Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 26

01 Tuesday May 2018

Posted by blindgordie in 1050 HZ tone, Bearcat Scanner, CANWARN, Geoff Coulson, Midland, Reacom, SAME, Sangean, SKYWARN, Smart phones, Stephen Hawking, Summer Severe Weather, watchdog, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, Winter Severe Weather

≈ Leave a comment

Weather_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_26_May_1_2018

http://www.canadianwiki.ca/Weatheradio_Canada

Hello again and welcome to the second issue for 2018. It is spring and I hope we are all enjoying it as much as possible, despite it not feeling like it in some parts of North America, for the majority of the season up to now. After all, Ontario has been through a mid April ice storm, which rivals the 2013 storm. I remember that one and an event in April 2003, while Toronto was also going through the SARS outbreak. Remember? Most big-name performers stayed away from Toronto for fear of contracting the disease but, some decided to ignore it and came to play live for the fans. On the weather front, it was rather wintry for a few days in April and it quickly warmed up to summery temperatures, before dropping to near the freezing mark. I could go on and on about what I remember about it but that would make this issue rather massive. I will say that as of today, it is much more springlike than it was during mid April of 2018.

This is a year of challenge and change for the newsletter and for people on the mailing list or who are a part of the Facebook group. We lost a budding listener whom I went to school with on April 4th and her name was Michelle White. We went to the same school for 5 years untill she graduated in 1990 and after 23 years, we reconnected on Facebook, through one of the groups involving the school. For the record, the school we both went to is the W. Ross Macdonald School for the Blind in Brantford Ontario. We talked on the phone and on Skype as wellas texting back and forth and at one point, I gave her the phone number for the weather for Hamilton. Unfortunately, that was as far as I would get with her, other than adding her to both the NOAA Weather Radio and Weatheradio Canada and the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Facebook groups. I had hoped to get her a WX radio which was strong enough to hear either the Toronto or St Catharines WXR’s because Hamilton is in a bad area for WXR coverage.

She passed away too young, aged 46. She left behind: furry and feathered friends, her husband Jim, grandkids, her mom and dad, a few Facebook groups she was a part of and of course, the rest of her family and friends including myself. I always enjoyed making her laugh because we liked the same TV show and I’m so happy that I helped her get more detailed weather, then she could get on the radio or TV, audibly.

Another notable death to mention is physicist Stephen Hawking, who obviously has no connection with Weather Radio but if it wasn’t for his computerized voice he was given, there wouldn’t have been as easy a choice for both NOAA Weather Radio and Weatheradio Canada to make, to use a computerized or human like voice on both networks to replace humans reading out the information for so many stations. After all, both Stephen Hawking and Perfect Paul used a DECtalk voice, which was different from each other but had the same concatenate of qualities and the speech pacing and controlled pitch. Just go on YouTube and look for a sample of either Stephen Hawking or Perfect Paul and you will understand what I mean. Also, take a listen to newer voices, based on live people like Samantha, who is based on Susan Bennett (the original American voice of Siri) or Karen (the Australian voice of Siri based on Australian New York-based public speaker and musician Karyn Jacobson). I will even throw in John Briggs, whose voice was used for Daniel who speaks with a British accent. There are many more voices of living people we here today on: iOS devices, train and bus station PA systems, automated phone lines, Alexa, Kindle and yes, even weather Radio. I know, I’ve mentioned this before but it’s always worth repeating, especially with the new voice is coming to Weatheradio Canada in the next few months. Even with Paul Jr. on NOAA Weather Radio in 2016, all of it can be traced back to The popularity of Stephen Hawking and his voice.

On that note, there are also children who use his voice or a similar child variant of it, because of their own inability to speak. Of course, Weather Radio started using computer voices because of the networks expanding and it being too much work, for one or two people to read out the information over the air for more than one transmitter. After all, they also have to talk to the media too. Anyway, RIP Stephen Hawking and thanks for the voice.

Another sad loss is the loss of one of the stores which have been featured in the links section of the newsletter. Here is the announcement from the website.

“We regret to inform you that Durham Radio Sales & Service Inc. after nearly a 25 years in the industry – closed its doors forever at 3:00 PM on Saturday, April 14th. We would like to thank our dedicated staff, loyal customers and friends for your continued support and for many great years in this hobby. Unfortunately, times have changed and it has become impossible to remain competitive in this industry without making drastic changes to our business model. We have decided that it would be better to close the business rather than change the products we carry and reduce customer service.”

“If you need product support please contact the manufacturer.”

There is more to it but I wanted to give the basics of the announcement here! This is a sad loss for me in that I purchased some of the radios I have talked about over the years in this newsletter and I even talked about the store, giving it its own article in 2013.

This was a real shock, not unlike when I heard about Michelle passing away and we now have one less store to pick from, to purchase WX radios. RIP both Michelle and Durham Radio. Frown

Other than that, not much else to talk about since the last issue. Anyway, I hope you all are staying warm and weather-safe. Your continued support for the newsletter is very important and I thank all of you for becoming a part of it, at some time during its history. 🙂

http://wpde.com/news/local/wpde-live-appearances-for-noaa-weather-radio-promotion

Comments From Readers

There have been a few people who have had a problem with both english and french languages on Weatheradio Canada and this is another one, in the bunch.

Weather Radio comments and issues.

I have a rant about the weather radio service especially in the Toronto and area. Every time I turn on the weather radio, it is 99.5% of the time in FRENCH for a very long time before going English. Nobody that I know around here speaks or understands French. It seems like it is in French for hours and a few seconds in ENGLISH. So, I miss the part I can understand. Most of the time I only have a few minutes to spare to listen to the broadcast but every time it always is in French, so I shut off the radio as I know I will miss the English part 90% of the time.

This is soooo frustrating as a few years ago it was ALWAYS in English here and in French up in northern Ontario which is probably proper and most accepted. Why can we not have an English broadcast straight for 30 minutes ( at least) and have a token French repeat ONCE every 30 minutes (or more) to be fair to the majority of listeners in the GTHA and south eastern/western Ontario.

I’m sure all or most French speaking people around here do understand English very well ! I do change frequency to the Buffalo NY NOA broadcast (always English 24/7) when able to receive it when I get French first or shut off the radio and look out at the sky for my own weather guess. This is so annoying to me. Sorry for the rant but I’m sure many others would agree.

Hey Environment Canada, bring back the way it was. I have 3 languages to deal with as it is without adding French which I fail miserably. I don’t use the phone for weather as I have a radio to get instant weather reports on demand if I can understand the language or Buffalo NOA when in range. The phone defeats the purpose of having the radio. The weather radio is not my form of entertainment but a useful tool for weather knowledge and reporting. When you want or NEED weather radio, one should not have to wait 15 minutes of a language one cannot understand and in traffic while driving, a bad distraction and will miss the English part and thus do it over again, very frustrating. Just like an annoying commercial on the broadcast radio, one changes the channel or shuts the radio off.

Sorry for venting but it really bugs me! lol

Alex Szkabarnicki (Canwarn Trained)

VA3CKI / VE3AWS

As the author of the newsletter and a loyal volunteer of Weatheradio Canada, I see both sides of this argument. At first, I had a problem with it because I don’t speak french as my first language but I at least remember my numbers and some words like: Bonjour, météó and directions like nord, sud, est and oest. As I have mentioned before, I sleep with it on and so, I have regained some of my frenchh back by listening to it. It isn’t my entertainment eithr but I like to have it on, so I am not surprised by a sudden alert. If one wakes me up, so be it!

This is not the only comment I have heard against french on Weatheradio Canada in Southern Ontario but I don’t think this will change any time soon, even with the new voices coming. If you think the french you hear currently is hard to understand, wait untill you hear Nicolas. If you have an iOS device and have downloaded any of the new voices in either language, you will hear what I am talking about. Maybe even I will complain but I know enough words to sortof understand what is being said in french so, I will just wait and see what it will sound like. 🙂

Weather Radio Terminology

The following is a list of terms used about Weather Radio in both Canada and the US and will hopefully, demystify your radio.

SAME:

Specific Area Message Encoding:

A method of alert localization,

WXR:

Weather Radio transmitter,

All Counties:

The All Counties setting allows you to receive SAME alerts from anycounties within the listening area of your local WXR,

Any Counties

The same as All Counties,

Basic Tone Alert

A WX radio with only the abbility to alert using the 1050 Hz tone for short fuze warnings or alerts which only require it,

CLC code

Canadian Location Code::

A six digit code representing the local area in which alerts will open up your WX radio,

FIPS Code:

Federal Industry Processing Standerds:

Same as CLC Code in Canada,

Watchdog:

An indication to Weatheradio Canada listeners that there has been no new data after 3 hours and a “stay alive message” is sent out,

Stay Alive Message:

A message stating that a WXR is going through technical difficulties and can not broadcast weather information at this time,

Avipads:

The software used by Weatheradio Canada to disseminate weather information from the Internet over the network. 🙂

THE WATCHDOG REPORT

If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right on your local Weather Radio transmitter, there are various ways to report a problem that depend on where you live. If you live in The United States, you can call 1-888-697-7263. You can email NOAA at nwroutage@noaa.gov, or on the web at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr. If you live in Canada, you can call 1-877-789-7733. You can email the National Weatheradio Canada Team at ec.wxradio.ec@canada.ca. Also, you can report it on the NOAA Weather Radio Weatheradio Canada Facebook page and the Yahoo Weatheradio Chat Group. You will find the link to both the Facebook and the Yahoo group later in this issue and all issues of the newsletter. You can also email the author directly at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com and it will be passed on for you.

Note from the author:

I will only include items with a definitive time stamp on them, from start to finish. That is in affect the whole point of this report, to give as conclusively as possible, dates and times when outages have begun and ended.

I am happy to say that we don’t have anything to report for this issue, except for this one below!

Weatheradio Canada station XLK 473 in Halifax, Nova Scotia went off the air at 2:12AM ADT. Station is playing a recorded message. SAME and 1050Hz tone received.

Weatheradio Canada station XLK 473 came back on air at 11:01PM ADT, and is now broadcasting weather information. Outage time almost 8 hours.

The same WXR went back into watchdog on Friday April 27th at around 8:15 PM and wasn’t restored untill Monday April 30th, when it was restored some time in the morning. Actually, the entire Atlant region went down and that is why the Halifax WXR came back when it did the first time and possibly the second outage. 🙂

THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

CANWARN (CANadian Weather Amateur Radio Network) is a volunteer organization of amateur radio operators who report severe weather and damage reports to Environment Canada when they see it. Weather reports from amateur radio operators help confirm on the ground what satellites and radars see in the atmosphere. The information gathered from CANWARN is also used to update and fine tune weather warnings, fill in gaps in current observing networks and is also valuable in forensic storm analysis. When Environment Canada issues severe weather watches or warnings, they may alert the CANWARN volunteer Net Controllers in the affected areas. The volunteer Net Controllers contact other CANWARN members on the amateur radio, tell them a watch or warning has been issued and ask them to report signs of approaching severe weather. In the US SKYWARN is the American counterpart to CANWARN in Canada and the purpose for it is exactly the same.

We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.

CANWARN training in Ontario is plugging along and for more, check out other posts on the website, with training schedules. If you wish to attend one in Ontario, just rsvp as instructed for the session you wish to attend. I plan to go to those in the GTA, which are available to anyone to attend. As for the rest of Canada, I would like some help with promoting CANWARN and especially, in Atlantic Canada. If any meteorologists reading this can please send me an email with the current training schedules in your area, I would really appreciate it. Many thanks in advance for the author.

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites. 🙂

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

If you are CANWARN trained you should give the following information to the weather office in order to help them ground truth: Your name, CANWARN ID, contact number, – Where – you are located and the approximate location of what you are reporting, – Describe what you are witnessing/what you witnessed, the time of occurrence of the event and duration, its movement (where the phenomenon came from and where it is going).

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Hail (use coins to describe its size…dime, nickel, quarter, loonie for larger hail…golf ball etc.), Heavy rain that has resulted in local flooding, Damaging winds (damage from tree branches down to more significant tree or structural damage), Large scale rotation in a thunderstorm such as: Wall Cloud – Funnel Cloud, Waterspout and Tornado, Dense fog – visibility less than 1 km

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For the fall/winter, please report the following: Dense fog (visibility less than 1 km), Any occurrence of freezing rain or freezing drizzle, Heavily accumulating snow (2 or more cm/hr), Whiteout conditions in snow/blowing snow (visibility near zero), Rapid freezing of water on road surfaces.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-alikes; watch for rotation)

waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

Winds (40 mph or greater; specify whether they are estimated or recorded), large branches downed (specify the diameter of the branch), Trees/power lines downed, Structural damage to buildings such as roof, windows, etc.

Rainfall (1 inch or greater in an hour) (NOT a 1″/hr. rate for 10 minutes), 2 inches or greater storm total, Flooding — Streams/Rivers — also, when nearing bankful — Coastal — Street (Road Closures/Washouts, Cars Stuck due to flood waters. Minimum of 6″ of water covering an entire roadway or lane of a major route/highway).

If it is less than 2 inches total, give the final total only Give final total: no partial reports please) Report any snow/sleet/freezing rain if not in NWS forecast.

