Thanks to FOB (friend of the blog) Russell Thomas (KV4S) for this article… he will be contributing from time to time on events and activities related to the amateur radio community; I have been an amateur radio operator since 1970 (my call is WO4W), and the hobby is truly wonderful….
Amateur Radio storm spotters play a vital role in severe weather events. Many NWS offices across the country use Amateur Radio volunteers to help gather real cloud to ground truth of storms and use that information in decision making for warnings. I wanted to pass along some links to various tools spotters are using in the field or at net control.
Radar – Radar is a valuable tool in the field and net control. Currently the software based Gibson Ridge software is preferred. https://www.grlevelx.com/
Additional Data – Gibson Ridge alone is a great way to get accurate radar data without breaking the bank but there is an additional data package that can be purchased on subscription bases that has proven very valuable as well. Allison House (https://www.allisonhouse.com/) works very well with Gibson Ridge and can overlay Amateur Radio APRS stations as well as lightning and Local Storm report products from the NWS. The following print screen shows Gibson Ridge with Allison House data overlaid… you can see the Amateur Radio stations as well as NWS and Amateur Radio weather stations that are transmitting.
