I made an appearance atScoutfestin Monroe County on 25 October representing East Tennessee SKYWARN. Hundreds of scouts from around the region came out for a weekend of camping and learning about various trades, skills, and ideas that may help them become better people tomorrow than they already were today.
The Smoky Mountain Amateur Radio Club, RACK, and Monroe Co. ARES were in attendance at a couple of sites next to the airstrip where planes took off and landed all morning and afternoon. Helicopters from the US Army and Lifestar flew in for the event as well.
Scouts and their families stopped by and were informed on what amateur radio was, how it could be useful in hiking, emergencies, and of course, severe weather.
A portable station was set up to allow scouts to talk on the radio. Some were shy, and others very outgoing. They talked to hams on the 146.940 repeater throughout the day and were impressed by how far away some of the stations were located.
The morning started off chilly, but by midday the sun came out, the skies cleared, and it turned into a pleasant afternoon. RACK had an HF setup and scouts could listen to 10meters being active with stations in Italy, Costa Rica, and many others across the US and Europe coming in and out as the band conditions allowed.
I attended on behalf of SKYWARN and provided spotter guides to anyone who was interested in weather, showing what to looks for and what is considered severe. Many scoutmasters and family members in attendance were ham operators and stopped by for eyeball QSLs.
Held every 3 years, Scoutfest is an event where the entire Great Smoky Mountains Council is invited to attend. This year, Axiom Space Astronaut John Shoffner was the guest speaker for the event.
It was a beautiful day and an exciting event. All the volunteers are looking forward to the next Scoutfest!
A little over 3 years ago I posted a teaser about an audio rack that I wanted to use for ham radio functions...all it said was "soon...".
Well, I guess I SHOULD provide an update after 3 years! And what a jouney!
I had parts and equipment to put together a "go-box" or "kit" as I'll call it, for portability and convenience, so I began the process of putting together a kit that would allow me to get on HF in a remote location or at an EOC or other location for outreach and public service.
Now this was three years ago, so a lot has changed in between then and now. For my kit I had the following equipment I intended to use:
ICOM 706-MkII-G
Yaesu FT-100D
Automatic Antenna Tuner
Power Supply (Powerwerx)
2m/440 dual-band mobile
SWR meter for VHF and UHF
Now at the time I did not have all of the equipment I wanted to have in the kit. I did have my 706 and Yaesu 100D and wanted to put them side-by-side so I could switch to one if the other failed or had issues. Then have a 2m/440 FM for standalone local comms. I did not have the tuner, or the meter, or the rack mount. Luck and good fortune would change that eventually.
After I acquired the rack through a swap/shop posting, I found a killer deal at a thrift store that had an LDG tuner, a power supply, a Yaesu quad-band mobile, and an SWR/power meter from 144 to 500 MHz. I was able to put most of that to good use, but I'm still looking to implement my quad-band in my SUV at some point.
In September 2023, at a setup for the Tennessee QSO Party that my District 5 SKYWARN group was operating, my friend Jordan helped put together the go box. We put the Yaesu 100D and Icom 706 across the bottom, and then the power supply, antenna tuner, and SWR meter across the top. We added a small speaker to go in between the two radios. While I wanted the quad-band to go in, there was not enough space. So we settled on what we had and tested it during the QSO party. We had good results during the contest, and other than a few minor bugs, it went well.
We used Velcro, tie wraps, and occasionally a screw or two to put the kit together.
I was excited to get the kit put together but had to wait until December when I could put it to the test during the SKYWARN Recognition Day event at the Morristown NWS.
And it was a disaster...
I arrived at the NWS and was ready to go, but no one of our usual gang was there except for Clark, WD4CM. Apparently there had been a confluence of events that prevented others from the SKYWARN team from appearing, whether it be being out of town that weekend, sickness, or taking care of family who was sick. So we had minimal equipment available and fewer volunteers to operate it.
It was all Clark and I could muster to set up our equipment in the fast-setting darkness. I was so rushed to hit the 7PM start that I tripped over a wire supporting a hastily put-together mast and almost busted my shoulder, knee, and wrist tumbling down the embankment!
After brushing myself off and swallowing my pride, we proceeded to attempt to get on the air with the meager equipment we had.
The radios worked well. I had my trusty FT-100D in action through most of the time we operated. I camped out overnight (no sleep in my SUV, but that's another story) and was operating much of the morning with some folks who showed up and operated, including 10-year-old Anna, KQ4IVQ, who is fascinated with weather, and it perked me up better than a double shot of espresso to see her excitement at operating on various repeaters in the region.
The kit functioned as intended overall, but the mediocre band conditions and unreliable antenna setup made for an shortened event. It wasn't anyone's fault that caused the issues, just a bad set of circumstances that led to a disappointing event. It was still a good shakedown for my kit, and it led to a lot of research on what more could be done.
I knew I had to modify the kit to make it more adaptable to various situations. I began exploring different options for the setup and tried to figure out some of the things that were needed versus what was already set up.
One thing to do was set up a reliable grounding. I only had the chassis for ground and little more, other than whatever ground setup the antennas were using. I put in a ground wire screwed into the back, then placed the wire on a roll that would be sent out (if operating outdoors) to a stake for grounding.
I ended up selling my FT-100D Yaesu at a hamfest, as I felt the two different radios would conflict with operations and confuse those that wanted to operate one over the other. I didn't want someone randomly turning on one radio thinking it was set up when the other radio was actually working.
Although I preferred the Yaesu, it did not offer a lot of compatible peripherals that the Icom 706MKIIg had available. Even though both radios are no longer supported by their manufacturers, I can still get equipment for the Icom that I could not find for the Yaesu. More on that later.
I would wait a few months before breaking it out again and testing the setup to do more work on what I needed. A lot of things were happening in my life that took precedence, and at times I just didn't feel like ham radio was good therapy. I also needed to use something that did not rely on commercial power for activating the setup. I ended up building a battery box for use as an external power source for my setup, and it has been a great add-on to the kit. More on the battery box in a separate post soon.