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

🙂

Where toPurchase Weather Radios

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

Best Buy, which caters more to General consumer Electronics such as, Smart phones, tablets, MP3 players etc. However, they also Carrie some Weather Radios, in both Canada and the US. http://www.bestbuy.com/ also in Canada http://m.bestbuy.ca/defaultpage.aspx?lang=en and if you want results from a search on Weather Radios, https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/Search/SearchResults.aspx?query=Weather+radio

Or, the free iOS app Best Buy Canada by Best Buy Canada Ltd

https://appsto.re/ca/_2iex.i

If you want more information about the app, check The developer website for more information. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/bestbuyapps.aspx

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo. 🙂

Weather Information on the Internet

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows; In Canada the current websites url is http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds like before buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/ or just use Google to watch or listen to Youtube video or audio.

The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Newsletter is published four times a year. There is some seasonal information to notify recipients of additional weather information available to them that they may not know about (most of which can be found on the NOAA Watch web site http://www.noaawatch.gov/ ). At this site you can also subscribe to various weather feeds. The rest of the newsletter remains relatively unchanged due to outreach requirements. The current newsletter is available at the Noaa Weather Radio website http://www.weather.gov/nwr/news.htm. At this time, there is no newsletter mailing list to subscribe.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at

http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook,

https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx

http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwicks blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

🙂

Weather or Weather Radio Apps

This is a newly constructed list and it needs more results for future reference. If you have idea’s for weather or Weather Radio apps which should be put into future issues of the newsletter, send an email to the author at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com. Right now these are iPhone apps only, because that is all we have at the moment. Your help is needed to expand it.

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios

https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

This app provides weather and forecast information for both Canada and the US from Environment Canada and the National Weather Service respectively. In fact nearly all apps mentioned here provide information from one or both sources. There is a version you pay for but to me, it is the same as the free version.

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc.

https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your iPhone, when lightning is possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected.

TuneIn Radio – Stream Live Radio by TuneIn

https://appsto.re/ca/_7t-y.i

This popular app allows you to listen to conventional, Internet and even some Weather Radio stations when and where available. you can even listen to podcasts of your favourite radio shows if you like and maybe even audiobooks, To help you pass the time in the monotony of a commute or while waiting in the waiting room for an appointment.

Météo – Canadian Weather by North Bits Solutions Ltd.

https://appsto.re/ca/vu0i3.i

This is another app designed for Canadians and is available in both english and french. It is similar to the Degrees Pro app and some of the others on this list. It is also free, despite that it offers in app purchases.

Atmosphérique Pro – Canadian Weather from EC by Quadrant Newmedia Corp.

https://appsto.re/ca/ZcvgB.i

Radar Eh – Canada radar & alerts app using Environment Canada radar data by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/pA09cb.i

Weather Nets On Ham Radio from Daryl Stout WX1DER

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.

During the off-season hurricane months from December through May, the net meets on the FIRST SATURDAY of the month ONLY. During the Atlantic Hurricane Season, from June through November, the net meets WEEKLY, at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time.

Also, note that on the first Saturday of December, the net is ONE HOUR EARLIER…at 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central, 5pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time. This is so at the conclusion of Skywarn Recognition Day, stations don’t have to wait for the net to occur.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net

b) Southeast US D-Star Weather Net — Meets at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 7pm Mountain, and 6pm Pacific, every Sunday night, on Reflector 2, Port A. The net also meets on the Southeast US D-Star Weather Net Ratflector on D-Rats.

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

Lastly, stations can get a list of selected D-Star Nets during the week by sending an email to me at wx1der@gmail.com — and again, a list of selected Echolink Nets is at http://www.wx1der.com/elk.htm

Daryl Stout, WX1DER, Net Control

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storrrm Spotter

The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter

There are many reliable manufacturers and retailers of Weather Radios sold in Canada and the USA. Below is a list of the recommended models currently for sale. Note: This list of suggested weather radios is strictly for informational purposes, and not as an endorsement of any specific model or manufacturer.

Midland Radio Corporation http://www.Midlandradio.com WR-300, W-r100B, EH55VP, WR-120, HH54VP, HH54VP2, ER102, Er300, ER310, EH55VP, Nautico 3, WR-11 and WR-400 are all manufactured by Midland and sold in North America.

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400,, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc

http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.

Kaito Electronics Inc http://www.kaitousa.com/. KA500, KA101 and KA600 are currently sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-10 is currently sold in North America.

🙂

In Closing

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com

blindgordie@gmail.com

or va3wxa@gmail.com. We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter @WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA. Also, check out his blog at

http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com

Also, check out The Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1854305558188610/

You can also contact him on Skype and his Skype name is blindgordie.

I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this latest issue as follows:

Alex Szkabarnicki, Brian Rodgers, Daryl Stout WX1DER, Marc-Antoine Chabot, Bob Robichaud VE1MBR, Midland Radio Corporation, Dennis T. Paganin VA3DTP (our faithful web master and Co-Editor), Malcolm Kendal VE3BGD, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Gregory Zwicker, Phil Chadwick, Geoff Coulson and Marc Fitkin for their help and contributions to the newsletter, among others.

Sincerely, Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA.

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 25

25 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by blindgordie in CANWARN, Facebook, Midland, Sangean, SKYWARN, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter

≈ Leave a comment

Weather_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_25_February_25th_2018

Hello again and welcome to the first issue for 2018. It is winter and I hope we are all enjoying it as much as we can, where ever we are in the world. This will be an important year in the history of Weatheradio Canada, because new voices will be introduced some time this year. I have talked about them in the past but I will go into more detail, when the first hints I have of them are heard.

As some of you know last Sept 14 we lost Steven P Serheniuk VA3YZW, VE3BYS and VE3YZW CanWarn. Steve was 1 of the founding members that helped set up Canwarn for the Ontario Storm Prodiction centre. Steve was only 62 years old Way to young to become an “SK” Silent Key. Ward Kenedy now has become the trustee of the 2 call signs VE3 and VA3YZW for CANWARN It was approved by Geoff Coulson and Industry Canada Even though he is no longer the Volunteer coordinator he still will be involved in some ways and protecting the Call signs for the use at Environment Canada.

The Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Facebook Group

This is an article from the author about the newish Facebook group, for this newsletter and how it came to be. It will also talk about where it may go in the future!

On February 4 2017, I decided to start the Facebook group, for the newsletter. The decision was actually, out of the blue after an afternoon nap and after a few minutes, a New Facebook group was born.

Since 2014 the only social media presence for the newsletter was Twitter, which I decided to start because of a lack there of one with this outlet. Now that I started the Facebook group I decided right then and there, to update the website and put each issue of the newsletter on it, as well as posting it on Facebook. It took a while but by March 22 of 2017, every single post with each issue was on the web. I had lost sleep and even hurt my thumb, doing all the editing and putting together each issue from the text, which I had somehow managed to extract.

As for the people in the group, as long as they’re on Facebook and a remember of the mailing list or another group related to weather and Weather Radio, I decided to invite and add them to the group. I also have made 4 members Administrotors for the group: our co-editor for the newsletter Dennis, Marc-Antoine Chabot from Weatheradio Canada and Daryl Stout, who is a member of numerous weather related groups. I also added Brian Rodgers as an admin on February 9th 2018! Why not?

The only thing I am disappointed in so far, is that I have done the majority of the posting to the group. However, I hope that this will change and everything will balance out, with contributions from others. An exception to this is an article I published in the last issue of the newsletter, about a technology, which could help to predict tornados better, there-by increasing lead times, from warning to touch down.

In the future, I think the group will continue staying the course but I hope that I am not the only one posting, besides the latest issue of the newsletter and the weekly and monthly reports for the SAME alert tests. Thanks to all of you, who have joined the group, either with or without being on the mailing list or having to send a request to become a part of the group. 🙂

THE WATCHDOG REPORT

Note from the author:

On Monday November 6th at around 1:25 PM, all of Ontario went into watchdog, after 5 hours of no new hourly reports and the 11:00 AM forecast loading. The entire network in Ontario was restored at or around 3:21 PM, the same day. However, there was some uncertainty at first because the hourly reports weren’t loading untill 5 or 6:00 PM. This was because of a data problem and everything now is updating as it should.

On Monday November 13th at 6:25 PM, Toronto XMJ225 went into watchdog for 35 minutes. However it didn’t come back fully restored until 6:35 AM on Tuesday November 14th. They tried rebooting it but it wouldn’t work and it resulted in almost 12 hours of dead air. However, after a couple of minutes of being taken off air completely, it has been restored, throughout Tuesday and the first part of Wednesday.

On Thursday February 1st, Toronto XMJ225 went into watchdog mode at 1:55 PM and was restored about 10 minutes later. However, it was brought back to dial-up because of a loss of contact with the dsl and was back on ftp on February 16.

🙂

THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.

There will be a CANWARN training session in Winnipeg March 10th… not sure of the venue.

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites. 🙂

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-alikes; watch for rotation)

waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

If it is less than 2 inches total, give the final total only Give final total: no partial reports please) Report any snow/sleet/freezing rain if not in NWS forecast.

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

🙂

Where toPurchase Weather Radios

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

Or, the free iOS app Best Buy Canada by Best Buy Canada Ltd

https://appsto.re/ca/_2iex.i

If you want more information about the app, check The developer website for more information. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/bestbuyapps.aspx

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo. 🙂

Weather Information on the Internet

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows; In Canada the current websites url is http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at

http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook,

https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx

http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwicks blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

🙂

Weather or Weather Radio Apps

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios

https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc.

https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your iPhone, when lightning is possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected.

TuneIn Radio – Stream Live Radio by TuneIn

https://appsto.re/ca/_7t-y.i

Météo – Canadian Weather by North Bits Solutions Ltd.

https://appsto.re/ca/vu0i3.i

Atmosphérique Pro – Canadian Weather from EC by Quadrant Newmedia Corp.

https://appsto.re/ca/ZcvgB.i

Radar Eh – Canada radar & alerts app using Environment Canada radar data by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/pA09cb.i

Weather Nets On Ham Radio from Daryl Stout WX1DER

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

Daryl Stout, WX1DER, Net Control

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storrrm Spotter

The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400,, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc

http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.

Kaito Electronics Inc http://www.kaitousa.com/. KA500, KA101 and KA600 are currently sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-10 is currently sold in North America.

🙂

In Closing

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com

blindgordie@gmail.com

or va3wxa@gmail.com. We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter @WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA. Also, check out his blog at

http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com

Also, check out The Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1854305558188610/

You can also contact him on Skype and his Skype name is blindgordie.

I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this latest issue as follows:

Daryl Stout WX1DER, Marc-Antoine Chabot, Bob Robichaud VE1MBR, Midland Radio Corporation, Dennis T. Paganin VA3DTP (our faithful web master and Co-Editor), Malcolm Kendal VE3BGD, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Gregory Zwicker, Phil Chadwick, Geoff Coulson and Marc Fitkin for their help and contributions to the newsletter, among others.

Sincerely, Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA.

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 24

09 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by blindgordie in Bearcat Scanner, CANWARN, Midland, Reacom, SAME, Sangean, SKYWARN, Summer Severe Weather, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, Winter Severe Weather

≈ Leave a comment

Weather_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_24_October_9th_2017Welcome to the 24th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. In this issue, we have many of the same exciting articles you have come to know over the last few years. Please read on and enjoy.

Hello again and welcome to the third issue for 2017. Since the summer I have been busy, with things which have made it difficult to focus on things. So, this is not only the third issue for 2017 but the final issue for this year.
It is a rather slimmed down issue too, with not much fat on it. I am glad that it didn’t come out in August because it certainly did need some more material, to make it a full complete issue. Also, it is the 6th anniversary of the newsletter and this also makes the lack of an issue in August even more of an event in itself. It has been a challenge to put each issue together, despite how easy it seems (even to myself). However, I love doing it and it gives me fulfillment of doing something to potentially save lives. Weather Radio is a rather strange thing to most people but, to those who know how it works it is a real handy thing to have around your home or with you, on a trip. Smart phone apps are good but a Weather Radio is even more important, when the internet has problems.
As for Facebook, thanks to those of you who have joined the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Facebook group, through myself or the other three admins. I will do an article on the Facebook group in this issue and talk about the rather sudden creation of the group in my head, back in February. Also, I hope that more people contribute to it in the next three months and hopefully, some of them can translate to articles in the newsletter it self. I have one conversation so far but that’s it, besides my own posts to the group.
Anyway, I hope you all have enjoyed the summer where ever you are reading this and how ever you are reading this. Let’s all make the best of this time of year, before it turns colder and the white stuff becomes a reality. 🙂
From the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Facebook group
Gord and all. Don’t know if anyone caught this news story lately. Haven’t had much time to research it but sounds interesting: https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/23/experimental-forecast-warns-of-tornadoes-hours-ahead/

If this comes to fruition this could be a real plus for saving lives and could change things, as far as the length of watches and warnings for tornadoes. Thanks to Dave Chambers for the link and the contribution. 🙂
THE WATCHDOG REPORT

On Wednesday May 10th at around 8:13 PM, all of the Ontario network of Weatheradio Canada went into watchdog and came back around midnight. Marc-Antoine Chabot explains what happened!
I really don’t know why this is happening. Our main (very stable but designed for the previous-previous version of windows) software just.. crashed.. I had set myself a reminder to reboot all of our critical systems every 21 days and guess what… That reminder is for tomorrow!
On Sunday, June 4 at 9:45 PM, the entire Ontario network of Weatheradio Canada went into watchdog mode, again. It was restored on Monday, June 5 at 8:05 AM.
On Tuesday, June 6 at around 6:21 PM The entire Weatheradio Canada network in Ontario went back into watchdog mode. It was restored The next morning at 7:43 AM.
On Saturday, June 17, Toronto XMJ225 went into watchdog on its own. This was due to a loss of the Internet connection for a few hours. It officially went into watchdog at 9:36 A.m. and return at one:57 PM, unusually with a SAME alert going off to Signal the restoration. While this was going on there were a number of watches and warnings including severe thunderstorm watch and a heat warning in effect for the listening area at the time, among others issued during the severe weather outbreak.
On Thursday, July 6 at 9:20 A.m. St Catharines VAD320 went into watchdog mode and wasn’t restored until Tuesday, July 11 around noon. This was due to the loss of the Internet at the transmitter site so, when it returned it was switched from FTP to dial-up for the time being. It went back into watchdog mode again on Friday July 14th at around 5:30 PM or so. It was restored for the second time this month on Monday, July 17 at around 10:00 a.m.
On Thursday, July 20 at 9:27 P.m. the entire Ontario network went into watchdog mode and was restored at around 9:54 PM the same day. This was due to a whole bunch of severe thunderstorm watches and warnings in effect throughout parts of Ontario that day.

