Friday, October 9, 2020

Hams Prepare for Hurricane Delta

 

Hurricane Delta (to left on map) as it was about to make
landfall in Louisiana. (Nat'l Hurricane Center image)

Hurricane Delta was about to make landfall in Louisiana on October 9, in roughly the same area that had been devastated just weeks earlier by Hurricane Laura. Several amateur radio nets were gearing up to provide data to the National Hurricane Center as well as post-storm emergency and disaster communications.

The Hurricane Watch Net activated the day before the storm hit, and the ARRL Letter reported that WX4NHC, the ham station at the National Hurricane Center, was also on the air, along with the Salvation Army Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN) and Louisiana's Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES).

In addition, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that it would permit amateur stations to communicate with government stations on two 60-meter channels - Ch. 1 (5330.5 kHz USB) for voice and Ch. 2 (5346.5 kHz USB) for digital communications.