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artmorris
Administrator
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Posted: Wed Aug 20th, 2008 10:35 pm |
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AH! 73's.
We have a really active Skywarn group on the 146.970 repeater over here. In fact, I was net controller (and radar spotter) the night of the tornado outbreak that hit Newton & Barry counties. It was really scary. I had 3 TVS's as the storm moved from Newtonia into Barry county, and I had a couple of spotters right in the path.
I hurriedly had them move south to get away from the path. It was really stressful.
Art
Last edited on Wed Aug 20th, 2008 10:43 pm by artmorris
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kspr-kevinlighty
Member
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Posted: Wed Aug 20th, 2008 11:02 pm |
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Oh yes... I do recall...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kgo2_Tqc5E
Coverage from that day.
Last edited on Wed Aug 20th, 2008 11:03 pm by kspr-kevinlighty
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JR
Member
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Posted: Thu Aug 21st, 2008 03:14 am |
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Yes, I was here when that happen and I have to say KSPR had the best radar with an awesome zoom. I have always been a KY3 fan, but that day of the tornadoes, KSPR won! I was on the phone with my Dad which lives in Granby and I was watching KSPR, he was on one of the local Joplin stations. KSPR zoomed right in on the tornado which was only a few miles away. My Dad had no clue and I said "You better head to the shelter, its headed right for ya!" They did and thank goodness it went only a mile south of their house. Close call...too close! I ended up working 14 days straight from sun up to down restoring all the phone cables that were damaged. This year has been crazy. Now I feel like eating chili by the fire. It feels like fall!!
Now back to the DTV question. I will not be using a rotor, it will be a fixed UHF yagi that I got from a CATV head end. Its brand new, never used and it has like 20 elements on it. Its 5 feet long, so it has some great gain. The only problem is I am in a deep valley just west of Jenkins. I am going to be about 40 feet on the side arm of my Rohn tower and aiming for the Fordland area. I will probably have to put in an amplifier, but I will see what I get with out it. My tuner will be the one on my Sony HDTV. If I get a good signal, I may amp split it to 2 other TV's with converters.
Last edited on Thu Aug 21st, 2008 03:19 am by JR
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artmorris
Administrator
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Posted: Thu Aug 21st, 2008 03:16 am |
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May 10, 2008! Yikes. I remember watching your coverage that evening.
I had been net controller for several hours that day. About 900pm, my engineering assistant from Joplin called to say the transmitter building for KBTN-FM had been hit, and was scattered across a field west of Neosho. We drove over there to find exactly what he described. The tower was still standing, but the building and transmitter were scattered across a field.
Pictures still posted at http://www.artsaurorablog.blogspot.com/
I felt bad, but I knew my loss was minimal compared to the loss of life that night.
To make matters worse, my brother called about 1000pm to say that my hometown, Stuttgart, Arkansas, had also been hit hard, but my Mom and other family members were OK. Most destructive tornado anyone down there could remember, and it hit right on Main Street.
I thought I had seen it all back in 2003, when I was still on the radio at KSWM, describing a tornado that I could see through the studio windows. I didn't think I'd probably ever see another situation that bad. Apparently not.
Let's hope we don't see another one of those, or another ice storm, anytime soon.
Art
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JR
Member
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Posted: Thu Aug 21st, 2008 03:22 am |
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| Hey Art, we should get a hold of Talen Radio and take over their weather. They have a boring company hired from MN. called weather eye. Its OK, but when it gets bad, they cant cover it like we can!
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kspr-kevinlighty
Member
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Posted: Thu Aug 21st, 2008 03:24 am |
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I am really wanting to get into start doing weather forecasts for radio stations, sending them audio of our forecasts each day.
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JR
Member
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Posted: Thu Aug 21st, 2008 03:26 am |
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| Well you should try to get Talen Radio Group here in Aurora/Monett. I am sure you could offer that service cheaper than what they are paying. Its funny, when there is a warning in the area, they call a special number and touch tone a number to break into programming to give the report, then hit pound to release. It sounds very rink-a-dink.
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artmorris
Administrator
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Posted: Thu Aug 21st, 2008 04:10 am |
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Talon has approached me about taking over their weather again. But, I'm resistant because I used to run the place.
I was extremely proud of the weather coverage we did during the 90's, and up until 2006, when I left. If there was a storm around, we were on it. People came to depend on us. If I can't do it right, I don't want to do it at all.
I'm proud of my 25-years of severe weather coverage on radio. It's sure different than TV. You've got to understand the geography really well, and be able to describe in words where the storms are. I was always jealous of the TV guys, who could point to the radar and say, "look there!".
With the demise of radio weather coverage, most have turned to TV. A lot of folks around here are listening to the ham coverage on their scanners.
In this part of the country, weather can be your ticket to success.
Art
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