My wife Jessie (K4RLJ), encouraged me to get back into using the kit and looking at ways of getting back on HF since I did not have a setup for HF at home now that my one remaining rig was now in a go box.
We took a trip to my mother-in-law's home in upper East Tennessee and used it as a way to gauge the remote capabilities of the kit. My mother-in-law's home was not connected to the internet at the time (she now has Starlink), and cellular service is mrginal at best if you're standing outside in the right spot. So I would use this as an opportunity to test true remote activation.
We went in late March, and setting up the radio was trying, and I was not making any contacts. In fact, a couple of stations were calling me a "QRMer" when I was trying to make contact. I checked out the end-fed antenna I purchased at a recent hamfest and, other than the fact it was low to the ground, did not look like it was defective. I was left scratching my head. I tore down and went back home frustrated.
I took my setup back to my mother-in-law's on July 13, which was a fateful day.
While in the middle of setting up the rig, I tuned the 706 to a random QSO on 20m, and I had an HT that was set up on my local SKYWARN repeater monitoring for any weather in the area, as storms had been popping up as they are wont to do in the summer. While setting up, I heard comments on HF and subsequently the local 2m repeater about a shooting and the "president being shot." I immediately grabbed the HT and inquired about what was happening. I thought they were referring to then-President Biden, but they instead were talking about former President Trump. I told my wife and mother-in-law what was happening, and they turned the TV on to see what had occurred. Pretty amazing that in this circumstance, my first hearing of this major event was via ham radio.
After watching the events unfold, I returned to the radio to continue testing the kit. Once again I was met with frustration that my signal was "garbled", or "hot", or "overpowering". I thought it had to be the microphone. I checked the connection, and a couple of times I keyed the mic and nothing happened. I chalked it up to a defective microphone and tore everything down, calling it another failed effort.
I went back home trying to figure out the issue. I would not have the equipment set up again until the 2024 TN QSO Party, where we once again encountered some issues. This time it was due to issues with the antennas and being unable to tune on some of the bands, and so we used it sparingly.
I had spent some time "venting" to a friend of mine who was working to get back into ham radio after being out of it for a few years. I told him my antennas were not giving the desired output and it was cumbersome lugging around an end-fed or a dipole and I needed an antenna I could take portable. A few days later, I get an email that I had a package arriving soon from Amazon, which was odd because I hadn't ordered anything from Amazon in a few weeks. I then got a knock at the door later that afternoon and sitting on the porch was a mystery package. I opened it to find a JPC-12 portable antenna for me. I had to remind myself I didn't buy the antenna while drinking or sleep-browsing, which left only one suspect. I called up my friend and he confessed he had purchased one and liked it so much he bought one for me to try as a portable setup. Thanks, Jason!
I took my kit to visit another friend (Bob KC4URW) who was visiting from out-of-state and camping at an RV park, and I wanted to show him my setup and test the new toy and was met with more difficulty. It took me some time to figure out the setup and try to tune the antenna with as little need for the auto-tuner as possible. I'll have a separate post on the JPC-12 soon. My audio once again seemed to be the issue, and I was chalking it up to the microphone. We set up Bob's Ten-Tec Omni and had better results with the JPC-12. He was so impressed with the JPC-12 he bought himself one!
But once again since I was met with "hot" mic issues and was about to throw the 706 down an embankment, I needed to get things looked at. Bob and I were stumped on the hot mic issue, and he's not used a 706 before, so I decided my next opportunity to get some help troubleshooting was POTA-Palooza, an event at Cove Lake State Park in Campbell Co, TN where many POTA (Parks on the Air) operators would gather to share their ideas, their equipment, and operate as a POTA station from the park. So I decided to make a trip up to get some help and test my setup.
I brought everything I wanted to use for POTA and arrived at POTA-Palooza knowing some great friends would be able to help me, and they did...and when it was figured out the issue, the egg on my face could have been cooked over-medium....
After a few minutes of talking back and forth with another station at the picnic area, he asked me to check my mic gain, and when I did the setting was cranked up to 11! We brought it back to 4-5 and what do you know, I sounded AMAZING! I still have no clue how the mic gain got adjusted but not even considering that was an issue for me was rather...humbling.
Fast forward to June. Now that my "hot mic" issues were resolved, I wanted to continue improving on my kit. I needed a better way to be able to talk and log at the same time. I needed a hands-free mic and foot keyer to be able to free up my hands for logging either on a notepad or laptop. The opportunity came while visiting my daughter Lauren (K4LRN) in Colorado where she is on an internship for the Fish & Wildlife service. While in town we stopped at Ham Radio Outlet. I was only there to browse...or so I thought...at least that's what my wife thinks.
I talked to Adan about my kit and he showed me the Proset headphone/mic by Heil that was very comfortable and affordable, even with the necessary adapters for the 706. I got both the headphones and foot switch and a couple of books, one for learning how to do POTA, the other a logbook. When all else fails, pencil and paper will help you log your contacts!!!
So then I was in good shape and was ready for the next TN QSO Party. I set up the kit a couple of times at the house to prep the mic and the foot switch, and took it up to my mother-in-law's for practice setting up and tearing down. It takes about 35-45 minutes to set up, which involves mainly the antenna, and maybe 20-30 minutes to stow after I'm done (unless it's pitch dark, which takes time to navigate with only a flashlight and clumsy feet).
When time came for the TN QSO party I was ready to go, and with my end-fed, and JPC-12, we operated with the rest of my District 5 SKYWARN team and treated the TQP as a late-summer "Field Day", setting up at the Middlesettlements Field of Dreams and then having a picnic and inviting the public to come out and participate.
I'll save that as well for another post (I've got to get more active on my blog anyway) but the radio operated great, and my headset mic and foot switch were flawless, and NO HOT AUDIO!!!
