A district emergency coordinator (DEC) for the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) began soliciting licensed hams November 5 to operate a special events station at the National Weather Service (NWS) office near North Webster.
The station will participate in the annual NWS Skywarn Recognition day, an annual 24-hour event to recognize Skywarn storm spotters, especially spotters who are ham radio operators.
Station setup will begin at 4 p.m. ET Friday December 1 at the office, 7506E 850N. Syracuse. That’s at the corner of Indiana 13 and Kosciusko County Road 850N, between North Webster and Syracuse. The station will include HF, IRLP and Echolink operations.
Operations will begin at 7 p.m. ET December 1 and run continuously until 7 p.m. ET Saturday, December 2. Hams who wish to operate the station at the NWS office must reserve their shifts in advance, in two-hour blocks. Shifts may be reserved by contacting ARES DEC Brian Sexton, KD9EDR at brian.sexton89@gmail.com. The station can accommodate up to four operators per two-hour shift.
Sexton also seeks volunteers to assist with station tear-down, beginning at 7 p.m. ET Saturday, Dec. 2.
During Skywarn recognition day, ham radio special event stations will operate on HF and other bands from NWS offices around the nation. The NWS encourages hams to contact as many of those special event stations as possible within 24 hours.