Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 18

WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_18_JANUARY_30_2016

Welcome to the 18th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, our first for 2016. In this issue, we have much the same exciting articles you have come to know throughout the last 17 issues of the newsletter. There may also be a few new things thrown in there, to keep you interested. Please read on and enjoy.

Hello, this is your friendly author welcoming you to the 18th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. It’s a new year and a new issue, of course. After a rather warm December in Southern Ontario we have finally turned the corner and gone below freezing during the day, as of December 27th. So far this winter has been much kinder to us than the last two but we haven’t exactly got off scot free. We have had some snow and more or less seasonable temperatures this year and no real prolonged cold snaps either. Also, no real significant mild spell as yet since after Christmas. However, it will come and spring will be here before we know it.

For those of you who are Ham’s, the Weather Radio Net has returned and I have made some changes, which will hopefully encourage more participation in the net over all. I have been hoping to hear from some of my friends out in Atlantic Canada and more check ins south of the border, for example. As of February 1st, the net now meets twice a week on Mondays at 7:00 PM ET and on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM ET. The Monday net runs for about 30 minutes while the Wednesday net will go for about an hour. We have been very fortunate to have a new IRLP reflector added to the family, in the form of the East Coast Reflector 9219 out of Raleigh North Carolina. However, it is only for our use during the winter, in the absence of our home reflector 9038 (Ontario Public Service Reflector). I may consider using it as our winter IRLP reflector, from January to April in the future and I will have more to say about that, possibly in the November issue.

As for Wednesday’s nets, I will now be asking people to check in with reports on their weekly SAME alert tests for their local area’s WXR. However it will be on an optional basis. This is because not everyone who checks in has a radio with SAME or even a standalone Weather Radio, as their way to listen to Weatheradio Canada. As for NOAA Weather Radio, I will let it slide because they don’t need our help as much because they can monitor it from their local weather offices and there are some videos on YouTube which can prove this. Sorry, I don’t have any links I can find to back up what I just said but it’s true, I can assure you.

As for Weatheradio Canada, things are going okay as far as I know with very little watchdog activity. With the exception of XLK473 in Halifax going into watchdog mode twice on December 14th 2015. But, there wasn’t a clearly defined time stamp on when it went down or when it came back. So, because of this I chose not to include it in The Watchdog Report below. Oh, there is another outage that occurred which will be in the Watchdog Report because it was much easier for me to nail down, as to when the network developed problems and when things were resolved. There will also be an article later in the newsletter, reviewing how Watchdog works because some people have erroneously said that there Weatheradio Canada transmitter was actually in watchdog mode, when it wasn’t. This happened during another ham radio net, where Weatheradio Canada’s outage problems were the main focus for the evening. For more on that, check out The Watchdog Review and report.

One thing I should also point out to those of us who live in Canada…. Environment Canada is now called Environment and Climate Change Canada and the website URL’s may change in the future, with a new domain. For example: much of the email addresses for those who work at this service have the following address as follows: firstname.lastname@canada.ca. I don’t know if or when the website URL’s will or have changed yet but I guess we will all find out in the next issue of this newsletter.

I hope everyone has a great 2016 and hopefully, the weather is as good to us as we would like it to be. Well, I can dream and you never know what Mother Nature will throw at us.

WEATHER RADIO GETTING A NEW VOICE?

This is interesting, not only to listeners of NOAA Weather Radio but also to listeners of Weatheradio Canada too. https://www.facebook.com/groups/2259251611?view=permalink&id=10153142863361612

The article in the link is about NOAA Weather and its voice upgrade. Weatheradio Canada will get one eventually but not without testing the new voices in both languages out. I can’t really talk about them but I have heard that they are very good.

As has been mentioned in the past in the newsletter, Weatheradio Canada uses an in-house software called Avipads. It has been using the same two voices since it first came to service around 1996. The drawback with the current system is that there are limitations on the words being used. For example: an entire severe weather bulletin cannot be read out by the computer on the network because the dictionary for it only has a certain number of words in its vocabulary.

