Hurricane Season on the shortwave
We’re a good ways into hurricane season this year, but have just got the first full fledged hurricane this year. Ernesto is currently back down to tropical storm status, but is expected to re-strengthen before landfall. Shortwave in general and more specifically HAM radio operators play a vital role in Hurricane season. There are a number of interesting nets or frequency to listen in on. The first….
Is the Hurricane Watch net plans to be active any time a hurricane is within 300 miles of projected landfall in the US. Their frequency is 14.325.00 MHz USB (That’s Upper Side Band for those that are a bit newer to shortwave.) Their website is a good place to check for activation plans… currently Monday morning at 9AM they expect to get up and running for this storm.
They suggest when the net is not active to find information on 14.300.00 MHz They also note that they are not carriers for health and welfare traffic. For monitoring that, tune to the SATERN net at 14.265.00 MHz
The main goal of the Hurricane watch net is passing along current conditions and observations throughout the affected area. The start of the net usually just begins by checking and recording who is where in the soon to be affected area, what kind of observation equipment they have (if any), backup power to keep transmitting, etc.
For MORE frequencies take a look at this listing which ranges from coast guard weather reporting stations, up to emergency frequencies reserved for each state. It looks as though that list has migrated to hurricanefrequencies.com (The page was updated slightly more recently at hurricanefrequencies.com)