If you want to see the kit in action you can watch my friend Bill's (KK4PAL) Youtube video of our event here:
So after the QSO Party, I now needed to try doing POTA. My wife and I went to Norris Dam State Park this past weekend to have a weekend getaway and use that time to test out my setup for POTA and get me on POTA under my callsign for the first time. I'd done POTA 2 years prior with my SKYWARN team but we used N4T and WX4TYS for the callsigns. So now I wanted to really get my feet wet.
We rented a cabin and got set up Friday afternoon and everything was looking great...until I realized I did not bring coax!!! I had a 4' jumper and a couple of 1' jumpers...but no barrel connectors (that I had just bought) to connect them with!
I put the 4' jumper on and moved the radio to compensate but felt like the restriction was not allowing me to get as good signal. I still made about 24 contacts and used a notepad to write them down with...because I also forgot my logbook as well....
We were fortunately 30 minutes from the house, so we ran back to get coax and connectors, and then went back to the cabin to operate Saturday morning. But mother nature had other ideas.
At exactly 7am we were jolted out of bed by a loud clap of thunder, and I checked my weather app and saw a thunderstorm building up right on top of us. For the next hour, showers and thunderstorms poured down and when checking the weather map, only our area was getting hammered. After about 90 minutes the system drifted south towards the mountains, where it would inundate the area with showers, and cause a landslide in Sevier Co.
About noon is when I got outside and set up for POTA. This time...with long enough coax and everything in place, I got on 20 meters, and I have to say it was INCREDIBLE the pileups I was getting for POTA. I knew POTA was a hot commodity but did not expect the amount of activity I was getting. I even worked my first Alaska station through POTA! Over the next few hours I would get 113 QSOs with this setup. I was excited to have things (FINALLY!) working in perfect harmony.
Even an approaching thunderstorm did not deter me (except for a close lightning strike!) as I moved all my equipment in the screened-in porch and operated from there over another hour.
I was excited to have had the chance to operate a POTA station and am now looking at ways to continue operating portable. There are some things I still need to tweak with my setup, and other things that need work. I'm even looking at setting up a portable kit for VHF/UHF operations for some upcoming events in Tennessee.
So my big takeaways from using this go kit as a portable setup:
At around 50 lbs of weight, the portable audio rack is cumbersome and heavy and not conducive to truly portable operations for things like SOTA (Summits on the Air) where the purpose is to climb to the top of a ridge or mountain to operate. Lugging this and my battery box would not work for SOTA. I will need more lightweight portable packaging for such activity.
I learned a lot about what I had versus what I needed. I also learned that it helps to know your equipment as best as possible so that when troubleshooting, you know where to look and what to look for. Some major headaches could have been avoided had I just thought to check the settings of the radio before exploring my hardware.
This was, and still is, a great way to have a go kit at the ready in case of an emergency or a need to set up when something happens. I can use this radio setup for Field Day, the TN QSO Party, and maybe Winter Field Day next year if I get the time to operate. I can also use it for SKYWARN Recognition Day and plan to take it with me to try my luck again.
It really revved up my interest back in HF.
Setting up and taking down are getting easier with time and repeated processes, and I am figuring out exactly what I need for future events. Which reminds me...
Have a checklist of everything needed! I need to have my coax, connectors, battery box, antenna, laptop, paper, pens, flashlight, etc. in a backpack or something that I can lug around along with my audio rack. I will use RG-58 coax since it is lighter, leaner, and more portable than the RG-8 that I ended up getting from home when we rushed back.
I still want to add another radio into the kit. Currently I use the place once occupied by the FT-100D to stow the headset and foot switch. I have a quad-band radio I plan to use at some point but I'm torn between using it in this kit, or in its own separate kit. Perhaps a dual-band radio with cross-band capability will be what I want to use for that purpose. We shall see.
Here is what I currently have in the box, and as I go through the motions with more events in the future, I will probably change out one or two more things.
ICOM 706 MkIIg
LDG Antenna Tuner
Diamond SX-400 SWR/Power meter for 144-500 MHz
Powerwerx power supply for the antenna tuner and power meter (can also be used on the ICOM radio)
External Speaker
MFJ End-fed antenna for 10-40m
A quick reference guide for the Amateur Radio bands I can operate
Stakes, rope, tape, barrel connectors, and other items for operating/repair
So now that I'm back in the blogging game, here's some more topics I will plan to discuss soon:
Battery Box (will be published at same time or before this post to feature it prior to this one)
TN QSO Party
POTA-Palooza
TARA (Tennessee Amateur Radio Association)
Simplex Saturdays
HOA legislation bills in US Congress
I hope you enjoyed this and will continue to follow along.
I called nets on both of these nights. Already riding on very little sleep following the disastrous Chimney Tops 2 fire, I called the SKYWARN net that was needed for several severe storms that hit the region the night after the Gatlinburg Firestorm. We tried a few new concepts and they seem to be working out well.
And in yet more SKYWARN news, it's that time again for SKYWARN Recognition Day this weekend. It runs from 7PM ET Friday to 7PM ET Saturday (0000z-2400z).
I've been running full steam this whole week, so I'm pretty drained. I promise to elaborate on all of this at a later time this weekend.
On a personal front, I left my previous job of 13 years and have taken on a new job at Scripps Networks Interactive. I've been blessed with an amazing career opportunity and so far, I am (hopefully) making the best of my new career.
Again, not much time to devote for now, but I will update this weekend. Hopefully I will have some time to devote to this on a regular basis.
This is a post I've been dreading to publish for awhile now.
One of my best friends ever, Jason Roach, KF4VDX, became a "silent key" this past Thursday after an 18-month battle with prostate cancer.
I don't know why he was called to Heaven so soon (he's my age) but there must've been a good reason. He was never one to turn his back on a friend in need and up until a few weeks ago was still making trips to the mountain top to work on his repeaters as well as that of a friend's. Any time I needed someone to help me with an issue he was ready and willing to offer his support.
