Brian E. Smith from the Omaha/Valley, NE National Weather Service office directed the 2009 Spotter Training at Boystown on Monday night.
This was my first time actually attending a spotter training, believe it or not. Every year I would start thinking about chasing in late April when the National Weather Service had already been around everywhere and already done all of their training. So this was an exciting experience for me.
The class was very informative, not to mention the (minimal) freebies. Got my SKYWARN sticker for my car and some paperwork. Signed up for spotter activation between 7pm and 3am (oh, why did I pick 3am?) but today I quickly changed my work schedule to get off at 5:30pm.
Watching the chase videos had to be the best part of the whole night. We had a lot of laughs as chasers said and did funny/stupid things. We also got to watch a great video from Freeport, ME of a flooded road. EVERYBODY should watch this video to see what can happen and how quickly it can happen when the roads are flooded. As a matter of fact, I posted it just above this paragraph so you don’t have to go looking for it.
The class lasted about an hour and a half, and afterwards I met up with a gal from Heartland REACT who introduced me to Jason Tunzer. He gave me his business card so that we can get in touch later on and I can pay my dues to enroll with REACT.
I also got my eSpotter registration information submitted to Brian so that I can have access to the eSpotter site.
Without a HAM radio, I feel completely useless, which is why I am now signed up with the Bellevue ARC to take classes and testing in May ($25 for the class which lasts 2 Saturdays, $25 for the test the following Saturday). Along the way I met @K9MEL on Twitter and he referred me to a couple of different handheld models to choose from. The Yaesu VX-170 looks to be what I want and I’m currently searching for a used one for sale (around $100 would be awesome!).
With all of that said, I’m extra glad that I went to the training. Jason said that REACT has more in depth training, and that will be super awesome to attend (really, really can’t wait for that!).
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