Comm's, Comm's, Comm's, and more Comm's

I LOVE intell. I really do.

The other evening, as I was firing up the grill to cook some dinner, we had a nice little storm blow through. I just happened to have my HT in my hand and was scanning through the frequencies I had programmed into to radio when I came across the tones sounding on one of the local repeaters signalling a SkyWarn activation. Naturally I listened in on all of the traffic for the SkyWarn Net. And, my wife turned to the local news station for more information.

As it turns out, it was a pretty severe little cell that rolled through. An actual funnel cloud was spotted although it never did touch down. There were reports of quarter sized hail in the center of the storm and wind speeds topping 60mph. Damage such as downed power lines, trees, even minor structural damage were being reported throughout the area. At one point, our local EMA director, who happens to be am amateur radio guy himself, reported into the net, explaining why they had issued the Tornado Warning.

The reason I found all of the information that was being reported so interesting is that at my home...we didn't get even a single drop of rain out of this storm. The wind didn't even pick up. We got a buncha' NOTHING. Now...I LOVE a good storm as much as the next guy. Probably more. And, I was a little disappointed we didn't get anything out of this storm. But, the REALLY interesting part of this whole thing is that the most damaged received from this storm was no more than three or four miles from my house.

Had I not been listening to my HT, I probably wouldn't have even known there was such a severe storm in the area. Plus, by listening to the SkyWarn traffic, I was getting firsthand information about exactly what was happening, and exactly where it was happening. There's nothing quite like a guy on the radio saying this is where I'm at and this is what is happening. Perfect! That is information I can use.

I am, by my own admission, a total and complete, information addict. I HAVE to know what is going on around me at all times. I haven't found anything else that works as well as my HT for just that purpose. By listening to public service radio traffic as well as the local amateur radio guys, I have a readily available source of information.

I would recommend everyone have something to listen to this kind of radio traffic whether they are an licensed amateur radio operator or not. This particular event drove that point home for me even more. You need to know what's going on around you so you can be ready to deal with it.

PJ