On Friday, August 24 at 5:15 PM (EDT), the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Genesee County. This storm produced two tornados in the mid-Michigan area that caused severe damage to several towns. The greatest damage occurred in the City of Fenton located just south of Flint. The NWS confirmed that an EF2 tornado had touched down and had torn a path 26 miles long and up to 0.5 miles wide through Livingston, Oakland, Genesee and Lapeer County, damaging at least 250 homes and businesses. An EF2 tornado, using the enhanced Fujita scale, is a wind estimate of 110-135 MPH in a three-second gust. More than 12,000 people lost power due to the storms.
Read More
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Michigan Hams Activated Due to Storms and Tornado
Tennessee Amateur Finds Innovative Way to Promote Amateur Radio
About three years ago, Cliff Segar, KD4GT, and his wife Kati were looking for another place to live. They were then living in the Atlanta, Georgia area, and Segar's job territory reached from Bristol, Tennessee to the Atlanta area. Since Kati had a home-based business, they were looking to move anywhere in between the end points of Segar's territory. After months of looking, they found their dream house in Rockwood, Tennessee. There was just one problem -- it was right on Interstate 40. The Tennessee Department of Transportation owned the fence on the south side of the property, which meant traffic noise.
Read More
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
2007-08-28 21:20 (Mcd 1.3) EASTERN TENNESSEE 36.1 -83.9
1.3 Mcd - EASTERN TENNESSEE | Magnitude | 1.3 Mcd |
| Date-Time |
|
| Location | 36.130N 83.930W |
| Depth | 15 km |
| Distances |
|
| Location Uncertainty | Horizontal: 2.0 km; Vertical 2.3 km |
| Parameters | Nph = 9; Dmin = 5.1 km; Rmss = 0.13 seconds; Gp = 154° M-type = Mcd; Version = A |
| Event ID | SE hwb0828a |
For updates, maps, and technical information, see:
Event Page
or
U.S.G.S. Earthquake Hazards Program
Southeast US Seismic Network
http://www.ceri.memphis.edu/
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
SK - Sam Kirby WB4HAP
Updated information
Sam Barton Kirby
KIRBY, SAM BARTON - age 63 of Halls, passed away suddenly August 26, 2007. He retired in 2006 after 42 years with the Knoxville Utilities Board. Sam was currently a member of KUB Retirement Association Executive Committee. He had a keen interest in restoring and showing classic Fords, being a member of the Classic Ford Association. He was also an avid boat racer, winning the 1994 class SST-60 National Tunnel Boat Championship.
A 1961 Fulton High School graduate who also attended the University of Tennessee, Sam had a lifelong interest in radio communications, being a ham radio operator, WB4HAP. He enjoyed traveling across the country in his RV with his wife and two terriers, Monday and Schroeder. He was a member of Salem Baptist Church.
He is preceded in death by: his parents, H. H. and Ottie K. Kirby; father-in-law and mother-in-law, James M. and Ruth Lackey. Beloved husband, father, and brother; he is survived by: his wife of 45 years, Debbie; sons, Todd of Knoxville and Christopher of Flagstaff, AZ; daughter, Jan of Maryville; and brother, Matthew of Knoxville; sister-in-law, Norma Lewis of Sterling, VA, brother-in-law and sister-in-law, James D. and Emma Lee Lackey of Knoxville; several aunts; nieces; nephews; cousins; and a host of wonderful friends. Sam will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him.
Service 8:00 pm Wednesday, Mynatt Funeral Home Halls Chapel with Rev. John Holland and Rev. Earl Wilson officiating. Family and friends will meet 10:45 am Thursday at Lynnhurst Cemetery with Interment at 11:00. Pallbearers: Clyde Goforth, Gene Price, Gary Pugh, Jimmy Thrasher, Bob Tonkin and Mike Crye. Honorary Pallbearers: members of the Classic Ford Association, and all ham radio operators. Family will receive friends 5:30 to 8:00 pm Wednesday at Mynatt Funeral Home Halls Chapel. www.mynattfh.com
Published in the Knoxville News Sentinel from 8/27/2007 - 8/28/2007
--
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
[ACARES] Anderson County ARES Net, 8/28/2007, 7:00 pm
| Reminder from: | ACARES Yahoo! Group | |
| Title: | Anderson County ARES Net | |
| Date: | Tuesday August 28, 2007 | |
| Time: | 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm | |
| Repeats: | This event repeats every week. | |
| Location: | 146.880 Repeater | |
| Notes: | Backup frequencies if 146.880 is unavailable: 146.970 147.360 100Hz Tone 147.420 (Simplex) | |
| Get reminders on your mobile, Yahoo! Messenger, and email. Edit reminder options | ||
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Monday, August 27, 2007
Sam Kirby WB4HAP SK
Hello everyone,
I hate to pass this along...
