Subj : Special Ham Radio Event
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Wed Jul 06 2005 05:20 pm

  The following information is from the Hurricane Watch Net (www.hwn.org)
website, as of 4pm Central Time (2100 UTC) July 6, 2005. While Dennis is
a tropical storm at this typing, it is expected to become a hurricane
later tonight or Thursday...and a category 3 hurricane by Friday, if not
sooner, with winds of 115 mph or higher.

  It is expected to hit somewhere along the Gulf Coast early next week,
but it is too soon at this time to make a precise forecast of where Dennis
will eventually make final landfall. The latest advisories on Dennis can
be found at the Tropical Prediction Center website (www.nhc.noaa.gov).

Daryl, N5VLZ

***

  The Hurricane Watch Net plans to activate beginning at 9am EDT (1300 UTC)
Thursday morning for Hurricane Dennis, which is currently forecast to be a
Category 3 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale at landfall on Friday.

  Please help to spread the word to people in the affected area, while also
requesting any available reporting stations in the area to please come to
net frequency (14.325mhz) with their observed and/or measured weather data.

  During our net activation, Dennis should be skirting the northeast coast
of Jamaica, the southeast coast of Cuba, and the Cayman Islands. During
our activation on Friday, Dennis should be passing the Isle of Youth and
then make landfall somewhere along the southwest coast of Cuba.

  We will be requesting measured/observed ground truth data from the
affected area. Under direction of the National Hurricane Center, those may
be solicited from specific locations and/or with specific criterion
attached (such as people experiencing sustained winds in excess of 35
knots, or those with rapidly degrading conditions, etc.). Temperature and
dew point information is not needed.

  We remind those reporting stations to "please" do not report to us the
weather information reported on your local media. We are interested ONLY
in your personal observations, preferably measured by calibrated
instrumentation.

  Note: The above criteria may be changed without notice.

  Throughout this event, we remind everyone that we are also available to
provide backup communications facilities to official agencies such as
Emergency Operations Centers and Red Cross officials in the affected area.
We will also be interested to collect and report significant damage
assessment data back to FEMA officials stationed in the National Hurricane
Center.

  Please honor our request that you should not check in to the net, unless
specifically requested to do so. We will attempt to handle all
communications within the capabilities of our own members, and only when
required assistance is needed will we ask for your help.

  While our mission is specifically to provide storm related information
into and out of the storm, please understand we are not involved in Health
and Welfare traffic. That traffic will be handled by the SATERN net on
14.265.00 MHz, whenever activated, as well as on their website of
www.satern.org.

  On the SATERN homepage, you will find a link for Health and Welfare
Information. Fill out that form, and they will get back with you as soon
as possible. We will likely be reporting other emergency frequencies to be
set up by local emergency management nets in the affected area. Please
monitor 14.325.00 MHz for that information as it is made available.

  As a final reminder, please monitor the hurricane watch net web site
(www.hwn.org) for storm related advisory updates, graphics displays, and
other data made available from the National Hurricane Center.

  Thanks in advance for your support and cooperation during this extremely
dangerous storm.

Sincerely,
Bobby Graves, KB5HAV
Assistant Net Manager
Hurricane Watch Net



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