Unlike NOAA Weather Radio, which uses a system very similar to what visually impaired and totally blind people like myself use, with Computers, IPhones, iPods, etc. This new upgrade will hopefully come to fruition on the Canadian network sometime this year as well. I personally hope so because I like hearing the bulletin as it is written and not just that a watch or warning is issued for where I live. I don’t mind looking on the internet for more details on possible severe weather but not everyone has access to a computer or a device which allows for internet usage. Need I say more? 

WATCHDOG REVIEW

Back in November 2015, there was a problem with Weatheradio Canada and it included a report of a few WXR’s, going into watchdog mode. This happened during the weekend of November 21st and 22nd 2015 and for more details, check out The Watchdog Report for more on this.

On Sunday November 22nd, the Procom Net on ham radio, asked for reports on whether

Weatheradio Canada in Ontario was either in watchdog or had other problems. As for watchdog,

some people erroneously told the Net Control Station that their transmitter was in watchdog mode. They had assumed that the last forecast issued meant that 3 hours from that was when their WXR was in watchdog mode when in fact, this wasn’t the case.In past issues, it has been explained that watchdog usually starts after 3 hours of no new data. This includes forecasts, bulletins and hourly reports. Most people had heard a time stamp in the forecast being spoken at the time, on their WXR that was More than 3 hours before the net. They actually thought that their WXR was in watchdog mode. Actually, what you should be listening for is the hourly public weather and marine reports and they are heard after either the public or marine forecasts in both English and French. For example: if it is 8:20 PM and the last hourly report was at 5:00 PM, then you can be sure that your Weatheradio Canada transmitter will be in watchdog mode in a few minutes. At which time, your Weather Radio will alert you and a canned message stating a “technical difficulty with our broadcast” will repeat in both English and French, until the computer is reset and things are all right again. If you hear the following phrase “weather conditions at 5:00 PM” and it is 8:20 PM, then watchdog isn’t too far off.

My suggestion to NCS stations for The Procom Net is to drive the point home about what to listen for, so people don’t confuse the issue and give incorrect reports. The next time this sort of net is done again, I will ask to be called on at the beginning, to review what to listen for, as I am the closest to Weatheradio Canada for the amateur radio community in Canada. I actually knew about the net, as I will explain below but I wasn’t called upon to explain how watchdog actually works and what people should be listening for. I made the suggestion to the Net Controller to ask for reports on watchdog on that Sunday’s net and he agreed with me and did it. Unfortunately, the confusion about what to listen for began, as some people were stating the time stamp in the forecast mentioned above and it was assumed that the local WXR was in watchdog mode. I had to point out to everyone, when I checked in, what people should be listening for and it partially sunk in but not everyone had heard my explanation on how watchdog actually works. I am very sorry that watchdog wasn’t better explained in the first issue but I certainly hope it is much clearer to everyone who is reading this now.

Remember, watchdog happens after 3 hours of no new data and the key thing to listen for, is the public and marine hourly reports. If you hear a report from 2 or 3 hours ago then, watchdog is imminent and your Weather Radio will alert you to it in minutes or even seconds.

FROM THE BLOG

My First Bus Trip In A Year

THE WATCHDOG REPORT

If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right on your local Weather Radio transmitter, there are various ways to report a problem that depend on where you live. If you live in The United States, you can call 1-888-697-7263. You can email NOAA at nwroutage@noaa.gov, or on the web at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr. If you live in Canada, you can call 1-877-789-7733. You can email the National Weatheradio Canada Team at Wxradio@ec.gc.ca. Also, you can report it on the NOAA Weather Radio Weatheradio Canada Facebook page and the Yahoo Weatheradio Chat Group. You will find the link to both the Facebook and the Yahoo group later in this issue and all issues of the newsletter. You can also email the author directly at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com and it will be passed on for you.

On Friday November 20th around 7:25 PM, some WXR’s in Ontario have gone into watchdog mode. They came back over the course of Monday November 23rd. This resulted in sometransmitters reverting back to dial-up, including Toronto XMJ225 and St Catharine’s VAD320, among others. This was until the problem was fixed, also on Monday November 23rd. Here is an explanation for this, as it was given to me by Weatheradio Canada.

Over the weekend, the Government of Canada switched internet service providers for our entire network. This resulted in a period of downtime for FTP loading between 4-7 am EDT on Sunday, right across the Weatheradio and ATAD network. As a precaution, those locations that could be switched to dial-up, were. This was done to avoid possible data loss, since the dial-up process was unaffected by the planned service disruption.

