SKYWARN Recognition Day 2006

For the 7th consecutive year, NWS Albuquerque participated as a special event station on SKYWARN Recognition Day, which is on Saturday, December 2, 2006.  Our primary operating times were be between 0z-05z (Friday 5pm-10pm) and 14z-24z (Saturday 7am-4pm.)  NWS Albuquerque has a total of 10 licensed amateur radio operators on its staff and operates using call sign WX5ABQ.

SKYWARN Recognition Day was developed in 1999 by the National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League. It celebrates the contributions that volunteer SKYWARN radio operators make to the National Weather Service.  On this special day, SKYWARN operators visit NWS offices and contact other radio operators across the country and world.

Band conditions were rather spotty during the 2006 event. Even though we could hear quite a few stations our total contacts were down slightly from last year. Contacts covered 20 states and 19 of the participating NWS offices including the geographically farthest contact, Caribou, Maine. The NWS Albuquerque station only operated with voice and was not able to operate CW like last year. Both the hunt and pounce technique and establishing a CQ calling frequency were used to gather contacts. Due to the variable propagation the hunt and pounce technique worked best for most of the event.

A special thanks goes to Bob Hajek, W9QBH for manning the station both on Friday evening and during the afternoon on Saturday. Bob once again took home top honors with the most contacts. For the second year in a row he was able to work two of the three NWS Colorado stations during Friday evening on 40 meters. This is only the second year the NWS ABQ SKYWARN event station has been able to reach Colorado. Don Scott, N5UJT Bernalillo County Emergency Manager also stopped by giving us an informal review of efforts being done by the Emergency Manager community. Three office tours were given for SKYWARN volunteers at 10 am, 12 noon, and 2 pm. Many thanks to the 9 visitors for taking time to see what the NWS Albuquerque and SKYWARN is all about. NWS staff members who joined the airwaves included Aldis Strautins N0TFJ, Jeff Michalski KE5FGO, David Craft KD5TLV and Keith Hayes KC5KH.