|
New to Ham Radio?
My Profile
Community
Articles
Forums
News
Reviews
Friends Remembered
Speak Out
Strays
Survey Question
Operating
Contesting
DX Cluster Spots
Propagation
Resources
Calendar
Classifieds
Ham Exams
Ham Links
List Archives
News Articles
Product Reviews
QSL Managers
Site Info
eHam Help (FAQ)
Support the site
The eHam Team
Advertising Info
Vision Statement
About eHam.net
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning Radios:
from
hsvvoice.com
Website:
http://www.hsvvoice.com/news/2008/0416/News/022.html
on
May 20, 2008
View comments about this article!
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning Radios:
See the full story here:
LINK
This article has expired. No more comments may be added.
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by N4GVA on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
With all due respect to the good intentions of the article's author - why bother trying to reinvent the warning system merely because you bought the wrong radio!? I have a Midland weather radio that can be programmed to do precisely what he wants.
Frankly, if my radio were set up using his system it would constantly be squawking marine warnings; I'd have to turn it off for the same reasons he wrote the article.
|
| |
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by K1CJS on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Also with respect to the author--this is a classic case of 'I want the weather service to.....' It is true that we all have our own wants and desires, but to insist upon changes to a system that works now--but is STILL evolving is pushing for too much too soon.
Just where is the time going to come from to classify the particular weather threat and code the alert transmitters manually? By the time that is done, the area may be in the middle of the disturbance the warning is being issued about. Weather won't announce itself hours in advance, it just happens--sometimes with very little warning. The system in place now is in place because of the speed with which the alerts can be issued using it. If you want warnings of severe weather, be prepared to get all the warnings issued for your area--your ENTIRE area, not just the ones you want to hear.
The system is still changing, because the weather service is still learning and finding out about weather patterns. That won't ever end. As technology improves and the weather service is allocated the funding for new technology, I have no doubt some sort of the changes to the system suggested by this article will be made, but these things cannot be done overnight.
No system is perfect--the author points that out when he speaks of the telephoned warning service, yet he seems to expect that perfection from a system that is open, not subscription, and is funded by tax dollars, not fees. With respect to him, Mr. Walker needs to receive a reality alert, not an immediate and individually tailored 'only my interests' weather alert.
|
| |
|
Dependency
|
|
|
by AI2IA on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
This article presents a good opportunity to warn about dependency.
Weather radios are good. GPS is good. Cell phones are good, but like many other new devices, they create dependency. Use these things sparingly. Get a good book on weather and learn to read the skies. Learn to use a compass very well. Acquire alternate means of communication including non-electronic means.
First comes dependency, after that when the gadget fails or the system fails, people want to take the providers to court. When folks no longer even want to be free and independent, then we are in big, big trouble. When disaster strikes you will be more or less on your own. Think hard about that, and continue to hone your own skills. DON'T EVER BECOME DEPENDENT!
|
| |
|
RE: Dependency
|
|
|
by KC9GUZ on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Hmm i have my WX radio set to only go off for our county and the counties to my west and southwest since that is were most of the nasty stuff comes from.
|
| |
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by KB2VYZ on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
This guy must like $9.99 radios. If he would spend just a few extra dollars, he could purchase this one from Radio Shack ( http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2170274&cp ). It has all of the S.A.M.E stuff in it, it lets you decide whether you want statements, watches, and or warnings. and any of the tests the NWS does. It also lets you choose exactly which statements, watches and warnings you want to receive. This weather radio also does a bunch of other things. This weather radio also has an external antenna port on the back. The radio is usually $69.99 but Radio Shack (at least in Southern NJ) puts them on sale quite often.
73 de Frank/KB2VYZ
|
| |
|
RE: Ham Operator Does No Homework About WX radio
|
|
|
by K4RAF on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Another ham who lacks the ability to research what he wants & expects blue light engineering to do his homework for him. I'd be humble if I expected a $9.99 WX radio to not be a chinese knockout & do everything adopted as "standard" here...
Cheap is cheap... He could have used it for 6 months of alarm calls & still took it back to Waldo's World...
|
| |
|
RE: Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-War
|
|
|
by N4KZ on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I'm confused. I have a NOAA weather radio with S.A.M.E technology and it allows me to tailor it for the areas I am interested in -- my county and two others located to my southwest.
