Hurricane Watch Net Activation

HWN LogoFrom K5MP:

As a “heads up” on Hurricane Isabel, if the storm continues on present course and speed, we could see land fall as early as early Thursday morning somewhere on the shores of North Carolina. Isabel is a very dangerous storm, forecast at CAT 3 at land fall, and continuing through the Chesapeake Bay with winds in excess of 100mph.

Our plan is to activate the Hurricane Watch Net on 14.325 MHz at 1400 UTC on
Wednesday and to be there through the duration of the storm. Our primary objective on Wednesday will be to 1) disseminate the Public Advisory
information on a regular basis as those bulletins become available from the
National Hurricane Center (NHC), and 2) to collect a list of amateur radio
stations in the forecast path of the storm who can report their observed or
measured weather data to us for conveyance into the hurricane forecasters in
the NHC via WX4NHC, the amateur radio station at the Miami center.

As the hurricane achieves initial land fall, the HWN will focus specifically
on storm reports into and out of the immediate affected area and into the
forecast path of the storm. It is essential that Health and Welfare traffic
be directed to other net frequencies set up specifically for that purpose.
I have been advised that the Salvation Army net (SATERN) plans to begin full
H&W support beginning Thursday morning, 1400 UTC on 14.265 MHz. As in the
past, it is expected that localized emergency nets will also be in
operation. I’m not aware at this time of those specific plans.

Here is a suggested Internet resource for bulletins and graphic plots of the
hurricane forecast track.

The Hurricane Watch Net web site is at www.hwn.org. On our main page, click
on “Isabel” in the Active Storm table. On the next page, in the column
under the Isabel heading can be found the current Public Advisory, Marine
Advisory, Discussion used by the forecasters, and at the bottom tag
“Graphics” is the plot of the forecast track.

Thanks,

Mike Pilgrim, K5MP
Manager
Hurricane Watch Net

Please reply to mpilgrim@bellsouth.net

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