|
There are multiple NWS Office in Florida which are
shown on the map to the right. The three that impact us are
Jacksonville (purple), Melbourne (tan), and Ruskin (pale yellow)
where Marion County is purple, Lake is tan, and Sumter is pale
yellow.
There are some procedural differences from region
to region; so the link for each office is provided to get details.
Since most of our area is
within the Ruskin area, the following information is specific to the
West Central region.
The NWS Ruskin Weather
Forecase Office (WFO) utilizes two methods of operating SKYWARN
amateur radio net. They consist of local county-based SKYWARN
net and a regional SKYWARN net. Both support the Ruskin WFO in
local early weather warning and emergency communications functions,
and assist with SKYWARN severe weather spotter operations.
This guide is intended to serve as a tool to provide direction as to
the role of the various amateur radio volunteer SKYWARN groups that
serve the Ruskin WFO.
Many of the 15 counties in the Ruskin County Warning Area (CWA)
operate their own SKYWARN™ amateur radio nets during severe
weather events. Some of the counties operate SKYWARN™ net
activations under the support or direction of county
emergency management, ARRL ARES, or ACS affiliation, while
others are volunteer groups or clubs with no particular
affiliations.
County Nets will be responsible for SKYWARN™ activation and
will be recognized as the official SKYWARN™ nets for routine
or day-to-day severe weather events. This includes warm
season sea breeze thunderstorm activity, as well as
convective watches (tornado and severe thunderstorm
watches). County nets will activate upon request from the
Ruskin WFO or will self-activate as needed (typically,
county nets self activate most of the time). County nets
will relay severe weather reports and communicate directly with
the Ruskin WFO via phone, IEM chat, or eSpotter. Since the
aforementioned weather events typically affect only small
groups of counties at any one time, net activation and
duration will be dependent on the timing of the weather
event itself, and will be determined by the net control.
When it appears that the severe weather is about to enter a
given county, that county's net control will establish and
activate a directed net. When the severe weather threat has
exited an activated county, the net control may close the
net at their discretion.
Modes of Activation |
Standby Mode |
- This mode means the repeater is free for normal use;
however, a Net Control Operator will be standing by to
receive criteria severe weather reports.
- NCO will make frequent announcements regarding the
SKYWARN™ net being in standby mode (usually once every
15 minutes)
- This is not a directed net.
- Typically this mode will be utilized before warnings
are issued.
|
Active Mode |
- This mode means the repeater is now under a directed
net, and all traffic should be directed through the Net
Control Operator.
- Severe weather is occurring and/or warnings have
been issued, and Net Control is receiving multiple
severe weather reports.
|
The West Central Florida Group, Inc (WCFG) NI4CE repeater
system (www.ni4ce.org)
will be utilized for NWS Ruskin amateur radio SKYWARN™ nets
during large scale natural disasters or large scale weather
events such as tropical cyclones, during which the majority
of Ruskin WFO's CWA is affected at the same time. During
regional net activations, WX4TOR will be the assigned Net
Control Station and will be operated by licensed,
well-trained and dedicated Amateur Radio operators fluent in
SKYWARN™ and emergency Net procedures. During such
activations, all County-level Amateur Radio SKYWARN™ Nets
will utilize the Regional Net to funnel their SKYWARN™
traffic to the National Weather Service whenever possible.
The NWS Ruskin SKYWARN™ weekly practice and
outreach net meets every Tuesday evening at 9 pm on the NI4CE
repeater system (see net frequencies for regional net). This net is
operated directly from the National Weather Service forecast office
in Ruskin each week. The purpose of this net is to provide limited
SKYWARN™ training, make announcements of interest to SKYWARN™
personnel, provide local weather information (especially if severe
weather is expected in the next few days), and to provide net
participants the opportunity to interact with the staff of their
local NWS weather forecast office.
The question
and answer portion
of the net has become quite popular over the past few years.
During this portion of the net each week, a National Weather
Service forecaster will stand by with net control to answer
any questions net participants may have about the National
Weather Service, or about up coming west central Florida
weather. As such, this weekly net serves as your direct
connection to your local National Weather Service office.