| Sam B. Kirby WB4HAP SK
| ||
| KIRBY, SAM B. - age 63 of Knoxville passed away suddenly August 25, 2007. Arrangements incomplete. Mynatt Funeral Home Halls Chapel in charge. | ||
--
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
[ACARES] Anderson County ARES Net, 8/28/2007, 7:00 pm
| Reminder from: | ACARES Yahoo! Group | |
| Title: | Anderson County ARES Net | |
| Date: | Tuesday August 28, 2007 | |
| Time: | 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm | |
| Repeats: | This event repeats every week. | |
| Next reminder: | The next reminder for this event will be sent in 23 hours, 2 minutes. | |
| Location: | 146.880 Repeater | |
| Notes: | Backup frequencies if 146.880 is unavailable: 146.970 147.360 100Hz Tone 147.420 (Simplex) | |
| Get reminders on your mobile, Yahoo! Messenger, and email. Edit reminder options | ||
Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
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__,_._,___
SPECIAL EVENT STATION W4C TO OPERATE FROM CLAIBORNE COUNTY, TN FAIR
SPECIAL EVENT STATION W4C TO OPERATE FROM CLAIBORNE COUNTY, TN FAIR
The Claiborne County, TN ARES will operate special event station W4C at the Claiborne County Fair from August 27th through September 1st, 2007. We'll be recruiting amateur radio, ARES, and Citizen Corps membership at the fair. There will be sign-up for ham license and CERT training classes to be given in September and October. We'll be demonstrating HF SSB and CW, welfare traffic handling, and 2-meter FM and APRS operation at the booth.
W4C will operate from 1900-2400Z (3PM to 8PM EDT) on or near 14.235, 7.190, or 3.815 MHz SSB, with occasional operation on or near 14.035 or 7.035 MHz CW. We'll start out on 20-meters, and QSY to 40- and 80- meters as conditions dictate. We may also start operation earlier in the day.
Certificates will be available to all stations contacting us. Send SASE to Claiborne County ARES c/o Rick Blasco NX6R, P.O. Box 279, New Tazewell, TN 37824-0279. Use #10 or larger envelope (prefer 8-1/2 x 11 to keep certificate flat) with first class postage affixed.
Check our website http://www.claibornecountyares.org or email nx6r@claibornecountyares.org for more details.
Edited by NX6R on July 29 2007,17:15
--
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Web SIte Design Update
After watching the weather alert emails and daily weather email take up all the posting room on the main page I have created a seperate feed that will handle the weather feeds freeing up page space.
The Section is called District 5 Weather Feed, it will also include a link back so you will be able to verify the full text information of the post.
The current system will be to post the most current 3 weather post on our page. If you would want to see more than you will simply follow the link to this page to see all the weather alerts.
This is closed blog / page so no post or comments are allowed. This is a weather feed only, starting 8/25/07.
--
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
Thursday, August 23, 2007
When Cell Phones Fail
When cell phones fail
Courtesy of Cosmic Log on MSNBC
Posted: Thursday, August 02, 2007 7:08 PM by Alan Boyle
This week's tragic collapse of the Interstate 35W Bridge in Minneapolis triggered another collapse of sorts: a jam-up of the cellular phone networks in the area. Bystanders and survivors tried to phone loved ones, only to find that they couldn't put the call through. So what's the solution? Two words: text messaging.
For some cell-phone users on the scene, the call-blocking was brutal: "Every tenth call I tried to make went through, and half of the successful ones had problems like not hearing the other end, dropping, or unusable quality," Charlie Demerjian wrote in The Inquirer.
His bottom line was that "the cell network is barely adequate for public use, and completely inadequate for mission-critical use."
Cell-phone providers acknowledged that the call volumes overwhelmed their networks in the area around the bridge collapse, but they took issue with the idea that they're not up to dealing with a crisis.
"Whenever you have a crisis, people tend to use their phones a lot, and there is a tendency for networks to get congested," Mark Siegel, a spokesman for AT&T's wireless business, told me today. "It doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the network."
Adding to the congestion was the fact that the collapse came at 6 p.m. CT, in the middle of rush hour, "during the busiest hour of the day for our wireless callers," said Karen Smith, a spokeswoman for Verizon Wireless in Minneapolis. Smith said the call volume came to twice as much as Verizon's system was built to handle.
AT&T's Siegel and T-Mobile spokesman Peter Dobrow told a similar story. Verizon and T-Mobile quickly brought in extra "cells on wheels" - cell-phone stations mounted on trucks - to handle the increased load. Siegel said AT&T started bringing in reinforcements as well, "but things had cleared up before they were moved into place."
The three company representatives were unanimous in their No. 1 piece of advice for cell-phone users:
"The biggest tip is to understand the importance of text messaging," Smith said. "Text messaging uses far fewer of our network resources."
