Eric Whitehill
EF1
Just to clarify what I meant by one of the NWS offices being rude and condescending..... I called in to report a tornado that had caused damage. The first thing out of the guys mouth was (paraphrased a little, I don't remember the EXACT words now it was a few years back) "What are you doing out there? You have no business out there chasing these dangerous storms! Your going to get yourself killed!" at which point I hung up on the guy. He was obviously more interested in lecturing me than he was getting the report. I have no doubt that report went in one ear and out the other.
Keep in mind this was an isolated incident, but it was a bad enough taste in my mouth for me to never call that office again. I'll call the local TV station next time in that area instead. Most of the time NWS offices are much appreciative of the reports.
One spotter net I checked in to make a large hail (3 inches) report told me "This is a closed net. Our spotters have the situation under control. Stay off this frequency until the net has closed." So how do you take that kind of response?
David:
Unfortunetly, I had a similar experience with a local weather net. I was watching a wall cloud developing, and I called it into the net as it had started to tighten up. During this time, there was another spotter on the about 10 miles from me. This other spotter was acually arguing with me over the radio saying the wall cloud was not rotating, told me over the air I did not know what I was looking at or what I was doing. What do you do? I put down my radio mic and picked up my cell phone and called the local NWS office.
The sad part is, there are a few bad apples out there. Who knows their reasons why. However, if I see a tornado/wall cloud/funnel, guess what. It's getting called in. Thirty seconds is all it will take for the report to get called in via phone.
I have noticed, however, that more and more nets are becoming closed. Most nets have their reasons, and they are very good reasons - they do not want people they do not know or have not trained calling in reports. One may think "Well, I have been chasing for X$ years! Why wouldn't they want my report!" Try to look at it from the local weather net's perspective - they have someone with a callsign from (possibly) out of the area attempting to call in reports. Why should the local net believe this person? How can you be sure this is actually what they are looking at? How do we know this person isn't a teenage kid that got ahold of a ham radio? The local nets have their reasons, and this is totally understandable, and to be honest, it is a move I understand and support. As a chaser, we also have to take notice of what the rules are for other areas. If a spotter group does not want us calling in reports, that is their decision - they have autonomous rule over their repeaters. They set the rules, and if we do not abide by them, we can get in trouble. If the local net doesn't want you calling in reports, it's then time to call the local NWS office.
There is still a division between chasers and spotters. It has gotten better over the last several years, however, there is still this division. Some spotters will look at us chasers and think of us as nothing but yahoo's and idiots. Some chasers will look at the local spotter groups and snicker, and point and laugh. I've seen so many other chasers go to spotter classes and proudly proclaim in front of everyone "I'M A CHASER! PH33R M3 AND R3SP3CT M3!" That's the image that we portray to some spotter groups. We're Yahoos. It's kinda like wearing a "I'M A STORMCHASER" hat or getting all dressed up in our chase gear for a spotter class. This just helps to reinforce the negative image we convey to spotters. We're young 'kids' with nothing else better to do. Now, not all chasers do this, but some of them do, and like I said before, it only takes one or two bad apples to change the image for all chasers.
Our image is as much about perception as it is actual image. Give needs to happen on both sides of the aisle.
As for me, I'll work with the local spotter groups as best I can, however in an emergency situation, I will not hesitate to call the local NWS office.
JMHO, YMMV.