Yearly Archives: 2003

CHASE2003 EXPENSES

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TRAINING (IL/IN)
DATE
 DESCRIPTION
 AMOUNT
 TYPE
02/2003
 MOTEL –  estimated
 $50.00
 MOTEL
02/2003
 HOME- ELKHART, IN (RT) – 276.2 MILES @ $0.31/mile $85.57
 AUTO
03/2003
 HOME-PLAINFIELD HS (RT) – 24.2 MILES @ $0.31/mile
 $7.50
 AUTO
03/2003 HOME-BOLINGBROOK FS#4 – 1.8 MILES @ $0.31/mile $0.56
 AUTO

TOTAL TRAINING COST
 $143.63

TRIP #1 – TEMPEST TOURS (OK/TX/CO/KS/MO/AR)
DATE
 DESCRIPTION
 AMOUNT
 TYPE
05/15/2003 CIRCUIT CITY SS #379 $-53.74 SOFTWARE
05/15/2003 NAPERVILLE CHAUFFEUR $-50.00 LIMO
05/12/2003 JB`S GRILL PITTSBURG $-94.39 MEAL
05/12/2003 ATM WITHDRAWAL $-81.50 CASH
05/12/2003 SHORTY SMALLS – OKC $-20.00 MEAL
05/09/2003 WM SUPERCENTER CHANU $-62.24 VIDEOTAPES
05/09/2003 AUTOTRONICS CONOCO S $-22.85 ELECTRONICS
05/09/2003 G WILLIKERS CHANUTE $-18.00 MEAL
05/09/2003 GOLDEN CORRAL NEVADA $-9.00 MEAL
05/08/2003 CRACKER BARREL # 127 $-13.00 MEAL
05/08/2003 USPS 2842230094 SPRI $-3.49 PACKAGING
05/07/2003 ATM WITHDRAWAL $-101.50 CASH
05/05/2003 RADIO SHACK 001842 $-149.01 ELECTRONICS
05/05/2003 ATM WITHDRAWAL $-82.00 CASH
05/05/2003 NAPERVILLE CHAUFFEUR $-53.00 LIMO
SUBTOTAL
 CHASE 2003 ON-THE-ROAD COST
 $-813.72
05/01/2003
 TEMPEST TOURS DEPOSIT
 $-500.00
 TOUR
05/01/2003
 TEMPEST TOURS BALANCE
 $-2100.00
 TOUR
05/01/2003
 AIRFARE: CHICAGO O’HARE – OKC (rt)
 $-203.50
 AIR

TOTAL COST
 $3607.22
CHASE 2003 SEASON COST SUMMARY
DATE
 DESCRIPTION
 AMOUNT
 TYPE
02/01-03/31/2003
 TRAINING – Elkhart,IN; Plainfield, IL; Bolingbrook, IL
 $143.63
 TRAINING
05/01-05/13/2003
 HOME- ELKHART, IN (RT) – 276.2 MILES @ $0.31/mile
 $3607.22
 TOUR
05/14-12/31/2003
 CHASING – IL/IN/WI/IA/MI
 $0.00
 CHASING
04/30-12/31/2003
 WEATHER SPOTTING – IL/IN/WI/IA/MI
 $0.00
 SPOTTING
01/01-12/31/2003 OTHER EXPENSES
 $0.00
 OTHER

TOTAL SEASON COST
 $3750.85

CHASE2003 SEASON SUMMARY

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CHASE 2003
DAILY
JOURNAL
DATE DAY START END MILES REMARKS
SEASONAL TRAINING: To better appreciate the processes going on in storms and to stay safe, I take classroom training each year
19 Feb 2003 Wednesday Bolingbrook IL Plainfield IL Basic Spotter Training
14 Mar 2003 Friday Bolingbrook IL Elkhart IN (Training tomorrow)
15 Mar 2003 Saturday Elkhart IN Bolingbrook IL IMO Advanced Spotter Training
15 April 2003 Tuesday Bolingbrook IL Bolingbrook IL 1.0 BARS/ARES Spotter Training
CHASE #1:

[Flag-USA] [Flag-Peru]
[Flag-Netherlands] [Flag-Brazil]
TEMPEST TOURS (commercial tour) 10 days – 4642(est.) chase miles, 12 people

