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It's HamTalk Live. It's episode number 80. The
Hurricane Nets live update, recorded live on
Thursday, September 7th, 2017. I'm your host,
Neil Rapp, WB9VPG. Thanks for tuning in to this
episode of HamTalk Live. Tonight, we're joined
by Bobby Graves, KB5HAV from the Hurricane WatchNet.
and also Lloyd Colston, KC5 FM from the voiceover
IP Hurricane Net. And we'll take your calls live
in just a few minutes. Last week on the show,
it was the Youth DX Adventure Team 2017 here
to talk about their DXpedition to Costa Rica.
So if you missed that, make sure you check it
out at HamTalkLive .com or on your favorite podcast
app. So we'll get some status updates from these
guys and get your questions ready to go and after
we talk to them for a little bit you can give
us a call and I'll go ahead and give you the
phone number it's not time to call yet but I'll
give you the phone number so you have it ready
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eight four two six one or you can Skype us just
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Live, HamStation as you covered. For both new
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.com And of course if you miss it you can catch
us on most popular podcasting sites as well as
our website HamTalkLive .com. So joining us tonight
is Bobby Graves Jr. KB5HAV. He became a ham radio
operator in 1988 and in the fall of 88 he's learned
about SkyWarn and the National Weather Service
office in Jackson Mississippi. He was interested
in starting a program and over the next few months
he and some friends helped create Mississippi
Skywarn. He began training weather spotters,
became an emergency coordinator and a district
emergency coordinator and helped create the RACES
group for Mississippi along with some friends.
From October 2002 to September 2006, Bobby served
as an assistant net manager for the Hurricane
Watch Net, and in April 2013, he was appointed
net manager. Lloyd Colston, KC5FM, is the public
information officer for the voiceover IP Hurricane
Net. Lloyd has been a net control for the VoIP
Hurricane Net since 2004, and he joined the team
in July 2006 as the public information officer,
which ties to his career in emergency management
within Oklahoma. And Lloyd is a past ARRL section
manager for Oklahoma and currently the public
information officer. So Bobby and Lloyd, thank
you so much for coming on HamTalk Live tonight.
Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks a lot. It's
good to be here. Well, you guys are in an unprecedented
situation right now, and I hesitated to ask,
but this morning I did, and within five minutes
both of you said yes. So we'll get this in before
total chaos breaks out here in a day or two,
but we're still working on The aftermath of Harvey
and now we've got three hurricanes out in the
Atlantic. So I guess the question on everybody's
mind Bobby is Where is Jim Cantori going next?
I Think if he could find it find a way to get
himself cloned he would It's a it's an amazing
question. He's a great guy. He'd love to get
out there. Let's get out and show them the strength
of what the hurricanes can do. So in addition
to tracking Jim Cantore, you guys are tracking
the hurricane. So fill us in on the status of
the hurricane watch net at present time. Remind
people the frequency and how to listen if they
just want to listen. And then who should be calling
in at the net the present time. And gee, what
a great time to have this massive solar flare,
right? Oh my gosh. We've been going months with
hardly any propagation at all. If it was, it's
been very little, a little iffy at times. You
know, it may get a little solar flare here and
there, but it's just a little bit of light typing.
When everything clears, you know, you get some
pretty good propagation. But here it is, we're
just not working a hurricane. We're working the
strongest hurricane to develop in the Atlantic
basin in history, where it topped out 185 miles
per hour. And then, when we do activate, then
we get the largest solar flare to take place
in over a decade. And when it did, it knocked
out communications for hours. And there's been
quite a few solar flares that's been flickering
for about the past, well, 24 hours anyway. But
we've been working Hurricane Irma, moving through
the Leeward Islands, and then knew that Jose
was coming behind. I didn't realize it was going
to strengthen as fast as it did. All of a sudden,
you get out in the Gulf of Mexico, get Acadia,
it develops real fast, and we're thinking, okay,
maybe two hurricanes. We've done that before
in the past. But now, Jose is coming on the hills
of Irma, and it looks like it's got a chance
of coming across the same area that Irma took
through the northern Leeward Islands, though.
Not only we're looking at two storms to maybe
talk about... for landfall and hurricanes, but
possibly three. And that's been, we've never
done that in the 52 year history of the hurricane
watch net. And, and still dealing with Harvey.