When joining us for the net, feel free to bring along your
questions for the NWS forecasters!
The repeaters of the NI4CE system include
City |
County |
Frequency (Mhz) |
South Verna |
Manatee |
145.430 - PL 100.0 |
South Verna |
Manatee |
442.950 + PL 100.0 |
Port Richey |
Pasco |
443.450 + PL 100.0 |
St. Petersburg |
Pinellas |
145.290 - PL 100.0 |
St. Petersburg |
Pinellas |
443.450 + PL 100.0 |
East Pebbledale |
Polk |
442.825 + PL 100.0 |
Central Riverview |
Hillsborough |
442.550 + PL 100.0 |
High Point |
Hernando |
145.290 - PL 100.0 |
North Holiday |
Pasco |
443.450 + PL 100.0 |
WX4TOR is the amateur radio station at the
national Weather Service in Ruskin. This station is utilized
during major weather events or disasters such as tropical cyclones
or other national disasters. When WX4TOR is activated, a local
amateur radio operator/SKYWARN volunteer will come to the Ruskin WFO
and communicate with the Net Control and other SKYWARN spotters who
are on the Net frequency. On Tuesday at 9:00 PM WX$TOR is
utilized for a practice net, which is conducted on the NI4CE linked
repeater system. This Net serves as practice for real SKYWARN
Net activations, but mainly as a method of reaching out and
providing useful information to the local SKYWARN volunteers.
Summary
The table below summarizes the roles of both the county and
regional SKYWARN™ nets: |
Local/County Nets
Utilized for limited coverage events |
Regional Net on NI4CE
Utilized for widespread regional events |
- Responsible for conducting Skywarn™ net
operations for all day-to-day events, such as
sea breeze thunderstorm events and convective
watches (SVR/TOR Watches).
- Reports sent directly to NWS via phone, IEM
chat, or eSpotter to expedite reporting process.
- Can optionally activate for large scale or
regional events (those handled on NI4CE),
however NI4CE will be recognized as the official
Skywarn™ activation frequency for such events.
- WX4TOR will not be staffed.
|
- NI4CE will be used for conducting Skywarn™
net operations for tropical cyclones and large
scale natural disasters where the majority of
the County Warning Area for the Weather Forecast
Office (WFO), Tampa bay Area is affected at the
same time.
- During regional activation:
- Net control is done by WX4TOR using
licensed, well-trained and dedicated Amateur
Radio operators fluent in SKYWARN™ and emergency
Net procedures.
- The weekly NWS outreach net is conducted on
NI4CE every Tuesday at 9 Pm.
- The weekly NWS SKYWARN™ net is conducted on
NI4CE every Tuesday at 9 PM. Normal Net
procedures may be pre-empted during severe
weather events to disseminate severe weather
event information and take spotter reports.
- Informal "severe weather nets" conducted on
NI4CE during limited coverage events may be
conducted by NWS approved SKYWARN™ Net Control
operators.
|
|
Backup to County and Regional
SKYWARN™ Nets
(Back to Top) |
Backup to Local Nets: |
- If any of our local county nets go down during
limited coverage events, SKYWARN™ volunteers in that
county are expected to pass along reports to NWS via the
1-800 spotter hotline, or a neighboring activated county
net .
- Spotters in counties that do not have a local
SKYWARN™ net should report weather events to NWS via the
1-800 spotter hotline.
- All regional reports sent through The Spotter
Network (http://SpotterNetwork.org)
are automatically sent to NWS Ruskin.
Backup to Regional Nets:
- The W4FLG (146.640 Mhz) repeater will serve as
backup to the NI4CE repeater system for wide-area or
regional net coverage in the event that the NI4CE system
goes down.
|
SKYWARN Net Preambles |
Local net preambles are developed and maintained by the
various county-based SKYWARN™ groups. Preambles for regional
nets are attached. These are subject to frequent changes and
are updated often, so be sure to check back for new
releases.
The following are preambles for SKYWARN™ nets conducted
outside of the NWS Ruskin office (remote nets):The following are preambles for SKYWARN™ nets conducted at
the NWS Ruskin office at WX4TOR: |
|