Here in the "Heart of America," it is common to have many severe storms come through during the spring, summer and fall. There have even been thunderstorms in the winter. Kansas sets in the middle of "tornado alley". This area is roughly defined as Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Because of the great potential for severe weather, one of the things that a lot of hams do is become a trained spotter for their county or some other organization.
I am a member of the Johnson County ECS. We operate as spotters and net control operators for Johnson County, KS during severe weather watches. Our primary mission is to provide ground truth confirmation of what the National Weather Service radar sees. The Johnson County Emergency Communications Service, Inc. is a RACES affiliated organization. We operate a 2 meter net every Monday evening at 19:00, local. The net is held on the 145.470 MHz repeater. The repeater is located on top of the Johnson County Courthouse in Olathe, KS (that's pronounced O lay' the).
These are pictures of our repeater. We moved them to a new location shortly after these were taken. The duplexer and all the components for the repeater are now in the same cabinet.
This is a view from the top of the courthouse looking south. The clock tower is on the county administration building. The EOC is in the basement of that building.
We have members of the local ARES group that come in and operate packet during emergencies and other exercises also.