  1. Lead vehicle (8): LEAD: Bill Reid (Westlake Village, CA;KG6FWX),
    CO-LEAD: Blake Naftel (Kalamazoo, MI;KC8VPG); “Camilo” (Netherlands/Brazil),
    Kris (Netherlands), Amalia & Jaime (Peru), David (NC), Joe (Nashua, NH)
  2. Tail vehicle (4): LEAD: Keith Brown (Crandon, NJ; KC5DOJ)
    Lisa Beal (Bolingbrook, IL;KC9BST), Lisa M. (Chicago, IL), Laurie (Erie, PA).
  3. ALSO:
    Part-time lead vehicle: Martin Lisius [days 2-3,8] (Arlington,TX;KC5TQI    )
    Sedan: ?() [days 1-2
    PT Cruiser: Kinney Adams (Milwaukee, WI;KB9QQM) and Bob Pejovich ()
    Mini-van (WI/SUPRCEL):     [days 4-5] Scott Weberpal (Janesville, WI:KB9CBK?), Josh (CT) (and Meso Monkey!)
    Big Red Truck: Brian Morganti (Bernville,PA; KB3HOA)
26 Apr 2003 Saturday Bolingbrook IL PROLOGUE #1
30 Apr 2003 Tuesday Bolingbrook IL PROLOGUE #2: Ready to Rumble!
01 May 2003 Wednesday Bolingbrook IL Oklahoma City OK (fly) TRAVEL: Getting there is half the fun
02 May 2003 Friday Oklahoma City OK Garden City KS 540 DAY #1: A positioning day
03 May 2003 Saturday Garden City KS Altus OK 320 DAY #2: To cap, or not
04 May 2003 Sunday Altus OK Denton TX 350 DAY #3: Hoping for a Texas twister
Kansas City and Girard, KS clobbered!
05 May 2003 Monday Denton TX Little Rock AR 320 DAY #4: Can you say ArkLaTex?
Outbreak moves to Missouri and east
06 May 2003 Tuesday Little Rock AR Springfield MO 667 DAY #5: To the Land of Aahs (Kansas)
07 May 2003 Wednesday Springfield MO Chanute KS 177 DAY #6: Bungle in the Jungle
08 May 2003 Thursday Chanute KS Pittsburg KS 398 DAY #7: Two for the Price of One
09 May 2003 Friday Pittsburg KS Oklahoma City OK 470 DAY #8: Another Promising Day
10 May 2003 Saturday Oklahoma City OK Macon MO 700 est DAY #9: Up Close and Personal
11 May 2003 Sunday Macon MO Oklahoma City OK 700 est DAY #10:The Long Drive Back
12 May 2003 Monday Oklahoma City OK Bolingbrook IL (fly) Travel Day
13 May 2003 Tuesday Bolingbrook IL Epilogue
SPECIAL THANKS to Laurie for help with tracking our daily mileage.
IL/IN CHASES/SPOTTING:
30 May 2003 Friday Bolingbrook IL – – – What a day! Too bad I was still AT WORK during these local tornadic storms. Read the Chicago NWS offices’ summary to see what happened!

COLOR CODE
Plan was to not chase GRAY
Planned Chase Day (future) YELLOW
Available to chase; no weather (“blue-skied”) BLUE
Chase Day (have partner and stormy weather) GREEN
No-Partner Day (Weather stormy, no partner) RED
Weather Stormy, but not available for chasing PURPLE
BUST DAY – tornadoes where we looked!
 ORANGE
Training Day
 WHITE
Accommodations Restaurants Tools Web Links

12 July 2003 – Comms/Navigation/WX Systems Cleanup

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DESCRIPTION
This
cleanup involved getting rid of unnecessary wires, rerouting the
existing wires and adding cable ties and/or Velcro to tidy things up. Everything
was torn out and set on the passenger’s seat or the dashboard. The end result looks
like the picture at thr right:

  1. Magellan Meridian Gold GPS unit
  2. Panasonic PV-DV402 digital camcorder
  3. Kenwood TH-D7 2 m/440MHz ham radio
  4. Sylvania SSC090 13 in. television
  5. Davis Weather Monitor II
  6. three-outlet, 15 amp multiplug adapter
    (a second one is not shown in the photo)
  7. RadioShack 500 channel scanner
  8. RadioShack citizens band/weather band radio (8A: radio, 8B: microphone)
  9. (not shown) Nokia 6162i cell phone

What
a difference! Prior to the cleanup their wires everywhere.now everything
is in neat bundles, and I could move the console as a whole given about 10
minutes.the two main things are:

  • I can turn everything on it once now.
  • I am not tripping over a bunch of wires and neither is anyone else.

Now I just have to clean the rest of the van!
TECHNICAL CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS

The key technical challenge in redoing the electrical system was to properly
balanced the load between the left-hand power outlet (20 amps) and the right
hand power outlet (15 amps) in the front of a van.on several occasions ,
the onboard television was turned on and the fuse on the 15 amp circuit was
blown after about the third time this happened . I took a closer look at
the circuit diagram for the van and realized I had a 20 amp circuit right
next door.  Now the 20 amp circuit has on its the following: the onboard
television, the camcorder, and a two  outlet. adapter that powers ,
both the GPS  unit and the ham radio.the 15 amp circuit runs everything
that is mounted in the lower console: the Davis Weather Monitor to display,
the CB radio, and the 500 channel scanner.

As a matter of documenting the electrical demand in the van and also establishing
a good load balance . I diagrammed out , where everything needs to go in a separate document.
COST I  spent $22 on an assortment of fuses,though
I only replaced a single 3 amp fuse, since I managed to lose one when
one of the adapters broke open.  That little glass fuse may be somewhere
under the seats, but I’ll be darned if I can find it. This is a good general
maintenance investment, as I have no spare fuses for the van at all.  The
$22 also included four single use tubes of superglue.
TIME SPENT I spent pretty much every moment from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. (when
I lost the light of day) cleaning things up. About six hours total,
including a brief dinner break.
OTHER REMARKS The
next challenge is figuring out how to get the laptop computer into comfortable
spot in the van and integrate the APRS software and the output of the Weather
Monitor.  The idea is to be able to take moving weather measurements
and relay those out to the Internet using the ham radio.I have not decided
whether to use the modified hospital tray(that I picked up at a garage sale)
or improvise some sort of pedestal to let the laptop . swing over the passenger
seat or over the existing center console that holds the radios and the weather
Monitor.