Cell-phone networks are set up in such a way that text messages can piggyback on the streams of voice data traffic bouncing around the system. The digital messages, which amount to mere dozens or hundreds of bytes, can be slipped into the gaps in that stream.
"They're able to sneak through there, even when you and I are having a conversation," Smith explained.
So if you don't know how to use the text-messaging feature on your phone, now is a good time to learn. "Get one of your nieces or nephews to teach you how to do it," Smith joked, "or stop by a Verizon store and ask them to show you."
Here are two more common-sense tips for cell-phone use in a crisis:
"Make your call as short as prudently possible, in order to help other people get on the voice network as soon as possible," T-Mobile's Dobrow said.
"If you've dialed and you don't get through, wait at least 10 seconds," AT&T's Siegel said. "Don't just keep hitting the button again and again." Rapid redialing just adds to the congestion.
Even though the cell-phone jam has subsided at the site of the collapse, all three service providers said they were monitoring shifts in call traffic and positioning their resources accordingly. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina taught the companies that reinforcements had to be pre-positioned for rapid response - and in the Twin Cities area, those reinforcements are being placed to accommodate higher traffic along the highways that are serving as alternates to Interstate 35W.
So what about the emergency communication systems used by first responders? The cell-phone jam didn't affect them, of course, and officials said the systems worked together without a hitch. Over the past three years, the whole state has been moving toward a 800 MHz system for emergency communications, said David Berrisford, field services branch director for Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management. The first responders at the scene of the bridge collapse were literally all on the same wavelength."It worked wonderfully," Berrisford told me.
That view was seconded by Skip Jackson, Minnesota's section manager for ARRL, the nation's amateur-radio association. Ham-radio operators went on standby to assist in case they were needed, Jackson said, but "because the communications infrastructure of the emergency responders in the Twin Cities did not fail, there was no critical reason for us to deploy to the scene."
That doesn't mean the situation is perfect: For instance, if text messaging is the best way to get the word out from the scene of a disaster, doesn't it make sense that you should be able to text your cry for help to 911? Well, you can't do that yet - but just wait.
Next Generation 911 systems, capable of transmitting text as well as voice, data and video, are currently undergoing testing and could start rolling out next year. Police in Los Angeles are already looking into such a system. Boston police have begun accepting anonymous crime tips via texting, and New York is considering doing the same.
National standards for Internet-based 911 services could be released as early as next month, said Pete Eggimann, director of 911 services for the Twin Cities' Metropolitan Emergency Services Board. The board is already negotiating with potential vendors to conduct a pilot project, he told me.
"It's certainly being considered," he said. "That would allow us to pass along different forms of communication, as opposed to today's system, which just passes voice."
Eggimann said he'd like to have an Internet-based 911 system in place within the next year or two. Theoretically, such a system could take in not only text messages, but also video showing what the police might be up against at a crime scene, or data beamed automatically from vehicles involved in a bridge collapse.
"That's going to be the backbone," Eggimann said. "It will carry the next generation of 911."
The question is do we think we would be ready to respond to just such an emergency?
73
de N4CQW Moe
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
[ACARES] Anderson County ARES Net, 8/21/2007, 7:00 pm
| Reminder from: | ACARES Yahoo! Group | |
| Title: | Anderson County ARES Net | |
| Date: | Tuesday August 21, 2007 | |
| Time: | 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm | |
| Repeats: | This event repeats every week. | |
| Location: | 146.880 Repeater | |
| Notes: | Backup frequencies if 146.880 is unavailable: 146.970 147.360 100Hz Tone 147.420 (Simplex) | |
| Get reminders on your mobile, Yahoo! Messenger, and email. Edit reminder options | ||
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__,_._,___
Creative Commons License
Hello all,
We produce our work the Creative Commons License as a reference resource to the ethical standards of reproducing and linking to other sites or reference materials we use or refer too.
We use the - Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States
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This is a human-readable summary of the Legal Code (the full license).
If you have any question please contact Moe Brewer n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Monday, August 20, 2007
Anderson County ARES Web Page Update
Hello Everyone,
After much discussion and brain storming we have created the Anderson County ARES homepage & web blog to provide information to all members of ARES in Anderson and surrounding counties.
The page can be accessed with a new link http://www.w4aca.org and the current link of http://www.andersoncountyares.com
The new page will be interactive in several ways -
- Weather Information - Each morning a Hazardous Weather Bulletin (HWOMRX) will be displayed and updated daily or more depending on the National Weather forecast - Severe Weather Watches, Warnings and Flood statements are also posted.
- Reminders from the Anderson County ARES Yahoo group.
