05/25/2019

WX4NHC[1], the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, will conduct its annual station test on Saturday, June 1, the first day of hurricane season. WX4NHC will operate from 1300 to 2100 UTC.

"This will be ourÿ39th year of public service at NHC," said WX4NHC Amateur Radio Assistant Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R. The event is aimed at testing Amateur Radio equipment, antennas, and computers for the 2019 Hurricane Season, which runs through November 30.

"This event is goodÿpractice for ham radio operatorsÿworldwide,ÿas well as National Weather Service (NWS) staff, to become familiar withÿAmateur
Radioÿcommunications available during times of severe weather," Ripoll said. "We will be makingÿbrief contacts on many frequencies and modes, exchanging signal reports and basic weather data ('sunny,' 'rainy,' etc.) with any station in any location."

WX4NHC will operate on HF, VHF, UHF, APRS (2 and 30 meters APRS) and WinLink[2] (subject must contain "//WL2K"). Ripoll said WX4NHC will attempt to stay on the Hurricane Watch Net (HWN[3]) 20-meter frequency, 14.325 MHz, and will be on the VoIP Hurricane Net[4] (2000 - 2100 UTC), IRLP node 9219, as well as EchoLink WX-TALK Conference node 7203.

The Florida statewide SARNET and local VHF and UHF repeaters will be contacted. QSL via WD4R.

In preparation for the 2019 Hurricane Season, the ARRL Headquarters Emergency Response Team has been meeting to review its procedures.


[1] http://www.wx4nhc.org/
[2] mailto:wx4nhc@winlink.org
[3] http://www.hwn.org/
[4] http://www.voipwx.net/

---
þ Synchronet þ Whiskey Lover's Amateur Radio BBS