Skywarn Activation Notice

As you are no doubt aware, we have a severe weather event on the way.

Beaver County is under a winter storm watch from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon.

The Beaver County Skywarn program is currently on standby and will continue to be for the duration of the event.

Please monitor the 146.850 repeater whenever possible.

If the main repeater is not available, operations will be diverted to the 147.135 repeater.

Should it be necessary to coordinate with other counties (where VHF/UHF isn't a good option) the following HF frequencies will be utilized-

3.983MHz with 7.253MHz as a backup

Once the watch is upgraded to a warning, you can expect a Skywarn net to be called up on the 146.850 repeater. Your participation and observations would be greatly appreciated.

Fred McMullen has issued the following statement regarding reporting snowfall-

Spotters,

Our first significant winter storm of the season is slated for last Sunday into Monday. If you could please send snowfall reports to us Monday morning like you did with the last one that would be much appreciated as always. If you didn't send them, please try this time, These reports are very helpful to us, especially since everyone will see snowfall.

How to report:

* Use our online form found here. I have an attachment which shows only the lines you need to fill out.

* Call us 800-242-0510

* Report on twitter @NWSPittsburgh or facebook NWSPittsburgh ,but let us know you are a trained spotter.

To keep up to date on the snowfall, please visit our winter page at weather.gov/pittsburgh/winter

Thank you very much.

Fred

The snow is expected to be of the heavy and wet variety. Naturally, this makes power outages more likely. If you have a generator, today might be a good day to test it and make sure you have sufficient fuel. Also, please consider making sure your HT batteries have a full charge.

The ARES / ACS leadership is monitoring the situation on an hourly basis and will advise if any further response is required.

Meeting and event notices from N3EJL-

I just wanted to post some meeting reminders and also an upcoming event:

1. Monthly TAARA club meeting is Thursday, January 20, 7:30 PM at the Beaver County 911 Center classroom in Ambridge; Zoom availability for those who are unable to attend.

2. TAARA VE team meeting, Saturday, January 15, 10:30 AM at the Beaver County 911 Center classroom in Ambridge; all club VE's, and anyone interested in becoming a VE and/ or wishing to help is welcome to attend.

3. Our 2022 club roster is growing every day, but if you haven't yet paid your 2022 dues, now is the time to get them to AA3WV, Mike; he'll give you a brand new 2022 membership card for your dollars!

4. Here is our first event of the year, courtesy of Dennis, KC3EJA and Matt, N3NWV! They have rented a cabin at Raccoon Creek State Park, and will be doing a combined POTA activation and Winter Field Day operation, the weekend of January 28-30. They have graciously invited all club members to stop out during this event and join them in operating, observing, eating, visiting, and just having a good old ham radio time! Come on out and have some fun and ham radio fellowship. Thanks again to Matt and Dennis for setting this up and including all of us!

For anyone that has not yet re-registered for our ARES program in Beaver County and would like to, or any of our new folks that would like to be part of the program, please send me an email and I'll be very happy to send you a registration form. As most of you know, we're in the process of rebuilding our EmComm and Skywarn programs in the County, and Frank, N3TN, Sean, K3UKE and myself along with our staffs will be very proactive with training and education, especially with the bi-annual evaluated exercise coming up in June at the Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station, and of course, severe weather season which is not too far down the road.

As always, I thank you all for your support and look forward to seeing you soon!!

73 and have a good week!

Dom Bedolatti, N3EJL

President, Triple 'A' ARA, Inc.

ARRL/ ARES Emergency Coordinator,

Year-End Recap from N3EJL-

Hello, Everyone!

Well, we've come to the end of 2021; what a year it's been! We've seen ups and downs because of the pandemic, but boy, we've come through in grand style! We saw a return to in-person meetings with a Zoom hybrid addition, a dramatic rise in the membership roster, a very intense interest in POTA, antenna builds, and last but certainly not least, increased activity on our club repeaters.

On the public service side, we have renewed relationships with NOAA/Skywarn and the Red Cross, a new ARRL EC has been appointed, our club has been featured in an ARRL/QST article, and our ARRL Special Service Club status has been renewed. Absolutely fantastic!!!

And that's not all- for 2022, we're looking ahead to more activities; we'll be involved in the bi-annual Beaver Valley Power Station evaluated exercise in June, we'll be planning a fox hunt for the spring, our POTA activations will continue and we're looking at more events and training that will keep our members motivated, interested and engaged. And of course, severe weather is always a part of our EmComm operations.

We are also working on some things behind the scenes that we'll be announcing when appropriate. All in all, we're looking to make 2022 even more successful than this year.

I'd like to thank everyone for their support this past year; it's really great to see what can happen when people step up and get involved. And I'm confident that you folks will keep that same level of energy as we dive in to 2022. And if you have ideas, get them to me and we can bring them up at a meeting and see where they can fit in!

And please- if you haven't paid your dues yet, get them to our club treasurer, AA3WV, Mike as soon as possible. He'll be most happy to exchange your dues for a brand new 2022 membership card.

I'm humbled and proud to be the caretaker of this organization. And you all should be proud of this club and what it has accomplished and where it's going!

I hope you all have a healthy and blessed New Year's holiday...and let's make 2022 a banner year for Triple 'A'!!!

73,

Dom, N3EJL