It's been almost 2 years since another friend of ours, Tom Ogle, passed away (also from prostate cancer) and while we were attending the burial, Jason commented how he was having stomach cramps and pain. None of us put much thought into it at the time, but over the next few weeks he seemed to continue having issues. Whenever we talked on the radio, he kept complaining of "problems", but never elaborated, other than heartburn and cramps in his stomach.
He finally went to see a doctor and he received the news that he had prostate cancer, stage 4.
But, unlike Tom, there was a sense of hope. His doctors seemed more optimistic and proceeded to work on getting his tumor removed. However, setbacks seemed to always occur. He was set to have surgery to remove the tumor, but during surgery, the doctor couldn't because it was too big to extract. Then, a "spot" was found on his liver. Then the chemo didn't affect the tumor. The list goes on.
I tried to be there for him, but at the same time let him fight his battle without getting in the way. Every time I talked with him, on the phone or on ham radio, it always seemed to be something causing a setback or delay in getting treatment. He was in and out of the hospital several times, but never gave up hope, even as the weight came off and his strength waned. He fought until his last breath.
I never gave up hope, either, but at the same time I saw the toll it was taking physically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, and socially. In the back of my mind, I could tell over the last few months there wouldn't be much time left unless a miracle happened. Sadly, that miracle never came.
I've known him for about as long as I've been married. He really enjoyed weather, the same as I do. As East Tennessee SKYWARN grew into a well-respected community, Jason, Tom, our friend Chuck, and many others including myself comprised a team of people who helped relay severe weather reports to the National Weather Service in Morristown. We all became a well-oiled machine and provided reliable information to the NWS when called upon.
During a "dark period", which I will not discuss, there were a lot of people who turned their back on me, believing that I was the bad guy. But a few hams showed me who my true friends really were, and both Jason and Tom were right there by my side. There were others, absolutely, but Jason was more than vocal about letting people know why he was my friend. There were times I felt completely isolated and alone, and Jason was always there to talk to me on the radio and the phone when he was able to do so.
When people began to "see the light", and I got back in to SKYWARN, Jason helped me pick up where we left off, getting (most of) the so-called "band" back together. I never forgot that act of kindness, and I always worked to show him my eternal gratitude.
His knowledge of electronics, radio, and music was incredible. Like me, he was an 80s kinda guy, although he preferred hair bands, where as I've always enjoyed new wave and synth pop more, but we both did crank up AC/DC without hesitation.
We enjoyed Field Day, SKYWARN, and just talking on the radio in general, whether it was on one of his repeaters or on simplex, or even 10 meters. He'd message me whenever there was a band opening, and I would join him if I had the time.
The night before I left for vacation last month, I ran by the hospital to see him. He was noticeably weak, his voice was gone to barely above a whisper, and he was frail. That's probably the first time I truly saw the seriousness of his illness. I stayed for just a few minutes, as his son was there, and I felt like he needed that time together. I told him I needed him to get out of the hospital to help me set up my tower and get my hamshack remodeled, and he'd have to climb the damned tower. He just rolled his eyes at me. I did say I planned to take him to Dayton someday for Hamvention, because I wanted to go back (I've not been up there since 1999). He'd never been and seemed to like the thought of going up there. Whatever I thought would raise his spirits, I did my best to say.
However, that would be, in effect, the last time we had a conversation where he was coherent and alert. I'd gone to see him several more times in the last few weeks, but he was always in and out, heavily medicated, and it pained me when he would talk and I couldn't understand him.
Thursday night, I saw a message on Facebook and had an awful feeling. I told my wife and we rushed to the hospital. He was not conscious, shallow breathing, and his heart rate was in decline. We said our goodbyes, shed our tears, and as I took Jes home, I called our friend Chuck, who wanted to see him, and so I rushed him back to the hospital. As another friend (Josh) arrived, his heart rate dropped sharply, and when Chuck and I got to the room, he was gone.
It tore me up to see him wear away to practically nothing because of cancer. He was 44. Medical experts say that men shouldn't have to worry about having a prostate exam or colonoscopy until they hit 50. I would STRONGLY encourage all men to have an exam if they hit 50, but be aware of any issues with your digestive system no matter what age you are. I had my gallbladder taken out at 40 and just a few months ago had a colonoscopy after a test came back recommending one, even though I am "too young". Fortunately my colonoscopy came back negative, but it was a nervous time for me. It certainly made Jason feel at ease when I told him I had a clean bill of health.
I'd like to conclude with a story about how much of a sense of humor Jason had. He could be a prankster, both on the air and in person. One night on the radio I was testing out a new MFJ desk mic and trying to calibrate it so that my audio wasn't too "hot". Jason and another friend of ours, Eddie, kept having me do 10-counts, adjustments to the mic, etc. At one point Jason asked me where the radio was in relation to the room, saying he thought he heard an echo, and wasn't sure the source, and I told him I was in the far corner, across from where the closet was. Jason asked me what was in the closet, and I told him in contained the boxes my radios and microphone came in. He then instructed me to press the "lock" on the mic, and go back to the closet and get the box, and talk while I did so, in order to test the microphone's sensitivity. I did as instructed, telling them in elaborate detail where I was in the room and talking loudly, then quietly, and trying to give them a good idea how sensitive the microphone was. When I un-keyed the microphone, Jason replied (with a great sense of pride I might add), "Congratulations, Greg, on coming out of the closet!". This became one of his favorite inside jokes I'd occasionally get reminded of, whether I wanted to be reminded of it, or not...
Thanks, Jason, for being my friend. Now and always, you will be missed.
It's not everyday you can tell your friends and family you rode out an EF-4 tornado and lived to tell about it. It's even rarer to do it in a vehicle.
But when that vehicle is specifically geared to intercept said tornadoes, it comes with the territory. But even this monster twister would make the bravest of chasers wonder what could possess someone to ride out this big of a tornado.