- The page is now interactive in a blog format. The interactive part will allow ANYONE to be able to post using this address acaresblog@etskywarn.org The post will allow several options ranging direct posting to online viewable comments from readers. The posts and comments are un-moderated at this point to allow for real time posting from the community at large, but if anyone finds something that needs to be removed please contact Moe Brewer at n4cqw@etskywarn.org with the information and the post will be removed and the email address that posted it will be blocked from accessing the post again.
- The page will also include a interactive poll system that allows us to gather feedback from readers of the page. The current poll is about obtaining a email domain using the W4ACA domain name. (AKA your call sign @ w4aca.org) This would be a free email account open to all users of the site. If you would like more information about this please contact Moe Brewer at the above address.
- RSS Feeds are also included now. The current hour weather update from the National Weather Service Office in Oak Ridge are now included on the main page. Feeds from Amateur Radio Newsline, Eham.net and the ARRL are also on the web page at the very bottom of the page. These change often as updates are released, so please check them often. If anyone has any other feeds they would like to have displayed on the web page, please let me know so I can add them.
- With the change in the net schedule we have also decided to add a weekly feature to the page of having the training information posted. One of the goals Jeff, Larry and Steve have is the start weekly training nets to help make sure training is up to date and we all general idea on what we need to do if we are activated for any emergency. The page will have a post that will include the training information that will be discussed on the net that night with links to all the training materials online in our data base.
The page has a automatic refresh encoded into that will automatically refresh the page every ten (10) minutes. As new information is added the page will reflect this. The blog / post archive will be labeled and stored in according to the topic thus allowing retrieval at any time. So if anyone misses a training net that information will be available at any time by researching the archive.
Please feel free to look at the new page and leave us feed back on what you think and anything else you would like to see added.
-- 73
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
-- 73
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
Fwd: [ACARES] Anderson County ARES Net, 8/21/2007, 7:00 pm
| Reminder from: | ACARES Yahoo! Group | |
| Title: | Anderson County ARES Net | |
| Date: | Tuesday August 21, 2007 | |
| Time: | 7:00 pm - 7:30 pm | |
| Repeats: | This event repeats every week. | |
| Next reminder: | The next reminder for this event will be sent in 23 hours, 2 minutes. | |
| Location: | 146.880 Repeater | |
| Notes: | Backup frequencies if 146.880 is unavailable: 146.970 147.360 100Hz Tone 147.420 (Simplex) | |
| Get reminders on your mobile, Yahoo! Messenger, and email. Edit reminder options | ||
SPONSORED LINKS
| Craft hobby | Ham radio | Ham radio sales |
| Ham radio outlet |
Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
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__,_._,___
--
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
Webmaster for www.etskywarn.org and http://www.w4aca.org
Webmaster for the blogs of http://w4aca.blogspot.com and http://etskywarn.blogspot.com
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Just a reminder - the net schedule has changed.
Hello everyone,
After getting several responses (thank you!) we have decided to move our ARES net to Tuesday evenings. I had suggested 8:00pm, but the general opinion was to keep it at 7:00pm and just change the night.
BEGINNING AUG. 6, 2007, the Anderson County ARES net will be on Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm. I hope the new night will fit into every one's schedule better.
As we get attendance up we will start having short training topics on the Tuesday night nets. Things like Net Control Training, Traffic Handling, what to do and what NOT do on Emergency nets are some of the main topics we will discussing on the up-coming nets.
So, please join us on Tuesday evenings at 7:00pm on the 146.880 W4SKH repeater.
Jeff Yawn K4IK
Emergency Coordinator, Anderson County ARES
Thursday, August 16, 2007
New Poll - Email address
If Anderson County ARES had a email domain (AKA your call sign @w4aca.org) would you use it. It would be a free account at no cost to use the domain name email as a private email address.
We ask that you please take the time to submit an answer to the poll for us to see what the interest would be in devoting the effort into providing a private email for w4aca users.
73
--
Moe Brewer N4CQW
Anderson County Assistant EC
n4cqw@etskywarn.org
webmaster for www.etskywarn.org
webmaster for http://www.andersoncountyares.com / http://www.w4aca.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/etnskywarn/
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Welcome to our blog and information page
Hello,
Welcome the W4ACA blog and information page.
We have started this to help increase communication among our members. We have some members who are on a distributed email list and others are not, so we created this page to be able to pass information to everyone.
Everyone will be able to post to this blog and also be able to post comments to posts that have been made. Also we are planning to use this to create monthly and weekly articles of interest to everyone from ARES, RACES, Skywarn and ham radio in general.
I am currently working on a update to the web page that will allow it to load faster and provide more real time information via the RSS feed system.
We are planning to link feeds from the following:
ARRL
EHAM
ETSkywarn.org
Plus we will contiune to care the weekly version of Amateur Radio Newsline.
Also local weather information will be posted from the NOAA weather station in Oak Ridge for current weather.
73,
Moe N4CQW
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