Hi Gang,

Last week’s weather events reminded me of some practices from the past. We have had a problem with hearing our friends at the NWS on Echolink during SKYWARN ops. Wade has pulled his and several other people’s hair out trying to determine why we can’t get the audio up any more. Finally by working with the ops at the NWS we think it has been fixed, as last week we could hear them much better. It has to do with how they access the system with their equipment to reach us up here. Due to the number of counties (links) they have to listen to, it’s not one simple Echolink connection. Wade can explain it much better and after working with Mike down in Ft. Worth, it’s now easier to hear them.

That got me to thinking about listening, and then there was the article in the ARRL ARES e-newsletter that hit the issue head on. So I’ll quote several portions:

“In the days where every ship of credibility carried a Morse code set, the radio operator was required to maintain radio silence on the international distress frequency of 500 KHz for a three minute interval, at 15 and 45 minutes of every hour. As radiotelephone came into being, a 3 minute watch was maintained at 0 and 30 minutes. If the disaster your vessel encountered fit within the 30 minute schedule, your weak, plaintive CQD (later SOS) had a good chance of being heard amidst all the commercial traffic and noise.” This was back in the early days of radio use. They all stopped to listen and give a weak signal the chance to be heard.  ….HMMMM….

We try to allow a little time between squelch tails on our repeater for the NWS to have chance to get in. It takes a few extra seconds for the system to get their transmissions to reach us. It’s really important sometimes as they are focused on several conversations in the NWS office during these events. Hearing certain buzzwords draws their attention: rotation, wall cloud, funnel etc. Listen a few minutes before you check in, and pause before you make your report; there might be something going on you didn’t hear.

While we are out spotting, I want to suggest keeping the distractions down to a minimum. Maintaining focus on our operation is vital to safety. You may not hear a lot of chatter sometimes and that’s good; as we have said before a quiet net is great because it means no one is getting abused by the weather. But when there are transmissions, listen; the call might be for you, or it might help you understand what’s going on with the system we are watching. The author of the article I read was discussing operations at a public service event but you can see how it would apply to us:

“The output problem – the ability to receive the repeater output in the field – is rarely that the (stronger) repeater transmission cannot be heard. It’s simply that the operator is not focused, not listening for the call. The operator is chatting with friends, tired and glazed, or listening to other communications. One volunteer insisted that he bring along another radio so he might “listen in on public safety.” “That’s nice,” I replied, “but it’s not in our job description.” I feared that, while lost to more exciting radio banter, my volunteer would lose awareness – of our situation and responsibility – which are so necessary to maintain. I was right. He was often difficult to reach and generally ineffective. Hopefully it was a lesson learned.

Sure, our work can sometimes involve simply waiting for that one call, and this can be boring. But think of how interesting we can make our listening watch when we form a picture in our mind of what’s happening at the event overall, and what has happened in the past, to grasp that we perform a life or death function. 100% focus on our duty and assignment is critical to our “client” event officials being able to secure the public’s safety as best they can, at the rest stop, intersection, or Red Cross facility to which we are assigned.

Maintaining that strict listening watch repeatedly overcomes the limitations inherent in our technical communications method, promotes situational awareness, improves our effectiveness to the teams we support, and in the end is a discipline that keeps us focused on the reason we’re standing underneath that silly orange hat in the first place: to provide instant, reliable communications.

So maintain that strict listening watch. Your performance and overall satisfaction, and public safety at the next public service event will be all the better for it.” — Mark Richards, K1MGY

Now I ask you to maintain a strict listening watch, no extra radio(s), no Twitter, and no Facebook posts of the storm; save that for later. Go back to our training, learn what to report and the procedures we are asking everyone to follow. Your awareness of the developing weather may affect your location, how you operate there, which direction to watch, and how to plan for leaving that location; or if you’re at home, to seek cover. It’s for safety’s sake, yours and the public’s, and allows everyone to work on the situation at hand.

Thanks for your service to our community, you are making a difference!

73 and Happy Thanksgiving
Rick
K5ECX