Hurricane Watch Net
| Hurricane Watch Net | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | HWN |
| Founded | 1965, during Hurricane Betsy |
| Founders | Jerry Murphy, K8YUW, and Marcy Rice, KZ5MM |
| Works with | WX4NHC, the amateur station at the National Hurricane Center |
| On the air | |
| Daytime frequency | 14.325 MHz, upper sideband |
| Night frequency | 7.268 MHz, lower sideband |
| Usually activates | When a hurricane is within about 300 statute miles of populated land, or at the National Hurricane Center's request |
| Area served | Caribbean, Central America, eastern Mexico, eastern Canada, and the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts |
The Hurricane Watch Net (HWN) is a volunteer amateur radio net that goes on the air when a hurricane threatens land in the Atlantic basin. Its net control stations gather real-time weather observations and early damage reports from hams in the storm's path and pass them to forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, through the center's own amateur station, WX4NHC.[1] The net also reads NHC advisories over the air for ships, island nations and others without easy access to broadcast news.[1] It meets on 14.325 MHz in the 20-meter band by day and 7.268 MHz in the 40-meter band at night, and it marked its 60th anniversary in 2025.[2]
History
In September 1965 Hurricane Betsy struck the Bahamas, southern Florida and the central Gulf Coast, causing so much damage that it was nicknamed "Billion Dollar Betsy".[3] There were no 24-hour news or weather channels then. Jerry Murphy, K8YUW, a 28-year-old stationed at a Navy construction battalion center in Rhode Island, was handling phone patches and messages for service members on the Intercontinental Amateur Radio Net on 14.320 MHz.[3] To keep storm traffic from crowding that net, he suggested that operators following the hurricane move 5 kHz higher.[3] Marcy Rice, KZ5MM, in the Panama Canal Zone, joined him, and together they started the first Hurricane Watch Net on 14.325 MHz.[1]
The NHC gained an amateur station of its own in 1980, assembled from donated equipment and first licensed as W4EHW; it now uses the call sign WX4NHC.[4] Rice died in 1989 and Murphy in March 2025.[3] For June 2025 the ARRL announced a special event station, WX5HWN, to mark the net's 60th year, to be operated by its net control stations across the country.[3]
How the net works
The HWN publishes a five-level alert scale on its website. Level 1 means no tropical cyclone threatens land. Level 2 means a storm has formed and is forecast to threaten land in the net's area. Level 3, standby, means a hurricane is expected to threaten land within 24 to 48 hours. Level 4 means the net is active because a hurricane is affecting land, and level 5 is reserved for a major hurricane.[5]
The net generally activates when a hurricane comes within about 300 statute miles of populated land, though the timing depends on the storm's speed and strength, and it may also start at the request of NHC forecasters or the Canadian Hurricane Centre.[1] Activations for eastern Pacific storms are rare and happen only when the NHC asks.[6] Once active, the net uses 14.325 MHz upper sideband in daylight and 7.268 MHz lower sideband after dark, and both at once when propagation calls for it.[1] In the United States both frequencies lie in phone segments open to General and Amateur Extra licensees.[7] The HWN asks permission before using a frequency that is already busy, and it goes on the air ahead of WX4NHC to read the latest advisory and line up reporting stations.[1] About 40 volunteers in the US, Canada, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean serve as net controls, and bilingual operators help stations that speak only Spanish.[8]
What reporting stations send
Stations in a hurricane watch or warning area are encouraged to report, especially those with sustained winds of 30 mph or more or a falling barometer.[8] As landfall nears, the net narrows its requests to a particular area or to stations with stronger winds. A report gives the call sign, the location (preferably as latitude and longitude), the time in UTC, wind speed, gusts and direction, barometric pressure, and notes on rain, flooding, storm surge or damage. Every figure is labeled measured or estimated, with its units.[8] Readings from calibrated instruments take priority, but estimates are accepted, and the net points reporters to the Beaufort wind scale for judging wind speed by its effects.[6]
These ground-level observations let forecasters check what satellites, radar and aircraft are showing, and they are sometimes quoted in NHC advisories.[4] Other information, such as road damage or casualties, goes to health-and-welfare nets or to WX4NHC for the right agencies, and the HWN also helps the Salvation Army's SATERN net with outgoing welfare messages.[1] The net's procedures are firm that no one should go into danger to take a reading.[8]
WX4NHC and related nets
WX4NHC is staffed by about 30 trained volunteers working three- to four-hour shifts at the NHC, on the campus of Florida International University.[4] Besides HF, it uses VHF and UHF, EchoLink and IRLP, APRS, email and an online form, and it collects hundreds of surface reports each season.[4] Its partners include the VoIP Hurricane Net, which the HWN calls its sister net, for hams who can reach only VHF or UHF.[6] Hams without 20-meter privileges can also send automated weather station reports by APRS, and residents without a license can report through WX4NHC's home weather station program.[6]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Who We Are, Hurricane Watch Net.
- ↑ Hurricane Watch Network, IARU Region 2, March 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Hurricane Watch Net Remembers and Celebrates 60 Years, ARRL, May 2025.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Amateur Radio Station at the National Hurricane Center, WX4NHC.
- ↑ HWN Alert Levels, Hurricane Watch Net.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 FAQs, Hurricane Watch Net.
- ↑ 47 CFR 97.301, eCFR.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Net Procedures, Hurricane Watch Net.