On Thursday, July 27 the entire Weatheradio Canada network and Ontario went into watchdog mode at 2:36 P.m. It was restored at around 3:13 p.m., the same day.
(On Thursday, September 7 at 11:17AM ADT Weatheradio XLK473 went out of service. NMN was received at that time. It was restored the same day.
🙂
THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites. 🙂

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-alikes; watch for rotation)

waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

If it is less than 2 inches total, give the final total only Give final total: no partial reports please) Report any snow/sleet/freezing rain if not in NWS forecast.

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

🙂
Where toPurchase Weather Radios

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

Best Buy, which caters more to General consumer Electronics such as, Smart phones, tablets, MP3 players etc. However, they also Carrie some Weather Radios, in both Canada and the US. http://www.bestbuy.com/ also in Canada http://m.bestbuy.ca/defaultpage.aspx?lang=en or the free iOS app Best Buy Canada by Best Buy Canada Ltd

https://appsto.re/ca/_2iex.i

If you want more information about the app, check The developer website for more information. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/bestbuyapps.aspx

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo. 🙂

Weather Information on the Internet

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows; In Canada the current websites url is http://www.weather.gc.ca 

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds like before buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/,

If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at

http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook,

https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx

http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwicks blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

🙂

Weather or Weather Radio Apps
This is a newly constructed list and it needs more results for future reference. If you have idea’s for weather or Weather Radio apps which should be put into future issues of the newsletter, send an email to the author at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com. Right now these are iPhone apps only, because that is all we have at the moment. Your help is needed to expand it.
CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios

https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc.

https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your iPhone, when lightning is possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected.
TuneIn Radio – Stream Live Radio by TuneIn

https://appsto.re/ca/_7t-y.i
This popular app allows you to listen to conventional, Internet and even some Weather Radio stations when and where available. you can even listen to podcasts of your favourite radio shows if you like and maybe even audiobooks, To help you pass the time in the monotony of a commute or while waiting in the waiting room for an appointment.
Météo – Canadian Weather by North Bits Solutions Ltd.

https://appsto.re/ca/vu0i3.i
This is another app designed for Canadians and is available in both english and french. It is similar to the Degrees Pro app and some of the others on this list. It is also free, despite that it offers in app purchases.
Atmosphérique Pro – Canadian Weather from EC by Quadrant Newmedia Corp.

https://appsto.re/ca/ZcvgB.i
Radar Eh – Canada radar & alerts app using Environment Canada radar data by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/pA09cb.i
WeatherEh – using Environment Canada weather data to show Canada weather forecast & radar by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/h-cvcb.i
Weather Nets On Ham Radio from Daryl Stout WX1DER
a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.
During the off-season hurricane months from December through May, the net meets on the FIRST SATURDAY of the month ONLY. During the Atlantic Hurricane Season, from June through November, the net meets WEEKLY, at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time.
Also, note that on the first Saturday of December, the net is ONE HOUR EARLIER…at 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central, 5pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time. This is so at the conclusion of Skywarn Recognition Day, stations don’t have to wait for the net to occur.
Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net
b) Southeast US D-Star Weather Net — Meets at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 7pm Mountain, and 6pm Pacific, every Sunday night, on Reflector 2, Port A. The net also meets on the Southeast US D-Star Weather Net Ratflector on D-Rats.
Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx
Lastly, stations can get a list of selected D-Star Nets during the week by sending an email to me at wx1der@gmail.com — and again, a list of selected Echolink Nets is at http://www.wx1der.com/elk.htm
Daryl Stout, WX1DER, Net Control

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storrrm Spotter

The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter
There are many reliable manufacturers and retailers of Weather Radios sold in Canada and the USA. Below is a list of the recommended models currently for sale. Note: This list of suggested weather radios is strictly for informational purposes, and not as an endorsement of any specific model or manufacturer.

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400,, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc

http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.

Kaito Electronics Inc http://www.kaitousa.com/. KA500, KA101 and KA600 are currently sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-10 is currently sold in North America.

🙂

In Closing

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com

blindgordie@gmail.com

or va3wxa@gmail.com. We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter @WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA. Also, check out his blog at

http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com

Also, check out The Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/1854305558188610/
You can also contact him on Skype and his Skype name is blindgordie.

I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this latest issue as follows:

Sincerely, Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA.

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 23

07 Sunday May 2017

≈ Leave a comment

WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_23_MAY_06_2017

Welcome to the 23rd issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter.

It is hard to believe we issued our very first newsletters on November 04, 2011. As per usual, in

this issue, we have many of the same exciting articles you have come to know throughout the

various 22 issues of the newsletter. Please read on and enjoy.

GORD – VA3WXA – PHOTOGRAPHS

HELLO AGAIN

Hello again and welcome to the second issue for 2017. At last, everyone gets a chance to see it

and not just those who are on the email list. As soon as the New Year hit, I made it a project for

this year to put every issue on the relatively new Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter

website/blog and as I’ve said, every issue is up there now. Although, I’ve had to make some very

slight modifications to some issues but for the most part, they are in their original form intact.

From now on, every issue going forward will be in PDF form and also on the web so everyone

will get to know about this very important service throughout North America and throughout the

rest of the world.

Something else which has happened since the last issue is the brand-new Facebook group which

is named The Weather Radio listeners Newsletter and I started it just before the last issue was

released. For a couple of years now I wanted to have some sort of presence on Facebook, as I

have had on Twitter since July 2014. Now, I have and I have three other administrators to help

me out with the group. I will talk more about them in the next issue but for now, I will say that I

chose them based on their connections with either the newsletter or Weather Radio. I have added

the link to the group in the links section near the end of this issue and it will appear in all issues

going forward. Also, all issues will be included on Facebook from now on too, so as many

people will see it as possible.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading the rest of this issue. Once again, many thanks to everyone

who has contributed to the newsletter so far and hopefully many more years and issues to come.

WEATHER RADIO APPLICATIONS FOR THE IPHONE

This article is about to Weather applications for the IPhone, which I personally recommend to

anybody and especially anybody, who has an interest in Weather in varying degrees, (no pun

intended).

The first app is called WeatherEh and is a very good app especially, if you want to receive

weather alerts. I find it a little hard to get around this for me to find out the actual weather but,

for weather alerts it’s a cinch. All I do is just turn on the weather alerts for the area I select and

bingo; they come at me via push notifications.

At first glance it will seem like the app is limited, as to what cities and towns you can include in

the options. When the app is first set up the default cities are: Winnipeg, Toronto, Calgary,

Ottawa and Montréal. Those are the cities it shows if you clear the cash of cities you have

selected. As for what cities are available, there are a lot of them across Canada that you can add

to the cache but you have to do a search and there are other weather apps you can use as a guide,

such as: Atmosphérique Pro – Canadian Weather from EC by Quadrant Newmedia Corp.

https://appsto.re/ca/ZcvgB.i you can use as a general guide to select cities and towns in your

province to add to the cash.

This is a really fine app for anyone wishing to keep a beat on the latest severe weather alerts.

Also, too keep up with the weather in general. I also like that updates for watches, warnings and

statements are sent via push notification, during severe weather events and when weather

statements are issued. I recommend it for everyone and especially those of us who are weather

spotters. This is a real plus for those of us with IPhones because of its limitations on push alert

updates. The one problem I have with this feature is that it doesn’t alert you by ringing your

phone to let you know of the alert, being issued, updated or ended. Can they fix that? Otherwise,

they should keep doing what they’re doing with this feature.

One thing I would like to see in the near future is the addition of marine forecasts for the lakes

and rivers across this great country provided by Environment Canada. I think what would make

this app a real weather app, is not only the public forecast but also marine forecasts and alerts.

Well… actually I have received an alert or two but they don’t stay on the phone after tapping on

it and moving on, to something else. Hopefully they can help save more lives.

The next app will talk about is called Météo and this is another application I highly recommend,

to anyone who drives across Canada and does not want to hear a radio squawking at them, other

than their car or truck radio. However, I still think that a Weather Radio goes hand-in-hand with

this app and with WeatherEh. As far as my own navigation of the app, it’s a lot easier to navigate

to get the weather forecast then WeatherEh but once again, it offers weather alerts. To make this

app work for you, just let it use your location and it will follow you around. Just turn on all the

alerts it offers and you are all set to receive weather alerts via push notifications.I like this app compared to most other weather alert apps out there. From what it has available in

the settings, it has been a real friend to me so far. It has also allowed me to follow along with

Weatheradio Canada and make sure that everything is up to date. It has also kept me informed as

a CANWARN trained spotter, when the next potentially dangerous winter storm and later on, the

next summer thunderstorm and when it may develop. The fact that the app offers: statements,

watches and warning notifications is a real plus and I recommend anyone who has a real interest

in keeping abreast of the weather to get this application. The one suggestion I do have is that

along with the options for notifications for: statements, watches, warnings and when their ended,

why not add an additional option whether you want to be updated on the current alert in effect?

There could be an option to toggle on or off updates and other than that; nothing really needs to

change to make it better for me. So, will there be an android version of Météo in the future?

Well, not yet. I emailed the person who runs the app and he told me he would like to but he just

needs more time to get it together.

For more information on both of these applications, see the links section and in particular, the

link to Weather applications.

THE NEW MIDLAND EMERGENCY HANDHELD RADIO, MODEL# EH55VP

This is an article about the relatively new Midland EH55VP. I first found out about it late last

summer, while browsing the Midland website. I also found out about a new store which sells this

type of radio called Cabela’s. A friend of mine who is also part of the mailing list and who

follows the blog let me know about the store and that they carry this model. So, I went out and

bought it early January of this year.

So what’s changed? Well, not a whole lot really. The radio is the same physical size as the

HH54VP and has all the same features. However, the differences that there is a new feature

added on, which allows the user to turn off the key beeps much like the Midland WR-120. This

is good if you don’t want to hear beep… Beep… Beep… When you’re trying to program the unit

or perform a function. For me, I leave it on anyway because I need to hear the beeps in order that

I know that a function has been performed, such as turning on and off the radio. Otherwise, the

menu layout is basically the same as the HH54VP model.

Something else which is changed is the packaging. Whereas the HH 54VP came in a clamshell

case, the new EH55 comes in a box. However, it comes with: the radio, the owner’s manual and

the BATT5R battery packs, like the original HH54VP2. However, there is no charging cradle but

it does come with a regular AC wall charger to power up the radio and charge the battery pack.

As with my other midland handheld radios, I do not use the battery pack because I want to keep

it running all the time, despite it not being my main radio at home. So, I use my reliable three

AA rechargeable batteries as before and so far, things have gone rather swimmingly. If you want

to take a look at the radio, here it is in this link. http://www.cabelas.ca/product/87885/midland-

eh55vp-eready-portable-weather-alert-radio

Also, check out this video on YouTube. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5QaX977DzXQTHIS IS A VOICE TEST

During April 2017 Weatheradio Canada began to test out the new voices they will be using in the

future, for dissemination. It’s no secret that all the voices used are from Nuance Communications

and the English-speaking voices are American. This so far, has caused a problem with the

mispronunciation of city, town and region names. However, this can be fixed. Even the name of

the service has been mispronounced and unfortunately I can’t demonstrate here because this is

text and not voice, for those who are reading it as text. However, if you have a computer or a

Smart phone with a screen reader you could just type in Weather Radio Canada then

Weatheradio Canada, (as it is spelled) and you will hear how badly it is mispronounced.

However, I have been told that this can be fixed but I don’t know how.

As for the voices, I have mentioned them here in a previous issue but here they are again. For

English speaking voices we have Tom and Ava. For French speaking voices we have Chantal

and Nicholas. Strangely, they also have the option for using Spanish voices Paulina and Juan if

necessary.

