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November 19, 1999 — The National Weather Service and the American Radio Relay League of amateur radio operators will join forces to test an existing back-up weather reporting system, the NOAA said today. The reporting system would be used in the unlikely event of Y2K problems with the telecommunications system used to issue daily forecast and weather warnings.

Hundreds of volunteer ham radio operators will partner with forecasters at nearly 40 weather service offices, to broadcast weather information to as many other amateur radio stations as possible. Amateur radio operators typically volunteer time and equipment to help broadcast weather warnings during severe weather. The exercise will run from 6 p.m. CST on Nov. 26 to 6 p.m. Nov. 27.

"We are fully Y2K tested and ready to continue providing timely weather information as we enter the new millennium," said John J. Kelly Jr., director of NOAA's National Weather Service. "However, the back-up test of weather reporting with our ham radio partners adds another element in our commitment to public safety and service. We are confident in our Y2K readiness, because we've spent three years testing and modifying our mission-critical systems of radars, ground sensors, and computers, as well as the weather satellites of NOAA's National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service.

Meteorologist-in-Charge Scott Menzter of the Goodland Kan., Weather Forecast Office, devised the amateur radio testing plan, which started as a tribute to ham operators in northwest Kansas and blossomed to a project involving weather service offices around the country.

"We started the Y2K back-up test to give much-deserved recognition to the ham radio operators who work with the Goodland office and often provide critical communications links during severe weather, and it just grew as ham operators and forecast offices learned about it," said Mentzer, who is a ham radio operator himself. "The exercise provides an opportunity for weather service personnel and ham operators to share knowledge and test each other's capabilities before a severe weather situation. Our folks are encouraged to use the radios and to get themselves licensed in the event that a ham operator is not available during a severe weather event."