** IMPORTANT INFORMATION -- SKYWARN vs ARES ** (ham radio) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ARES is the Amateur Radio Emergency Services. ARES is a corps of trained amateur radio operator volunteers organized to assist in public service and emergency communications. It is organized and sponsored by the American Radio Relay League. ARES groups are volunteer amateur radio operators who come together for the common purpose of providing emergency and/or auxiliary communications service to public safety and public service organizations. Most individual ARES units are autonomous and operate locally. Although the Amateur Radio Emergency Service is a program (and trademark) of the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) in the USA, the structure is more supportive than directive in nature, providing mostly for mutual aid in the event of large-scale emergencies. As long as local units are operating in the best interests of Amateur Radio in general and the ARRL in particular, intervention from the national organization is minimal. The government expresses little governance of ARES (other than the FCC regulations--47 CFR Part 97-- which regulate all of Amateur Radio) and local authorities only passively regulate ARES groups by way of formal understandings. SKYWARN. SKYWARN is a program of the National Weather Service. Its mission is to collect reports of localized severe weather. These reports are used to aid forecasters in issuing and verifying severe weather watches and warnings and to improve the forecasting and warning processes and the tools used to collect meteorological data. It consists of a network of severe storm spotters that observe weather conditions and make reports of severe weather to their local NWS offices. These spotters are regularly trained by personnel from the local NWS offices. Where severe storms are possible, storm spotting groups such as SKYWARN in the United States coordinate amateur radio operators and localized spotters to keep track of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Reports from spotters and chasers are given to the National Weather Service so that they have ground truth information to warn the general public. SKYWARN and ARES are two entirely different entities. SKYWARN representatives are volunteers for the National Weather Service. Frequently, on ham radio, when SKYWARN is "activated," a SKYWARN net is called. The ARES program has nothing to do with SKYWARN, and the SKYWARN program has nothing to do with ARES. This is a common misconception. SKYWARN also is independent of any county amateur radio league or society. Yes, SKYWARN uses repeaters owned and operated by local amateur radio groups, but in technical terms, they are completely independent of each other. Many SKYWARN volunteers are also members of ARES, and vice-versa, but it should be noted that these are two different groups.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Jun 2013 00:00:37 +0000
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