Some people including myself, (who use A screen reading voice every day have noticed things

such as mispronunciation and the speed of the text being spat out by the voices. In fact I have all

six of these voices on my IPhone, available for download and use and for the record; I use the

four voices I mentioned here first. I have tested them all out using my Météo Application and

other IPhone applications I use to get Weather information, for both it and the WhetherEh

application. Even reading a Facebook post by somebody about the tests recently, about their

local transmitter brought the mispronunciations to light.

There are going to be a lot of city, town and regional names which will be badly mangled but

there are ways to fix this problem and I hope that there will be minimal bumps in the road, as the

new voices are rolled out across Canada, in the next few months or so. Even words like flurries

or moderate may sound funny at first but that is the result of the voice itself. Even the old

Avipads had those problems too. For example: the town Washago had a time when it was miss

pronounced with the second a being both short and long and even sounding like a short u, in both

languages. So, let’s not all worry about the new voices and if there are problems we know how to

contact Weatheradio Canada. Right? Anyway, to give you an idea of what will be coming in the

next few months to a year; here is a YouTube video with all four voices in a test of the broadcast

cycle for the WXR in Winnipeg. Thanks to Mark J. Szymanski for the link.

THE WATCHDOG REPORT

If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right on your local Weather Radio transmitter, there are

various ways to report a problem that depend on where you live. If you live in The United States,

you can call 1-888-697-7263. You can email NOAA at nwroutage@noaa.gov, or on the web at

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr. If you live in Canada, you can call 1-877-789-7733. You can email the

National Weatheradio Canada Team at ec.wxradio.ec@canada.ca. Also, you can report it on the

NOAA Weather Radio Weatheradio Canada Facebook page and the Yahoo Weatheradio Chat

Group. You will find the link to both the Facebook and the Yahoo group later in this issue and all

issues of the newsletter. You can also email the author directly at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com andit will be passed on for you.

Note from the author:

I will only include items with a definitive time stamp on them, from start to finish. That is in

affect the whole point of this report, to give conclusive dates and times when outages have begun

and ended.

On Monday February 27 Toronto XMJ225 and possibly the rest of the Weatheradio Canada

network in Ontario, went into watchdog mode at around 6:14 AM. It came back at around 12:45

PM the same day.

At around 6:20 p.m. on Thursday, March 9, the entire network in Ontario had gone into

watchdog mode. It was restored at around 9:26 PM. Then, at 1:20 a.m. The next day, the entire

network in Ontario went back in to watchdog mode, again. It was restored at around 7:01 AM.

On St. Patrick’s Day before everybody celebrated and drank green beer, once again, Ontario had

gone into watchdog. The network was restored add around 8:18 a.m., the same day.

On Sunday, March 19 between 1:15 and 1:30 2 AM, the entire network in Ontario went back

into watchdog mode, again. It returned to life at 6:50 a.m. on Monday, March 20.

On Wednesday March 29th, Brian Rodgers has contributed this report.

4:12AM ADT station XLK 473, Halifax went out of service. It came back later on the same day,

during the morning.

THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT CANWARN

(CANadian Weather Amateur Radio Network) is a volunteer organization of amateur radio

operators who report severe weather and damage reports to Environment Canada when they see

it. Weather reports from amateur radio operators help confirm on the ground what satellites and

radars see in the atmosphere. The information gathered from CANWARN is also used to update

and fine tune weather warnings, fill in gaps in current observing networks and is also valuable in

forensic storm analysis. When Environment Canada issues severe weather watches or warnings,

they may alert the CANWARN volunteer Net Controllers in the affected areas. The volunteer

Net Controllers contact other CANWARN members on the amateur radio, tell them a watch or

warning has been issued and ask them to report signs of approaching severe weather. In the US

SKYWARN is the American counterpart to CANWARN in Canada and the purpose for it is

exactly the same.

For this section of the newsletter, we will explore how different CANWARN and SKYWARN

groups operate in their local region, from time to time. There may be some SKYWARN

information from meteorologists in this issue and there will be some tips on how to report severe

weather for both CANWARN and SKYWARN.

We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to

see how different groups operate throughout North America.
On May 6, 2017 CANWARN In Ontario has seen the retirement of Ward G. Kenedy, (who’s ham radio call sign is VE3WGK) step down as the amateur radio coordinator for the South Central Ontario region. He has also written about himself in a past issue of this newsletter but here he is again, about his decision and some other things.

As some of you have heard I have retired today from Canwarn Central Ontario as the coordinator for Amateur Radio. It’s been a decision that I have been thinking about now for several Months. As some of you know I was injured in a work place accident in 2011 that left me fighting for my life when I developed septicaemia or Blood poisoning in my right hip area. After surgery I was put on a very strong antibiotic 2000mg every 4 hours for almost 9 weeks via an IV pump and pick line. Not being able to walk with out the aid of a wheel chair or walker for more then 2 years and another surgery left me thinking about life and how precious our time is.
I had been doing the Svr wx stuff well before Canwarn was formed 30 years ago. In 1981 while working as a junior Ranger with the Ontario Ministry Of Natural Resources I noticed a pick up truck with a window sticker on it. The sticker read Weather spotters OF Ontario and had a logo of a Tornado on it. I contacted. EC and they sent out some info for me as well as a training book and a chart of clouds on it. That was my first intrest in SVR WX. I would listen to ham radio svr wx nets on my scanner for vhf uhf on the ULR system. When I got my ham radio call sign some 16 or 17 years ago I was finely able to join Canwarn as a true ham radio operator and take part in the nets for svr wx.
When Scott Keddie stepped down from Canwarn some years ago I was asked if I would be interested in taking over the Canwarn program for him. I said a very happy Yes! During this time I gained a lot of radio experience in doing the nets from EC or home or from my mobile.
In the last couple of years since the accident I have had trouble getting to EC for nets relying on Wheel trans or taxie’s. Or friends dropping me off or picking me up. So it’s been a challenge for me. I have found that when I go out with friends for events I am always carrying a 2 way radio with me and always checking on any severe wx that we might have to deal with or trying to run a net while out with friends. If a net was required I would try to at least start the net and hope that some 1 could take over from me while I was out. So I was always worrying if we had a net controler. I have seen the cut backs in funding that Canwarn had the last several years and it’s not great 😦
at this point in my life I would like a change. I would like to get back into other hobbies I have had over the years and have let some of them slip away because of my injury and family. I am going to start by trying to be more active in life with doing things I have not been able to do in several years such as Canoeing Camping with my now 17 year old Daughter Celine who I love a great deal and I also want to get back into my photography and fishing that I used to do before I started with Canwarn. I want to thank the many friends of mine who have given support to me over the years with Canwarn and other Ham radio stuff. It has been a great pleasure working with you and I will always remember it. I will keep my CANWARN Related fb group running and will still post. Wx alerts and info on Canwarn that I get. Geoff Coulson has told me that he will be retireing next year in June 2018 after the Canwarn sessions are done.

Regards. Ward Kennedy. VE3WgK VA3WGK VA3CTA
On a personal note from the author, I got to know Ward mostly through CANWARN And our other mutual interests around it. We mostly communicate by text message but we are also friends on Facebook and are friends with and we follow each other on Twitter as well. We both share most of the same association with EC through both this newsletter and CANWARN And we both own Midland Weather Radios. He turned me onto a group on Facebook, which centers around Weather Radio and when I join Facebook in 2013 I join that group as soon as I could.
As for the announcement, I have been sensing it for a while now but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I kept thinking that it was coming but it just didn’t register with me that this day would come. My worry is who will now replace him? Despite that I receive most of the same information from Environment Canada in regards to severe weather warnings, watches and statements I can’t. I would love to but the reality is I haven’t had enough experience doing CANWARN nets with the right group of people to support me, in regards to how the nets should be run. The other thing is because I’m blind, I’m limited in what I can do. I can certainly do a lot with the technology I have but this is a more demanding position than it looks. If I was to be in a position similar to what Ward did it would have to be on a smaller scale, such as a regional coordination. That, I think I could manage somewhat, given my limitations. It would also have to be a relatively new group, where we are all learning together and back in 2012, I was the assistant coordinator for Halton CANWARN. It was for a brief time and my main job was doing administrative duties. At first I didn’t have an iPhone and it was during the first three or four issues of the newsletter, that I had this position. Right now I am part of the Mississauga ARES group and unfortunately, there is no Real strong CANWARN Presence other than on the Mississauga Amateur Radio Club website, which I had a hand in updating in recent months. My hope is that sometime in the future CANWARN Will be more active in the Mississauga/brampton area and I will be a part of it, whether it is in a managerial role or not. But I know, I can’t do it alone and I would need some guidance especially if I was assigned a more demanding position, such as The Cordinator.
I’m very thankful that Ward has been there and done as good a job as he could, given his own personal circumstances and I certainly wish him the best in his future endeavors. I know that he will be missed by a lot of people including myself, who had come to rely on him for the latest severe weather bulletins, other than on our Weather Radios of course. I certainly hope that the future for CANWARN Incoming years will be bright, whom ever will take the place of Ward and hopefully, I will be able to contact him directly outside ham radio, as I am lucky to have a direct contact with Ward. Thanks again my friend for all you’ve done in the past eight years, since you became the Cordinator for south-central Ontario CANWARN. 🙂
SKYWARN TRAINING

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites.

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

If you are CANWARN trained you should give the following information to the weather office

in order to help them ground truth: Your name, CANWARN ID, contact number, – Where – you

are located and the approximate location of what you are reporting, – Describe what you arewitnessing/what you witnessed, the time of occurrence of the event and duration, its movement

(where the phenomenon came from and where it is going).

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Hail (use coins to describe its size…dime, nickel, quarter, loonie for larger hail…golf ball etc.),

Heavy rain that has resulted in local flooding, Damaging winds (damage from tree branches

down to more significant tree or structural damage), Large scale rotation in a thunderstorm such

as: Wall Cloud – Funnel Cloud, Waterspout and Tornado, Dense fog – visibility less than 1 km

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the

area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For the fall/winter, please report the following: Dense fog (visibility less than 1 km), Any

occurrence of freezing rain or freezing drizzle, Heavily accumulating snow (2 or more cm/hr),

Whiteout conditions in snow/blowing snow (visibility near zero), Rapid freezing of water on

road surfaces.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-

alikes; watch for rotation) waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating.

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

Winds (40 mph or greater; specify whether they are estimated or recorded), large branches

downed (specify the diameter of the branch), Trees/power lines downed, Structural damage to

buildings such as roof, windows, etc.

Rainfall (1 inch or greater in an hour) (NOT a 1″/hr. rate for 10 minutes), 2 inches or greater

storm total, Flooding — Streams/Rivers — also, when nearing bank full — Coastal — Street (Road

Closures/Washouts, Cars Stuck due to flood waters. Minimum of 6″ of water covering an entire

roadway or lane of a major route/highway).

For Winter Weather you should report: Precipitation type change (rain to sleet/freezing

rain/snow, when the change has “taken hold”), Thunder when it is accompanied by snow, 1/4″

radial ice accretion (from twig outward; not circumference), New Snowfall from the First 2

inches; every 2-3 inches thereafter, 1 inch per hour or greater.

If it is less than 2 inches total, give the final total only Give final total: no partial reports please)

Report any snow/sleet/freezing rain if not in NWS forecast.

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their:

email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

WHERE TO PURCHASE WEATHER RADIO’S

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other

equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/, and many more retailers throughoutNorth America.

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the

Public Alert identification logo.

WEATHER INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows;

In Canada the current websites URL is http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds like before

buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/,

The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Newsletter is published four times a year. There is some

seasonal information to notify recipients of additional weather information available to them that

they may not know about (most of which can be found on the NOAA Watch web site

http://www.noaawatch.gov/ ). At this site you can also subscribe to various weather feeds. The

rest of the newsletter remains relatively unchanged due to outreach requirements. The current

newsletter is available at the NOAA Weather Radio website

http://www.weather.gov/nwr/news.htm. At this time, there is no newsletter mailing list to

subscribe. If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is

the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at

http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook,

https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx at http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritime’s by Maritimer’s)

http://www.maritimeamateur.caVoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwicks blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

WEATHER OR WEATHER RADIO APPS

This is a newly constructed list and it needs more results for future reference. If you have ideas

for weather or Weather Radio apps which should be put into future issues of the newsletter, send

an email to the author at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com. Right now these are IPhone apps only,

because that is all we have at the moment. Your help is needed to expand this list farther.

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i This app is simple but is full of features, that you can unlock by

purchasing others within the app.

Weather Alert Ontario 2 by Christopher Coudriet https://appsto.re/ca/yNZeC.i

This app sends you push notifications of watches and warnings only, with the SAME alert sound.

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

This app provides weather and forecast information for both Canada and the US from

Environment Canada and the National Weather Service respectively. In fact nearly all apps

mentioned here provide information from one or both sources. There is a version you pay for but

to me, it is the same as the free version.

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the

US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians

too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast

information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc. https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your IPhone, when lightning is

possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected.

