The Storm Chasers Return to Tornado Alley!

[rdale]

\Clearly by watching the show some of the other research teams don't like missing storms either, maybe they just don't get as passionate as Reed or even play to the camera as much as he does.

Honestly it doesn't look like he's just doing that for the camera... Seems like that's part of his personality. Or "soap opera drama" as Dr Doswell says.

I can't under any circumstances see Dr Doswell or Dr Wurman or Tim Samaras dropping the F-bomb and punching the car because they missed an F2. Does it make him less of a "scientist"? I suppose not. Does it (along with his chase style and fricking overload freakouts under the funnel) alienate him from the science community? Right or wrong - it certainly does.

 

[scannerfreak]

I disagree about Tim. He was pretty upset about missing the one in Denver. I could see him dropping the f bomb, but not over reatcing like Reed. I agree that's his biggest issue and likely cost him a team member.

Deep down there has got to be a little chase in even the most dedicated scientist. But you are right, I don't see Josh ever acting like that. But is it because he knows he has to be professional at all times because of who he is? Reed isn't near as respected as Josh, nor does he appear to care, so what's there to worry about being yourself and letting go. I mean there is a reason he seems to have become the focal point of the show lately..

Also, in every field and walk of life there's always the renegade outcast, but sometimes those are the ones who excel the most and I would put money on Reed's approach being the one that gets the most meaningful and groundbreaking data, and also the one most likely to die doing it :lol:

I have to agree though, it sure would be nice if he cooperated with everyone else. But when Josh was demanding the freq. for his microwave, I thought that was a little over the top, even though Josh is who he is, when he tried to threaten him. I would have said f-u too and rebelled and did my own thing. I think that's why I like Reed :lol:

 

[AK9R]

I have to agree though, it sure would be nice if he cooperated with everyone else. But when Josh was demanding the freq. for his microwave, I thought that was a little over the top, even though Josh is who he is, when he tried to threaten him.

I disagree, Steve. In any situation where multiple transmitters are involved, there has to be frequency coordination. Lack of cooperation in this regard by anyone claiming to be a scientist or claiming to be serving the public good is inexcusable, in my opinion. Granted, Dr. Wurman is on a bit of an ego trip, too. But what if the DOW was directing probes into the path of a tornado and Mr. Timmer's radar transmitter blinded the DOW because of frequency interference? What if the people placing the probes were injured or killed as a result?

A little more open-ness on Mr. Timmer's part would help alleviate the claims by some that he's in this just for himself.

 

[scannerfreak]

I never said I agreed with him not giving it to him in the beginning. In fact I said the opposite. I disagreed with Josh threatening him like he was suddenly in charge of everything storm chasing and he could say who could chase and who couldn't. Like somehow Josh was going to blackball him from the storm chasing world..Oh no.. :lol:

I absolutely agree they should have worked together, but my thing is once Josh threatens him I don't blame Reed for telling him to go fly a kite, or if he ever has the desire to work with him again. That was totally the wrong way to go about getting what he wanted. He could have easily told Reed, or requested, him to not operate in or on certain frequencies, but instead he chose the "give it to me or else" route which would have pissed me off too.

 

[rdale]

Shortly thereafter, when there were no cameras, Reed gave Josh the frequencies. Makes me wonder why the "rejection" scene would have needed cameras in the first place, unless it was to create artificial drama.

 

[scannerfreak]

Ah, see the whole story. I'm gonna have to search around for more info on after the show and more facts about what's not shown on TV. Also makes me wonder what Josh said as well. Thanks again for the info, Rob.

 

[AK9R]

Rob, another piece of "artificial drama", as you put it, has to do with the probes launched by Mr. Timmer's airplane. Positioning the plane, including inadvertently buzzing the TIV, and launching the probes made for great video and hyperbolic narration. But last week's episode ended before they recovered the probes. While everyone was high-fiving each other at that gas station at the end of the show, someone mentioned "Now we need to go find the probes." They showed landing the plane, but did they recover the probes?

Another thought crossed my mind yesterday while reading your messages about the data, or lack thereof, coming out Mr. Timmer's operation. One of the most spectacular tornado videos I've seen this year was the shot inside the tornado that the Vortex2 team caught in Wyoming. That video was out in the public almost immediately. But here we are six months after the prime 2009 tornado season and we are just now seeing Mr. Timmer's and Mr. Casey's videos of fairly common rain-wrapped tornados. So far, I think Vortex2 has TIV and TVN beat. But we will have to see what the final episodes of Storm Chasers shows us. I hope the hype is worth the wait.

 

[N0IU]

Oh man! You guys are worse than the women at work discussing their favorite soap operas or medical shows! This show is ALL about the drama. Everything you see on this show is well thought out and planned, except for actually finding a tornado of course! There is nothing accidental about it. Discovery Channel has too much invested in the production to just go out and shoot endless hours of video and hope they get enough to edit it down into an interesting program. Now there is nothing wrong with watching TV for entertainment, but don't mistake this show for what it really is. You guys are sucked into it (and admittedly, so am I but to a much lesser degree) and can't wait until the next episode which is exactly what they want. If it was a purely scientific objective documentary about tornados and the scientist who study them, it would be on Nova where they don't care about the ratings!

Reading these posts is a soap opera unto itself!

 

[AK9R]

You guys are sucked into it (and admittedly, so am I but to a much lesser degree) and can't wait until the next episode which is exactly what they want.

Yes, I watch the show. It's drama, but it's also comedy. Occasionally, there's a bit of science.

I think you are sucked into it more than you care to admit.

In post 33 of this thread, you say that you no longer have DirecTV which implies that you don't have the ability to watch the show when aired. But your statement quoted above implies that you are watching this season of the show.

Reading these posts is a soap opera unto itself!

And then there's post 42 where you say it's time to unsubscribe from this thread. But, you're still here.

You drank the Kook-Aid. You're hooked.

 

[N0IU]

In post 33 of this thread, you say that you no longer have DirecTV which implies that you don't have the ability to watch the show when aired. But your statement quoted above implies that you are watching this season of the show.

A very astute observation which, at the time, was true. However, since that time, my wife has been diagnosed with endometrial adenocarcinoma (that's uterine cancer in English) and will be having a radical hysterectomy on December 10. Recovery from this is pretty brutal and can take at least 6 weeks or longer. She has already been granted 8 weeks of family leave. I bought her a new recliner that is electrically operated and since she will be parked in this most of the time, I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and reactivate our subscription.

I am also looking for a laptop for her. I wasn't willing to camp out at BestBuy to get the $197 HP and Wal Mart actually sold out of the $299 HP last night! (Funny how they did that considering the sale price wasn't supposed to go into effect until 5:00AM this morning!). I am not looking for a "screamer", just something pretty basic with a decent size screen (15" at least). We shall see what cyber Monday brings! This will also motivate me to upgrade my dear old Linksys 802.11/B router to at least a G or maybe even an N.

I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving.

 

[AK9R]

Scott, sorry to hear about your wife's medical problems. I hope she recovers well.

I've been a DirecTV customer off and on, mostly on, since about 1997. I think it's a good service, though like any of them, it has it's flaws. I got sucked into HDTV a couple of years ago when DirecTV finally got all of my local OTA channels in HD. There's no going back!

Over the years, I have purchsed several tornado-related videos from Discovery Channel, The Weather Channel, etc., and used them in the past as part of our county Skywarn training (here's what a tornado looks like, here's how not to drive right into one). Now, with HD, the tornado programs on the cable channels are spectacular to watch. I'm DVR-ing the current StormChasers series and DVRed the Vortex2 program from The Weather Channel back in May. There was also "Science of Storm Chasing" program on Discovery Channel a year or so ago that was very interesting from a "how to do it standpoint" and much less dramatic than the current series.

 

[N0IU]

Thanks for the kind words. Fingers crossed!

(P.S. - "IU" in my callsign is in recognition of my Alma Mater - that school where this guy used to coach!)

Sorry for the brief hijack Lou!

 

[AK9R]

I'm a Purdue grad, so we'll just move on and continue talking about storm chasing.

 

[loumaag]

Sorry for the brief hijack Lou!

Okay. Brief is the watch word here. Sorry for your wife's situation; however, let us please get back on the topic of the topic...

 

[burner50]

Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...Dominating...

Today was the first Time I got to watch an episode all season.

I saw several times they were using Yaesu mics telling me they were using amateur gear. Specifically the twistex team. TIV looked like a Motorola mic.

Who knows, Maybe they're using amateur frequencies without being licensed. It would be interesting to figure out what frequencies they're using.

 

[rdale]

I saw several times they were using Yaesu mics telling me they were using amateur gear. Specifically the twistex team. TIV looked like a Motorola mic.

Yaesu mics also work with Vertex gear, which is business band. Don't let a mic fool ya

 

[ScanManQSL]

Tonight is the season finale. I believe it's a two hour special.

 

[burner50]

Yaesu mics also work with Vertex gear, which is business band. Don't let a mic fool ya

Yea, but would a group of people who aren't radiophiles know that?


I quickly remembered how much I cant stand Reed Timmer...

 

[ScanManQSL]

Reed Timmer is out of control and people who are like that do stupid things. We've seen Reed do many stupid things and nearly get people killed on multiple occasions. He isn't a serious storm chaser... he's an adrenaline addict who gets a rise out of chasing weather phenomenon and sadly, today's media is eating it all up and making this guy famous when he's a classic case of what not to do.

 

[AK9R]

...and making this guy famous when he's a classic case of what not to do.

In the first episode, the narrator mentioned that Mr. Timmer is a PhD candidate in Meteorology. Any idea at what school? I wonder how they feel about the TV show and his notoriety.