The National Weather Service in New Braunfels has announced they are moving their regional Skywarn Net away from the 147.14 repeater to the newer 444.450 UHF repeater that is located just south of Startzville, with an antenna up at 1670 ft above sea level. That repeater has a tone of 114.8 and a POSITIVE offset. The 444.450 repeater has very wide regional coverage, equivalent to what the 147.14 repeater used to be. We’ve had folks from as far south as Wilford Hall on Lackland AFB in San Antonio, or north to south Austin on 6th Street. Of course those contacts were made using 50 watt mobile or base radios.
This repeater will soon be hooked up via an IRLP node, but the trustee Wade W5ERX is still working out the bugs for that. This repeater is being sponsored by the Hill Country REACT Team.
This Skywarn net is NOT to be confused with the local Skywarn Nets in San Antonio or Austin on the 146.94 repeaters. In San Antonio, that repeater has a PL tone of 179.9 and a negative offset. The Austin repeater has no PL tone required, but does have an output tone.
In San Antonio, most of the time, you will find one of the AEC’s (Assistant Emergency Coordinator) from the Bexar County ARES group running the local Skywarn Net, and the repeater has a tone that goes off periodically, sort of a beep, just to let you know something serious is going on even if you don’t hear anybody talking at the moment.
If the Net Control operator asks for specific types of reports, don’t call in with reports of “It’s not raining over here”, or “I just saw on TV that such and such was happening…”. Don’t clutter up the frequency with chatter.
