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Hurricane Watch Net Activation Plans


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Sunday, October 6, 2024 @ 6:00 PM EDT (2230 UTC)

The Hurricane Watch Net is making tentative plans to activate on Tuesday afternoon for Hurricane Milton. The current forecast, issued at 5:00 PM EDT Sunday is calling for Milton to become a powerful Category 4 Hurricane with sustained winds of 145 miles per hour. This is the same strength Helene was at landfall a week ago. Additionally, Milton is expected to be at least a Cat 2 Hurricane after crossing Florida and entering the Atlantic Ocean. Those in Bermuda need to keep a close eye on Milton as this storm could possibly affect the island on Saturday.

For now, these are our tentative activation plans.
Tentative Activation Plans:
Tuesday (Line Up Reporting Stations, EOCs, Storm Shelters)
• 20 meters: 14.325 MHz (USB) at 5:00 PM EDT (2100 UTC) until we lose propagation at night.
• 40 meters: 7.268 MHz (LSB) at 5:00 PM EDT (2100 UTC). We will remain active on this frequency throughout the day and overnight for as long as propagation allows. If propagation allows us to operate all night, we will suspend operations at 7:30 AM EDT Wednesday to allow the Waterway Net to conduct their daily Net.

Wednesday (Landfall Day)
• 20 meters: we will resume operations on 14.325 MHz at 7:00 AM EDT (1100 UTC) and remain active until we lose propagation at night.
• 40 meters: we will resume operations on 7.268 MHz at 8:30 AM EDT (1230 UTC). We will remain active on this frequency throughout the day and overnight for as long as propagation allows. If propagation allows us to operate all night, we will suspend operations at 7:30 AM EDT Thursday to allow the Waterway Net to conduct their daily Net.

Thursday (Post Storm Reports, Emergency Traffic, Health & Welfare Traffic.
• 20 meters: we will resume operations on 14.325 MHz at 7:00 AM EDT (1100 UTC).
• 40 meters: we will resume operations on 7.268 MHz at 8:30 AM EDT (1230 UTC).

Any change to these plans will be posted here, our website, www.hwn.org, and our social media pages.

As with any Net Activation, if you are to be in the affected area of Milton, please take all necessary precautions to protect your family and yourself! If are in a position to safely do so, we would love to have check in with us and provide your observed weather information. While we greatly appreciate measured data, we gladly accept estimated weather data as well. We relay that data to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. This information is extremely important to the forecasters as it gives them more information as to what the storm is or is not doing. It also helps them to provide a more accurate forecast!

If you are in an evacuation zone, please heed the instructions of your local officials.

To everyone in the path of this storm. Do NOT focus on the forecast track of the center of this storm. This will be a very powerful and deadly storm. Take all necessary precautions to protect yourself and your family.

If you have to evacuate to a Storm Shelter, if you have portable HF station (a Go-Kit), please ask your shelter if you can set it up there. If so, please check in with us. We can help you keep up with the storm and help you with any traffic you may have.

As we did for Helene, once Hurricane Milton has exited the state into the Atlantic, the Hurricane Watch Net will remain active on both frequencies to help with Emergency Traffic, Health & Welfare Traffic with assistance from SATERN, and to collect and forward post-storm reports to the National Hurricane Center. We will remain active until our services are no longer required.

To all official agencies such as Emergency Operations Centers, Red Cross officials, and Storm Shelters in the affected area, we are available to provide backup communications. We also collect and forward significant damage assessment data to government and non-government officials requesting such.

We greatly appreciate the daily users and various nets who use 14.325.00 MHz and 7.268.00 MHz for allowing us a clear frequency. It certainly makes our job easier, and I know those in the affected area appreciate it as well.

Kind Regards and God Bless,
Bobby Graves - KB5HAV
Hurricane Watch Net
Net Manager