This evening, I spoke to the Whitley County Amateur Radio Club about digital mobile radio (DMR). Here is a link to my presentation slides for reference:
Tornado strikes NW Allen County July 29
The National Weather Service Northern Indiana weather forecast office (IWX) announced August 2 that it found evidence that a tornado did damage in eastern Whitley County and northwestern Allen County, Indiana at approximately 2:30 a.m. July 29.
“But wait,” you might say, “I never heard about a tornado warning for Allen County that day!” That’s because IWX didn’t issue a tornado warning for this storm. At the time of the tornado, however, a severe thunderstorm warning was in effect that included the words, “tornado possible.”
Most severe thunderstorm warnings do not automatically create alerts on your cell phone.
It’s not unusual for the kind of storm we had Saturday morning (a bowing “squall line”) to spawn weak tornados that appear and disappear before the National Weather Service can issue a warning. That’s why, when they warn us of a severe thunderstorm that could contain such tornados, they mention that a tornado is possible.
It’s also one reason that it’s so important to know about and react appropriately to severe thunderstorm warnings, including those the National Weather Service issues in the middle of the night, when you’re sleeping. But that requires extra effort on your part, because most severe thunderstorm warnings do not automatically create alerts on your cell phone.
If you’ve ever been someplace covered by a tornado warning, you probably received a Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) on your phone, even if you never installed a weather app. That’s because all modern smartphones come with WEAs enabled and all tornado warnings prompt WEAs.
The only severe thunderstorm warnings that trigger WEAs, however, are those in which the National Weather Service includes a “destructive” damage threat “tag.” They do that for storms that have either hail that’s at least 2.75 inches in diameter (baseball-sized) and/or 80 mph straight-line thunderstorm winds. According to Saturday morning’s severe thunderstorm warning, meteorologists expected winds of up to 60 mph and no large hail. That warning therefore did not trigger a WEA.
So, how can you know if a storm like Saturday’s is headed toward your home in the middle of the night, while you’re asleep? I know of two really good ways:
- Buy a weather alert radio and keep it near enough to your bedroom to wake you.
- Install a weather alert app, like Storm Shield, and configure it to alert you to severe thunderstorm warnings.
When the NWS issues a severe thunderstorm warning for your location, the best way to be safe is to do the same thing you’d do in a tornado warning. Move to the most interior room on the lowest level of your house. This will provide the best protection from a brief tornado, like the one that touched down July 29 and from straight-line thunderstorm winds dropping a tree limb on your house, which is what killed a woman in Ohio City, Ohio July 20.
W9LW’s DMR presentation: North Central Indiana Hamfest 2023
Below is a PDF file containing the slides from my DMR presentation at the North Central Indiana Hamfest in Peru April 29, 2023.
W9LW’s DMR presentation: Fort Wayne Hamfest 2022
Below is a PDF file containing the slides from my DMR presentation at the Fort Wayne Hamfest November 19, 2022.
NCI Hamfest DMR presentation slides
Today, I gave an introductory presentation about ham radio DMR, how to find information about DMR repeaters in Indiana and the steps involved in programming a DMR radio with a new “codeplug.” As promised, you may get a PDF copy of my presentation slides by following the link below.
W9LW’s TYT MD-380 codeplug programming guide
I have created a guide to help users of the TYT MD-380 handheld, DMR amateur radio create codeplugs for their radios.
The link below will provide the latest version of the document.
W9LW’s Anytone AT-D878UV codeplug programming guide
I have created a guide to help users of the Anytone AT-D878UV handheld, DMR amateur radio create codeplugs for their radios.
The link below will provide the latest version of the document, which I have updated since publishing the original version. Version 2.65, uploaded January 29, 2023, adds advice on matching the CPS version to the firmware version.
W9LW’s RD-5R codeplug programming guide
I have created a guide to help users of the Radioddity/Baofeng RD-5R and DM-5R handheld, DMR amateur radios create codeplugs for their radios.
Version 3 of this guide combines and updates two previous guides into a single document.
COVID-19 pandemic affects SKYWARN severe weather operations
Restrictions implemented to slow the spread of COVID-19 will affect one of the ways SKYWARN® storm spotters send reports to local National Weather Service (NWS) offices. Many NWS weather forecast offices (WFOs) have amateur (ham) radio equipment permanently installed. During severe weather events, volunteer ham radio operators operate that equipment to receive reports of tornadoes and other dangerous weather from fellow hams who are storm spotters.
Now, however, the NWS is forbidding anyone not directly connected with the agency from entering WFOs, according to NWS Northern Indiana warning coordination meteorologist Michael Lewis. That means that ham radio stations at WFOs are less likely to be on the air during severe weather events. Some NWS meteorologists have ham radio licenses and some of those might be able to sporadically operate WFO ham stations. But Lewis told me that to reduce exposure to disease, the NWS is trying to operate WFOs with as few people in the office as possible. This might mean that NWS meteorologists who have ham licenses will have no time to operate the ham radio equipment.
