Subj : SKYWARN Online Training
To : Black Panther
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Tue Nov 29 2016 11:46 am
Dan,
BP@> So, I just finished my online training to be a SKYWARN Spotter for the
BP@> NWS. Overall, the course is very well done. The only thing that I would
BP@> have liked to see, is video of some of the examples. It would help to
BP@> show the rotation and the changing of the colors.
I've never taken the online course...I've been lucky to get the "in person"
ones. One of the Little Rock area ham radio clubs does a basic and advanced
Skywarn training class every other February (alternating years) at the
University Of Arkansas At Little Rock (UALR)...I'm their ham radio club VE
Team Liaison. The current Warnings Coordination Meteorologist (WCM) at the
National Weather Service in Little Rock, Dennis Cavanaugh, is also a ham
radio operator (he came to the area from Fort Worth, Texas), but I forget
his callsign offhand.
BP@> As of right now, I don't have my ham ticket, but I'll keep the number
BP@> for the NWS in Albuquerque programmed in my cell.
As long as you're a certified spotter, and the NWS office knows who you
are, you shouldn't have a problem getting your report in. If I have
"reportable criteria" instead of checking into a local ham radio Skywarn
Net, I call the NWS in Little Rock, directly. It got to be such a madhouse
on the net, with several stations who never bother to check in for a once
a month "Skywarn Training Net", but they come out of the woodwork, when
severe weather threatens. We'd get reports like:
1) The tornado sirens are going off.
2) I have a funnel cloud that's not rotating (likely seeing scud clouds).
3) It started raining here.
4) It's lightning outside now.
As for studying for a ham radio license, I have set up a special page
off of my personal homepage, just for ham radio -- and one of the links
is study materials. It's at:
http://www.wx1der.com/hamradio.htm#study
While some are free, and some have a fee, I used option #10, Ham Test
Online. I went from Technician to General in 14 days, and General to
Amateur Extra 13 days later. It was the best money I ever spent in ham
radio. Plus, the FCC got rid of the Morse Code requirement nearly 10
years ago, so you no longer have to worry about that.
One area ham, who passed away several years ago, told me that "his
secret to learning Morse Code was learning all the dirty words first"!!
I laughed, and said "Well, you can't say them on the air...but, if it
helps, more power to you".
Indeed, a ham radio club out of Dallas was doing a Morse Code class
on the air, and it had an Echolink node, so I could monitor it. The
first 4 characters they taught formed an expletive (the "S" word, and
I don't mean "snow" <G>). But, when you looked at the dot and dash
pattern for the letters, it made perfect sense.
However, the funniest thing I heard about Morse Code (also known as
CW), was at a restaurant in Annapolis, Maryland. Four male hams are at
a table, telling each other dirty jokes in CW. This drop dead, gorgeous,
buxom, curvaceous female walked up them, and admonished "You boys better
watch your language. I teach CW at the Naval Academy across the street",
and walked out!!
Needless to say, they were as red as tomatoes!! <BG>
Daryl, WX1DER
... Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.
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