Sean Casey and TIV2 before (credit Herb Stein)
If you're a fan of the Discovery Channel show "Storm Chasers" you've no doubt heard about Sean Casey and his quest to film an IMAX movie from INSIDE a tornado. His now-infamous "Tornado Intercept Vehicle", or TIV for short, was designed for such a task. And last Monday, it was put to the ultimate test, as an EF-4 tornado came bearing down upon them and passed over their location in Smith County, KS. It was captured on video by his tag-team partner Brandon Ivey.
His 2nd generation vehicle, the 10-wheeled monolithic TIV2, was bigger, tougher, and heavier than its predecessor TIV1, and in my opinion had they been in TIV1, would not have fared as well. TIV2 is over 14,000 lbs, has bulletproof glass composed of polycarbonate sheets combined with tempered glass on the outside, and thick metal shielding around the entire frame that can withstand micro-sized missiles from penetrating the inside of the vehicle. It also has several rods that ram into the ground in order to anchor the TIV2 and prevent the high winds from moving the vehicle. The 1/8th inch-thick metal shielding extends to the ground, to allow air to pass over the TIV, preventing the wind from going underneath the TIV2 and sending it airborne.
The tornado that was captured provided some dramatic images, from a 1000-lb bale of hay passing from the rear, to metallic objects striking the windshield and creating sparks.
You can watch the video here (high-res version here), and note the sound is fluttery during the most intense part of the pass. If you look at the bottom of the polycarbonate windscreen, you'll note the vibrations are in sync with the fluttery sounds coming through the microphone, as the pressure around the vehicle is dropping and fluctuating as the twister passed over the TIV2.
It's currently unknown how fast the winds were, because their anemometer snapped off when sheet metal debris from a farm a half-mile away hit it, registering wind speeds of 150-174 MPH at the time. These winds speeds register as an EF3 to an EF-4 on NOAA's enhanced Fujita Scale.
Fortunately no deaths occurred with this tornado, but a couple of houses were damaged or destroyed and some cattle are reported missing. They didn't fly by the TIV2, however.
The TIV2 did its job but not without some mishaps. A couple of hatch doors blew open during the intercept and debris entered the TIV2 cabin. The IMAX mount also became dislodged and Sean had to take cover while filming. But, any intercept you can walk away from is a good intercept, no? Before and after pics of the TIV2 can be seen at Sean Casey's Facebook page.
You can track various stormchasers as they go after storms during severe weather season with the Discovery Channel's storm tracker page. Unfortunately Discovery Channel cancelled the show despite decent ratings and a lot of great drama footage of the tornadoes in action. I'm almost certain fellow tracker/TIV copycat Reed Timmer is screaming at the top of his lungs for not being the one to encounter the tornado congratulating Sean for his historic intercept. And somewhere in that TIV2, I'm sure Matt Hughes was along for the ride as well, RIP.
Stay safe everyone, and please, please please...DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME, OR ANYWHERE ELSE FOR THAT MATTER!
It's with great sadness I report that one of my closest friends, Tom Ogle, KE4WFJ passed away this morning after a brief fight with cancer. He was 52. He is known to many in the Knoxville ham community, from APRS, chasing high-altitude balloons, DFing QRMers on some repeaters, bike tours, Field Days, and as an NCS for SKYWARN.
Tom (right) with me at Field Day in 2010
I hadn't been in touch with him for a few weeks but invited him to come up this past Friday for SKYWARN Recognition Day but had not heard back from him. I didn't think it was anything serious, but he apparently kept his illness a secret from even his closest friends. He only found out last Saturday (Dec. 1) that he had Stage 4 cancer that had spread rapidly in his body, and was given just 6-8 weeks. It ravaged him so fast I don't know if it could have been caught early enough, because he claimed he didn't feel any symptoms until a few weeks ago. I was contacted at 7:30 this morning with the terrible news. He loved ham radio and he was always wanting to help whenever possible. He was also a great friend. A few years ago when I had a falling out with another ham, he was one of a handful who stood by me from the beginning and reminded me what a true friend could be. Here is his obituary.
Once again I'll be participating in SKYWARN Recognition Day, Starting officially at midnight UTC 12/1 until midnight UTC 12/2.
I'll be at station WX4MRX in Morristown TN during the "graveyard shift". I'm not sure how long I'll be there, as I have to be back home by sunrise.
I've participated in several of these from "MRX" and have enjoyed them thoroughly. Usually I end up all by my lonesome but last year a couple of guys were with me most of the time I was on station.
I'll try to post some pics of the current incarnation of the MRX station.
I'll try to update my frequency via my Twitter accounts @k4hsm and @etskywarn.
State College, Pa. -- 21 February 2012 -- AccuWeather.com reports following a near-record number of tornadoes in 2011, an active severe weather season with above-normal tornadoes is expected in 2012.
There were 1,709 tornadoes in 2011, falling short of the record 1,817 tornadoes set in 2004. In comparison, the average number of tornadoes over the past decade is around 1,300.
Last year ranks as the fourth most deadly tornado year ever recorded in the United States.
Read more at the link in the headline or click here.
On Saturday July 28th, 2012 at Union University in Jackson, TN... The Dixie Alley Storm Chase Team will be hosting DASCCON-1 Severe Weather Workshop and Conference. The main focus of this event will be educating the general public on how severe weather events impact our communities. There will be two Skywarn spotter training sessions along with a Storm Chaser Car Show, vendor product demonstrations, etc. We will also have two very well known keynote speakers that will share their experiences and insights about severe weather. Our speakers will be...
We are expecting a very large turnout for DASCCON-1 this Summer in Jackson, TN... And we would like to offer you an opportunity to be a part of this year's event. Also, with the tragic news of the death of storm chaser Andy Gabrielson DASCCON-1 will be held in his honor as a tribute to his contributions to the storm chaser community. You will be able to find an event flyer and sponsor registration forms on our website at http://www.dascon-1.dixiechasers.net
It's already installed in the Memphis facility and will be able to more accurately tell the meteorologists what type of weather is coming our way, and more importantly, if there's debris on the ground. It can tell the differences between rain, heavy rain, snow, and hail. More info on this new radar can be downloaded here.
