Skywarn Recognition Day 2018 a Success!

With the help of volunteer Amateur Radio operators, the NWS office in Boulder participated in SKYWARN™ Recognition Day on Friday Nov 30 and Saturday Dec 1. SKYWARN™ Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League to celebrate the contributions that SKYWARN™ volunteers make to the NWS mission of protecting life and property.  The volunteers operated NWS Boulder’s amateur radio station (call sign WX0DEN) Friday evening and all day Saturday in an effort to make as many contacts with other HAMs worldwide, as well as contacting as many of the 122 NWS forecast offices around the country.

Six volunteers worked upwards of 16 hours, making 304 contacts with 41 states and two Canadian provinces.  WX0DEN worked 34 other National Weather Service offices, achieving a “Whole Gale” certificate, and was even able to hit the bonus station (WX1AW) at the Amateur Radio Relay League’s headquarters in Newington CT.  When stations contact each other, they exchanged their call signs, report of signal strength, location, and a brief weather report.  The tension builds when several stations are "piled up" in queue trying to make contact, while our operators call CQ, “calling any station”, or respond QRZ to ask “who is calling me?” Often times well-wishes will be passed on to colleagues when two NWS offices make contact.

Back Row (L-R): Hal Jennings (KE0KFB) , Randy Reynard (W0RDR).  Front row (L-R):  David Dee (KC0DTU), Pete Fountain (WD4IXD)	L-R : Dick Williams (K8ZTT),  Randy Reynard (W0RDR), David Dee (KC0DTU).

Amateur radio operators comprise a large percentage of the SKYWARN™ volunteers across the country. The Amateur radio operators also provide vital communication between the NWS and emergency management if normal communications become inoperative. SKYWARN™ Recognition Day is a 24 hour event and runs from 00:00 UTC to 24:00 UTC on the first Saturday of December each year. Next year’s event will begin at 5 pm MST December 6 and end at 5 pm MST December 7.