Atlantic Hur­ri­cane Sea­son 2012
There have been four ‘named storms’ in the Atlantic already this year and though none have made the news it is time for the reminder that Ama­teur Radio con­tin­ues to play a part in gath­er­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing infor­ma­tion for the weath­er and emer­gency ser­vices each year.
Radio Ama­teurs in Region 1 are remind­ed that the fol­low­ing fre­quen­cies may be in use by nets in North and Cen­tral Amer­i­ca to track and deal with the con­se­quences of these severe weath­er events. It is pos­si­ble for Region 1 ama­teurs to cause unin­ten­tion­al QRM to these nets so please lis­ten care­ful­ly if oper­at­ing near these frequencies:
14.300 MHz is used by the Mar­itime Mobile Ser­vice Net dai­ly and as well as han­dling traf­fic from Mar­itime Mobile Sta­tions, also gath­ers weath­er reports from mar­itime sta­tions to assist forecasters.
14.325 MHz is used by the Hur­ri­cane Watch Net and the net is estab­lished when­ev­er it appears that a storm may affect the US main­land. The net gath­ers weath­er infor­ma­tion and links to the Amer­i­can Nation­al Hur­ri­cane Centre.
14.265 MHz is used by the Sal­va­tion Army Team Emer­gency Radio Net­work ( SATERN ) pro­vides Health and Wel­fare traf­fic links for those in affect­ed areas as well as sup­port­ing the Sal­va­tion Army Dis­as­ter relief response should a hur­ri­cane strike.
Fre­quen­cies used in Cuba: 7.045, 7.080, 7.110 MHz, 3.740 MHz
Fre­quen­cy used in the Car­ribean: 7.162MHz by the CEWN
Fre­quen­cies used in Cen­tral America;
Red Cen­tro Amer­i­cana : 7.090 and 3.750MHz
Guatemala: 7.075 MHz
Nicaragua: 7.098 MHz
Mex­i­co (FMRE): 3.690 and 7.060 MHz
Cuba and Mex­i­co co-oper­ate with long dis­tance relays on 40m when prop­a­ga­tion makes this possible.
Local emer­gency com­mu­ni­ca­tions groups may also acti­vate if a hur­ri­cane approach­es their area and those fre­quen­cies would be announced at the time.