A dual-polarization radar scan showing different
types of precipitation in one sweep (credit NOAA)
However, don't think it's a replacement for SKYWARN spotters. They'll still be in use to confirm what the radar is seeing and report from the "fringe areas" where the radar may not be able to determine what's going on because of the terrain (East Tennessee is in the mountains after all) or in the rare event that the radar gets knocked offline. I've been on the air calling a SKYWARN net when Morristown's radar got hit by lightning several years ago, knocking them offline. They were relying on ham radio operators to relay what was going on, as they tried to gauge the severe weather from radar stations in Huntsville, Nashville, and southwest Virginia, where the East Tennessee area was on the very fringe of their radar scans.
So, this is great news for the area I'm in (and it's being installed all across the country), but it's also a time to remember that, in the possible event of a catastrophic failure ham radio operators will still be around to report on the weather "when all else fails".
One of the main reasons I got seriously involved in ham radio was the aspect of emergency communications and community service that comes along with it. When I first got licensed I was doing bike races, 5k runs, and marathons for local track clubs.
Every Spring, the weather in East Tennessee can be some of the most complex in the country. One minute it's hot and sunny, the next it's cold and rainy. The thunderstorms in the region can rival a hot, muggy day in Tampa (the self-proclaimed "lightning capital of the world") and the occasional spurring of a tornado can make you think you're smack in the middle of "Tornado Alley" in the midwest.
I can recall a time when, as the weather got severe in these parts, there wouldn't be a SKYWARN net, just a gaggle of hams discussing what the weather's doing in their neck of the woods, or even better, "it ain't doin' nuthin' over here,"with subsequent discussion on their latest visit to the doctor...
Back in the early to mid-90's, that was the norm for these parts. It was especially frustrating for me, because I would often get in my '91 Chevy S-10 pickup truck and stupidly bravely chase these storms, and to not have a bona-fide way to report to the National Weather Service my observations (remember, this was before everyone and their mom had a cell phone).
Then, along came Rocky Beckner.
He was living in Morristown at the time, having come down from his home state of Michigan, where he had helped with SKYWARN up there to get ham radio a permanent presence in the local weather office up there.
Whatever the reason he ended up here in East Tennessee (I've since forgotten) he made it a mission to get a ham station set up at the Morristown office. It wasn't just him, but he was a driving force in getting it done.
WX4MRX, circa 2000
The hamshack at the weather service was officially started in 1998. He was operating at the weather service about a year or two prior, often with his own equipment. The Lakeway Amateur Radio Club contributed some money and equipment and a government grant was given to the weather service office to secure the radios and cabling. Soon, Rocky was able to run a pretty slick operation from inside the weather service office.
The station's initial callsign was initially KF4EKQ, which was quickly changed over to WX4MRX within a few weeks.
Early on in the project, around 1994, Rocky came to know me well, and apparently so did some of the meteorologists who worked up there at the time. I can't count the number of times he would chastise me on the air (or off) for chasing these storms in these parts, sometimes at night, with little/no knowledge of weather myself. He couldn't STAND it when I was operating "stormchaser mobile". I do admit I was so full of piss & vinegar I didn't care what he (or any meteorologist) thought, I was having fun and doing daredevil stuff years which I'd been doing YEARS before "Twister" hit movie theaters (and blasphemed stormchasers everywhere in my opinion).
The current setup at WX4MRX
Then on May 18, 1995, there was an outbreak across the area that was part of a larger outbreak across Tennessee. This event changed how I respected weather and what I felt my "calling" was in ham radio. It had already been an active day weather-wise, and I was attending a RACK meeting but took my radio in and had it on the then-wide area repeater on English Mountain. Barely 15 minutes into the meeting I heard the then-used EBS tone and the announcement that a tornado warning had been issued for Anderson County, to the west of Knoxville. I stood up and let everyone in the meeting know, then booked it to the "chase vehicle". I headed north on I-75 towards Raccoon Valley Road, and I saw the cell that spawned the warning, but if there was a tornado, it was wrapped in rain. As I approached the Raccoon Valley Road exit, a golf-ball sized hailstone hit my windshield. It didn't crack, but I took the hint to get the hell off the road, because I was on a stretch of Interstate with no way of turning around, and little options if all hail broke loose. I quickly got off the Interstate at the exit and found shelter under a gas station awning right as the hailstorm hit. Baseball and softball sized ice rained down overhead, and fortunately the awning sheltered me. At one point I did hear the distinct "freight train" cliched noise, but never saw the tornado, nor did I see signs of it doing damage, so it may have only been a funnel cloud.
I drove home, at the time living in north Knoxville, and got my Radio Shack HTX-202 on a local repeater. All I heard was a bunch of hams hollering that there "wasn't a net" and yet no one seemed to want to take the reigns and do something about it. So I grabbed a pen and some paper and started calling one. I'd had some net control experience with some area ragchew nets and tech nets, but this was going to be a new experience. Overall I did as well as I could, before a tornado touched down about 1/4 mile from my house and knocked out power and caused some pandemonium in my neighborhood.
I learned a lot that night, that I was much better at calling a weather net rather than trying to chase the damned things. Rocky wasn't aware of the net because we weren't on the normal repeater where we'd hear the him transmitting from. But he'd heard about it, and soon after I started finding out more about SKYWARN and studying more about weather, tornadoes, wind, hail, and flooding.
Once Rocky and friends (not sure about Moose and Squirrel) got the hamshack in full operation it was not uncommon to hear him at all hours, any given day of the week, whenever the weather went bad.