Yeah. Four folks in the, uh, and Texas still
dealing with aftermath of Harvey. And, uh, that
was an amazing storm right there because, uh,
when it did become a tropical storm, it was forecast
within 24 hours to make landfall as a tropical
storm. Well, It wasn't long after we activate.
I had a feeling it was going to become a hurricane
and it did, but then all of a sudden, it blew
up to category three and then all of a sudden,
cat four and then just stalls. Goodness gracious,
I've never seen anything like that in my life.
The last time I saw anything similar was a tropical
storm, I believe it was Allison, that hit Houston
back in 2001. It just sat there and stalled and
dropped, I forget, I think something like 40
-some -odd inches of rain and flooded all of
Houston. But nothing like a hurricane like this
one did with all the rain on top of it. So They
got hit with the wind and the rain It's been
pretty pretty massive so so what is the status
of the net and and The frequencies and how to
listen and that kind of thing Well, unlike years
ago where the hurricane washed it was just a
20 meter only net operating on 14 decimal 3 2
5 When I became that manager in 2013 made the
decision to make us a 24 -hour net until no longer
needed because hurricanes do make landfall at
night time. So, we've been active since 2 p .m.
Eastern on Tuesday and will remain in continuous
operation until further notice until no longer
needed. Right now, we've suspended daytime operations
on 14 -325. We're on our nighttime frequency
on the 40 -meter band of 7 .... 2 6 8 megahertz
and We'll stay going there until 7 30 in the
morning and we'll switch back a little by 7 will
already be switched back to 14 3 2 5 and be operating
there in the daytime there and we'll keep that
same Schedule going throughout if there's any
change. We'll have that posted on our website
at hwn .org Okay, very good and Lloyd same question
Fill us in on the voice over IP hurricane net.
What's the present status and remind people how
to Connect to the net and listen and who should
be calling in Well currently we are in what I
call a speaker watch and the people on the net
are just there listening monitoring for urgent
needs for reports from the affected area. Just
like the solar flare affects HF propagation,
our downfall, if you will let me use that word,
and I don't like using that word, but our weakness
is that in Cuba and Dominican Republic, Kirks
and Tecos, there's not many IRLP stations, not
many Echolink stations. In fact, there are even
very few APRS weather stations that are available.
So, who should be there? Anyone's welcome to
check in. If you are from the affected area,
we'd like you to check in on 9219 on IRLP. Echolink
7... 203 echo link is weather talk conference
and we have added all star net and for the duration
of the net i'm keeping my all star node logged
in to echo link and my personal all star node
is 28848 so now if you are not in the affected
area and want to listen use one of our listen
only resources and that will let people in the
affected area more than likely be able to check
in on our net. That list and only resources are
listed at our website ypwx .net, victoroscarindyapapawhiskeyxray
.net is the website and go there, you'll know
when we activate, you'll know when we deactivate
and all the resources for the net. are listed
there. Just like Bobby recruits new people to
help, if you want to help, email KD1CY at ARRL
.net KD1CY is Kilo Delta 1 Charlie Yankee at
ARRL .net and you'll get hooked in and get trained
and we can put you to work on the VOIP WXNet.
And that's Rob Macedo and he was talked about
coming on the show and with everything going
on I totally understand he he decided to leave
it in your capable hands tonight. So again, you
can get a hold of Rob and and get trained and
get up to speed on that. So OK, so there's the
two nets that are going, one on HF, one on the
VHF and UHF linking. And so you can check those
out and listen. And Bobby, this may be an off
guard question here, but it seems like I remember
there was an internet stream of 14 -3 -2 -5 available
for people that want to listen if they don't
have capability. Do you know if that's still
available? Yes, we do. On our homepage, towards
the top right -hand side of the screen, we have
a link for streaming audio. We have two stations
that stream the audio. One's located up in Niagara
Falls, New York, the other one's in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. And since we are operating on 14325
and 7268, and sometimes at the same time, both
frequencies are being streamed live over the
internet. Okay, very good. Well, Bobby, why don't
you give us a status of all of these hurricanes,
where they are, and what you're expecting to
happen in the next couple of days. Well, of course
the big show is Irma and right now as of the
8 p .m. Advisory or zero hundred UTC Irma is
about 55 miles west southwest of Grand Turk In
the Turks and Caicos Islands and about 90 miles
east of a Grand Inagua Island Still packing winds
of a hundred seventy five miles per hour and
move into the west northwest at 16 miles per
hour It's going to be affecting the Bahamas tomorrow
and then over the weekend hitting South Florida.
