Author: Michael Blake

All of us at Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn are humbled to announce that we have reached our goal of raising the $5,000 needed to move and rebuild the 147.180 MHz. Buffalo, Missouri repeater!  With special thanks to a very generous benefactor along with everyone who contributed during the past 6 months, we are now across the finish line and will soon begin the task of securing the new repeater equipment needed to commence construction.

“I’m grateful to God and to our amateur radio community for their blessings and for this opportunity to augment our coverage to provide reliable emergency communications to weather spotters in Polk County and areas to the north,” says N0NWS Repeater trustee Mike, N0NQW.

As explained in an earlier article at the start of this funding campaign, the existing water tower in Buffalo will soon be torn down.  Once this happens, we will essentially need to start over by installing new coaxial hardline, a new antenna system, and upgraded transmit/receive and linking equipment either at a new tower facility provided by the City of Buffalo or at a new site which we must secure on our own.  All of the expenses involved in this will be covered by the $5,000 that were raised.

Updates and additional details will be posted here in the News section of N0NWS.com as we get them.  In the meantime, please be sure to check this website often and to join the many who have signed up for our forthcoming email updates which will launch in early February.

Additional donations that we receive will go into our repeater system’s general fund which will provide funding for an upcoming new repeater installation in the Macomb, Missouri area.  Details about this new repeater will be published soon.  2017 is going to be a big year for Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn.  We are grateful for your support and participation going forward. Thank you for being part of our team!

The Cox Ham Radio task force and the Republic Repeater Group invites you to the 2017 Winter Field Day on Saturday, January 28, 2017, beginning at 8:00 a.m.  The turn out and amount of interest will determine how long they will stay operational throughout the day.

The group will be operating out of the Cox Mobile Command Unit.  It will be located at the Republic Repeater tower site which is on Harrison Street just east of the Republic Post Office.  (See the interactive map below)

Recently, this Cox Mobile Command Unit was presented with a $2,500 improvement grant.  Two important upgrades were made including improvements to the current 2 meter set up and the HF capabilities which they will be testing out during Winter Field Day.

“We are very proud of our new Mobile Unit, and would enjoy showing it to all hams who can visit!  Stop by to take your turn at the controls, or to even just say hi!” says Brian, K0ATZ.  Brian will serve as the contact person for this event.  If you have any questions, you can email him at wirenut1212@yahoo.com

You can use the Republic Repeater for talk-in purposes.  That repeater is on 146.820 MHz. with a minus offset and a PL of 162.2 Hz.

More information about Winter Field Day can be found at www.winterfieldday.com

Missouri House Bill 136, known as the Missouri Amateur Radio Parity Act, is a state-level version of the federal Amateur Radio Parity Act that the A.R.R.L. has been pushing for some time now. If passed, this bill would serve to ease Homeowner’s Association (HOA) / Property Owner’s Association (POA) rules as well as other municipal ordinances and other deed restrictions that prevent licensed amateur radio operators from placing any kind of antennas on their property. While passage of this bill will not necessarily grant anyone anywhere the right to put up that 100-foot-tall Rohn they’ve always dreamed of, it will prevent the prohibition of installing actual antennas upon one’s roof and/or within one’s property lines.

This is the second push for such legislation in Missouri. In 2016, despite a huge show of support throughout the state, House Bill 1951 died when Senator Rob Schaaf, Chairman of the General Laws & Pensions Committee, refused to bring it up in committee for a vote and, consequently, didn’t allow it to be sent to the full Senate floor for debate.

“We now have the opportunity to learn from the past and get our Missouri Bill all the way through to the finish line,” says Larry Scantlan, KE0KZ. Larry is the fire behind this movement.

In a recent email to Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn, Larry says, “This time we will get organized and ask our partner emergency management agencies (ARES, SEMA, EMA, NWS, Police Chiefs, Fire Chiefs, local politicians, etc) to support this legislation and demonstrate to the legislators that we, in fact, do have significant public support.”

