WX4NHC, the Amateur Radio station at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, will be taking part in SKYWARN Recognition Day (SRD) on Saturday, December 5. The annual on-the-air event gets under way at 0000 UTC (Friday, December 4 in US time zones) and concludes at 2400 UTC. WX4NHC will be active from 1400 UTC until 2300 UTC. The Hurricane Center ham station has participated in every SKYWARN Recognition Day since its inauguration 16 years ago. WX4NHC will take advantage of the event for operator training.

“We will try to stay on the recognized Hurricane Watch Net frequency of 14.325 MHz most of the time and announce when we QSY,” said Assistant WX4NHC Coordinator Julio Ripoll, WD4R, at the NHC. WX4NHC will also be active on a wide variety of bands and modes, from HF through UHF.

Cosponsored by ARRL and the National Weather Service, SKYWARN Recognition Day pays tribute to Amateur Radio operators for the vital public service they perform. Registration is open for stations planning to participate from a National Weather Service (NW) Forecast Office; a list of NWS participating offices is on the NWS SKYWARN Recognition Day web page. During the 24 hour event, Amateur Radio operators set up at NWS offices contact other hams across the country. This event is also aimed at strengthening the bond between Amateur Radio operators and local NWS offices.

During SKYWARN Recognition Day amateur stations exchange contact information with as many National Weather Service-based stations as possible on SSB, FM, CW, RTTY, and AM on 80, 40, 20, 15, 10, 6, and 2 meter bands plus 70 centimeters. Repeater contacts are permitted.

Stations exchange call signs, signal reports, location, and a one or two-word description of the weather (eg, sunny, partly cloudy, windy, rainy). Procedures are detailed on the NOAA SRD web page.

The volunteer SKYWARN program comprises nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters — many of them radio amateurs — who identify severe storms and provide NWS forecasters with reports of local weather conditions during severe weather events.

To learn more, visit the SKYWARN Recognition Day website.