Now, who knows if it's going to go into the Gulf
side or come up towards Miami and then up towards
maybe Georgia, South Carolina, even North Carolina,
who knows just yet. But going past 36 hours,
any forecast to tell, it's sort of hard to tell,
but that's where we're at with Irma. We've got
Hosea is tracking right behind Irma. It's located
about... 540 miles east of the Lesser Antilles.
It's a category three hurricane with maximum
sustained winds of 120 miles per hour and it's
moving to the west northwest at 18 miles per
hour. And then another storm we've got and the
hurricane hunters at this particular time they're
en route to investigate and that's Cotia at 7
p .m. Central Time or 0100 UTC. It was about
190 miles north -northeast of Veracruz, Mexico.
We're about 210 miles east of Tampico. It's a
Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds at
80 miles per hour, and right now it's just sitting
dead still. It may make landfall tomorrow night.
It may make landfall Saturday. The forecast goes
into Mexico, but right now, being stationary,
a lot of things can change, so it could go anywhere.
We're on the wait -and -see deal on that. Okay
and I was just watching the Weather Channel all
ago looking out for Jim Cantore and watching
some of the response and some of the proposed
tracks and they're saying maybe it'll go west
a little bit more now but Florida is definitely
going to get hit and the that were talking about
supplies and gasoline and evacuations and schools
closing and all that kind of thing. So just get
out there and listen. There's a lot of information
out there. But as he said, anything over 36 hours
is still kind of shaky. So we'll see how that
goes. But definitely want to. Remind everybody
to stay safe and be prepared for what's coming
because it sounds like it's definitely coming.
So Lloyd, when people want to respond like, you
know, for Harvey in the aftermath and that kind
of thing, and so people will probably be, you
know, trying to deploy next week early after
this hit. So how How should they go about doing
that? Well, first off, it's not wise to self
deploy. So be aligned with your local racy radio
amateur civil emergency service. Be aligned with
your local amateur radio emergency service. Be
aligned with a group like the American Red Cross
or Salvation Army. They all, all those use hams
and their response. So be aligned with them.
don't self -deploy, but if you do go, have a
mission for going, don't just show up and say,
I'm a ham, I'm here to help, because they're
already inundated with spontaneous volunteers.
Speaking of, I'd like to mention if you have
friends in Harveyland, hams tell your friends
and loved ones to call 800 -621 -FEMA. 800 -621
-FEMA is the number for your friends and relatives
and loved ones in Harveyland to begin their recovery.
In the interest of IRMA, well, in the interest
of IRMA, we've already submitted about 100 reports
to the National Hurricane Center, and those reports
are viewable on our webpage at voipwx .net. And
then Katya and ARMA, are supposed to be making
fairly close landfalls within Katia, still yet
moving into Mexico, as Bobby mentioned, kind
of wandering around there in the Gulf. Thankfully,
it's staying away from the Texas Gulf Coast so
that recovery can still go on, but Katia is going
along and the VYP nets is going to stand up.
Beyond Speaker Watch, Saturday, Friday night,
Saturday morning, Procadia, and then also monitoring
for Irma, whatever we can gather out of Cuba
and the Bahamas. I have already done a screenshot.