We became well acquainted as fellow net control stations and he warmed up to me as a Net Control more than as a very amateur stormchaser, and he even invited me to operate WX4MRX at the NWS office following a lengthy rainstorm that caused major flooding in the area. When he left to go back home to Michigan due to his health, I knew I'd never see him again, unless we both ended up checking out the Hamvention in Dayton, which never happened. We'd email each other every so often, and he gave me some words of encouragement (albeit brief, but his emails were not much on content) when there was a "meltdown" in 2006 that forced me out of SKYWARN for a couple of years.
I'd send an occasional email to him about things going on down here, but he wouldn't respond much, if at all. I knew his health was not the best, so I thought nothing of it. Then, last weekend while at the the weather service during SKYWARN Recognition Day, another ham who was there gave me the news that he'd passed away "a year or two ago", which shocked me. I figured someone would have told me. I guess I got that far out of the loop to get that bit of info...
He was a pioneer in SKYWARN getting the recognition it deserved with regards to the contribution of ham radio and how it could benefit the weather service here in East Tennessee. He was dedicated to both the hams and the meteorologists and these days I think few hams here truly realize or appreciate what he brought to the table.
He was not one to mince words with you, and would often tell you exactly what he thought. If you were wasting precious time asking him questions irrelevant to the weather situation, he had no reservations about letting you know it. Being diplomatic was not always in his repertoire, but then again, as he often told me, SKYWARN nets are not the time to win friends and influence people.
I for one have missed his dedication, often being at the weather service pretty much 24/7, sometimes struggling with the health problems that eventually drove him back home to Michigan. While his presence has been replaced, he will not be forgotten by those of us who remember the times prior to WX4MRX being on the air. Ham radio has made weather spotting in this area more complete and has helped to bridge a needed gap in what the radar "sees" and what is on the ground. Rocky was a crucial part of that in its infancy. He will be missed.
Harold Lazear (K5KLM) of Terlton, OK saw the flames coming and hopped on the roof of his home with a hose to try and do whatever he could to fight the inferno from taking his home and its treasure trove of ham equipment he'd collected over the years.
The flames approached so fast that when Lazear realized he was not going to be able to hold off the fire, he only had time to jump in his pickup and leave without collecting any radio equipment. It all burned to the ground in 10 minutes.
After building up a collection over the years as a storm spotter and Red Cross volunteer, he now finds himself a recipient of aid from the agency he dedicated his volunteer time towards.
People who wish to donate may do so with a credit card at the Red Cross website, tulsaworld.com/okredcross, or by calling 918-831-1170. Checks can be mailed to American Red Cross-Tulsa Area Chapter, Dept. 995, Tulsa, OK 74182. Make checks payable to American Red Cross-Tulsa Area Chapter.
Last month I was heading home and ran into an interesting cloud formation as a powerful wind storm approached Knoxville. Fortunately it was not a tornado, but it was part of a wind storm that did a lot of damage around the area.
Two days later...
The storms that roared through Alabama were some of the largest outbreaks in recent history, with more deaths associated than the famous 1974 "Super Outbreak" in the Ohio Valley.
Check out this video from Tuscaloosa:
The tornado that blew through Tuscaloosa was rated EF-4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Here's the path of that tornado:
While Tennessee was fortunate to have missed the brunt of this massive tornado, we were no less spared from the tremendous damage inflicted by the storm. 35 people died in Tennessee and 52 tornadoes were confirmed.
I helped man our area SKYWARN net for the first time in many years on a consistent basis. Without going in to too much detail, politics and an ungrateful power-mongering individual with a vendetta on me got in the way of my participating in SKYWARN for 4+ years. However, fate and karma brought me back in (along with many others he alienated) and it has been one heck of a season so far.
Just prior to this outbreak, Knoxville was hammered with flooding and another tornadic storm in recent weeks, the April 27th outbreak was going to put many skills (and nerves) to the ultimate test.
I arrived home Wednesday afternoon and flipped on the Weather Channel to see the monster tornado raging through Birmingham live. Here's the video off of YouTube.
I'd been keeping a mindful eye on the weather most of the day as best I could while at work. When I got home, and saw what was going on in Alabama, I knew we were in for a long night. As I was watching the storms develop, my weather radio went off with one of many warnings to occur that evening. I counted a total of 49 tornado warnings issued by the Morristown National Weather Service for Knoxville and surrounding counties alone.
While Knoxville didn't get tornadoes, we did get hail. Lots of it. Quarter sized hail bombarded parts of west Knoxville and the SKYWARN net I was running at the time was hammered with repeated reports from there. I finally had to tell everyone on the net to stop with the reports from the same area and give me reports from areas east of there so I could tell where the line was...and prepare for the storm to hit my house, mere minutes away. I passed the net control "baton" to another ham and got ready.
My ham station was in the lower part of my house, so I got the kids and animals downstairs and waited for the inevitable. Within 5 minutes of hearing that the quarter-sized hail was in west Knoxville, it was at my home.
Fortunately the brunt of the hail passed south of me, and I only got nickel-sized hail. But it made the tension no less extreme as the storm progressed towards the northeast. The storm would drop an EF-4 tornado down in nearby Greeneville, killing 7 there.
As the night wore on, more and more reports of damage, high winds, hail, wall clouds, and funnel clouds came in. Several tornadoes touched down all over the area, including a bad one in the Chattanooga area.
The Alabama tornadoes, especially Tuscaloosa, overshadowed the death and destruction elsewhere, but the one constant through all of this was the use of SKYWARN spotters all across the southeast.
One of the many great assets of ham radio is the cooperation that the National Weather Service has with ham radio SKYWARN spotters. While anyone can be a SKYWARN spotter (first responders, police, fire, medical, etc) ham radio is typically the only service that has a station (and a volunteer) on site at the weather service.
The more eyes on the storm, the better. The more eyes that become hams, then the communities are a little more safe.
On my way home tonight I ran into a severe thunderstorm moving in from the south. As I continued to watch it develop the winds really kicked up and I observed the formation in the video below (WARNING - turn volume down, the wind was blasting the mic of my cell phone):
The formation did not rotate, but it did have an updraft (you might see it in the closeup at the 31 second mark) which made it very hard to judge what I was watching for a few moments.
