Severe Weather Activation

An ESTABLISHED NET CONTROL OPERATOR will activate the North Alabama/Southern Middle Tennessee SKYWARN Emergency Net anytime the SPC issues a Severe Thunderstorm Watch, Tornado Watch, or receives a specific request from the NWS office to activate. The Net Control Operator may be located at his/her residence or, preferably, at a county EOC. An NWS Liason will be activated by the NWS office in Huntsville and he/she will report to the NWS there to coordinate traffic with all hams in the coverage area. North Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee SKYWARN, and the NWS can utilize statewide alpha-numeric paging to activate and update amateur radio operators that are equipped with pagers. The NWS Liason will coordinate all weather traffic with the SKYWARN Net Control Operator. Persons are asked to pass weather traffic to the North Alabama and Southern Middle Tennessee SKYWARN Net Control Operator only, and operators are asked NOT to pass traffic directly to the NWS Liason unless directed to do so by the net control station.

Upon activation of the net, all repeater links are turned on and recreational use of the systems are temporarily suspended. The frequencies are kept clear for EMERGENCY and PRIORITY traffic. IMPORTANT: THE SUCCESS OF THIS NET DEPENDS ON EVERYONE USING DISCRETION WITH THEIR MICROPHONES. PLEASE DO NOT TRANSMIT UNLESS IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Do NOT transmit to pass information that is of no real use for the net, such as it’s raining, the clouds are getting thicker, it’s lightning off to the west….etc… Traffic of this nature is of no real use to the net and only ties up the frequencies from useful information. Always think before you transmit… USE DISCRETION WITH YOUR MICROPHONES. Remember also that as many as several hundred hams, and private citizens, can be listening all across north Alabama and will not transmit unless they see a need to do so. Most of the time just listening and calling when you have severe weather to report is the best help you can provide a severe weather net!!

Alert Status

The Net may be downgraded to an alert status if a watch is in effect, but there is not any severe weather immediately threatening the area. Recreational use of the repeaters is permitted during Alert Status, but please keep transmissions brief and allow pauses in between. If a weather emergency arises, the NET CONTROL OPERATOR will resume the controlled net.

Deactivation

When the severe weather bulletin is canceled or expired, the net will close and the linked repeaters will be returned to their normal use.