TuneIn Radio – Stream Live Radio by TuneIn https://appsto.re/ca/_7t-y.i

This popular app allows you to listen to conventional, Internet and even some Weather Radio

stations when and where available. you can even listen to podcasts of your favourite radio shows

if you like and maybe even audio books, To help you pass the time in the monotony of a

commute or while waiting in the waiting room for an appointment.

Météo – Canadian Weather by North Bits Solutions Ltd. https://appsto.re/ca/vu0i3.i

This is another app designed for Canadians and is available in both English and French. It issimilar to the Degrees Pro app and some of the others on this list.

Atmosphérique Pro – Canadian Weather from EC by Quadrant Newmedia Corp.

https://appsto.re/ca/ZcvgB.i

Radar Eh – Canada radar & alerts app using Environment Canada radar data by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/pA09cb.i

WeatherEh – using Environment Canada weather data to show Canada weather forecast & radar

by Zhao Han https://appsto.re/ca/h-cvcb.i

WEATHER NETS ON HAM RADIO from Daryl Stout WX1DER

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm

Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and

IRLP Node 9219.

During the off-season hurricane months from December through May, the net meets on the

FIRST SATURDAY of the month ONLY. During the Atlantic Hurricane Season, from June

through November, the net meets WEEKLY, at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, and

5pm Pacific Time.

Also, note that on the first Saturday of December, the net is ONE HOUR EARLIER…at 7pm

Eastern, 6pm Central, 5pm Mountain, and 5pm Pacific Time. This is so at the conclusion of

Skywarn Recognition Day, stations don’t have to wait for the net to occur.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net

b) Southeast US D-Star Weather Net — Meets at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 7pm Mountain, and

6pm Pacific, every Sunday night, on Reflector 2, Port A. The net also meets on the Southeast US

D-Star Weather Net Ratflector on D-Rats.

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

Lastly, stations can get a list of selected D-Star Nets during the week by sending an email to me

at wx1der@gmail.com — and again, a list of selected Echolink Nets is at

http://www.wx1der.com/elk.htm

Daryl Stout, WX1DER, Net Control

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storm Spotter

THE OFFICIAL WEATHER RADIO LISTENERS NEWSLETTER TWITTER ACCOUNT

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletterWeather_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSU

E_23_May_1st_2017IN CLOSING

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the

author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com or at blindgordie@gmail.com or va3wxa@gmail.com.

We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter

@WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA.

Also, check out my blog at http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com

You can also contact me on Skype and his Skype name is blindgordie.

I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this 23th issue as follows:

Daryl Stout WX1DER, Marc-Antoine Chabot, Bob Robichaud VE1MBR, Midland Radio

Corporation, Dennis T. Paganin VA3DTP (our faithful web master and Co-Editor), Malcolm

Kendal VE3BGD, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Gregory Zwicker, Phil Chadwick, Geoff Coulson and

Marc Fitkin for their help and contributions to the newsletter, among others.

Sincerely, Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA.

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 22

18 Saturday Mar 2017

Posted by blindgordie in Bearcat Scanner, CANWARN, Midland, Reacom, SAME, Sangean, Summer Severe Weather, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter

≈ Leave a comment

WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_22_FEBRUARY_11_2017Welcome to the 22nd issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. In this issue, we have much the same exciting articles you have come to know throughout the last 21 issues of the newsletter. Please read on and enjoy.

RADIO NEWS – AM / FM / VHF

Hello again and welcome to a new year and a new issue. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and healthy 2017. I know that things will look different in the US now and it will have an effect on Canada too. However, we will survive this and hopefully, NOAA Weather Radio also survives.

This brings me to the discontinuation in Norway, of both FM and AM radio to make room for digital radio or high definition radio. I hope it is a long time before we here in North America lose them both. After all, both Weatheradio Canada and NOAA Weather Radio are on VHF FM and if that was to go, would this service provided to us, by the US and the Canadian governments survive? If so, where would it go? Would it be on the internet? I’m only asking because if this was to happen, this has to be considered before hand and hopefully, they are.

As for the Weather Radio net on VHF/UHF amateur radio, I have decided to put it to bed. Unfortunately, my current living conditions don’t allow me to reach as far as I could with what portable equipment I have. Also, logging the net is an issue which I will have to figure out. I haven’t had much time to pursue a reactivation of it because of things going on in my apartment building. It’s rather hard to concentrate on something, when you are having to move things around, in order to accommodate workmen and also, there is the noise factor to be considered. The net wasn’t meant to meet during the day but trying to concentrate on composing an email or something, while all manner of drilling and hammering could be going on is rather difficult.

I’m sorry that I had to put the net on the back burner but the time isn’t right for me right now, to do it. However, I won’t rule out bringing it back someday, when things are more stable where I live. Hopefully by the summer this can be but for now, it has been put on hold until further notice.

On the other hand, the newsletter is still going strong and will continue to march on, for the foreseeable future. However, it is still difficult in my current circumstances to do this but, I can work around it easier because of the length of time between issues. I can also put together an issue within a few days but I don’t choose to do that. I use the last few days of the past month before the next issue comes out, to fine-tune and organise it as best I can for you. Then I email the draft newsletteroff to my co-editor Dennis – VA3DTP and he does all the rest.

As for watchdog, there have been some watchdog events but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get a timestamp on when they began or ended. So, there are only a very few that I have managed to give you in this issue and as for the ones that occurred but couldn’t report on, the all happened before and shortly after Christmas.

On a more positive note, I managed to purchase the new Midland EH55VP during the first week of January and I love it. I will write an article on it in the next issue and I might even talk a bit about the new WR-400 Weather Radio, if I get the chance to purchase it before the May issue. I’ve heard some interesting things about it and I can’t wait to find out how different it is from the previous WR-300.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading the rest of this issue. Once again, many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the newsletter so far and hopefully many more years and issues to come.
THE WATCHDOG REPORT

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I will only include items with a definitive time stamp on them, from start to finish. That is in affect the whole point of this report, to give conclusive dates and times when outages have begun and ended.

On Sunday November 27th Toronto XMJ225 has gone into watchdog mode, at 12:16 AM and it came back, at 12:46 AM the same day.

On Friday, December 2, Toronto X MJ 225 went into watchdog mode at around 6:15 PM. It came back on around 9:02 AM on Monday morning December 5, after a weekend of numerous Facebook posts about it being in watchdog mode.

On Wednesday December 14th at around 8:00 AM, St Catharines VAD320 had gone into watchdog mode and returned around 8:55 AM the same day.

THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

For this section of the newsletter, we will explore how different CANWARN and SKYWARN groups operate in their local region, from time to time. There may be some SKYWARN information from meteorologists in this issue and there will be some tips on how to report severe weather for both CANWARN and SKYWARN. We all may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.
GEFF COULSON – ENVIRONMENT AND CLIMATE CHANGE CANADA

Hello everyone, Geoff Coulson here again from Environment and Climate Change Canada. I’m a warning preparedness meteorologist based out of Toronto and I also manage the CANWARN storm spotter program in the province of Ontario. CANWARN members are volunteers from all walks of life. Amateur radio operators comprise the core of the CANWARN program with other volunteers coming from all levels of government, emergency managers/responders and those with a passion for the weather.

CANWARN volunteers watch the skies year-round for telltale signs of severe storms and relay significant information, in real-time, to the Storm Prediction Centre in Toronto. In the winter- time this can include reports of significant snowfall amounts, poor visibilities in fog or blowing snow and occurrences of freezing rain. In the spring and summer months, reports can be sent in on the appearance of funnel clouds or tornadoes or the occurrence of large hail, damaging winds or flooding rains. There are now over 6000 CANWARN volunteers in the province of Ontario and many of these volunteers have attended a training session in the last few years.

CANWARN training sessions are held across the province in the April to June timeframe. This year’s training will have special significance as we mark the 30th anniversary of the program which began in the Windsor area in 1987. Training sessions are held during evenings and on weekends with the sessions lasting between 2 and 2.5 hours. There is no cost to attend a training session. The spring training schedule is normally released in early April. Many of you reading this newsletter that live in Ontario may already be a CANWARN member and, if so, I thank you for your participation. For those of you who aren’t a member but are interested in learning more about the program or who would like to be placed on the training notification distribution list, feel free to contact me at geoff.coulson@canada.ca Regards, Geoff
SKYWARN TRAINING SCHEDULES

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites.
SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm or in Atlantic Canada #atlstorm.
If you are CANWARN trained you should give the following information to the weather office in order to help them ground truth: Your name, CANWARN ID, contact number, – Where – you are located and the approximate location of what you are reporting, – Describe what you are witnessing/what you witnessed, the time of occurrence of the event and duration, its movement (where the phenomenon came from and where it is going).

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following: Hail (use coins to describe its size…dime, nickel, quarter, loonie for larger hail…golf ball etc.), Heavy rain that has resulted in local flooding, Damaging winds (damage from tree branches down to more significant tree or structural damage), Large scale rotation in a thunderstorm such as: Wall Cloud – Funnel Cloud, Waterspout and Tornado, Dense fog – visibility less than 1 km Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look- alikes; watch for rotation) waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size) Winds (40 mph or greater; specify whether they are estimated or recorded), large branches downed (specify the diameter of the branch), Trees/power lines downed, Structural damage to buildings such as roof, windows, etc.

Rainfall (1 inch or greater in an hour) (NOT a 1″/hr. rate for 10 minutes), 2 inches or greater storm total, Flooding — Streams/Rivers — also, when nearing bankful — Coastal — Street (RoadClosures/Washouts, Cars Stuck due to flood waters. Minimum of 6″ of water covering an entire roadway or lane of a major route/highway).

For Winter Weather you should report: Precipitation type change (rain to sleet/freezing rain/snow, when the change has “taken hold”), Thunder when it is accompanied by snow, 1/4″ radial ice accretion (from twig outward; not circumference), New Snowfall from the First 2 inches; every 2-3 inches thereafter, 1 inch per hour or greater. If it is less than 2 inches total, give the final total only Give final total: no partial reports please)

Report any snow/sleet/freezing rain if not in NWS forecast. Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.
WHERE TO PURCHASE WEATHER RADIO’S

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo.
WEATHER INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows; In Canada the current websites URL is

http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds likebefore buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/,

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwick’s blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com
WEATHER and Weather RADIO APPS

This is a newly constructed list and it needs more results for future reference. If you have ideas for weather or Weather Radio apps which should be put into future issues of the newsletter, send an email to the author at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com. Right now these are IPhone apps only, because that is all we have at the moment. Your help is needed to expand this list farther.

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i This app is simple but is full of features that you can unlock by purchasing others within the app.

Weather Alert Ontario 2 by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/yNZeC.i

This app sends you push notifications of watches and warnings only, with the SAME alert sound.

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios

https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc.

https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your IPhone, when lightning is possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected. However, contrary to the name of the app it does not stream Weather Radio broadcasts for either Canada or the US.

TuneIn Radio – Stream Live Radio by TuneIn

https://appsto.re/ca/_7t-y.i

This popular app allows you to listen to conventional, Internet and even some Weather Radio stations when and where available. You can even listen to podcasts of your favourite radio shows if you like and maybe even audio books, To help you pass the time in the monotony of a commute or while waiting in the waiting room for an appointment.

Météo – Canadian Weather by North Bits Solutions Ltd.

https://appsto.re/ca/vu0i3.i

This is another app designed for Canadians and is available in both English and French. It is similar to the Degrees Pro app and some of the others on this list. It does offer an in app purchase, allowing you to be a patron but this is completely voluntary. Patronage does not open up anything else besides what is available in the app. All it really does is help the person who operates the app with covering the cost for servers, updating The app and just keeping the app going.

Atmosphérique Pro – Canadian Weather from EC by Quadrant Newmedia Corp.

https://appsto.re/ca/ZcvgB.i

Radar Eh – Canada radar & alerts app using Environment Canada radar data by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/pA09cb.i

WeatherEh – using Environment Canada weather data to show Canada weather forecast & radar by Zhao Han

https://appsto.re/ca/h-cvcb.i

This app is similar to an earlier app in this list but, it also provides updates to: weather statements, watches, warnings and also alert you when they have ended. The author would recommend anybody who is CANWARN Trained and has an iPhone, to purchase this app so they can be kept up-to-date accurately in real time, with severe weather alerts via push notifications.
Weather Nets on Ham Radio from Daryl Stout WX1DER

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.netb)

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net — Meets at 9pm Eastern, 8pm Central, 7pm Mountain, and 6pm Pacific, every Sunday night, on Reflector 2, Port A. The net also meets on the Southeast US D-Star Weather Net Ratflector on D-Rats.

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

Lastly, stations can get a list of selected D-Star Nets during the week by sending an email to me at wx1der@gmail.com — and again, a list of selected Echolink Nets is at

http://www.wx1der.com/elk.htm

Daryl Stout, WX1DER, Net Control

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storm Spotter
The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter
MANUFACTURERS OF WEATHER RADIO

There are many reliable manufacturers and retailers of Weather Radios sold in Canada and the USA. Below is a list of the recommended models currently for sale. Note: This list of suggested

weather radios is strictly for informational purposes, and not as an endorsement of any specific

model or manufacturer.

