Between 10:00 and 12:00 on Saturday the nineteenth of October, Western Pennsylvania amateur radio operators cooperated with the National Weather Service offices in State College and Pittsburgh to test amateur communications capabilities throughout the ARRL WPA Section.  It turned out to be a very successful drill confirming the ability of the State College NWS office (NWS CTP) to communicate over a wide area, including contact with the Pittsburgh office (NWS PBZ).

NWS CTP has VHF and UHF equipment.  Greg Guise, K3HOT, and Dan Tancibok, KB3ESJ staffed the station.  Forty three stations from eleven counties checked in on five repeaters shown below.  Three of the stations were Emergency Operations Centers.

145.11- Harrisburg through the 443.425 K3HOT repeater
146.76- State College. (Indiana and Cambria County EOC’s)
146.85- State College. (Indiana County EOC)
147.015- Mt Pleasant. (NWS PBZ, EOC’s in Westmoreland, Indiana, Fayette and
Beaver Counties.)
147.15- Blue Knob. (EOC’s in Indiana and Indiana County)

Since NWS CTP does not have HF equipment Carmine Prestia, K3CWP, set up a portable HF station outside the building.  His equipment was:

Buddipole dipole antenna tuned to 40 meters, 7.268 mHz.
Yaesu FT-891 transceiver running 60 Watts SSB.
LiFePo battery with 100-Watt solar panel/controller for power.

Carmine logged eleven stations from five counties checking in though two stations were not part oft the exercise. One of the check ins was an EMA station.

The full after action report/log can be found here.

Again, this was a very successful drill showcasing the capabilities of amateur radio in Skywarn and Disaster Communications.  Thanks to the Southwestern Pennsylvania hams who put this together, especially Edward Misiewicz, KB3YRU, and Steve Fazekas, K3FAZ.  Also all the hams who participated and to the National Weather Service for their support.