Amateur Radio Service
In recent years the
amateur radio service has become more integrated with weather
operations. There are several good sources for information.
Check out:
http://www.arrl.org
and
http://www.qrz.com.
Weather operations
on amateur radio are typically kept to the VHF and UHF frequencies.
Typically around 144.000 MHz to 148.000 MHz and 440.00 MHz to
450.000 MHz for VHF and UHF respectively. Coastal states also
make use of HF frequencies during hurricane operations.
Amateur radio (also
called ham radio) is governed by the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) under Title 47 Part 97 of the Code of
Federal Regulations (CFR). A license (ticket in ham talk) is required
from the FCC to transmit on designated frequencies. License
classes are now Technician, General, and Extra. Technician
privileges are the most restrictive and give the ticket holder
authority to transmit on common weather frequencies. These
frequencies include the previously mentioned VHF and UHF areas.
Requirement for this license class is to pass a written exam.
For those that are
interested, there are two other amateur classes available. Both
require written exams and a 5 words per minutes Morse Code test.
However, achieving either of these classes will give the ticket
holder privileges in the HF band.
Oklahoma is fortunate to have a great ham radio system in place.
Efforts by many people have resulted in this system. Here are
a few links to information about Oklahoma's system.
Norman Weather
Office -
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/skywarn/
NE OK/NW AR -
http://www.okarkskywarn.org/
NW TX/SW OK -
http://www.swiralink.com/
In Oklahoma City
severe weather operations are conducted on the 145.410 MHz (WX5OKC)
repeater. This repeater has a PL tone of 141.3.
Automatic Position
Reporting System (APRS)
APRS has also recently
gained increased usage in severe weather operations. It
evolved out of packet radio. Essentially APRS uses a global
positioning system (GPS) receiver attached to a terminal node
connector (TNC), and then to a transceiver. Kenwood and Icom
both make a
radio with a built-in TNC.
GPS
data (latitude/longitude) are sent to the TNC and transmitted over a
designated frequency. These data are received by a local
beacon and then transmitted to a wide area repeater. You may control
how many hops these data makes. Some NWS offices have installed
APRS receiving units and can track spotters with GPS/APRS
capabilities. In many areas the common APRS frequency is
144.390 MHz.
For more
information:
http://www.aprs.org