Midland Radio Corporation http://www.Midlandradio.com WR-300, W-r100B, WR-120, HH54VP, HH54VP2, ER102, Er300, ER310, EH55VP, Nautico 3, WR-11 and WR-400 are all manufactured by Midland and sold in North America.

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400,, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.

Kaito Electronics Inc http://www.kaitousa.com/. KA500, KA101 and KA600 are currently sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-10 is currently sold in North America.
IN CLOSING

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com OR at blindgordie@gmail.com OR va3wxa@gmail.com.

We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter @WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA. Also, check out his blog at http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com You can also contact me on Skype and my Skype name is blindgordie.
I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this 20th issue as follows: Daryl Stout WX1DER, Marc-Antoine Chabot, Bob Robichaud VE1MBR, Midland Radio Corporation, Dennis T. Paganin VA3DTP (our faithful web master and Co-Editor), Malcolm Kendal VE3BGD, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Gregory Zwicker, Phil Chadwick, Geoff Coulson and Marc Fitkin for their help and contributions to the newsletter, among others.
Sincerely, Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA

Gord pictured above in his red jacket at a amateur radio hamfest.

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 21

17 Friday Mar 2017

Posted by blindgordie in 1050 HZ tone, CANWARN, George carlin, Midland, Reacom, Sangean, SKYWARN, Summer Severe Weather, The Simpsons, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, Winter Severe Weather

≈ Leave a comment

WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_21_November_06_2016

Welcome to the 21st issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. In this issue, we have much the same exciting articles you have come to know throughout the past 20 issues of the newsletter. Please read on and enjoy.
Introduction: Hello, this is your friendly author Gord. It’s the 21st issue and it’s the 5th anniversary issue. From when I had been looking on the web for such a newsletter to this issue, we have come a fair bit. I have plans in the future which will change how the newsletter is distributed and they will hopefully come to fruition by next February, when the next issue is dew.

As for the Weather Radio Net on Ham Radio, I will be performing some work on that in the next couple of months and hopefully will be active again soon by the new year. I understand that there are some of us who wish to have the net on air but it isn’t as easy as waving a wand and poof, we have a net going. There are things to consider before starting an undertaking like this: time of net, how long the net is, where and what mode you would like to use (i.e.) IRLP or EchoLink and what it is about. All of these except for where and when the net will meet when and if it is reactivated have to be taken care of, before I can make any definitive announcement.

WeatherRadio NET Issues:

Another thing is that it is difficult being the only Net Controller, especially ever since I reactivated it back in 2015. I have commented on this before and I will say it again, that I don’t want to be the only one speaking for the net. There is no spice or variety in just one voice and if I was a scanner listener, I would personally get bored with the net after a while. So, this must be addressed, before I decide to revive the net. However, I am the Net Manager and should be the main voice but not the only one. Participation by others would improve the net so much, and this is what I hope to achieve in the very near future.

One issue I am facing now is that my apartment block is currently under renovations and just getting around and about is difficult. This will also have will have an effect on whether the net is successful. Right now I am having a hard time reaching most repeaters with my 5 watt hand held unit. In our complex, we are having new windows and heating & cooling systems installed for our individual apartments. Pending all of the above issues, I hope to have a final positive decision on the fate of the net by sometime in January 2017.

On the other hand, the newsletter isn’t as affected by everything going on. All though I have to choose when to write because as you can imagine, all the noise can be a real distraction and getting knocks at the door because work is being done, doesn’t make it any easier. However, with my new IPhone I can create where ever and whenever I want.

How Do I Create The Newsletters?: Speaking of technology advanced devices, these newsletters which have been composed over the past 5 years, were created using a total of 4 phones and 3 of them have been an IPhone. Issue 4 was composed on 2 phones, as was issue 11. This issue also has been composed on two different IPhones and for the record; I do not have the IPhone 7 or its counterpart. I have the IPhone SC and I enjoy it immensely and even being able to write without data has been a blessing, using not just a Bluetooth keyboard but also dictation when needed. So, the newsletter will be stronger with the new IPhone and I am obviously very happy about that.

Anyway, I wish to thank every one of you who have contributed to the various 21 issues over the past 5 years, no matter how big or small. Everyone is welcome to make their own contribution and I accept them all, especially the weather related articles. For example: in the past I have written articles on such people and TV shows as: George Carlin, The Simpsons and Family Guy. Obviously, none of them have anything to do with Weather Radio but I find them interesting to me, in that weather has been used as a plot device or as part of a comedy bit.

George Carlin has released a new album called I Kinda Like It When A Lotta People Die, on September 16th 2016. There are two bits in which he talks about how we all have a part of us that wishes a disaster or weather event would just keep going, for the sake of our entertainment. Unlike George, I wouldn’t want a lot of people to die but I just want to be entertained, by my Weather Radio for as long as possible. I enjoy severe weather outbreaks when they happen and this means I will likely hear my Weather Radio alerting me to many watches and warnings. However, I try to keep safe from any severe weather headed my way because I don’t want to become part of the story. For the record, the bit to listen for on this is called Uncle Dave and there is also a routine, with the same title as the album at the end. It covers part of the same created disaster in Uncle Dave.

In the case of The Simpsons, I will probably be doing something next year, as it is the 30th anniversary in April, since they first appeared in the Tracey Ullman Shorts. I will decide what to do and when to acknowledge this in a future issue of the newsletter.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading the rest of this issue. Once again, many thanks to everyone who has contributed to the newsletter so far and hopefully many more years and issues to come.
IOS10:

This is a rather unusual article for the newsletter but there is a Weather Radio aspect to it which will become obvious as you read this. For those of us with Apple products like: iPods, IPhones and IPad’s of the most recent generations, you are most likely aware that IOS10 came out on September 13th of this year. Since then I have noticed an increase in the voices we can use, especially for those of us who use the screen reading option on our Apple devices. In the past few years, more voices have been added with both Voice Over and Siri. The voice of Alex was added in 2013 and he, or it, is probably most famous for being the voice of the late film critic Roger Ebert before he passed away in 2013. Since then, Alex was added to some models of the IPhone for Voice Over in 2014 and to the iPod Touch 6th Generation in 2015.

Since IOS10 was released we have been given a whole bunch of different voices to choose from. I will list off the names of the American voices in alphabetical order. I will explain which ones relate to NOAA Weather Radio directly and possibly Weatheradio Canada in the future. They are: Alex, Allison, Aaron, Ava, Fred, Nikki, Samantha, Susan, Tom and Victoria. Two of these voices are the Siri male and female voices, namely Aaron and Nikki. The rest have been around for a number of years and if you have the album OK Computer by the rock band Radiohead, check out the track Fitter Happier. The voice which is heard throughout the track is Fred. Doesn’t he sound much like Perfect Paul? Anyway, only one of these voices was a part of NOAAWeather Radio. The lone voice in this list is Tom and he has been on not just NOAA Weather Radio, but he has also been on: computers, GPS’s and automated IVR phone systems.

This brings me to the new voice for NOAA Weather Radio, which is named Paul. He has been around for about as long as Tom and Donna and has also showed up on computers and many other places I’m sure.

I think Paul was chosen because he sounds just as human as Tom and the pacing of his speech brings out the proper emotion, while spitting out the data of the short term and extended forecast. I actually listened to this on the Buffalo WXR KEB98 about a week after iOS10 came out and noticed that, Paul sounded rather sad at the end of the extended forecast, as his voice was trailing off. Maybe I was half awake or something but I haven’t forgotten about that detail.

My only question is why he is the only one? Isn’t there a female counterpart which would be suitable for speaking the marine forecasts or current weather conditions? Not that it’s a bad thing that Paul is the only voice… I’m just curious why? Just for the variety to make the broadcast more interesting to listen to, while going about our daily lives.

As for Tom, there is a possibility that he may be one of the new voices for Weatheradio Canada in the future. I can’t say that for sure but I was given a sample of two of the voices that may be used. Tom and Ava were the voice samples I was given. I wish that Donna would come over with Tom because much like Alex, she also breathes but only before certain words. For example: she takes a breath before saying the word “Sunday” during the marine forecasts. I have always found it rather humorous and so have other people I have talked with on the phone or elsewhere about it.

As for the French translations on Weatheradio Canada, I would love to hear both Chantel and Nicholas as the new French voices of Weatheradio Canada. However, that isn’t my decision and whatever the good people at Weatheradio Canada choose is okay with me.

Anyway, if they are the voices yet to go on Weatheradio Canada, we the people can test them out, using ether the Weather Office website or any of the weather applications for iOS. I have and so far, I haven’t heard any significant problem with Tom reading out the data. However, I can’t speak for any of the French voices because French is not my first language and I only have the English language version of the Weather Office app.

Just a quick note about SKYWARN Recognition Day on December 3rd. For more on this click this link. https://www.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/permalink/10153758355981612/

The Watchdog Report:

If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right on your local Weather Radio transmitter, there are various ways to report a problem that depend on where you live. If you live in The United States, you can call 1-888-697-7263. You can email NOAA at nwroutage@noaa.gov, or on the web at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr. If you live in Canada, you can call 1-877-789-7733. You can email the National Weatheradio Canada Team at ec.wxradio.ec@canada.ca. Also, you can report it on theNOAA Weather Radio Weatheradio Canada Facebook page and the Yahoo Weatheradio Chat Group. You will find the link to both the Facebook and the Yahoo group later in this issue and all issues of the newsletter. You can also email the author directly at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com and it will be passed on for you.

Note from the author:

On Sunday September 25th Toronto XMJ225 and the rest of Ontario has gone into watchdog mode, at around 9:11 PM and it came back, at around 8:10 AM the next morning.

The CANWARN/SKYWARN Report:

For this section of the newsletter, we will explore how different CANWARN and SKYWARN groups operate in their local region, from time to time. There may be some SKYWARN information from meteorologists in this issue and there will be some tips on how to report severe weather for both CANWARN and SKYWARN. We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.

As for SKYWARN Training Schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites.

Spotter Reporting Tips: How to Report…

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes:

Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

If you are CANWARN trained you should give the following information to the weather office in order to help them ground truth: Your name, CANWARN ID, contact number, – Where – youare located and the approximate location of what you are reporting, – Describe what you are witnessing/what you witnessed, the time of occurrence of the event and duration, its movement (where the phenomenon came from and where it is going).

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Hail (use coins to describe its size…dime, nickel, quarter, loonie for larger hail…golf ball etc.),

Heavy rain that has resulted in local flooding, Damaging winds (damage from tree branches down to more significant tree or structural damage), Large scale rotation in a thunderstorm such as: Wall Cloud – Funnel Cloud, Waterspout and Tornado, Dense fog – visibility less than 1 km

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-alikes; watch for rotation) Waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating.

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

Where to Purchase Weather Radios:

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo.
Weather Information on the Internet: Suggested weather sites to visit as follows;

In Canada the current websites URL is http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds like

before buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/,

The NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards Newsletter is published four times a year. There is some seasonal information to notify recipients of additional weather information available to them that they may not know about (most of which can be found on the NOAA Watch web site http://www.noaawatch.gov/ ). At this site you can also subscribe to various weather feeds. The rest of the newsletter remains relatively unchanged due to outreach requirements. The current newsletter is available at the NOAA Weather Radio website http://www.weather.gov/nwr/news.htm. At this time, there is no newsletter mailing list to subscribe.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwick’s blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

Weather or Weather Radio Apps:

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i This app is simple but is full of features that you can unlock by purchasing others within the app.

Weather Alert Ontario 2 by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/yNZeC.i

This app sends you push notifications of watches and warnings only, with the SAME alert sound.

Weather Office Free by X2 Studios

https://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

This app provides weather and forecast information for both Canada and the US from Environment Canada and the National Weather Service respectively. In fact all apps mentioned here provide information from one or both sources. There is a version you pay for but to me, it is the same as the free version.

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc.

https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your IPhone, when lightning is

possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected.

TuneIn Radio – Stream Live Radio by TuneIn:

https://appsto.re/ca/_7t-y.i

Weather Nets On Ham Radio from Daryl Stout WX1DER

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storm Spotter

The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter

Midland Radio Corporation http://www.Midlandradio.com W-r300, W-r100B, W-R120, HH54VP, HH54VP2, ER102, Nautico 3 and W-R11 are all manufactured by Midland and sold in North America.

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.

Kaito Electronics Inc http://www.kaitousa.com/. KA500, KA101 and KA600 are currently sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-10 is currently soldin North America.

In Closing:

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com or blindgordie@gmail.comor va3wxa@gmail.com. We also encourage you to visit http://www.qrz.com/db/va3wxa and you can also follow him on Twitter @WxrNewsletter @BlindGordie or @VA3WXA.

Also, check out my Blog at: http://blindgordieblog.wordpress.com

You can also contact him on Skype and his Skype name is blindgordie.

I would like to give special thanks to those who made contributions to this 20th issue as follows: Daryl Stout WX1DER, Marc-Antoine Chabot, Bob Robichaud VE1MBR, Midland Radio Corporation, Dennis T. Paganin VA3DTP (our faithful web master and Co-Editor), Malcolm Kendal VE3BGD, Jim Langille VE1JBL, Gregory Zwicker, Phil Chadwick, Geoff Coulson and Marc Fitkin for their help and contributions to the newsletter, among many others.

