It's nice to see this topic moving to a productive means of better communication, involvement and understanding between local spotters and "mobile spotters" aka "chasers".
I have long referred to myself as a "mobile spotter".
I think the next step in assisting the "mobile spotting" community is to have better in field information.
Finding real-time ham radio repeaters can be quite challenging whilst travelling from county to county. An added challenge of finding the input PL tone is also a tricky task if you don't know the repeater information and are not local to the area.
Over the years, net controllers have been very helpful with assisting me in the handover from radio repeater site to site, and I have traveled and spotted across 6 or more controlled nets in a single day.
This is no easy task, and I certainly could not do it easily without their assistance and without the numerous radios installed in my vehicle.
There is a ham radio repeater placefile which is very old and out of date. I still use it as a basic reference.
I would encourage all chasers who are licensed hams as well as chasers who own radio scanners to have a look at this placefile.
PLACEFILE (Look at Kansas on GRL3 after you have added it)
http://skywarn.henion.net/repeaters.txt
A lot of work has been done in keeping this placefile current. This is a testament to the K-Link group who work diligently in maintaining and upgrading this radio equipment.
If a solution can be found to include the same information in a nationwide UPDATED placefile, I believe this would be greatly beneficial and a major step forward to ensuring better information for all "mobile spotters" even if they are not transmitting.
The placefile could also include additional boundary & phone contact information about NWS offices so chasers without ham radio or radio scanning equipment have instant access to the correct information when needed.
If a "mobile spotter" is not licensed to use ham radio but was able to monitor local ham frequencies, the information they may hear could assist them in looking for activity they are not even aware of.
It may even protect their life with critical information, such as "a tree has fallen blocking highway 285 in both directions", or "Farm road 1524 is underwater and the road has collapsed"
This is not information you will see on spotter network, but you may certainly hear about it.
Another example.
Imagine if you heard a local spotter say on the net, "KB5....." I think I see a tornado in the rain, but I'm not sure"
As as chaser "mobile spotter" you may be re-positioning, not realising tornado activity has commenced to your left. You pull over to safety and observe a rain wrapped tornado from your position. You report it via telephone, SN or other means.
You even get to capture it on video and photos. Something that may not have happened as you were not looking at the storm previously and were focusing on driving.
I have experienced occasions were I was concentrating on driving, not realising a funnel had started forming. I was then able to confirm this report, and actually upgrade the warning to a confirmed tornado and still capture the entire event with photos and videos.
Some people say ham radio is in the past. I have experienced it as being a valuable tool which compliments our safety and the safety of others.
When a net control is in place and you are the first to see & report life-threatening criteria.. You can lodge a report within 10 seconds. No searching for the right phone number, No typing on the keyboard whilst your are driving away from the new danger you were not originally aware of.
Local spotter groups are dedicated to protecting their community. They should commended for the work they do.
I have been welcomed to actively participate in their nets from Georgia to New Mexico. Texas to Montana.
I am not saying you need to deck your car out with "breeding antennas" like my vehicle, but I do feel this is a good way forward in the advancement of better communications, support and relationships with the communities we often visit.
Placefile Info
I believe the information needed for the ham repeaters locations are as follows.
- Ham repeater GPS co-ordinates (as per link/example above)
- Frequencies for that location (2M & 70cm + corresponding PL tones)
- Information if the repeater is analogue or digital (I have not come across any digital ONLY repeaters yet, but this could be more common with time)
- Typical repeater range in miles
- Primary or Backup repeater information
Example 1 (Multiple Site Repeater)
- ICON with Radio Tower (hover over icon for info)
Freq = 447.000 / Tone 162.2 - Primary
Freq = 147.125 / Tone 110.9 - Backup
Freq = 147.625 / Tone 127.3 - Backup
Range = 35 Miles (2M)
Range = 55 Miles (70cm)
Example 2 (Single Site Repeater)
- ICON with Radio Tower (hover over icon for info)
Freq = 447.000 / Tone 162.2
Range = 65 Miles
I welcome thoughts & ideas.