane Watch Net http://www.hwn.org/ and given the nature of the communications please refrain from operating nearby to prevent any interference with the relief efforts. Please do not check into the emergency or weather nets unless you have something relevant to contribute. 14.325 7.080 14.265 7.045 7.268 3.740 7.120 3.720 7.110
During this week, to be prepared, you should: > Understand actions you can take to be prepared for emergency  Build a kit. Include enough food, water and medical supplies for your needs in your emergency kit to last for at least 72 hours. Ready.gov/myplan. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Ready. Information and graphics provided by FEMA
A surprising statistic in the U.S.A. for 2016, as of August 21 there have been 27 fatalities due to lightning, which is the total for 2015! It is difficult to definitively determine why so many people have been killed by lightning strikes so far this year. It could be that the word is not getting out. It could be that people are not hearing the information about the seriousness of lightning. It could be that people are just plain ignoring the fact that lightning is a major factor in deaths, especially during outdoor activities. Personally I believe it is the last possibility.  Lightning strikes the Empire State Building and other buildings Please heed the warnings especially about moving indoors when you first hear lightning. I have first-hand experience when it comes to seeing the “bolt out the blue”. When the “bolt out of the blue” struck, I believe the storm was about 10 miles away. By the way, myself nor the other fellow who I was talking to heard thunder! Fortunately we were in his house but only about eighty feet from the tree that was struck. That was one lesson learned but everyone does not have the luck of a safe experience of a close strike to talk about. Click on the photo of lightning striking the building for and interesting list of “Lightning Myths and Facts”. Check out the National weather Service web site about the lightning strike statistics at: Also check out the web site on ways lightning strikes people at:
The Quad County Amateur Radio Club is a Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador “Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™ and the Weather-Ready Nation Ambassador™ logo
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along the coast as well as inland from the coast. The following frequencies have been posted, by Sean Kutzo of the ARRL, as frequencies that may be used by relief agencies and would be advisable to avoid for general contacts. Check 
