Weather & Public Service
HARC Supports SKYWARN and Emergency Communications
HARC supports public service, SKYWARN, and local emergency communications through amateur radio. Several of our members are trained SKYWARN Storm Spotters, and others offer volunteer support in coordination with local emergency management when requested.During severe weather or other emergencies, amateur radio provides a resilient backup when cell phones, internet, or landlines fail. Our club participates in storm spotting, information relay, and community support in Okmulgee County and surrounding areas.
Our Repeater for Public Service
Our primary repeater is 147.150MHz with an offset of +0.6 MHz and CTCSS tone of 88.5 Hz for both uplink and downlink. It is available for amateur radio operators to maintain contact and share situational awareness during severe weather. The repeater is not constantly monitored but is often monitored during significant weather events.
Okmulgee County Emergency Mangement
HARC works closely with OCEM, and proides volunteer communication resources by request in times of need with licensed and trained radio operators to assist with severe weather, disaster, or other community events.
Okmulgee County Emergency Management can be found at their homepage on https://okmulgeecountyem.com/ or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/okmcoem.
To sign up for Okmulgee County Emergency Alerts please visit https://okmco.genasys.com/portal/en. This portal allows you to sign up for alerts via phone call, text or email.
Skywarn
Several of our members are trained SKYWARN Storm Spotters, and others offer volunteers support in coordination with local emergency management when requested.
SKYWARN is a volunteer program run by the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) consisting of trained severe weather observers. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely, accurate ground-truth reports of severe weather, such as tornadoes, hail, flash flooding, and damaging winds, directly to meteorologists.
How to Get Involved - If you are interested in becoming an official SKYWARN spotter, you can learn more and sign up for free training through the official NWS SKYWARN Program page.
ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service
The Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES) is a volunteer program of licensed amateur radio operators who register their skills and equipment for communications duty in the public service when needed. ARES operators support emergency communications, public-service events, and disaster response when normal systems are overloaded or unavailable. ARES is organized under ARRL and works through local leadership to help provide trained radio volunteers for community support. Participation is open to licensed amateur radio operators, and additional training may be required at the local level depending on the type of service involved.
Okmulgee County ARES Emergency Coordinator: Mark Walter/K5MGW K5MGW@outlook.com
To learn more about ARES, and how to get involved please visit:
ARRL ARES (National)
ARES Oklahoma
Meshtastic
HARC is colocating a Meshtastic node at our repeater site to help provide long rang LoRa coverage in our area. We plan to support the standard public “LongFast” channel so public Meshtastic traffic can pass through the site over a wider area, while also using a private club channel with similar settings and a private PSK for HARC use. Together, the repeater and mesh node will support regular activity, experimentation, and local communications resilience.