So if folks want a radio like that, why not go buy one? Just make sure it's what you need and want before buying it.
I sometimes buy stuff from Amazon.com. Made such a purchase last week. I carefully read over the item's features and read all the recent purchaser reviews -- in the end I felt I had a good understanding of what I was buying. What it did and didn't do. Yet I found reviews from recent purchasers who criticized the unit for not having certain features -- features it never claimed to have. And some folks just plain didn't understand what they were buying judging from their comments. Read, read and read some more and understand what you're buying before you make a purchase. Don't buy it and then lament that "I wish it did this or that or was bigger or whatever...."
73, N4KZ
|
| |
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by AD5KL on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
I'm in Dallas & have mine set for my county plus the surrounding ones to north, west & south. Mine goes off for watches & warnings since the weather can change on a dime. By the time a warning is issued I might be toast if it developed over my neighborhood and I had it set for "tornado-only." Straight line winds or hail can put the hammer to your house without a tornado warning ever being issued.
My radio is the Radio Crack one with the proper FIPS codes & hasn't kept me up enough to be an issue. If anything it gives me a chance to disconnect antennas, etc.
I wouldn't want my smoke alarm to wait until it actually catches on fire it before it goes off...
|
| |
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by K0RGR on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Another idea would be to get involved with SKYWARN in your area. Most groups have a way of calling out spotters at night. Here, they transmit a special PL tone on one of our repeaters, so anybody with a 2 meter rig with tone coded squelch won't hear the normal repeater traffic, but will be awakened when the SKYWARN callup happens. OF course, you'll get called out when there is a chance of hazardous weather, not just when somebody else has spotted it.
|
| |
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by KD4LLA on May 20, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
It continues to amaze me that the pioneers even made it across the Mississippi, after what we have become. Somehow, I manage to look at a weather forecast before I retire for the evening. Then I know if I should even turn the flippin radio on... Whiners, that is what we have become! Man, do something for yourself sometime...
|
| |
|
This guy doesn't understand the SAME system
|
|
|
by KF6IIU on May 21, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
For obvious reasons, MWS cannot distinguish between levels of alerts. Do this, and the first thing that happens is the NWS would be accused of murdering someone who decided to opt out of a less serious alert and got struck anyway.
Any serious SAME alert is broadcast with the code and the 1050 Hz tone. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrwarn.htm#B
There are SAME codes for individual message levels, not sure about the specific radio, but if it is like my Mom's it will go off whenever the tone sounds and the SAME locality code applies.
Our weather is always perfect, and I've actually never heard the 1050 tone broadcast in the SF Bay Area,
|
| |
|
RE: This guy doesn't understand the SAME system
|
|
|
by KR4WM on May 21, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
|
Call me stupid, but I'm in the boat with the guys who bought one of these, got tired of my wife beefing at me about being woken up in the middle of the night for no reason, and stuck the radio in a drawer! Many times, the storm info being broadcast is for the next county over. Our NOAA station covers a few counties, not just ours! My radio was purchased (I guess) before S.A.M.E. technology came out. Maybe I should look at newer units, but I liked the feature mine has where it can be parked on an FM broadcast station and automatically switch to NOAA if/when an emergency sounds. That, and the fact that it was only $9.95. -KR4WM
|
| |
|
Ham Operator Has Suggestions About Weather-Warning
|
|
|
by N1KGH on May 23, 2008
|
Mail this to a friend!
|
Target has an inexpensive SAME radio ($40) by Emerson Research:
http://www.target.com/Emerson-Dual-Alarm-Clock-Radio/dp/B000NIQO4A/qid=1211561352/ref=br_1_74/602-8449898-8728617
I've had one for a year and it works very well. I'm on the North Shore of Massachusetts and I only have the Essex County code in the radio; otherwise with the old tone-alert radio I had, I would get alarms for Cape Cod, which is on another planet from me so far as weather is concerned.
|
| |
|
Email Subscription
You are not subscribed to discussions on this article.
Subscribe!
My Subscriptions
Subscriptions Help
Other News Articles
Kids Get to Ham It Up a Bit:
W1AW Winter Operating Schedule:
ACMA Publishes Revisions to the Radiofrequency Spectrum Plan:
Son Charged in K4QE's Death has First Court Appearance:
Charles Camillo, W9ISV (SK):
|
|
|
