On the evening of July 13, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued a tornado watch that included Allen County, Ind. and all the other Indiana counties in IMO SKYWARN quadrant two (see map at right). The ACARTS 146.88 MHz repeater serves as a relay point for spotter reports from the entire quadrant to the NWS office in North Webster.

IMO SKYWARN put the repeater in SKYWARN “standby mode” shortly after the NWS issued the tornado watch. During standby mode, stations are welcome to use the repeater as they wish (although they are requested to keep transmissions short and leave enough time between transmissions to allow spotters to break in), and a SKYWARN net control station monitors the frequency to assist with any spotter reports.

Over the course of the evening, 37 stations checked in with the net control station to advise of their presence and availability to submit reports (see list below). Many were members of the Fort Wayne Radio Club. Net control stations accept such check-ins only during standby mode. When a directed net is in session, the net accepts check-ins only from stations that have spotter reports to make that comply with NWS reporting criteria.

The station of IMO SKYWARN Quadrant Two Director Jay Farlow, W9LW, served as the net control station for this operation. Jay expressed pride in the local hams who participated.

“It was great to have so many stations on the air, watching for reportable weather,” Jay said. “I was particularly impressed by net discipline they demonstrated. No one transmitted during the directed net sessions except the one station who had hail to report. And he followed net procedures precisely when he made his report.”

Below is the activity log and station list that Jay submitted to the NWS and IMO SKYWARN’s president.

IMO SKYWARN Quadrant Two Activation Report

July 13, 2015 Evening Tornado Watch

Activity log

Participating stations