The September meeting was held on 16 Sep 99 at 1900 local time at Ryan's Steakhouse on Cherry Lane just north of I-30 across from Home Depot. This is our normal meeting time and place. This was a rather interesting meeting since the KC Club President, Russ KW5KW was unable to attend. As a result, theVice-President and Webmaster, Cliff KC5AEA, led the meeting. Cliff would like to thank everyone for their patience and he promises to do a better job next month. He said that this was his first time to run a meeting of any kind.
John Clark, AB5GQ, was our featured speaker. John gave an informative presentation concerning the RACES pager system. This is a system that allows those who have pagers to be notified in the event of a RACES situation or net. John wrote the software that runs this system and has donated the equipment and time to keep this on the air. Next time you happen to see or talk to him, give him a pat on the back for a job well done.
Next month's meeting will feature our Vice-President and Webmaster Cliff, KC5AEA. He will be giving a little talk concerning web pages and what all is involved in creating one and keeping it updated. This will not be a tutorial speech but rather an informational speech. If you've ever wondered how this is all done then you won't want to miss this meeting. Cliff stated that he will do his best to use plain language and follow the K.I.S.S. (Keep It Short Simple) principle.
We are thinking of having a chili supper in November. A few locations were discussed. One of which seemed most favorable to everyone was the Southwest Recreation Center, which is in the 4000 block of Alta Mesa at Welch. This is across the street from Southwest High School. If you would like to suggest a location or would be willing to help out, contact any of the Officers or Directors. You can find a list of Who's Who by looking in the Freq Sheet or clicking here.
RACES members: Well it's now the middle of September. There is an outside chance of severe weather this time of year. The main threat from any severe storms will be high winds. As we move more into fall the threat of hail, about golf ball size, will be a threat as well. The SKYWARN net guidelines will remain here for the benefit of new RACES members and as a refresher for those who need it. Just a reminder, these guidelines can easily be adapted to any type of net. There won't be the three conditions. But making reports as brief and to the point as possible and giving your location if necessary will greatly contribute to the net running smoothly. Before checking in to a SKYWARN net, LISTEN to see what condition it is in. There are 3. GREEN , YELLOW, RED. Condition GREEN means there is nothing severe in Tarrant County at the moment. While "blue-sky reports are not really necessary this is when you can make them. What is a "blue-sky report"? That is when the net controller asks if there is anyone experiencing any severe weather in Tarrant County and someone replies with something on the order of: "XX5XXX I'm in Mapsco XXX and we don't have anything going on right now." This is not what net control was looking for. Listen to what net control is saying. Condition YELLOW means that there has been heavy rain, small hail reported. In other words, severe weather is occurring in Tarrant County. NO BLUE-SKY REPORTS. Condition RED means that a wall cloud/tornado has been spotted, a tornado warning has been issued for Tarrant County, large hail, damaging winds, etc. In short, weather that has an immediate threat to life and property is occurring in Tarrant County. Again, LISTEN to net control. When the 146.940 repeater is in RACES mode, it will have a courtesy tone of the letter 'R' in Morse code .-. Also, by helping to keep the net free of unnecessary traffic you will be helping the guys at the weather service office. Remember, they are monitoring several radios up there. If they hear a bunch of nonsense, they are more likely to "tune us out". (No pun intended) They are usually monitoring several counties at once so the less radio traffic they have to listen to, the better off we all are. A SKYWARN net is not the place to say "Hello how are you doing. I haven't talked to you in ages".
Last Updated 16 Sep 99
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