According to Representative Bryan Spencer, sponsor of the Missouri Amateur Radio Parity Act, a hearing for Missouri House Bill 136 in committee has been scheduled for Tuesday, January 24th at noon in hearing room #7 at the State Capitol Building in Jefferson City. You can find a listing of committee members that will be hearing Missouri House Bill 136 on January 24th at this link: http://house.mo.gov/committeeindividual.aspx?com=1476&year=2017&code=R [this link is no longer active]

“Just like last time we will be looking for 3 (or) 4 hams to provide testimony on why this legislation should be passed by this committee.” Larry Scantlan says.

Please support this legislation. Contact your local representative now before the January 24th hearing. To lookup your local Missouri Representative, follow this link: http://house.mo.gov/legislatorlookup.aspx Let them know you support Missouri House Bill 136.

For more information about the Missouri Amateur Radio Parity Act, please visit the following website: [this link is no longer active]

Date: Tuesday, March 7, 2017 at 6:30 p.m.

Location: Assembly Of God Headquarters Auditorium
1445 N. Boonville Ave.
Springfield, Missouri 65802

(use the interactive map below for your convenience)

The National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri has set the date, time and location for the 2017 Greene County Skywarn Spotter Training session.  Dates for other counties throughout the Springfield C.W.A. are forthcoming, and they will be added to the Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn Calendar.  You can view our Calendar by clicking here and via our Announcements page.

We will also send out weekly email reminders during this year’s Spotter Training Session.  Sign up for our emails by clicking here.

Spotter Training for 2017 along with springtime severe weather are just around the corner, and Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn wants to keep you informed. Join our emailing list, and stay up to date about the latest happenings with our linked repeater system and with Skywarn and amateur radio events in our area. Signing up will only take a few moments. Click this link to get started. The only required information is the email address to where you would like these updates sent. You can also include your first name and call sign if you wish, but they are not required.

At this time there is no planned schedule as to when specific emails will be sent. However, you can expect to hear from us at least a couple of times per month with more frequent messages being sent as they are needed. Our emailing list will never be shared with any other organization. You will not be spammed, and your privacy will be respected. Signing up is done via a double opt-in process. You first enter your email address (along with your first name and call sign if you wish) and then submit the form. You will then receive an email at the address you entered. In this email address will be a link that you will need to click in order to verify your signup. You will be able to unsubscribe from this mailing list at anytime via an unsubscribe link sent with all emails.

Our email updates are the most reliable way of being sure you know the latest with our repeater system and with Skywarn in our area. A secondary but less reliable way is via social media. Once upon a time, social media was a fairly easy and dependable way to notify everyone about what an organization is up to. Nowadays, it seems like an important message can quickly be buried by everybody posting their own “important” musings…like what they had for dinner or how much they hate their job. We will always try to keep our Twitter and Facebook feeds updated, but we can’t guarantee that you’ll always get the message. Sign up for our emails today.

2016 was a year with well above normal temperatures across the area, with Springfield, Joplin and West Plains all in the top 10 warmest years on record.  Vichy was 11th warmest.  In fact, Springfield and West Plains both only had one month of the year with below normal temperatures (May). All but the far southeast portion of the forecast area had below normal precipitation for the year.

More details about the 2016 Ozarks Climate Summary can be found by clicking here.

A new year is here, and all of us at Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn wish you and yours a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2017!  We also want to thank each and every one of you for your support during 2016.

Firstly, to our trained severe weather spotters, thank you for being the eyes and ears on the ground of the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Springfield, Missouri.  While 2016 did not have any widespread tornado outbreaks, your reports and observations were critical during the severe weather outbreaks that we did encounter.  We thank you in advance for your continued assistance during 2017.

Secondly, to the handful of you who donated during 2016, we cannot thank you enough for your support.  Thanks to you, we raised over $1,000 last year!  This money will be used to construct and install a new repeater in Buffalo, Missouri on 147.180 MHz.  The current water tower, upon which the repeater’s antenna is mounted, will be demolished soon.  Considerable expense is required to install our antenna and feed line onto the new, forthcoming tower.  As of today, about $4,000 is still needed to reach our funding goal for this project.  We hope that we can count on your financial support during 2017.

