Month: May 2005

EchoLink


EchoLink® software allows licensed Amateur Radio stations to communicate with one another over the Internet, using voice-over-IP (VoIP) technology. The program allows worldwide connections to be made between stations, or from computer to station, greatly enhancing Amateur Radio’s communications capabilities. There are more than 150,000 registered users in 152 nations worldwide!

I installed the EchoLink software and was able to have a brief QSO with my dad, KD6EUG. I was on my laptop and he was using his HT. I connected in to a repeater in Saratoga, CA and it worked very well.

SKYWARN

Tonight I attended a class to become a National Weather Service storm spotter under the SKYWARN program.

The training was held at the Newport News Emergency Operations Center (EOC). Joe Safranek, K4JJS, helped coordinate with the NWS to get one of their meteorologist from the Wakefield, VA office to conduct the class. There were a lot of hams there – coming from Williamsburg, Newport News, and Hampton. The training focused on severe weather – lightning, thunderstorms, hail, and tornadoes. I got to learn what conditions lead to forming a thunderstorm and how tornadoes are created. All in all, it was pretty interesting. I know have my Storm Spotter qualification and am suppose to contact the NWS at Wakefield if there is severe weather activity around where I live and work.

The ham radio piece comes in to play in case a big storm comes through and knocks out power and telephone lines. At that point, as weather spotters, we’d pass our reports over a local VHF repeater, which would then go to the NWS.

BRAC Results are in!

Fort Monroe has been selected to close. Nobody was really surprised by this. When I first arrived at Fort Monroe, a quick look around told me that the place was ripe to be closed.


What disappoints me most is loosing the history. Why not turn Fort Monroe into the Army’s museum – the center for Army history and historians?