What Is DYFI For Winlink Form?

Introduction

The Did You Feel It? (DYFI) system was developed to tap the abundant information available about earthquakes from the people who experience them. By taking advantage of the vast number of Internet users, and Winlink radio clients, we can get a more complete description of what people experienced, the effects of an earthquake, and the extent of damage. And best of all, with your help we can do so rapidly.

By providing a DYFI report when you can do so safely after an earthquake you contribute to citizen science and further the understanding of earthquakes. You also ensure that your area has been represented in the compilation of the maps of shaking. This is a two-way street: not only will you add valuable information on the extent of ground shaking and damage, but in the process we hope you will learn more about how other communities fared and gain a greater understanding of the effects of earthquakes.

Intensity is reported to USGS via “Did You Feel It?” reports via their Website and now also via Winlink.

The DYFI Winlink report defaults to a USGS email address, meaning your DYFI Winlink data is reported directly to USGS servers.

Intensity is a qualitative measure of the strength of ground shaking at a particular site and is based on on-the-ground first hand observations of the effects of an earthquake on people and human infrastructure. Even if you did not feel the earthquake, your response is important: in areas of lighter shaking, the "not-felt" responses are needed to determine the percentage of felt responses as well as determine the boundary of “felt” and “not felt” areas.
Intensity describes the effects of an earthquake and varies with the magnitude, the distance from the hypocenter and local geology. Magnitude, by contrast, describes the energy released by an earthquake and is a fixed value.

If you have Internet, for latest information on DYFI go to: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/

Winlink DYFI Form

The Winlink DYFI form has several feature that are not available in the USGS Web DYFI Form

Exercise: in Winlink you have an exercise option. The USGS DYFI team strongly encourages to use the Winlink Exercise option for local and national events, for example ShakeOut.

ExerciseID: Entering an ExerciseID if known is optional but recommended. It helps USGS, other stakeholders assign and exercise participants assign your report to a specific exercise.
You are free to choose an ExerciseID. For group exercises please use identical ExerciseIDs for all participants.

Winlink Mapping filters can filter for specific events based on ExerciseID.

Real Event: When reporting a real event select the REAL EVENT radio button.

Real EventID: Entering the Real EventID if known is optional but recommended. It helps USGS assign your report to a specific earthquake. The USGS DYFI Team asks that you enter Real EventIDs without spaces.
Winlink Mapping filters can filter for specific events based on EventID.

The Event ID can be obtained from the USGS Earthquake Map at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/ or the USGS Earthquake Notification Service https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ens/ as well as other sources.

See below for more details.

Winlink Estimated Intensity Pop-up: After clicking on Submit the Winlink DYFI form provides an intensity estimate pop-up based on your answers. That intensity estimate is a courtesy estimate only. The calculations are based on the USGS calculations but are made by the code in the Winlink form. No guarantees as to the Winlink DYFI Intensity Estimate accuracy, express or implied, are made.

The Winlink DYFI Intensity estimate does not impact the data in the USGS JSON, which is processed separately by USGS upon receipt.

Callsign: your callsign is automatically added to every DYFI report you submit.

Email: the Winlink DYFI form will automatically add the USGS email dyfi_reports_automated@usgs.gov to your report upon clicking Submit.

You are welcome to Cc: other stations and/or email addresses.

Mapping: The Winlink DYFI form creates a mapping tag file that can be used by other Winlink users to map DYFI data from the report. By design the tag file only includes Latitude/Longitude, Winlink Estimated Intensity, Exercise/RealEvent, ExerciseID, Real EventID. Those fields can be filtered within Winlink Mapping and are also available in the CSV.
For questions regarding Winlink DYFI form contact the Winlink DYFI Project Coordinator Oliver Dully K6OLI, https://www.qrz.com/db/K6OLI

For questions regarding the USGS DYFI program contact USGS at https://answers.usgs.gov/

Note: The form is a collaboration between the Winlink Development Team and the USGS DYFI team. Only those two teams have authority over the form.

GPS
Providing GPS information is optional but very valuable. We encourage you to do so.

LAT/LON: The form accepts only Decimal Degree latitude and longitude. 4 decimals are preferred.

N/E/S/W: North and East are positive numbers in Decimal Degrees, South and West are negative numbers in Decimal Degrees. For example, the Hollywood Sign is located at Decimal Degrees 34.1341, -118.3215

NOTE: For auto entered GPS decimal coordinates to work, you must have a connected and configured GPS device working with Winlink Express. Otherwise manual entry in the indicated format can be used.

USGS Event ID / Optional Exercise ID

USGS Event ID

When reporting a REAL EVENT you can add the USGS Event ID. This is optional, but it helps USGS match your report with the earthquake you are reporting.

There are several ways to obtain a USGS Event ID:

1) From the web.
Go to https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map

Click on the earthquake you are reporting. Click on Did You Feel It
The USGS ID will be on the third line of the header, for example ID:ci40063464

In this example you would report ci40063464

2) From the web address

If you have a link to the USGS site of an earthquake the ID will be listed in the web address.
For example, https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/ci40063464/executive

3) From the Earthquake Notification Service (ENS)

If you receive earthquake notifications from USGS the notice will also list the Event ID, for example
event ID : ci40063464

Event IDs should always be entered without spaces, e.g. ci40063464

ENS is a free service. You can subscribe, adjust preferences and unsubscribe at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/ens/

Optional Exercise ID

USGS encourages radio amateurs to send in exercise reports, especially when they are part of organized exercises. Adding the optional exercise ID helps USGS group exercise events.

Please make sure that everyone in your group uses the same exercise name. Examples are ShakeOut2021, ARESLAX0815, SeattleDrill14, etc.

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The development of the DYFI Winlink form was made possible through a collaboration of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and the Winlink Development Team.

Training, data and form testing provided by:

ARES LAX Northeast

Auburn Area Emergency Communications Team (AAECT)

Hawaii ARES

MIRO (Mercer Island Radio Operators)

NBAT (North Bend Amateur Radio Emergency Services, North Bend, WA )

PSEARES (Puget Sound Energy Amateur Radio Emergency Services, Bellevue, WA)

San Diego Amateur Radio Emergency Service (SDG ARES)

San Joaquin Valley ARES

Sacramento Valley ARES

Ventura County CA ACS-ARES

Western Kern County Amateur Radio Emergency Service (WKCARES)

Yavapai County ARES/RACES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service, Yavapai County, Arizona)

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Intensity	Strength	Description
int_Strength	int_Strength	int_Strength

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