Sincerely,

Gord The Old Reliable.VA3WXA (the fellow wearing the red jacket on the photo below)

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 20

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by blindgordie in 1050 HZ tone, Bearcat Scanner, CANWARN, Midland, Reacom, SAME, Sangean, Summer Severe Weather, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, Winter Severe Weather

≈ Leave a comment

WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_20_AUGUST_14_2016
Welcome everyone to the 20th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. In this issue, we have much the same exciting articles you have come to know throughout the last 19 issues of the newsletter. However, you will notice that I have followed through with what I had promised to eliminate some sections in this and future issues of the newsletter. Please read on and enjoy.

INTRODUCTION

Hello, this is your friendly author welcoming you to the 20th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. It’s a new issue and a slimmer newsletter too. You will notice this if you have read and kept all past issues of the newsletter in your email archives or however you keep them, if you have room for them.

In the last issue I mentioned that the SAME 1050 HZ test reports will no longer appear in the newsletter. However, I will include links to the monthly reports I have posted in the blog, in a

mass blast, either with the new issue or as a standalone email. Also, the CANWARN and SKYWARN will still be here but in a much abbreviated form but will still include the annual message from Geoff Coulson and what to report. I will also allow for your articles on either CANWARN and SKYWARN sessions that were particularly memorable. For example: back in the 7th issue I had some CANWARN articles from Atlantic CANWARN on the winter storms that plagued Ontario Eastward in February 2013. Unfortunately, I had no contributions from Quebec at that time!
WEATHER RADIO NET

The Weather Radio Net on ham radio has unfortunately been put on hiatus for now. There were some issues with where to put an IRLP reflector back in June, when I had intended to restart the net again. I do have a plan for the net going forward and I will detail it in a mass blast to all of you, who are hams. Also, for those of you who are hams, I now have EchoLink on my IPhone. So, this will allow for me to do the net in more places besides being at home all the time.

Back to the net itself for a moment… I have an idea for the net to meet at 12:00 PM on Wednesdays to 1:00 PM. This is because the Weather Radio tests are on Wednesdays anyway and well, why not have the net meet right after it? The only potential problem for me is that on the first Wednesday of the month, the SAME test goes off right before noon and I also file my reports to Weatheradio Canada.

The other reason for my acquiring EchoLink is because of the new windows in my apartment, which have been put in during July. All units in our building have or are being renovated, with new windows and heating and cooling systems. Unfortunately, this may pose a problem for me as both a ham radio operator and as a Weather Radio listener because of the metal tinted windows which are now in most, if not all units. I shudder to think about how much interference the new heating and cooling system may cause to VHF and UHF radio waves. Unfortunately, probably 99.9 percent of the powers that be, who own all apartments aren’t interested in Weather Radio, let alone have a ham radio license. Therefore, they see this as only a way to make us comfortable and not necessarily happy. They don’t think for a second about if people have various hobbies like for example: ham radio. However, I digress.

As for myself, I am still a happy Admin of the NOAA Weather Radio and Weatheradio Canada Facebook Group. I am still continuing to bring stuff up and most of you are responding with likes and posts alike. I have done and will continue to do the same if I can.

Well, that’s about it for me and my comments for this issue. Enjoy the rest of the summer and let’s have as much fun as possible, before the cold weather sets in.

THE WATCHDOG REPORT

I have received a few reports of watchdog events from Weatheradio Canada listeners in the past 3 months. Most of them are on the NOAA Weather Radio and Weatheradio Canada Facebook Group. I unfortunately can’t include their reports because of a lack of a time-stamp, as to when the alarm went off with an outage. If you have read my reports including the ones I have here, you will notice a more or less definitive time as to when things went pear shaped. I will explain the same thing on the Facebook group and elsewhere on the web and hopefully this will result in more reports here in the future.

On Wednesday June 15th the entire network in Ontario went into watchdog mode at 5:45 PM and didn’t return to normal until around 8:00 AM the next morning. This was after a few hours of no RWT (Required Weekly Tests) on most WXR’s. This was after a few hours of no new data.

FROM THE NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND WEATHER RADIO CANADA FACEBOOK GROUP

Mark J. Szymanski July 3 at 3:11am

As of 20:23 CDT July 2, Winnipeg is broadcasting “technical difficulties” message: ZCZC-WXR-NMN+000030-1850227-MSC/CWWG

This also happened late Thursday June 30th as well:

ZCZC-WXR-NMN+000030-1830415-MSC/CWWG

On Saturday July 16th all of Ontario was plunged into watchdog mode at around 10:15 AM. It wasn’t restored until 11:28 AM The same day.
THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

For this section of the newsletter, we will explore how different CANWARN and SKYWARN groups operate in their local region, from time to time. There may be some SKYWARN information from meteorologists in this issue and there will be some tips on how to report severe weather for both CANWARN and SKYWARN. We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.

The CANWARN training sessions will no longer be inserted in the newsletter, due to them not always being up to date. They are now in the blog and will be shown there. However, the reporting tips will still be here, for both CANWARN and SKYWARN.

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites.

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

In the spring/summer severe weather season, please report the following:

Hail (use coins to describe its size…dime, nickel, quarter, loonie for larger hail…golf ball etc.),

Heavy rain that has resulted in local flooding, Damaging winds (damage from tree branchesdown to more significant tree or structural damage), Large scale rotation in a thunderstorm such as: Wall Cloud – Funnel Cloud, Waterspout and Tornado, Dense fog – visibility less than 1 km

Note: if you are unsure of the rotation or presence of a wall cloud or funnel cloud…watch the area for a few minutes if it is safe to do so to verify the situation.

For SKYWARN spotters, you should report: Tornadoes or funnel clouds (be very wary of look-alikes; watch for rotation)

waterspouts, Wall clouds, especially if they are rotating

Hail (Be specific with regard to size; however, YOU SHOULD NOT report MARBLE size)

Please consult your local Amateur Radio club or CANWARN or SKYWARN group for their: email address, Twitter account or Facebook pages.

WHERE TO PURCHASE WEATHER RADIOS

Weather Radios can be purchased at various electronics stores that specialize in radios and other equipment such as:

CB World at http://www.werecb.com/,

Universal Radio at http://www.universal-radio.com/,

Durham Radio at http://www.durhamradio.com/,

Radio World at http://www.radioworld.ca/,

Burnaby Radio at http://www.burnabyradio.com/,

Ambient Weather at http://www.ambientweather.com/

Weather Radio Store at http://www.Weatherradiostore.com/, and many more retailers throughout North America.

When planning to purchase your first Weather Radio, it is highly recommended to look for the Public Alert identification logo. :)WEATHER INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

Suggested weather sites to visit as follows; In Canada the current websites URL is

http://www.weather.gc.ca

Want to get your weather in the US? Go to http://www.nws.noaa.gov/

Weatheradio Canada webpage at http://www.ec.gc.ca/weatheradio

NOAA Weather Radio webpage at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr.

DX Info Centre at http://www.dxinfocentre.com/, to hear what Weather Radio sounds like

before buying your first receiver, visit YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/,

http://www.weather.gov/nwr/news.htm. At this time, there is no newsletter mailing list to subscribe.

If you have additional questions, please feel free to e-mail answers@noaa.gov, here is the link to the answers website; http://findanswers.noaa.gov/noaa.answers/consumer/search.asp.

Yahoo Weatheradio Chatgroup, at http://tech.Groups.yahoo.com/group/weatheradio/,

NOAA and Weatheradio Canada group on Facebook, https://m.facebook.com/groups/weatheradio/

WXtoIMG at http://www.wxtoim.com/downloads/,

Digital Atmosphere at http://www.weathergraphics.com/da/

WebEx

http://www.freewebs.com/ve1jbl/canwarn.htm

NWS Taunton Amateur Radio SKYWARN Station home page at http://www.wx1box.org

The Maritime Amateur (Ham Radio for Maritimers by Maritimers) http://www.maritimeamateur.ca

VoIP Hurricane Prep Net – Saturday 9pm Atlantic Time / http://www.voipwx.net/

Phil Chadwicks blog at philtheforecaster.blogspot.com

WEATHER RADIO AND WEATHER RADIO APPS

CanWeather2 by High5

https://appsto.re/ca/M0aK6.i This app is simple but is full of features, that you can unlock by purchasing others within the app.

Weather Alert Ontario 2 by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/yNZeC.i

This app sends you push notifications of watches and warnings only, with the SAME alert sound.

Weather Office Free by X2 Studioshttps://appsto.re/ca/–gXw.i

NOAA Weather Radio by Christopher Coudriet

https://appsto.re/ca/R0LCy.i

This app allows you to listen to NOAA Weather Radio and receive alerts for your county in the US. It would be nice if it also provided the same feature for Weatheradio Canada and Canadians too.

The Weather Center by Midland Radio Corporation

https://appsto.re/ca/9De3K.i

This app provides access to Midland Radio via social media and also provides weather forecast information and much more.

Weather Radio by WDT by Weather Decision Technologies, Inc.

https://appsto.re/ca/5eBPy.i

This app gives you NWS alerts and also pushes lightning alerts to your IPhone, when lightning is possibly detected in your local area or, in area’s you have selected.

Weather Nets on Ham Radio from Daryl Stout WX1DER

a) VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net — Meets at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific Time, on the *WX_TALK* Echolink Conference Server…Echolink Node 7203, and IRLP Node 9219.

Further details are at http://www.voipwx.net

Further details are at http://www.dstarinfo.com/se-d-star-wx-net.aspx

VoIP Skywarn Hurricane Prep Net

Southeast US D-Star Weather Net

Certified Skywarn Severe Storm Spotter

The official Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Twitter Account

https://mobile.twitter.com/wxrnewsletter

MANUFACTURERS OF WEATHER RADIO

Midland Radio Corporation http://www.Midlandradio.com W-r300, W-r100B, W-R120, HH54VP, HH54VP2, ER102, Nautico 3 and W-R11 are all manufactured by Midland and sold in North America.

Oregon Scientific http://www2oregonscientific.com W-R601, W-R203 and W-R602 are currently sold in North America.

Uniden Corporation http://www.Uniden.com BC75XLT, BC95XLT, BC125AT, BC346XT, BCT15X, BCD996XT, Homepatrol, BC436HP, BC536HP and BCD396XT are currently sold in North America.

Sangean USA http://www.Sangean.com CL100, DT400, DT500, MMR88, PR-D4W and PRD9W are manufactured by Sangean and currently sold in North America.

Reecom Electronics Inc http://www.reecominc.com R-1630, R-1650, R-200 and R-500 are manufactured by Reecom and currently sold in North America.

Kaito Electronics Inc http://www.kaitousa.com/ KA500, KA101 and KA600 are currently sold in North America.

Alert Works http://www.alert-works.com/ Alert Works desktop model EAR-10 is currently sold in North America.

IN CLOSING

If you have any comments or suggestions, or if you wish to submit an article, please email the author Gord at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com or blindgordie@gmail.com or va3wxa@gmail.com.

You can also contact me on Skype and the Skype name is blindgordie.

Sincerely, Gord … The Old Reliable. VA3WXA

Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter Issue 19

15 Wednesday Mar 2017

Posted by blindgordie in 1050 HZ tone, Bearcat Scanner, CANWARN, Midland, Monthly Weather Alert Test, Reacom, SAME, Sangean, Summer Severe Weather, Weather app, Weather Radio, Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter, Weekly Weather Alert Test, Winter Severe Weather

≈ Leave a comment

WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_19_MAY_08_2016
Welcome to the 19th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. In this issue, we have much the same exciting articles you have come to know throughout the last 18 issues of the newsletter. There will however, be some things that will be omitted and the reasons for this will also become clear as you read this issue. Please read on and enjoy.
Hello, this is your friendly author welcoming you to the 19th issue of the Weather Radio Listeners Newsletter. It’s a new issue, of course. There are some changes to the newsletter, due to some recent developments. First of all, there will be some things that will be taken out and put into the new website and blog. For example: Geoff Coulson will still have his yearly message about CANWARN in the winter here but any training schedules will be moved to the website and blog.

The SAME and 1050 HZ test reports will be here for one more issue, but they too will be moved to the blog and be posted monthly, starting in May. There will be other changes as time goes on and the newsletter will be shrinking to a more reasonable size, as opposed to a massive sprawling novelette. By the end of the year, all the necessary changes will be complete.

The Weather Radio Net on ham radio has also been cut back, from twice a week to once a week again. We now meet on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM, starting either late May or in June. We are also going back to our home IRLP reflector and Echolink node too.

Weatheradio Canada is also going through changes in the people who are working in this department. Denis Paquette and Peter Staples have both since departed with Denis moving onto another job at EC and Peter retiring. I would like to thank them both for their contributions to the newsletter and hopefully, they will continue to receive it and the new website. I will certainly miss both of them because they taught me a lot about how Weatheradio Canada currently functions and in particular, getting to meet Denis Paquette last year, while he was in Toronto for the Pan-Am Games. Also, they have both participated in the Weather Radio Net on ham radio, appearing on a session each. Once again, thank you to both Denis Paquette and Peter Staples for your help in making the newsletter what it is and will be in the future. I will not forget what you have taught me as long as I live. Of course, I also wish them much success in their future endeavors.