This is a build on KK4INZ's Waffle House index
when he was at FEMA. Whenever there's landfalling
hurricanes, I build a screenshot of APRS stations,
Echolink stations, and IROP stations. And those
go up to FEMA. They can see what's there before
landfall. And then at landfall, within a few
hours after landfall, I'll look at the screen
and see, well, this is not as bad as we thought
it was going to be. All the APRS stations are
still on. all the echo link stations are still
on all the IRP stations are going or they're
not so FEMA can take that digital information
and know how big is big and how bad is bad and
they can change their operation plans based on
where the needs are rather than where they think
it's it's a Not a plan. It's a plan to get the
best bang for the taxpayers buck. I'll put it
that way Okay, very good. Well, we've got more
to talk about and we want to take your call so
we're gonna take a break here and then I'll be
back with Bobby and with Lloyd and take your
questions live right here on the show. And again,
that phone number is 812 -NET -HAM -1, 812 -638
-4261, or you can Skype us and I'll be back to
take those calls right after this message from
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Now is the time to call with your questions for
Bobby and for Lloyd. So give us a call, or again,
you can tweet us or Skype us. Just look for HamTalk
Live. OK, I do see one thing that we wanted to
talk about. to Lloyd about is some of the federal
and ham interoperability stuff and some of the
social media that is going on to help get some
reports and some assistance. So could you talk
about that for just a bit, Lloyd? Oh, certainly.
I am a member of the National Communication System
Sharers radio program, Shared Resources, and
it's an HF federal outside the ham bands like
Mars program. However, the plan for Irma is that
Sharers stations and likely Mars stations will
be monitoring the FEMA ham interoperable channel
of 5330 .5. kilohertz upper side band that's
on a 60 meter band and I will be monitoring I
can't monitor all the time because I've got an
air show this weekend but we'll have the radio
and tuned in to 5330 .5 now what this means is
that people in the affected area if they don't
have any way to communicate the cell phone's
broken the landline's broken they can tune over
to that frequency and perhaps a Mars or shares
station will be monitoring that frequency. Humanity
Road as I've mentioned before has a keen interest
in amateur radio but they are part of the FEMA
Tech Corps and they have a way to monitor social
media for urgent needs and calls for help and
linking resources with needs and they've been
doing this for a number of years so they have
been trained to listen to the the nets like bobby's
net on fourteen three two five and they are aware
of the american radio relay league post that
listed the various frequencies and some of their
members also listen to ham radio through the
WebSDR, the global tuners, remote hams, all those
resources that give them access to listen to
ham radio, although only a few of them can actually
talk. Okay, very good. So yeah, there's a long
list of frequencies that no ARRL put out and
has been going around on social media for all
the different countries and we won't go through
that whole list here, but those are definitely
available. Just go over to www .AWRL .org and
you can find those listed out easier than we
can go through those here on audio. But lots
of good information there and I just want to
make sure that everybody understands that But
there are people listening there. And, uh, the
fact you've even, uh, done some APRS monitorings
that someone, if someone can't get a message
out in the other way, I, I stay connected on
APRS most of the time. So if you will message
KC five FM with your specific need, what do you
need? I, I know how to send and receive APRS
messages. So, um, I, I almost hate to recommend
it, but if all else fails, ham radio is going
to get the message through. Yeah. And that's,
uh, that's what it's all about. So, um, all kinds
of resources there to, uh, to utilize. And if
you have a question about one of those, give
us a call right now. It's 812 -638 -4261 or,
um, net ham one is what it spells out. or tweet
us or give us a call on Skype. While we're waiting
for that, let's turn to Bobby for a minute here.
What kind of traffic have you guys been handling
here so far? What have you been hearing? Well,
it's been sort of light. And in some cases, it
is sort of the... Not unexpected when you figure
you got a storm that's coming in with the sustained
winds at 185 miles per hour It's not a matter
of if it's just when you're going to lose commercial
power and we From what I understand up in the
northern Leeward Islands. There's it's just total
devastation It's just it's some of the scenes
of pictures I've seen it's just it's just heartbreaking
I know I know what Hurricane Camille did to the
Mississippi Gulf Coast back in 1969 and also
seeing what Katrina did and a bunch of other
hurricanes, but to see a storm with that kind
of magnitude, that high of wind, I've never seen
any kind of building that can withstand that
type of wind strength. It's just going to be
damaged. When you figure out some of the islands
as far south as St. Martin, where you've probably
seen on YouTube these airplanes, it was like
the landing gear touching the water before they
even hit the runway. That runway was after the
storm hit, a lot of folks thought anywhere between
a third to a half of the runway got destroyed
during the hurricane. Well, what happened was
there was so much damage to the island All the
debris got thrown on the runway and other parts
of it was still submerged due to the storm surge.
