Sean,
Gotta love the US and its having the most active weather system in the world due to its geographical location.
Even though I'm fascinated by meteorology, I'm glad I never went into
it. I think why many of the forecasters are bald, is because they've been pulling their hair out at "the forecast model mess".
Here, due to administration problems, SKYWARN has died off. I am doing the training nets again and am starting to get more and more people checking in.
There is a training net on the second Tuesday (or that's when they did
it awhile back). However, I'm doing the Arklatex D-Star Net on Tuesday
night, so that rules that out.
We don't have any of that. It's usually WX4MRX getting on the repeater and announcing that we've been activated.
Is that the weather station at the NWS in Knoxville??
One of my pet peeves is "xxnxxx for ID". We know you're announcing
your call for ID. You don't have to tell us.
Exactly...saying "For ID" is redundant. And, speaking of which, one
thing I remember from the Associated Press Style Book from journalism
over 40 years ago -- "the term 'funeral service' is redundant".
I've had that happen when I'm running an activated net. The DC calls
them afterwards and chews them a new one for doing that.
As they should.
Then, you have these people who want EXACT SPECIFICS of either
We generally ignore those people.
It isn't easy. What really bugs me now is all these (what I term them)
as "Hi, Bye, And QSY" hams..."Net Control, please checkin [callsign],
[name], [location], short time, no traffic"...and not a minute later,
they're doing the same thing on another net. It's as if there is a
prize, bonus, award, certificate, etc., for checking into a large
number of nets in an evening. One ham in the Memphis area, Rick,
KA2BSM (he heads up the CERT group in the Memphis area) wonders "Do
they even have a life outside of ham radio??".
There are so many ways to receive weather information nowadays...
Yes. There is really no reason for such a huge loss of life with predictable events. Though it's not perfect, tornado forecasting has gotten quite good and if people heed the warnings, they might live
through the weather.
The problem is, we can talk severe weather safety until we're blue in
the face, and folks still endanger their lives. When that nearly EF-5
tornado (it was a 190 mph EF-4 as it was...200 mph is EF-5) blasted
through Vilonia, Arkansas (the same area that was hit by an EF-2
tornado just 3 years earlier)...one of the hams (who's also in the
Air Force, and a meteorologist)...who was running the Skywarn Net
that night said "I do NOT want any of my spotters near this thing".
I am not burnt out on SKYWARN. I still enjoy it and if I wind up
moving, I will become active in that area. I am also ARES trained and might consider getting into ARES if I move. Unfortunately, I have
dealt with some bad actors in my current county and will not
participate in any of its clubs or organizations save for SKYWARN.
One ham (who is now a Silent Key) did me dirty years ago. Two of the
clubs in the Little Rock area were having their hamfests in April, just
3 weeks apart. I was a member of both clubs, but my philosophy was "I
may have to work both weekends...but I'd like information on both of
them, in case I can 'sweet talk the boss' into letting me take the days
off from work".
Well, this individual considered that a threat, and he called me on
the phone, and cussed me to the point of tears (I was bawling, swearing
that I was quitting ham radio). I called a now former ham who lived 2
miles away, and said "I'm quitting the hobby, and am bringing my gear
over to you to sell it on the swap net". He was incredulous, and I
said "I'll explain when I get there", and hung up.
I threw the gear on the couch, pulled my license out of my wallet,
and threw it on the couch, and headed for the door. He stopped me,
and said "You're not leaving until you tell me what happened" (I was
still visibly upset). When I told him, he exploded in rage. The next
week when I got on the air, the individual who had cussed me out on
the phone the week before said "You always do good"...it was all I
could do to keep from cussing him out on the air.
Very few people found out the real story, and while I forgave him,
I never forgot it...and never did anything with that club, except
for the VE Testing at their hamfest (that's no longer done). Well,
I figured I'd be vindicated on Judgment Day...and now, it may be
that karma has bit him big time.
Right after that, I got out of the hobby for 6 months...no nets,
no on the air time, no "getting a biscuit and a glass of tea", etc.
This was 25 years ago now...and I nearly quit the hobby back then.
Daryl, WX4QZ
... If you can't annoy somebody, there is little point in writing.
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