As for myself, I have also become an Admin for the NOAA Weather Radio and Weatheradio Canada Facebook Group and I am delighted that some of you have joined without me adding you. I have had fun so far as an Admin and hope to be in this role for a long time. I am very humbled to be in this position and well, it was very unexpected. I have been mainly bringing up topics to discuss and people have obviously come forward to voice their opinions. I will write a more detailed article about my experience so far in this roll in the next issue.

Well, that’s about it for me and my comments for this issue. Enjoy the rest of the spring and don’t be surprised if the newsletter comes out sooner. I have ideas for that which is in the works.

MIDLAND RADIO CORPORATION ARTICLES

We wish to thank Midland Radio Corporation for allowing us to provide you with two articles from their Midland Radio Newsletter.

Severe storm season is here. Be ready.

As spring continues, the threat of severe weather grows. Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes can

catch families off guard and leave them unprepared in the path of a destructive storm. Midland

Radio’s line of weather radios are your first line of defense against Mother Nature.

When seconds matter, you need a weather radio you can rely on.

Midland’s large selection of weather and emergency radios are the best in the industry and can

keep your family safe when the weather becomes unpredictable.

Remember, early warning is your best protection.

Preparing you for the unexpected for over 50 years.

Introducing the E+READY Emergency Portable Charger

Whether you’re waiting out a power outage or roughing it off the grid, you never know when

you’re going to need power. Cell phones, tablets, cameras and other electronics are vital parts of

our lives now. Midland Radio’s Emergency Portable Charger is designed to keep you and your

family connected when you don’t have immediate access to power.

The E+READY Emergency Portable Charger’s features include:

-iOS and Android compatibility

-Up to 4 full Smartphone charges, 1 full tablet charge, or 7 full camera charges per use

-LED flashlight with up to 69 hours of illumination

-Battery level indicator

-Dual USB input

-Micro USB outlet

Buy yours NOW online for $49.99.

The E+READY Emergency Portable Charger is the perfect addition to any preparedness kit. Get

more info about keeping your family prepared at ready.gov

Our mailing address is:

Midland Radio Corporation

5900 Parretta DriveKansas City, MO 64120

Add us to your address book
MONTY PYTHON’S FLYING CIRCUS

Okay, this is another detour into pop culture, in regards to weather. This time I am focusing on the sketch comedy troupe Monty Python. I have always liked their material because of how brilliant the writing has been and how unusually distinct each member is, with their own voice rolls. For example: Michael Palin and Terry Jones are usually portraying females as housewives or older women. All though they both have been usually heard in their real voices as other characters. For example: Michael Palin is heard in the Argument sketch and Dead Parrot Sketch, along with John Cleese.

For this newsletter, I have found a rare sketch they included as a bonus track on their 1972 album Monty Python’s Previous Record. It features Terry Jones as the interviewer and John Cleese as the meteorologist interviewee. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FAnT-VSeLJ4

The only other weather related bit I can think of off the top of my head is the 1972 Eclipse of the Sun, which also appears on the same album. This bit also features 4 members of the team as commentators: Terry Gilliam as the announcer introducing the bit, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle and John Cleese as the commentators. I hope you enjoy it and if you haven’t heard any Monty Python bits before, I encourage you to go on line and look for them on YouTube and elsewhere. I think you can even purchase their TV show Monty Python’s Flying Circus on iTunes too. Well, it’s time to move onto the next article, before I go on, and on, and on, and on, and on much like a character in one of their sketches.

SIMULATED EMERGENCY TEST EXERCISE

This article is about an event in the amateur radio community, which involves simulating an emergency, in order to test how we can handle various unforeseen emergencies and occasionally, intentional problems added to them to make things even more interesting. After all, this is supposed to be a test to see how we handle any type of disaster, whether it is manmade or natural.

This past fall, some ARES groups (Amateur Radio Emergency Service) In the Greater Toronto Area did such a test, using weather as the focus. I would like to thank both the Mississauga ARES and South Halton ARES groups for providing me with the bulletin, which was especially put together for this event. Please note, for those of you who work for Environment Canada and Weatheradio Canada, this is only a bulletin and not a real special weather statement. All though it looks similar to one of them, it was only created for the purpose of an emergency test.
WOCN11 CWTO 252000

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT

ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA ONTARIO REGION

4:00 PM EST FRIDAY 6 November 2015.

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT FOR:

CITY OF TORONTO

YORK – DURHAM

HALTON – PEEL

CITY OF HAMILTON

NIAGARA

DUFFERIN – INNISFIL

BARRIE – ORILLIA – MIDLAND

…STRONG THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE EARLY SATURDAY MORNING…

•A RECORD-BREAKING HOT AND HUMID AIR MASS CONTINUES TO LINGER OVER

MUCH OF SOUTHERN ONTARIO. HIGH TEMPERATURES NEAR THE 30 DEGREE

CELSIUS MARK CONTINUE ACROSS THE REGION WHEN NORMAL HIGH

TEMPERATURES SHOULD BE IN THE 12 TO 15 DEGREE CELSIUS RANGE.

•HOWEVER THE ARRIVAL OF A COLD FRONT MOVING IN FROM THE WEST

OVERNIGHT WILL USHER IN A COOLER AND DRIER BRAND OF AIR BUT NOT

BEFORE KICKING OFF SOME SIGNIFICANT THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY. SOME OF

THESE THUNDERSTORMS COULD BE SEVERE WITH THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE

DAMAGING WINDS, LARGE HAIL, FLOODING RAINS AND THE RISK OF ONE OR

MORE TORNADOES.

•ENVIRONMENT CANADA WILL BE MONITORING THIS SITUATION CLOSELY AND

IT IS LIKELY THAT WATCHES AND WARNINGS WILL BE REQUIRED OVERNIGHT

AS THE STRONG STORMS FORM.

•LISTEN FOR FURTHER STATEMENTS. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION MAY ALSO BE

FOUND BY CONSULTING THE LATEST PUBLIC FORECAST. THE NEXT PUBLIC

FORECAST WILL BE ISSUED BY 5:00 AM ON SATURDAY MORNING.

•END/OSPC

•EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE Simulated Emergency Test Bulletin End
I actually received an email with the original bulletin about this simulated weather statement and that got me to thinking about how both Weatheradio Canada and NOAA Weather Radio can do much the same thing, once or twice a year. This could be a way to test out not just the weekly and monthly SAME test alerts but for other events as well, depending on the impending time of year. For example: in early spring a fake severe thunderstorm watch or warning could be sent out on a specific day each year, to simulate what could happen. On NOAA Weather Radio they talk about and refresh listeners on the dangers of severe weather for upcoming seasons, so why not do an annual simulated event like that on Weather Radio in both Canada and the US?

This would also prove to be very helpful with the new voices which are being brought into the network and how they would handle such events. On Weatheradio Canada it was very quiet for a few months last year, without any real major weather event requiring SAME and when it did happen, a whole bunch of alerts came out over the network, even on one WXR. On December 27th the first winter storm watch for Southern Ontario was issued and this very thing happened. I had texted one of you who are reading this and had reported this to Weatheradio Canada. Unfortunately nothing further was said about it that was helpful.

So, will both Weatheradio Canada and NOAA Weather start simulating events for upcoming severe weather seasons in the future? I know there is Ana annual national test of the EAS but I personally think that simulating a real event would be much more affective. Of course, in the bulletin there has to be a statement saying that this is only a test and not an actual alert. We don’t want anything like what happened when the radio adaptation of War of the Worlds aired in October 1938. Right? But simulating actual events is good to test out all alerts each year and if there are problems they can be ironed out.

THE WATCHDOG REPORT

If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right on your local Weather Radio transmitter, there are various ways to report a problem that depend on where you live. If you live in The United States, you can call 1-888-697-7263. You can email NOAA at nwroutage@noaa.gov, or on the web at http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr. If you live in Canada, you can call 1-877-789-7733. You can email the National Weatheradio Canada Team at Wxradio@ec.gc.ca. Also, you can report it on the NOAA Weather Radio Weatheradio Canada Facebook page and the Yahoo Weatheradio Chat Group. You will find the link to both the Facebook and the Yahoo group later in this issue and all issues of the newsletter. You can also email the author directly at wxrnewsletter@gmail.com and it will be passed on for you.

On Friday February 5th at 7:15 PM, the network in Ontario went into watchdog mode. It came back up at around 8:00 PM The same night.

On Monday March 21st at 12:17 PM Weatheradio Canada in Ontario went into watchdog mode and came back at 1:28 PM.

On Thursday, April 28 at around 11:14 AM the entire network in Ontario went down, for about 10 minutes into watchdog mode.

WEEKLY SAME AND 1050 Hz. TONE TEST REPORT

The following are reports from listeners on the weekly (rwt), monthly (rmt) SAME tests sent to each site in Canada. However, it is not complete so we need you to send your reports to the author as well as Wxradio@ec.gc.ca. You are also encouraged to give reports on the Weather Radio Nets on Wednesdays if possible. Remember, the 1050Hz Tone test and SAME Required Monthly Test is performed on the first Wednesday of each month just before noon local time. The SAME Required Weekly Test is performed every Wednesday around 11:50 local time.

Date Call Sign Tx Frequency (MHz) Name alphanumeric or basic tone alert test alarm time

Wednesday February 3rd, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:53 AM, (RMT) 11:57 AM, (1050 TONE) 11:59 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:55 AM, (RMT) 12:01 PM, (1050 TONE) 12:00 PM local.

Wednesday February 10th, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Wednesday February 17th, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM

Wednesday February 24th, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM local, Ottawa (VBE719 162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11.53 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Wednesday March 2nd, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:52 AM, (RMT) 11:57 PM, (1050 Hz. tone) 11:59 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM, (RMT) 11:59 AM, (1050 Hz. tone) 11:59 AM local.

Wednesday March 9th, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local.

Wednesday March 16th, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) 12:52 AM local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 12:54 PM local.

Wednesday March 23rd, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz. off the air, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 12:54 PM local

Wednesday March 30th St Catharines VAD320 162.475 MHz (RWT) off the air, Toronto XMJ225 162.400 MHz (RWT) 12:54 PM local.

Wednesday April 6th 2016, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) off the air, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 12:54 PM, (RMT) 12:59 PM, (1050 Hz. tone alert) 12:59 PM local.

Wednesday April 13st, Ottawa (VBE719 162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:54 AM local, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) off the air, Ottawa VBE719 (162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local. 🙂

Wednesday April 20, St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz.) (RWT) off the air, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 A.M. local.

Wednesday April 27th St Catharines (VAD320 162.475 MHz. (RWT) off the air, Ottawa (VBE719 162.550 MHz) (RWT) 11:53 A.M local, Toronto (XMJ225 162.400 MHz.) (RWT) 11:54 AM local.

Here is an explanation about why St Catharines VAD320 has been missing and the tests have gone off an hour late for a few weeks.

Summer time.

There was an IT change across all the government. We no longer have direct access to our servers. What used to be a simple “copy file” action is now taking forever. Some regions had it automatically programmed, with the CONFIG file actually checking the time zone and DST change. Ontario did not have that. It will be fixed, and will be automated for the next DST change, but for now the request has been sent but we’re waiting for the IT guys to update the servers. No update for St Catharines. Pending clement weather to get a rigger up there. Let me know if you have other questions.
Marc-Antoine Chabot

Réseau Radio-météo | Weatheradio Network

Service météorologique | Meteorological Service

Environnement Canada | Environ ment Canada

Here is the email I sent about these issues, which prompted the email above.WEATHER_RADIO_LISTENERS_NEWSLETTER_ISSUE_19_MAY_08_2016
Hi there. Just wondering why the tests are still an hour late? I reported on this a few weeks ago, both in an email and on Facebook and The status is still the same.

Secondly, St Catharines VAD320 has been off the air for a few weeks now, ever since the severe weather on March 16th. What is the problem and why is it not on the air? Am I the only one who notices this missing WXR?

Anyway, I will send out the report as usual as it comes in and hopefully things sort themselves out soon.

THE CANWARN/SKYWARN REPORT

For this section of the newsletter, we will explore how different CANWARN and SKYWARN groups operate in their local region, from time to time. There may be some SKYWARN information from meteorologists in this issue and there will be some tips on how to report severe weather for both CANWARN and SKYWARN. We may not agree with everything that is written here, but it is important to hear from others to see how different groups operate throughout North America.

As for SKYWARN training schedules, you can go to either of the following sites:

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/skywarn/

http://skywarn.org/

https://www.meted.ucar.edu/training_course.php?id#

http://spotterguides.us/

There are many links for you to look at on these sites.

SPOTTER REPORTING TIPS

How to Report

Amateur radio network (if applicable) – Amateur Radio Condition

Condition Codes: Code Green – Severe Thunderstorm Watch

Code Yellow – Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Tornado Watch

Code Red – Tornado Warning

in Ontario by email at storm.ontario@ec.gc.ca

Twitter with hashtag #onstorm

If you are CANWARN trained you should give the following information to the weather office

in order to help them ground truth: Your name, CANWARN ID, contact number, – Where – you

are located and the approximate location of what you are reporting, – Describe what you are

witnessing/what you witnessed, the time of occurrence of the event and duration, its movement