But when the storm surge went back, then they
realized, hey, no, the runway's still here. They
got out there and got it cleaned up. And as a
result, I've got word that the Dutch military
is supposed to be sending a C -130 cargo plane
out of Holland into St. Martin's, bringing in
food, water, enough for 40 ,000 people for five
days. Also, with personnel to help in recovery
operations. I've got one of our net members for
the Hurricane Net. He is a meteorologist at the
airport in Aruba. He's also part of the Emergency
Communications Network throughout the entire
island chain. Needless to say, he has been very,
very busy. I talked to him earlier today, he
said basically all of HF communications out the
islands is gone. They're trying to get radio
from Aruba up to Barbuda, which is the top island
there in the Leeward Islands so they can get
some communications going. So that's just some
of the things we've been hearing. Other reports
we've been getting reports out of, had some coming
up, Puerto Rico. We're already getting stations
lined up out of Haiti. I think we got a couple
out of the Dominican Republic, a few in the Bahamas,
and then quite a few ones against the U .S. There's
a bunch of stations throughout Florida and wherever
else we may go. So our biggest issue, though,
has been, if anything, of all times, to have
a solar flare. So we're just trying to deal with
that as well. Now, and speaking of solar flares,
Lloyd, I think you've got some information on
another one coming. Oh, it was on HF today trying
to show some of our freshmen ham radio at school
and the band was just dead. I mean, I don't remember
seeing the scope look so flat. And now you're
saying we're on the lookout for another one?
Yes, this was on the League webpage, I believe
it was. A G3 watch is in effect for 8 and 9 September
UTC in anticipation of another coronal mass ejection
associated with the flare. This will produce
a R3 strong radio blackout 6 September and moving
forward. This is, I saw a screenshot. of a waterfall
on 30 meters and there was nothing that I can
hear on 30 meters. I can hear almost anywhere,
but there was not a signal to be had on 30 meters
on that waterfall. I'd like to go back to what
Bobby said about Babouda and the minister there
reported 95 % and try to picture folks, 95 %
of your community is has buildings that are damaged.
Of your residents, about half of them are casualties,
and thankfully, so far they've only had one fatality.
But they reported the airport damaged, the ham
radio is damaged, they don't even have ham radio
on that island, and they're looking for recovery
to start tomorrow. But, you know, that's just
part of the devastation. And that's one Island
among many in the Caribbean that have encountered
Irma and soon to encounter again, Jose. Yeah,
there's, there's just a lot going on there. And,
uh, uh, wow. All of it happening at once. Uh,
the old saying when it rains, it pours, I guess,
uh, I guess that's where we're at right now.
Um, Carl KD9HQT is on the chat here and says
that he doesn't think that a lot of people understand
just how serious ham radio operators are when
we pass some of this emergency traffic and deploy
when disaster strikes. and how we save lives.
And so it's a great reminder that you guys have
a very vital service that you're providing with
these nets. And we're talking about all these
solar flares and things going on. And I think
it's great that there's the redundancy of Bobby's
net on HF and then we've got the voiceover IP
to get some VHF and UHF in there so that we have
options so that, you know, if one doesn't work,
you know, something else will. And it looks like
we're getting full test of that this week. Well,
I'd like to mention too that Humanity Road, and
I keep going back to them, but they're doing
good work. But Humanity Road has one of their
founding statements based on social media, because
Red Cross did a survey a number of years back,
and the surveyed people, 80 % of them said, if
I send a message on Twitter or something for
help, I expect a reply, 80%. Now, Humanity Road
has this statement, no call for help. should
go unanswered. That's kind of a strong statement,
and I liken that to ham radio. We have so many
different ways to communicate. This is really
likely to be an all hands on deck event with
Irma coming up to Florida. The Harvey recovery,
the Mexican emergency communicating folks are
working a plan for Claudia. and who knows where
Jose will end up. All hands on deck. If you hear
a call for help, listen to that call for help,
answer that call for help, and then it may be
on Bobby's net, it may be on our net, or it may
be on a 160 meter AM. Who knows where that signal's
gonna be? So all hands, listen. Listen listen
for that call for help and answer it because
somebody's life may certainly be in danger Amen
Well, very good well said Well, we've got just
a few minutes left. So if you're gonna call now
is the time to do that it's 8 1 2 net ham 1 8
1 2 6 3 8 4 2 6 1 and go ahead and make that
call or that tweet right now and I just again
want to thank you for leading all the volunteers
and trying to put all this together because we
do want to make sure that we use our communications
talents for the better good and we thank you
for this vital service that you've put together
and all the volunteers out there. So maybe as
we wrap things up here tonight, we just kind
of recap the frequencies, the websites, how people
can help, and how people can stay out of the
way, too, of progress here. So Bobby, why don't
you run down to yours, and then we'll go to Lloyd
again. Yeah, sure. I'll real fine appreciate
that. Yeah, our daytime frequency is 14 decimal
325 and for nine hamps that may be listening
may just want to be shortwave listeners. It'll
be on upper side band will be operating there
during the daytime at nighttime will be operating
on in the 40 meter band seven decimal 268. That
will be lower side band for shortwave listeners.
