Greene County SkyWarn consists of a group of volunteers with their amateur radio license. We have training from the National Weather Service so that we can go into the field or spot the storms from home. When we observe severe weather, we report back our “ground truth” observations to the weather service through amateur radio.
In Greene County we prefer that you have already been through the Spotter Training from the National Weather Service. We can accomodate training for you until they offer classes again but prefer that you have been through a recent course offered free by the agency we serve.
Greene County is one of 37 counties served by the National Weather Service in Springfield Missouri. We have a regional radio net that occurs on the 145.490 repeater whenever severe weather is forecasted to impact the area. Individual counties run their own nets on separate repeaters and their net controls pass information to the regional repeater. That information goes directly to the weather service.
In Greene County, our spotters operate on the 146.640 repeater with a pl tone of 162.2. We have several net controls that take turns running the nets. Regular net controls include myself, Franklin (KD0RSJ), Lewis (KD0KNL), Rodney (K0FZ), or Billy (N0SRO). Sometimes you may also hear Steve (KA0SPM) on the repeater as well. We are always looking for additional people to be net controls. Net controls have the responsibility of turning spotter reports into the regional net and providing radar information to spotters in the field. They are also responsible for spotter safety. If you are interested in spotting, we can make arrangements to have you join an experienced spotter in the field.
We discourage self-deployment, especially without training. We want you to be safe while out in the field. Our spotters have credentials and we only give those out when we are certain those spotters are well trained in spotting and spotting safety. Typically, our spotters monitor for potential severe weather before it occurs. We will also be making use of our Greene County SkyWarn Spotters Group to spread word on weather, forecasts, and to receive storm reports. Of course, reports on the nets are strongly encouraged.