WEEKLY SAME AND 1050 Hz. TONE TEST REPORT

The following are reports from listeners on the weekly (rwt), monthly (rmt) SAME tests sent to each site in Canada. However, it is not complete so we need you to send your reports to the author as well as Wxradio@ec.gc.ca. You are also encouraged to give reports on the Weather Radio Nets on Wednesdays if possible. Remember, the 1050Hz Tone test and SAME Required Monthly Test is performed on the first Wednesday of each month just before noon local time. The SAME Required Weekly Test is performed every Wednesday around 11:50 local time.

Date Call Sign Tx Frequency (MHz) Name alphanumeric or basic tone alert test alarm time

Wednesday November 4th, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:53 AM, (RMT) 11:57 AM, (1050 TONE) 11:59 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:55 AM, (RMT) 12:01 PM, (1050 TONE) 12:00 PM local.

Wednesday November 11th, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 A.M. local,

 Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Wednesday November 18th, Ottawa (VBE719 162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:55 A.M, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM

Wednesday November 25th, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Ottawa (VBE719 162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11.53 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Wednesday December 2nd, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 12:18 PM, (RMT) 12:18 PM, (1050 Hz. tone) 12:16 PM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 12:20 PM, (RMT) 12:20 PM, (1050 Hz. tone) 12:16 PM local. This report was late because the Avipads process had crashed for a time. It was looked into and obviously, we have our report for this week.

Wednesday December 9th, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local.

Wednesday December 16th, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Wednesday December 23rd, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local

Wednesday December 30th St Catharine’s VAD320 162.475 MHz (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Toronto XMJ225 162.400 MHz (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Wednesday January 6th 2016, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM, (RMT) 11:57 AM, (1050 Hz. tone alert) 11:59 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM, (RMT) 11:59 AM, (1050 Hz. tone alert) 11:59 AM local.

Wednesday January 13st, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Ottawa VBE719 (162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local. 🙂

Wednesday January 20, St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local.

Wednesday January 27th St Catharine’s (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 A.M. local, Ottawa (VBE719 162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:53 A.M local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

CANWARN (CANadian Weather Amateur Radio Network) is a volunteer organization of amateur radio operators who report severe weather and damage reports to Environment Canada when they see it. Weather reports from amateur radio operators help confirm on the ground what satellites and radars see in the atmosphere. The information gathered from CANWARN is also used to update and fine tune weather warnings, fill in gaps in current observing networks and is also valuable in forensic storm analysis. When Environment Canada issues severe weather watches or warnings, they may alert the CANWARN volunteer Net Controllers in the affected areas. The volunteer Net Controllers contact other CANWARN members on the amateur radio, tell them a watch or warning has been issued and ask them to report signs of approaching severe weather. In the US SKYWARN is the American counterpart to CANWARN in Canada and the purpose for it is exactly the same.

For this section of the newsletter, we will explore how different CANWARN and SKYWARN groups operate in their local region, from time to time. There may be some SKYWARN information from meteorologists in this issue and there will be some tips on how to report severe weather for both CANWARN and SKYWARN. We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.
GEOFF COULSON FOR ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE CHANGE CANADA

Hello everyone, Geoff Coulson from Environment and Climate Change Canada here again for my annual message through the Weatheradio Newsletter. I’m a Warning Preparedness Meteorologist and I’ve been with the government for over 32 years. I also manage the CANWARN storm spotter program in the province of Ontario. CANWARN members are volunteers from all walks of life. A core of the group is ham radio operators while other volunteers come from other levels of government, emergency responders and those with a passion for the weather.

CANWARN volunteers watch the skies and the local weather happenings in their neighbourhood and report occurrences of severe weather, in real-time, to the Storm Prediction Centre in Toronto. This information can be used to help ground-truth such things as the severity of a summer storm that the forecasters may be tracking on radar or confirm the occurrence of white-out conditions and heavy snowfall during a snow squall event near the Great Lakes. There are currently over 6000 CANWARN volunteers in the province of Ontario and many of these volunteers have attended a training session in the last few years.