It was a few tense moments, but it did not turn cyclonic.
Just after I stopped filming the hail started, fortunately no bigger than pea-sized.
But it's not so much the planning commission, as it is the neighbors who all of a sudden claim that the tower's interfering with their TVs. The complaints were brought on after Jim (KB9MMA) and his son Samm (KC9POP) had their community service during severe weather attract unwanted attention by local officials and neighbors. Samm is 10 and has issues with Cerebral Palsy.
Granted, I don't live there, and I'm certainly biased when it comes to ham radio towers and the right to have one (I will NEVER live in an HOA thanks to their micro-plutocracies that base their "laws" on the almighty $$$ at the expense of individuality and the freedom of expression) but when the neighbors call a ten-year old a "media puppet" and are indifferent to the public service he's been awarded, the negative attention given to the neighbors is warranted in my opinion.
However, now that the commission has spoken, it looks to be a lost cause. Jim has said he may sue to keep the tower, but at this point, why bother? Get the hell out of there, and move to a place that has wide open spaces, and welcomes the community service that Samm employs in order to get out of his shell that his disability has encased him.
And if Mt. Pleasant, God forbid, gets hit with a tornado, I would certainly hope they have ample warning. They would, if they'd allow one ham and his son to keep their tower.
Due to the nature of the subject, I've omitted names and callsigns.
Over the last few weeks we've had several individuals causing malicious interference across several repeaters here in East Tennessee. One was caught a few weeks ago, and turned out to be a non-ham. Of the few others that have appeared, one has been very clever in hiding his (or her) signal quite well, but a few have been able to pick them up. While we have a few leads as to who the suspects are, we haven't singled any people out (yet!).
So, last night on my way home, I checked in to the local SKYWARN net and listened in to the gang wrapping up the net as the weather abated. However, as I was checking on some weather approaching from Nashville, we suddenly heard a dear carrier, covering up all signals.
My immediate reaction was that the NWS station had left the mic stuck in the "transmit" position. However, the NWS station chimed in on another repeater that they were not the cause. So the next natural suggestion was that we had a QRMer.
However, something told me it wasn't intentional. The normal interference we had heard was someone scratching a mic, retransmitting signals from HF, or the occasional bodily function. This was just silence. However, a couple of other hams were convinced it was intentional, because they'd been getting QRM recently.
I stepped up my drive home and arrived and put my home station into action. I swung the beams south and immediately got a spike in my signal strength (about S-7) to the southeast, towards Pigeon Forge. We'd had a couple of leads of QRMers from that area, so I started to think we had a bead on the signal from that general direction. However, another ham advised they had a strong signal near McGee-Tyson Airport, directly south of me. I swung my beams due south, and the signal shot to S-9, almost full quieting! Now, all I needed was another ham with a beam to triangulate a general location.
Unfortunately, no one else with a beam was listening, or wasn't hearing the signal.
I got on the repeater's output frequency and sent out a simplex transmission that we were actively searching for the signal. The repeater owner was listening and managed to shut the repeater off through a control link on another band, preventing damage to his repeater.
A DFer with a doppler unit was in the area, so I advised he head towards the airport. While the DFers were doing their manhunt, I got on the repeater's output frequency again and advised that I had the signal to the south and requested input from users who could hear the signal and give a direction or bearing. Unfortunately, no one was giving beam headings or any signal report. I gave out my phone number and a couple of hams called and gave me some signal strength reports, but again, not from a beam, just what they picked up on their HTs.
About 30 minutes into the situation, we new this was not intentional. No one with common sense would risk their equipment just to harass other hams, especially during a SKYWARN net. 3-4 DFers got in on the hunt, and they had bearings near the airport, but further south. As they got closer to the transmitter, I began looking up hams in the QRZ database who might be in the area. I would ask for street names to try and see if there was any hams who lived on particular streets. After they gave information on one street, I called out a ham's callsign and address, and they sped towards that position. Another ham knew they person and called him on the phone. It turned out he was not the QRMer. The DFer's briefly stayed, using the time to get another bearing before continuing on.
Suddenly, the signal developed noise. it had now been transmitting for over an hour and I figured the radio was beginning to overheat. It went from S-9 to S-7 on my radio's signal strength meter. Some thought the drop in signal was an indication it was mobile, but I didn't hear "picket fencing", indicative of a mobile station on the move.
As the DFers moved in closer, the signal suddenly dropped out. Was the radio dead? The hunters made comments that the radio must've died, but suddenly it reappeared, then cut out again! Suspicion arose. Was this intentional, and the guy was messing with us? Was he monitoring us and shutting off the transmitter the closer the hunters were getting?
Suddenly, it came on again. Then off, and on...it appeared to me that the transmitter was shutting itself off due to thermal protection. We knew we had to find it before the radio was permanently damaged, or worse, started a fire!
We were approaching 2 hours, when suddenly one of the DFers picked up a strong signal near the house of a well-known ham. We finally had our culprit.
The ham had gone out to tend to some business and had just plugged in an ICOM radio he had just acquired. His wife was home and allowed one of the DFers in to check the equipment, and the radio was finally turned off. It turned out the mic had a short in the wiring, and was shorted to transmit.
The radio itself was warm, but not terribly hot. The power supply, however, was able to fry an egg, from what I was told.
It was a successful "hunt" and with the terrain and occasional "kerchunk" from hams trying to figure out why the repeater wasn't on, the DFers were able to resolve the situation in good time.
It was a great exercise in direction finding. Hopefully the lessons learned will make the hunters better when it comes time to locate the actual QRMers on the repeaters.
The Smoky Mountain Amateur Radio Club, RACK, and Monroe Co. ARES were in attendance at a couple of sites next to the airstrip where planes took off and landed all morning and afternoon. Helicopters from the US Army and Lifestar flew in for the event as well.
