KC~Ø~FD

I am a retired Chief Officer with the Kansas City, MO Fire Department with 41 years of service which includes 1 year as the Emergency Preparedness Director. My first amateur license was for Novice in 1965. It didn't take because I was happy with CB. We were early CBer's. Callsign 17Q2446 prior to the prefix/suffix era. It wasn't until 2006 that got interested in Ham radio again when the Fire Dept. installed a dual band radio in the mobile command post. I have since advanced to Amateur Extra Class.

In the mid-1990's I was involved in development of EMWIN, the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network. With a computer and software, a demodulator, and a satellite dish anyone could get all the weather they needed direct from the National Weather geostationary satellite. Locally, I setup a downlink system and re-broadcast the data so anyone with a radio scanner could also recieve the data on their computer and not have to use a satellite dish. The EMWIN system is still useful although the robustness of the Inernet has reduced it's popularity. EMWIN software using the Internet is available for those wanting live weather information. Once while demonstrating the system a heavy snow warning popped up for Hawaii. Many were surprised and thought the system was wrong. They forgot that there can be snow topped mountains in Hawaii.

W5YI Volunteer Examiner

Awards

Recipient of National Weather Service Special Service Award for work in the development of EMWIN, the Emergency Managers Weather Information Network.

Recipient of National Weather Service Award for 20 years of professional partnership.