Are you ready to go??!!

[Michael Nie]

Greetings from WARN Central.

Each year, before severe weather season begins, a coordination meeting is
held at the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, OH.  For 1999,
today was the day.  The purpose of this meeting is to coordinate spotter
activities (primarily amateur radio activities) for the 52 county area
served by the Wilmington office.

No major changes are planned for this year.  There are a few highlights
that will probably interest you as severe weather season approaches.

1. This is a reminder that late last year the Indiana counties of Union
and
Fayette were shifted to the Dayton reporting area.  In other words,
amateur
radio operators in these counties should attempt to call reports into the
Dayton net on 146.64-.  If you can't reach them, try the Preble County net
on 145.47-.  Finally, if you can't reach either of these nets for some
reason, you can try the Cincinnati net on 146.88-.  We will never refuse a
report, but ask that you try the appropriate section net first.

2. The annual state wide tornado drills have been announced.
Unfortunately, they are all at different times again.  Since we cover
parts
of all three states, we will be participating with all three states.  Here
is the schedule:

Kentucky - Tuesday March 9, 1999 - 10:07am
Ohio - Wednesday March 10, 1999 - 9:50am
Indiana - Wednesday March 10, 1999 1:45pm and 7:15pm

Yes, that's right, Indiana will do it twice.  We will activate the
Cincinnati section net for all but the 1:45 Indiana drill.  We will not
bring the net up for the 1:45 Indiana drill.  We do ask that, if possible,
amateur radio operators check in for this drill on the appropriate day and
time.  Of course, we won't complain if you check in for more than one.
Our
normal training net will be held after the 7:15pm Indiana drill at 7:30pm,
as scheduled.

3. Listeners will be noticing that the computer synthesized voice is being
implemented for some parts of the NOAA weather radio programming.  NWS
informs us that warnings and severe weather information will not use the
synthesized voice yet this season.  While it will take some getting used
to, this computer generated voice will allow severe weather information to
be faster and more accurate.  When it is used for warnings, information
goes on the air as soon as it is entered into the computer, instead of
waiting for a human to read it.  This also frees the meteorologists to
devote more time to issuing accurate warnings.

4. The National Weather Service is planning a 25 year anniversary program
on the Xenia tornado in 1974.  We will issue more information on this as
we
get it.  We know that it will be held on March 31st.  From the discussion,
it seems like it will be a VERY interesting program.  Further discussion
by
the section representatives revealed that the 1974 "super-outbreak" was
the
reason that much of the local Skywarn program exists today.

5. Remember that beginning March 1st., we return to weekly training nets,
instead of the monthly winter schedule.  The training nets are held every
Wednesday at 19:30, Cincinnati time.

6. Make sure  to visit our web site at http://www.warn.org to check
spotter
training information.  There you will find information on the training
session we are hosting, as well as a link to the NWS training schedule
page.

Now would be a great time to check your batteries, antennas, and other
equipment.  Severe weather season is not that far away. Hope to see many
of
you at local spotter training courses.

Mike Nie - KB8VMX
Public Information Officer
Weather Amateur Radio Network




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