We own our web page hwn dot org. We have a link
where you can listen in to our streaming audio.
Hopefully the solar flares will stay away so
the audio will be able to be heard and be streamed.
For those that are listening in on the air, we
invite you to listen in. There may be a time
that one of our net control operators, even one
of our own relays may not be able to hear and
we'll call out for outside help to help get those
stations in and get those weather reports. There
may even be emergency or priority traffic we're
trying to get past. Some of these stations are
operating with just little wire antennas, maybe
up in their attic. In fact, even before Irma
even got to Florida, I made contact with a station
in Florida. His two young girls, he's got a license.
They wanted to check out their little antenna
to see if we can make contact on 40 meters. We
gave it a try. It was light, but we made that
contact, but he wanted to make sure that... While
he was away from his house, his family could
still be in contact and be able to, if they needed
help over a ham radio, they'd be able to do that.
So those are ways that you can listen in to us
and on the air as well as off the internet as
well. And be sure to stay clear of the frequency
unless you have something that's pertinent to
the net. And we also want to always thank everyone
who normally uses those two frequencies for daily
use, whether just rag chewing or various nasty
allowing us to have a clear frequency. It makes
our job so much easier. We definitely appreciate
it. And because if you ever heard a thunderstorm
come over at nighttime on HF, you know how bad
that it makes the signals hard to read. Well.
It's even more so during a hurricane and then
we got the howling of the wind outside. It's
even exacerbated even more And what I'm thinking
about especially with this hurricane having such
a huge distinct eye as we give out on our hurricane
net some of our Statements that when things are
quiet, we always like to put out this one notice
and it's a It's that if you catch yourself in
the eye of the hurricane As human nature, you
want to step outside of your home to check and
see what your property is like. Please, please
don't do that. There could be some power lines
down. They should be considered live. The other
problem is you don't know when the backside of
that eye is coming in. When it does, the wind
is not going to slowly increase back up to maximum
speed. It's going to go from zero to whatever
max speed is almost instantly. So any debris
that's laying on the ground will instantly become
a projectile and it could hurt you or even worse.
So the best thing to do is just stay put, wait
till the storm has passed and before trying to
venture outside. Great advice. And Lloyd, you
get the last word, but you get 30 seconds. Go.
Uh, five, three, three, zero, not five, five,
three, three, zero dot five, upper side band.
That's the shares FEMA channel folks will be
listening there. Uh, humanity road, uh, is also
listening on some HF nets to. Participating in
our net, look at voipwx .net. Voipwx .net, IRLP
9219, EchoLink 7203, All -Store 28848. Connect
to us, give us your reports. If you need help,
tell us you need help, tell us where you are,
and we will work the mission to get you the help
you need. Well said, gentlemen. Thank you so
much for taking time out of this chaos to talk
to us about all of this, and hopefully that'll
get the awareness out there of what's going on.
So that is wrapped for this week's HamTalk Live.
Thanks to Bobby Graves, KB5HAV, and the Hurricane
WatchNet, and Lloyd Colston, KC5FM. and the Voice
over IP Hurricane Net and everybody for chiming
in tonight. And come back next Thursday night,
9 p .m. Eastern Time. We're gonna be talking
about the National Voice of America Museum of
Broadcasting Upgrades. So for a list of all of
our guests, visit HamTalkLive .com. This is Neil
Rapp, WB9VPG, saying 7375, and may the good DX
be yours.