NorCal Skywarn Net

Information About NorCal Skywarn® Net

The NorCal Skywarn® N6CSW Net takes place every Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM and is open to all licensed radio operators who wish to participate. This net features check-ins of Skywarn® members, weather bulletins and a SKYWARN® related discussion period. Visitors are welcome and encouraged to participate in the Net.

NorCal Skywarn® operates on the K6IS EAST repeater system (in Folsom) and has an output frequency of 145.190 MHz, a negative offset, and a PL tone of 162.2 Hz. That repeater is linked full time to a 220 repeater with an output frequencies of 224.400 MHz, a negative offset, and a PL tone of 162.2 Hz.

We are also available through the K6MVR, W6CX, and KA7AU repeaters and the EchoLink *SKY_GATE* Conference Server which is connected to the Western Reflector - IRLP.

•  K6MVR repeater is located at Mt.Vaca and has an output frequency of 147.000, with a negative offset, and a PL tone of 136.5 - Bay Area

• W6CX repeater is located at Mt.Diablo and has an output frequency of 147.060, with a positive offset, and a PL tone of 100 –  Bay Area.

• KA7ZAU repeater is located at Mt.Peavine and has an output frequency of 146.895, a negative offset, and PL tone of 100. - Reno Nevada Area

What is SKYWARN

SKYWARN® is a national network of volunteer severe weather spotters. The spotters are trained by local National Weather Service Forecast Offices on how to spot severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail and flooding. In some parts of the country, spotters also report snowfall and ice accumulation.

Two-thirds of the NWS volunteers are licensed amateur radio operators. Amateur radio plays a big role in the SKYWARN® program. During severe weather, amateur radio volunteers man a radio station at the NWS office. They talk to spotters in the particular area that a storm is hitting and request information needed by the forecasters such as hail size or rainfall accumulation. Large storms such as hurricanes can knock out phone service.

Skywarn® Amateur radio volunteers help the NWS when there are communications outages so that they can continue to receive weather reports and feed warnings and other critical information out to communities.

The National Weather Service (NWS) encourages anyone with an interest in public service to join the SKYWARN® program.  Please find more information about this program at https://www.weather.gov/skywarn/.

•  Have a network of spotters in place to report activity and or severe weather.

•  To activate this network as needed per the NWS, ARES- EC or AEC

•  To coordinate reports from the spotters in a professional manner. 

•  To relay the reports to the NWS in a timely manner. 

Remember to always give the three most important parts of a report

• TIME - Time of the occurrence.

• EVENT - Event, Hell, Flooding, Funnel cloud, etc.

• LOCATION -  County, and the direction or distance from the nearest city. 

Training

SKYWARN® training is provided by National Weather Service, a subsidiary of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Locate a SKYWARN® Training

• Sacramento AREA local public training programs available, check out the Calendar for training sessions

• Training is usually ONCE , sometimes TWICE per year

• https://www.meted.ucar.edu/education_training/course/23