The strong El Nino event anticipated for this past fall and this winter continues to have a noticeable effect on our weather. An El Nino event occurs when warmer than normal temperatures occur in the equatorial Pacific off the coast of South America for an extended period of time. El Nino events can affect the weather over many parts of the planet. In Ontario, El Nino tends to provide somewhat warmer and drier than normal conditions during the fall and winter timeframes. This particular El Nino has been dubbed the “Godzilla” El Nino for its strength and it has certainly influenced our weather over the past few months. November was milder than normal while December shattered records for being the warmest ever across much of the province. January will likely turn out to be a little warmer than normal in most locations and this trend is expected to continue into February and March. The milder weather has resulted in lots of open water remaining over the Great Lakes and this, in turn, has caused lake effect snow to continue to be significant for areas to the lee of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.

While we still have a bit of winter left to go, my thoughts are now turning to the spring schedule of CANWARN training sessions. These training sessions normally take place in the late April to mid-June timeframe. The training usually takes place during evenings or weekend mornings and lasts around 2.5 hours. There is no cost to attend a training session. I normally start sending out training notifications in the late March to early April timeframe. If you’d like to learn more about the CANWARN program or be entered on the training notification email list, feel free to contact me at geoff.coulson@canada.ca

CANWARN 2016

As for the author’s participation in this year’s training sessions, I plan to go to multiple sessions this year, in order to spread the word about the newsletter. Many thanks to Geoff Coulson for his friendly help last year, in encouraging others who may not be aware of its existence to join us. However, there are many others, particularly in the ham radio community that I would like to join us and haven’t yet. Some I know and some I don’t know as well but I know they are CANWARN trained and some also have knowledge about Weatheradio Canada like I do. Hopefully with your help I can go to a few sessions throughout most of Southern Ontario at least and all of the sessions in the GTA. You know how to contact me and we can nail down the details from there, when the time is right. I hope to meet as many of you as possible this year, at a local CANWARN session.

SKYWARN

SKYWARN Recognition Day was on December 5, 2015. For more on that here is the link.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/mtr/hamradio/

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites.

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

If you are CANWARN trained you should give the following information to the weather office in order to help them ground truth:

Your name, CANWARN ID, contact number, – Where – you are located and the approximate location of what you are reporting, – Describe what you are witnessing/what you witnessed, the time of occurrence of the event and duration, its movement (where the phenomenon came from and where it is going).

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Hail (use coins to describe its size…dime, nickel, quarter, loonie for larger hail…golf ball etc.),

Heavy rain that has resulted in local flooding, Damaging winds (damage from tree branches down to more significant tree or structural damage), Large scale rotation in a thunderstorm such as: Wall Cloud – Funnel Cloud, Waterspout and Tornado, Dense fog – visibility less than 1 km

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For the fall/winter, please report the following:

Dense fog (visibility less than 1 km), Any occurrence of freezing rain or freezing drizzle, Heavily accumulating snow (2 or more cm/hr), Whiteout conditions in snow/blowing snow (visibility near zero), Rapid freezing of water on road surfaces.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report:

Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-alikes; watch for rotation)waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

Winds (40 mph or greater; specify whether they are estimated or recorded), large branches downed (specify the diameter of the branch), Trees/power lines downed, Structural damage to buildings such as roof, windows, etc.

Rainfall (1 inch or greater in an hour) (NOT a 1″/hr. rate for 10 minutes), 2 inches or greater

storm total, Flooding — Streams/Rivers — also, when nearing bankful — Coastal — Street (Road Closures/Washouts, Cars Stuck due to flood waters. Minimum of 6″ of water covering an entire roadway or lane of a major route/highway).

For Winter Weather you should report:

Precipitation type change (rain to sleet/freezing rain/snow, when the change has “taken hold”), Thunder when it is accompanied by snow, 1/4″ radial ice accretion (from twig outward; not circumference), New Snowfall from the First 2 inches; every 2-3 inches thereafter, 1 inch per hour or greater.If it is less than 2 inches total, give the final total only Give final total: no partial reports please)

Report any snow/sleet/freezing rain if not in NWS forecast.