Thirdly, thank you all for your continued on-air participation during our weekly Skywarn Training Nets on Tuesday evenings at 7 o’clock.  Given our mission to protect lives and property, it is compulsory that we continually test our equipment and keep fresh our radio operating abilities.  Checking into the Tuesday evening net is one such way to do this.  Please continue to participate in these nets during 2017.  Additionally, there are 2 other nets which take place on most of our linked repeaters on Sunday evenings.  The Springfield Emergency Response Communications (E.R.C.) Net meets at 7 p.m. on Sundays, and the new Skywarn Youth Net meets at 7:30 p.m. on Sundays.  We invite all hams to tune in and check into both of these Sunday evening nets as well.  And, to be clear, while the Skywarn Youth Net is geared toward younger hams and allows them to check in first, all hams are encouraged to participate.  When you check into the Skywarn Youth Net, you are showing your support and encouragement toward younger hams and future hams.

Finally, there are a couple of people who work very hard and put forth considerable personal financial expense and personal time to keep this repeater system on the air and to further our Skywarn spotter activities. A special thanks goes out to Mike, N0NQW, who is the trustee of all of the N0NWS repeaters in Fordland (Springfield), Joplin and Buffalo.  Special thanks also goes out to Jim, N0UAM, who is probably the most dedicated and professional Skywarn net control operator on the planet. Both Mike and Jim have probably logged hundreds or even thousands of volunteer hours over the past several years. They’ll never brag about it.  In fact, they are two of the most humble folks you’ll ever meet.  So, at this time, we would like to say “Thank You” to both of you for your continued dedication and work in keeping this mission going strong.

Happy 2017, everyone!  We’ll see you on the air.

When disaster strikes, we amateur radio operators always step up to help others in need throughout our local and regional areas. This holiday season, tragedy struck within our own community of hams, and now is the time for us to come together and help one of our fellow operators and his family.

On the morning of Friday, December 16, 2016, Chris Hahn, the 19-year-old grandson of one of our Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn Spotters and Polk County, Missouri A.R.E.S. participants, Dan Hahn, KE0IKM, was seriously injured in a head-on collision on Highway 54 in Camden County. Chris survived and was rushed to University Hospital in Columbia. That afternoon, Chris’s parents (including the son of Dan Hahn, KE0IKM) were both killed in a separate head-on collision while en route to visit their son in the hospital. In just a few hours and just days before Christmas, the entire life of one of our fellow hams was turned completely upside down.

Following a few days in a medically-induced coma, Chris Hahn is now listed in fair condition. He is awake, but he continues to recover from a severe concussion which includes his skull having been fractured in three places. He can barely walk, and his road to physical recovery will take at least a year. There’s no telling how long it will take for Chris’s emotional wounds to heal from all of this.

“My son was my best friend. We spoke everyday – sometimes for hours,” said Dan Hahn, KE0IKM. Dan says he and his wife are leaning heavily on their faith during this difficult time. Their pastor and their church have been instrumental in helping them to begin picking up the pieces.

As the Hahn family continues to recover from this horrible tragedy, it is our hope that we, as a community of hams, can reach out and help in any way we can. Chris Hahn’s co-workers at the Camdenton, MO Wal-Mart have set up a GoFundMe Fundraising Campaign at https://www.gofundme.com/34dvkrs . As of the writing of this article, over $14, 000 dollars has been raised. Much, much more is needed to cover the medical expenses and the funeral expenses the Hahn Family is facing.

Please, click the GoFundMe link and help at any amount that you can.

In the meantime, please continue to keep Dan, KE0IKM, his wife, their grandson Chris and the rest of the Hahn family in your thoughts and prayers.

All of us at Southwest Missouri Regional Skywarn want to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.
We thank you for your ongoing gift of volunteer service which allows us to continue our mission to protect lives and property throughout Southwest Missouri.