12/09/2022

Saturday December 3, 2022 was SKYWARN¿¿ Recognition Day (SRD), an event that
recognizes SKYWARN volunteers for their contribution to public safety. SRD was
observed by several National Weather Service (NWS) locations across the United
States. Amateur radio volunteers set up temporary operations from forecasting
headquarters to make contacts with other stations to demonstrate their
readiness to operate in emergency conditions and to act as observers for the
NWS. As of the last count there were over 4,700 SKYWARN spotters taking part in
SRD.

SKYWARN event coordinator Rick Tate, KQ6NO, operates from the Ventura County,
California Sheriff's Emergency Operations trailer. Photo courtesy of Jeff
Reinhardt, AA6JR.

Near Los Angeles, California, at the NWS office located in Oxnard, volunteers
set up six stations on different radio frequencies and operated through the day
under simulated emergency conditions. Several members of the general public
visited the NWS office during the exercise.

ARRL Headquarters, participating as WX1AW, was activated by ARRL Emergency
Management Assistant Ken Bailey, K1FUG, during SRD. WX1AW was active on 40 - 10
meters using SSB and FT8 modes and monitored local VHF and UHF repeaters.

Radio amateurs participating as SKYWARN volunteers assist the NWS with
real-time observations of adverse weather conditions that pose an imminent
threat to life and property. Those alerts may include tornadoes, waterspouts,
damaging hail, blizzard conditions, sleet, strong winds, heavy rainfalls and
flooding, dust storms, damage assessment, and other significant anomalies. NWS
personnel can utilize information from ham radio operators to issue alerts or
assess threat levels to areas that may be affected by abnormal conditions.

The 2022 NWS Spotter of the Year Award was given to Bryan Loper, WX5CSS, of
Atlanta, Texas. The award noted that Loper is very active with the amateur
radio network and weather community within the Ark-La-Tex region, and is always
reliable in providing weather reports. Loper is also an ARRL member.

Thanks to Jeff Reinhardt, AA6JR, Public Information Coordinator - ARRL Santa
Barbara Section for contributing to this story.

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