Cloud Chart

The WX5FWD SKYWARN™ team are volunteer radio operator liaisons for the Fort Worth National Weather Service (NWS) North Texas SKYWARN™ Spotters. During SKYWARN events, you are reporting information to our team and the NWS warning forecasters. Three goals of a storm spotter are to safely observe, identify and report conditions.

Weather spotters provide what's called "ground truth" to the National Weather Service and emergency weather management. Spotters are needed because, while radar is very good at helping the National Weather Service see what's going on in the upper atmosphere, it's unable to detect what's actually happening on the ground because of the curvature of the Earth. Knowing the "ground truth" about a weather event from the location can be the deciding factor to issue a warning.

2017 SKYWARN Recognition Day QSL Log

Submitted by wd5m on Sun, 2017-12-10 12:02

Thank you! Everyone who participates in SKYWARN storm spotting makes SKYWARN Recognition Day a wonderful event. We hope everyone enjoyed themselves.

The W5W/WX5FWD station logged 280 contacts in total.

We have created a log of contacts with a link to display a QSL card for printing. Click on the Read More to display the QSL Log page.

ARRL Field Day 2017 QSL Log

Submitted by wd5m on Sat, 2017-07-15 13:26

We have published a preliminary log of Field Day contacts with a feature to display a QSL card for possible printing. We will be reviewing and updating as necessary over the next several days.

Click on Read More to display the QSL Log page.

Preliminary WX5FWD/W5T's Contest Summary Report for ARRL-FIELD-DAY

 Total Contacts = 283
 Operating Period: 2017/06/24 18:00 - 2017/06/25 18:00
 Total Contacts by Band and Mode:

 Band       CW   Phone     Dig   Total       %
 ----       --   -----     ---   -----     ---
   80        0       1       0       1       0
   40        0     107       0     107      38
   20        0      29       1      30      11
   15        0      11       0      11       4
   10        0       3       0       3       1
    6        0     131       0     131      46
            --   -----     ---   -----     ---
 Total       0     282       1     283     100

Here is a summary of the last few years for comparison:

2017 - QSOs 283   QSO points   568   Bonus points 1050
2016 - QSOs 652   QSO points  1318   Bonus points 850
2015 - QSOs 954   QSO points  1908   Bonus points 970
2014 - QSOs 202   QSO points   408   Bonus points 650

How Spotters May Contact the NWS Radio Desk

Submitted by wd5m on Wed, 2017-06-21 12:26

This is a brief list of methods and links to more details on how spotters can report weather conditions to the Fort Worth NWS warning forecast office, and radio desk.

North Texas NWS Skywarn Repeater directory These are frequencies used by local area spotter groups when activated for a weather event.
North Central Texas Connection (NCTC) linked repeater system. NCTC is a wide area linked repeater system that we may monitor for liaison spotter reports during weather events.
EchoLink Conference *WX5FWD* 372418. Reference our Radio over Internet Protocols (RoIP) page.
IRLP Reflector 0010. Reference our Radio over Internet Protocols (RoIP) page.

Alternative methods...

Phone: 1.800.792.2257
Web Site: www.weather.gov/fortworth
Social Media: Facebook & Twitter @NWSFortWorth #fwdspotter

Some of this information is on the Skywarn spotter training hand out. All spotters, experienced and new, should attend training every year. Spotter training covers new information and procedures, as well as the standard spotter basic and advanced topics.

2017 ARRL Field Day is June 24-25

Submitted by wd5m on Fri, 2017-06-16 18:38

The Fort Worth NWS SKYWARN Radio Desk team will be active on several bands and modes during Field Day, Saturday-Sunday, June 24-25, from the Fort Worth National Weather Service Forecast Office. Our special event call sign is W5T. We hope to contact you, and add your call sign and information to our log. We'll publish the bands, frequencies, and other information periodically during the event on the wx5fwd.org web site and social media WX5FWD Twitter account and FaceBook.

ARRL Field Day is the single most popular on-the-air event held annually in the US and Canada. On the fourth weekend of June of each year, more than 35,000 radio amateurs gather with their clubs, groups or simply with friends to operate from remote locations.

Cloud Chart

Submitted by wd5m on Mon, 2017-06-12 21:51

During HAMCOM a few people asked about a color cloud brochure handout for spotters. The printed version of this brochure may be cost prohibitive as a general hand out. However, I found the PDF versions online at the following web site locations. The JetStream - An Online School for Weather provides details associated with the cloud chart.