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

WHERE TO PURCHASE WEATHER RADIO’S

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/

Weather Radio Store at http://www.Weatherradiostore.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo. 🙂

WEATHER INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows;

In Canada the current websites URL is http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds like before buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/,

The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Newsletter is published four times a year. There is some seasonal information to notify recipients of additional weather information available to them that they may not know about (most of which can be found on the NOAA Watch web site

http://www.noaawatch.gov/ . At this site you can also subscribe to various weather feeds. The rest of the newsletter remains relatively unchanged due to outreach requirements. The current newsletter is available at the NOAA Weather Radio website

http://www.weather.gov/nwr/news.htm. At this time, there is no newsletter mailing list to subscribe.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx at http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwicks blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

WEATHER OR WEATHER RADIO APPS

This is a newly constructed list and it needs more results for future reference. If you have ideas for Weather or Weather Radio apps which should be put into future issues of the newsletter, send an email to the author at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com. Right now these are IPhone apps only, because that is all we have at the moment. Your help is needed to expand this list farther.

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i This app is simple but is full of features that you can unlock by purchasing others within the app.

Weather Alert Ontario 2 by Christopher Coudriet https://appsto.re/ca/yNZeC.i

This app sends you push notifications of watches and warnings only, with the SAME alert sound.

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

This app provides weather and forecast information for both Canada and the US from Environment Canada and the National Weather Service respectively. In fact all apps mentioned here provide information from one or both sources. There is a version you pay for but to me, it is the same as the free version.\

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more. 

WEATHER RADIO NETS ON THE INTERNET

The authors own Weather Radio Net meets on Monday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 PM ET throughout the year on IRLP reflector 9038 and Echolink node VE3ZHR 591897. We also meet on the East Coast Reflector 9219 out of Raleigh North Carolina during the winter, starting in 2017. As for the summer usage, it is used for other nets for which an additional list is provided here below, from Daryl Stout WX1DER.

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.During the off-season hurricane months from December through May, the net meets on the FIRST SATURDAY of the month ONLY. During the Atlantic Hurricane Season, from June through November, the net meets WEEKLY, at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time.

Also, note that on the first Saturday of December, the net is ONE HOUR EARLIER…at 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central, 5pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time. This is so at the conclusion of Skywarn Recognition Day, stations don’t have to wait for the net to occur.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net

b) Southeast US D-Star Weather Net — Meets at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 7pm Mountain, and 6pm Pacific, every Sunday night, on Reflector 2, Port A. The net also meets on the Southeast US D-Star Weather Net Ratflector on D-Rats.

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

Lastly, stations can get a list of selected D-Star Nets during the week by sending an email to me at wx1der@gmail.com — and again, a list of selected Echolink Nets is at http://www.wx1der.com/elk.htm

Daryl Stout, WX1DER, Net Control VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net Southeast US D-Star Weather Net Certified Skywarn Severe Storm Spotter

The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter

MANUFACTURERS OF WEATHER RADIO

There are many reliable manufacturers and retailers of Weather Radios sold in Canada and the USA. Below is a list of the recommended models currently for sale. Note: This list of suggested weather radios is strictly for informational purposes, and not as an endorsement of any specific model or manufacturer.

Midland Radio Corporation http://www.Midlandradio.com W-r300, W-r100B, W-R120, HH54VP, HH54VP2, ER102, Nautico 3 and W-R11 are all manufactured by Midland and sold in North America.

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.Kaito Electronics Inc hthtttp:p:////wwwwww.ka.kaiittousaousa.c.comom//.. KKAA500,500, KKAA101101 aandnd KKAA600600 aarree ccuurrrreentntllyy sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-1010 is currently sold

in North America. 🙂

IN CLOSING

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com

blindgordie@gmail.com

or va3wxa@gmail.com. We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter @WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA. Also, check out his blog at

http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com

You can also contact him on Skype and his Skype name is blindgordie.

I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this 18th issue as follows:

Denis Paquette, Daryl Stout WX1DER, Bob Robichaud VE1MBR,Warren Gash, Midland Radio Corporation, Dennis T. Paganin VA3DTP (our faithful web master and Co-Editor), Peter Staples, Malcolm Kendal VE3BGD, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Gregory Zwicker, Phil Chadwick, Geoff Coulson and Marc Fitkin for their help and contributions to the newsletter, among others.
Sincerely, Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA