East TN District 7 SKYWARN: Counties, Nets, and Frequencies

If you live in the Tri-Cities corridor and want to report severe weather to the National Weather Service, East Tennessee District 7 SKYWARN® is the local spotter program. This is a quick reference — confirm schedules on skywarn7.org before you rely on it in the field.

Counties covered

District 7 includes Carter, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties in northeast Tennessee. Reports go to the NWS Morristown WFO. The organization uses amateur radio callsign WX4TN when operating as SKYWARN on ham bands.

Weekly training nets (District 7)

• GMRS — Tuesday 7:00 PM local: NETNRC linked GMRS repeaters. Johnson City node is commonly 462.600 / 467.600 MHz PL 88.5; Kingsport and other linked nodes also carry traffic.
• 2m ham — Tuesday 8:00 PM local: 146.805 MHz (−600 kHz offset) PL 203.5 on the NETNRC repeater (NE4RC).

WR4CC 146.700 — Holston Mtn SKYWARN

Before NETNRC, and still active for many operators, WR4CC on 146.700 MHz PL 77.0 on Holston Mountain has been the Tri-Cities-area SKYWARN repeater. RepeaterBook lists it as SKYWARN- and ARES-affiliated with a Friday 8:00 PM Skywarn net and Monday 8:00 PM club net. Those times are labeled UTC on RepeaterBook but are Eastern local time — worth programming alongside the D7 NETNRC pair.

SKYWARN spotters report from their current location — not as storm chasers. You can also report via NWS web tools or phone per your spotter training.

Monthly meeting

Second Saturday of each month, 7:00 PM, Crossroads Christian Church — 300 Suncrest Drive, Johnson City (lower level entrance at rear parking lot).

Boone rim-shot note

From parts of the Tri-Cities you may occasionally copy WA4J 147.360 MHz PL 103.5 out of Boone, NC (Watauga ARC). That is Watauga County SKYWARN territory — useful for monitoring, but D7 spotters should train and check in on NETNRC per skywarn7.org.

Full repeater tables, MTEARS, and the emcomm workflow: East TN emcomm hub and local frequency guide.

Counties and WFO

District 7 SKYWARN serves Carter, Hawkins, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties under NWS Morristown. Training prepares you to report severe criteria — not to chase storms.

Net schedule

GMRS training Tuesday 7:00 PM local on NETNRC linked GMRS. Ham training Tuesday 8:00 PM on 146.805 MHz PL 203.5. Monthly meeting second Saturday 7:00 PM Johnson City — confirm on skywarn7.org.

Reporting

Use structured reports — spotter report tool on this site. Hail size, wind damage, tornado visual, flooding depth. Report via trained path: ham, GMRS, phone, or web per activation.

Relationship to ARES

Many spotters also serve ARES — understand which net you are on. SKYWARN is weather; ARES may assign shelter or EOC tasks separately. Get involved for FEMA courses.

Practice

Attend training nets monthly. Run tabletop with PACE assigning Primary as repeater net and Contingency as GMRS simplex.

← All articles  ·  Start here  ·  Just licensed  ·  Free downloads  ·  Newsletter