Came across an interesting article from ArgusLeader.com, describing the effects of an ice storm that struck this time last year.

More than 11,100 power poles snapped or collapsed beneath the weight of ice, up to 20 inches of snow, and driving winds. As much as 10,000 miles of power lines fell or sagged or were otherwise affected.

In the aftermath, electricity went dead in 157 towns and throughout the countryside, leaving 56,500 residences, businesses and farms with no power.

Earlier today, the forecast for Madison, WI included a chance of freezing rain tonight. The temperature is still above freezing (barely), so it’s still only raining; but it got me thinking, what am I going to do if an ice storm hits here? I have my handheld battery, and a couple of lanterns that run on batteries. I have a weather radio, and a boom box that also run on batteries. What I don’t have is a) a source of heat, and b) anywhere close to enough juice to run my computer, HT, and HF rig for a short time, much less 72 hours.

I don’t have an answer to what I would do if I had to function for 72 hours without heat and power. It’s a question I’m doing some thinking about, though. A small generator for my one room apartment may not be such a bad idea….

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I work in a weather information vacuum.

In the office where I work, we’re restricted from accessing the internet from our workstations. We are not allowed to receive email from outside the company. We’re also restricted from having anything at our desks that “plugs in” that’s not work related. As far as I know, there is one NOAA weather radio in the building; and in 2 1/2 years, I’ve never heard a building-wide weather alert go out. (Although we do have a yearly tornado drill.) Generally, the best way to tell what the weather is doing is look out the window. Which is a valuable tool, but doing so tends to attract supervisors who want you to get back to work. So I need a way to keep an eye on what’s happening outside, but keep working in the meantime.

One way to do that is read the daily weather report before I head out for work. (Actually, I read the forecast the night before, too.) I have a bookmark set to the NWS local forecast for Madison, WI. That way, I have some idea what to expect. Some days I’m running late though, and I might forget to check the forecast. Or, what the forecast says at 0600 when I read it might no longer apply later in the day; I sometimes work from 0700 to 1600, and then work my part time job at night until 2230 or later.

What I really need is a way to go about my business, and worry about the weather only when necessary– without having to monitor NOAA weather radio unless something really is going on. (I can listen to weather radio on my HT, but that drains the battery which I might need later. Remember, no 12v power supply at my desk.)

In order to get around the “no email” restriction at work, I have an email address for my cellphone. (I can also send and receive SMS text messages on my phone.) So I can receive emailed weather alerts, but they’re usually loaded down with lots of text and advertising that are just too much for a phone. Fortunately, Channel3000.com has a service that sends the title of the weather alert, and the effective times to your cellphone’s email address. (Make sure you check the “Send alert to pager/phone” box.) I’ve been using the service for over a year, and it works very well.

However, my cellphone’s email address isn’t something I want to give out; once it’s out in the wild, it’s liable to end up on some spammer’s list of addresses. So I added a layer between my phone and Channel3000. I entered my Google Gmail address when I signed up for the weather alerts. Now the alert goes from Channel3000.com to Gmail, where I have a filter set up to autoforward the message to my cellphone. End result is I get notified whenever a severe weather statement, advisory, watch or warning is issued or updated. I don’t get the full text; just that a bulletin has been sent, which lets me know that I need to go find out what’s really happening (or is going to happen soon).

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From ARRLWeb:

The Eighth Annual SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) special event will take place Saturday, December 2, 2006. SKYWARN Recognition Day is an event co-sponsored by the National Weather Service (NWS) and the American Radio Relay League. It is the National Weather Service’s way of saying “thank you” to Amateur Radio operators for their commitment to helping keep their communities safe. During the 24 hour special event, Amateur Radio operators will visit their local NWS office, set up Amateur Radio stations and work as a team to contact other hams across the world.

I’m a trained spotter, although I have been limited in my spotting activities this year due to my being limited to 2m (the local Skywarn net in my county is on 70cm). So this looks like fun, especially with contacts through repeaters being allowed. I’m going to try to contact both the nearest NWS office in Sullivan WI, and the NWS office in La Crosse  WI via 2m, and possibly others via Echolink. If nothing else, it’ll be good operating experience.  I’ll post a report next week.

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As a technician class licensee who operates only on 2m (for now), I usually live in the world of line of sight communications. If I want to talk to another station, I have a finite number of choices. First, I can be close enough to that other station that the RF from my handheld gets there no matter what. Second, I can use a repeater, which extends my range. Third, I can try to gain altitude. Fourth is use more power. There are definite limits to what I can do with the resources I have, but I want to know what those limits are so that I know if I’m having any luck when I try to stretch them.

One measure I use is line of sight distance: how far away can my signal go? And how much of a difference does it make if I’m on this hill, or one floor up,or with this or that antenna? I need to plot distances on a map, but since I live in a city that is surrounded by lakes, the amount of water vs farmland between me and another station is important to me as well. I also need to do some calculating; I know there is always a scale on a map that tells me how many miles on the map equate to one inch. So I could get out a ruler, and count the number of inches, but I also have a computer to do that kind of work for me. Enter Google Maps, which will give you a very nice map of the area you’re working in, complete with satellite views. Google Maps is awesome for getting driving directions, but what it doesn’t do is let you plot distances between two points.

Now enter an application intended for runners called MapMyRun. This site lets you plot a run on a Google Map; you begin from a specific address, wherever else you click on the map, MapMyRun plots a straight line from the last point you clicked. If you’re setting up a run in the city, you click at each intersection or curve along your route. As you plot your run, the site keeps track of the distance you’re covering. Hmmm… you can instantly calculate the distance between two points on a map that’s superimposed on a satellite photo of the area you’re operating in.

I’ve found some interesting uses for this; first, I can specify where I’m operating from (the start of my “run”). Then, I can specify a point representing the station I’m talking to or trying to reach. That will tell me that I’m communicating with a station that’s x.xx miles away, line of sight. No calculations, no rulers, etc., and if I’m looking at the satellite view I can tell what kind of terrain is in the way. Second, I can quickly and easily find the distance from any location to a Skywarn reference point. Finally, I can store these plots on the site as saved runs, so I can compare them in case I turn up the power, move to a higher point, or try a new antenna.

There are probably more ways to use MapMyRun in a ham radio sense; if you come up with any, leave a comment and let me know.

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The radios are turned off (well, no, not really) while I’m watching Tornado Glory on PBS at 9:00. After that, Nova is on showing Hunt for the Supertwister at 10:00. I still need to get my equipment in better shape (automotive and electronic) before I can do any storm chasing, so for now I’ll have to live vicariously through TV, but I’ve definitely got that covered for the next couple of hours…

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