Activation of Volunteer Staff at Sullivan Weather Note: In all cases the need for internal support at Sullivan Weather is determined by the meteorologist staff. Volunteer personnel working at Sullivan Weather do not self-activate. Sullivan Weather calls or pages the EC or contact person designated by the EC. The EC (or the EC’s designee) contacts all scheduled personnel and notifies them of the pending requirements. If possible, the personnel contact the backbone repeater control operators either en-route to Sullivan Weather or after arrival at Sullivan Weather. This gives the repeater owners time to disable any ancillary repeater functions that may cause issues during the event.
Backbone Net Types for the Severe Weather Program Information Net Forecast office operators provide outgoing data on the appropriate repeater(s) every 15 minutes (max.) unless conditions dictate otherwise Forecast office operators maintain a visible, but not restrictive, presence on the appropriate backbone repeater(s) No roll call or request for local relay check-ins on the backbone repeater(s), but will accept them if they come in No restrictions for regular backbone repeater users except for request to keep transmissions short in case break-in is needed Storms (if any) are out of the Sullivan Weather CWA by more than 20 minutes/20 miles Standby Net Storm(s) are within the 20 minute / 20 mile cutoff and will be entering the Sullivan Weather CWA Forecast office operators make one full roll call of local nets not already checked in on the backbone repeater(s) Forecast office operators continue providing outbound data on the appropriate backbone repeater(s) specific to the upcoming event every 15 minutes (max.) unless inbound data volume dictates otherwise One or both of the backbone repeaters become restricted Forecast office operators allow calls to move off frequency on backbone repeater(s) Full Net Storms are at the border of or within the Sullivan Weather CWA Forecast office operators have full control of the backbone repeater(s) Highly structured communications with dialogue between forecast office operators and local net relay stations only - other non-emergency traffic is diverted to other channels Severe criteria or meteorologist-requested information only
SulCom Backbone Frequency List (Effective 1 March 2008) East (MKX E) – Primary and Backup The MKX E primary repeater is the 145.13 (T127.3) (N9LKH) repeater owned and maintained by the Milwaukee Area Amateur Repeater Society (MAARS.) The MKX E backup repeater is the 146.82 (T127.3) (K9ABC) repeater owned and maintained by the Southeastern Wisconsin FM Amateur Repeater Society (SEWFARS.) Central (MKX C) – Primary and Backup The MKX C primary repeater is the 145.45 (T123.0) (WB9SHS) repeater owned and maintained by the Rock County Repeater Association (RCRA.) The MKX C Backup frequency is 146.58 (T156.7), a simplex channel. West (MKX W) – Primary and Backup The MKX W primary repeater is the 147.315 (T123.0) (WB9FDZ) repeater owned and maintained by the Yellow Thunder Amateur Radio Club (YTARC.) The MKX W backup repeater is the 145.37 (T123.0) (KC9FNM) repeater owned and maintained by Richard Green/Empire Tower. Other Frequencies and Modes Used Backup Direct/Tac Frequency A 2-meter simplex frequency is used as a backup for backbone repeater operations in case of widespread repeater malfunction. The backup frequency for SulCom backbone operations is 147.48 (T127.3.) Winlink The WX9MKX packet installation was removed and replaced with Winlink in 2007. Address messages to wx9mkx@winlink.org. RF frequency used is 145.61. Winlink and e-mail reports follow the same message format as voice reports. Each line should have a complete report containing the time, location conditions and source with commas between the information fields. A large advantage of using these modes for residual data is that many reports can be batched into one message and that message can then be forwarded to Sullivan Weather. Please see the Digital Procedures page for details.
Forms The Amateur staff at Sullivan Weather uses several different forms to enhance efficiency of internal operations. Below are samples of two of those documents. Click on the icons to see the descriptions. Both documents are in available in the native format and in Adobe pdf format. The pdf files are available from the links below. If the native files are desired, please e-mail us and we will be happy to send them.
			Report Form The above sheet is similar to the one used at Sullivan Weather for recording incoming reports received on the backbone. This form resembles the template used to enter information into the Local Storm Report (LSR) database. As one can see, data sent and received in the TLCS format facilitates efficiency of the system.
	Logsheet The above sheet is similar to the one used at Sullivan Weather for recording staff changes, quarter-hour updates and other pertinent items. All local nets should be logging their activities during weather events.