SPARCS Ham Radio Emergency Communication

HAMS GET 1st VALLEY SKYWARN ACTIVATION OF 2008

Tuesday Feburary 12 was the first Skywarn Ham Radio Storm Spotter net of this year as a result of a line of thunderstorms moving down from Corpus Christi and primarily affecting Cameron County. “Last  night’s net was a good check-out of all of our systems and operators for the year ahead”, said Patti WA5ZIP the official net control for Skywarn who resides in La Feria, Cameron County. “We found a few bugs that we’re working out right now, and the exciting part was that the Harlingen Police Department Dispatcher “Crystal” checked-in from the Police Department on two meters using their call sign, AE5R”. WA5ZIP went on to say how AE5R at HPD relayed important weather information from the Police Officers in their Patrol Cars in real time to the Weather Service Offices in Brownsville using the two meter VHF wide-area EmComm repeater 146.70, provided by STARS.

Harlingen Police Department’s KC6CNN Sgt. Gerald Manthey worked steadily to have his radio communications staff pass their ham radio exams last year. As a reward for his effort 6 new hams entered the Amateur Radio Service in 2007.  Dispatchers reporting by two meter repeater from the HPD communications center at the AE5R radio operating position is a major enhancement for Harlingen Police and the citizens they serve and protect. It was also a great step in the overall plan to have professional law enforcement working directly with ham radio assets in the local area, a step also taken by Texas Military Forces, State Guard and National Guard during hurricane support for the citizens of the great State of Texas during previous hurricane scenarios. Sgt. Manthey is also responsible for establishing WinLink 2000 in the local area using TelPac VHF and PMBO HF nodes online at the Police Department. 

In addition to the excitement of the AE5R Harlingen Police Department station providing live reports from Patrol Cars other key weather reports came in from WA4BEW in Port Isabel, K5RAV and N5SLI in Harlingen as Andy KF0MP handled the Weather Service Office duties at the National Weather Service in Brownsville. Andy reported that there were initial equipment settings that had to be configured for voice contact on the two meter nets when he arrived to activate the Ham Radio station, and also that WinLink TelPac operations should be up and running very soon as the transmit side was finished.

The Skywarn net began operation at 5:37 p.m. and lasted until the Rio Grande Valley Rag-Chewers net began at 7:00 as the weather moved to the Southeast off shore from South Padre Island.