Ham radio operators will still be able to use their radios to report severe weather, but they’ll need someone other hams to relay those reports to their local WFOs. That’s where an internal NWS text chat system will be essential, Lewis said. The system is called NWSChat and access is limited a select population. That groups includes ham radio operators who serve as net control station operators. Local ham radio SKYWARN groups can (and should) designate such leaders to serve as liaisons between the radio networks and NWSChat.
Whether or not spotters have ham radio licenses, other ways to communicate reports continue to be available, including telephone calls to WFOs and Twitter tweets that include the appropriate WFO’s Twitter handle.
The voice communication app Zello can also be helpful to SKYWARN storm spotters. Unfortunately, Zello’s terms and conditions do not comply with federal government requirements, so NWS WFOs are prohibited from installing Zello on any government-owned devices. A specific Zello channel exists (“IWX SKYWARN”) for reports from areas covered by the Northern Indiana office. Because WFO staff are prohibited from using Zello, ham radio net control station operators, who have NWSChat accounts, plan to monitor the Zello channel as much as possible, to relay reports from spotters to the WFO.
All this could be tested tomorrow, March 19, when severe weather is forecast in much of Indiana.
Some Useful Info about COVID-19
Note: I updated the post below on March 11, to reflect state guidance on when to call your doctor. Knowledge about the epidemic is changing rapidly, so other information in this blog post could become outdated at any time.
My wife and I had dinner last night with a long-time friend who is in active practice as a family practice physician. She shared some information about the COVID-19 coronavirus disease that I consider so helpful, I want to share it.
First, don’t panic! The vast majority of us, who have no preexisting illnesses that make us more vulnerable, will experience symptoms similar to influenza or a very bad cold if we’re infected by coronavirus 2019. That means fever, lots of coughing and sneezing, and possibly generalized body aches. It won’t be pleasant, but it won’t require hospitalization and certainly won’t be fatal — for most of us.
Data is still coming in with which public health experts calculate mortality and hospitalization rates. At the time of this writing, however, they think 10 to 20 percent of infected people will require hospitalization and around 3.8 percent (38 out of every 1,000 people infected) will die. Again, people who have other, chronic health problems, like cardio vascular disease or chronic, obstructive pulmonary disease, are much more likely to become seriously ill or die than those of us who are relatively healthy before the virus infects us.
Even if our symptoms are mild, if we are diagnosed with COVID-19, we be asked to isolate ourselves at home until our symptoms disappear. Our physician friend says her employer told her that if she contracts the disease, her employer will not allow her to return to work until 24 hours pass without a single symptom, including cough.
Isolation means isolation! We will be expected to make no trips to the grocery, drug store, or anywhere except a medical facility for care. When diagnosed, we’ll be told to go straight home, without stopping for supplies or medicines. Failure to adhere to such restrictions could put the health of more vulnerable people at risk.
Because none of us know when infection might happen, our physician friend told us she has made sure her house is stocked with everything she might need for two weeks of isolation: food, medicine, pet food, facial tissues, etc. Today, Peggy and I did the same thing. We purchased nonperishable foods that we can store for months, because we could get infected today or a couple months from now. We also stocked up on the same over-the-counter medicines we would use to treat a bad cold: acetaminophen (Tylenol®) for fever, diphenhydramine (Benadryl®) for sneezing and runny nose, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride (Sudafed®) for nasal congestion caused by swollen membranes, guaifenesin (Mucinex®) for chest congestion from excess phlegm, and dextromethorphan (Delsym®) for cough.
Another revelation I got from our physician friend regards seeking care for what might seem like a bad cold or flu, something I would not normally do. March 11, the Indiana State Department of Health tweeted about who should contact their healthcare providers when they become ill:
Previously, I reported that our physician friend suggested is that if I come down with a bad cough with fever, I should call my doctor, even though I wouldn’t normally do so for a viral illness like the cold or flu. Normally, if I experience such symptoms, I just treat them myself symptomatically, because I know there’s nothing my doctor can give me to cure a viral illness. But while the COVID-19 epidemic is still going on, we should change that practice and at least call our doctors if we have a fever and cough, so the doctor can decide whether to test us for COVID-19. Why bother with a test that won’t change the method of treatment? Because if we’re lucky and the test shows no COVID-19, isolation at home won’t be as important.
Now, it seems clear that relatively few people who contact their healthcare providers will even be eligible for a COVID-19 test. This is just one example of how information about this epidemic is changing by the day, and sometimes by the hour.
About the only things any of us can do to prevent infection is to stay away from infected people and wash our hands frequently. This is challenging enough as we go through our daily lives, but reports that some people can have the disease without having symptoms themselves further complicates the former tactic. To me, this means we should all expect to contract COVID-19 and prepare now for the isolation we’ll need to practice when it happens.