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Tarmin Village: for ranting and venting » Close, Mother Nature, But Far Enough Away. » 3/25/2024 6:59 am

joekc6nlx
Replies: 4

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Yesterday, my ham radio club had a meeting.  We're not just a club, we are chartered with the county and city as an emergency asset.  As such, we report to a District and to the state of Ohio ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service).  Apparently, in my District, there's a significant amount of upset with the communications picture.  Everyone I've spoken with tells me that what I was doing was great, trying to keep people informed as quickly as possible, even though the regional control station was practically unreadable. A few days ago, I posted a note to our local community forum on Facebook, and explained our role, plus gave them the radio frequency to listen to if they have a scanner.  I can give them the information and encourage them to use it, but it's up to them to use it.  We have become complacent in my county, we haven't been hit with a major tornado since the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak in 1965.  Ironically, we had formal storm spotter training from the National Weather Service only eight days before this storm.  The meteorologist said that just because we haven't been hit in almost 60 years doesn't mean we're protected.  Fortunately, my city was spared, but I've seen videos of this tornado that hit Lakeview, it was on the ground for 47 minutes, traveled nearly 32 miles (51 km), was nearly 1000 yards wide, and winds of 155 MPH.  Anyway, because of this wake-up call, I hope some positive action will be forthcoming.
 

Tarmin Village: for ranting and venting » Close, Mother Nature, But Far Enough Away. » 3/15/2024 10:15 pm

joekc6nlx
Replies: 4

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Yesterday evening, March 14, a line of severe thunderstorms rolled through Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Several of these thunderstorms produced very large hail, up to 1.75" (44mm).  Two towns about 15 miles northwest of me were hit with a tornado, but the worst was 20 miles northeast of me where an EF3 tornado ripped through a trailer park in the small resort town of Lakeview, Ohio.  I was up on the amateur radio nets for my local county's weather reporting, as well as to the regional director station in Dayton, Ohio, some 40 miles south of me.  I have a weather application on my desktop computer that allows me to obtain radar pictures that are less than 2 minutes old, as well as immediate bulletins from our local National Weather Service office.  My job is to alert the listeners in the area of potential dangerous weather.  Since this is amateur radio, it's not necessarily heard by everyone who needs to hear, either because they don't know about it, or they don't have a radio scanner programmed with the frequency.  Their weather radios help to alert, but they don't give specific information about the exact location of the weather in a timely manner.  I have spotters (NOT storm chasers) around the county who report to me on one frequency, and I report to the Dayton station on another frequency.  My radios are capable of sending and receiving on different bands, so there's no mutual interference.  With all of the warnings, at least three people died in that trailer park last night, and recovery efforts are still underway with search and rescue.  The local communities have been overwhelming in their desire to help, and the high school where they dropped off supplies has been quickly to the point where they have no more room. 

My complaint?  The radio link between Dayton and me was terrible, I couldn't understand much of what they were telling us counties, and they were having difficulty understanding us.  I don't know how much of the problem is with my gr

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