AmateurRadio.com

I am not a Weatherman.

It was snowing lightly, all day yesterday.  Actually, alternating continuously between snow, sleet and freezing rain.  I left work for home and even had a somewhat easy commute.  Everyone got scared by the ominous Nor’Easter forecast and must have left work early.  By the time I left for home, the roads had a mere shadow of the normal drive time volume of traffic. Interstate 287 was sloppy and local roads were worse as there was an accumulation of probably just under an inch of snow, sleet and ice. 4 Wheel drive came in handy on the local back roads.

After dinner, I decided to go outside and clear the cars and the driveway, the back deck and the front walk and porch.  It was heavy, slushy accumulated precipitation, but by the time I had finished nothing was falling from the sky. I thought to myself that maybe once again, the weather people had gotten it wrong.  Sometimes, it seems they tend to forecast the sensational, “worst case” event.  I thought that this might have been another one of those times.  So after a session on 30 Meters last night (see my previous post), I checked out the weather radar one last time for the night.  Our portion of New Jersey was at the extreme lower part of the storm. It appeared that within a short amount of time, all would be past us and the little accumulation we had gotten “was all she wrote”.  I went to bed, smug, snug and happy.

The one thing I didn’t take into consideration – counter clockwise rotation.

During the night, while I laid happily snoozing away, the storm did indeed move in a NorthEasterly direction. But at the same time, it was spinning in a counter clockwise direction, bringing around another bout of snow. So this is what I woke up to:

Six inches of fluffy, white powdery snow.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Heard this on the radio the other day on my way to work.  Does it explain, at least in part, the popularity of Elecraft products?

In other news, the blog has been silent for a while, but that doesn’t mean things haven’t been happening.  I have a couple of challenging projects that have been taking up the usual blogging time.  Stay tuned!

Ethan Miller, K8GU, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Maryland, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I don’t know if it’s like this for everybody; or if it’s just me.

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Only 2 hours worth of snow so far

 For the past few days the weather folks have been talking about a storm that's on it's way.....largest one in over 5 years!! In the past we have had similar forecasts and nothing has materialized. This time they were right and overnight the snow started and is still going strong. Yesterday I was able to book Friday off, the drive to work for me is 1 hour (one way) on the highway. We live out in the boonies and the roads can be very bad. I am not one to get into a car crash and  possibly ending up in the hospital to just get to work. 

Hey another crazy on the road!

Julie is not so lucky she does not work to far from home and her work is not so forgiving about taking the day off. I was up at the crack dawn to drive her to work. At this time it had only been snowing for a few hours and it seemed to be at the 6 inch mark already. The storm is supposed to continue all day so we will see what we end up with!
Mike Weir, VE9KK, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Brunswick, Canada. Contact him at [email protected].

The “Freeze Your Buns Off” contest was held last Saturday.  And no, I did not get a chance to operate.  Well, actually I did try. I went out at about 3:00 PM local time and set up the portable station in the back of the Jeep in the driveway.  KX3 to Buddistick mounted on the magmount of the car, 7 Ah SLA battery that had been charged via solar panel.

I turned on the KX3 only to find 20 Meters had S9 noise all across the band.  That, and the fact that it was 30F with a wind chill caused me to just say “Nuts!” and forget about it for 2013.

So, instead I live vicariously through K6BBQ:

Thanks, Rem!

Oh, and by the way ……. they say it’s a sign of good mental health when you can laugh and joke about yourself.  Take a gander at this (fake) news story about QRPers from The NoiseBlankers Website. Hopefully, it will make you smile – just a little bit!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

We are one episode away from the century mark. It’s with a great deal of pride that we, the hosts of Linux in the Ham Shack, present to you our 99tieth episode. We would love to have some audio feedback from as many of our listeners as we can get that we can air on our 100th Episode Extravaganza. If you have the time and inclination, please submit a sound bite telling us how much you love the show, or hate it, or whether a weasel stole your chickens. It doesn’t matter; we just want to hear from you! In the meantime, since Russ actually sat down and did some research for the episode, please take a listen and try to glean from it whatever nuggets of wisdom you might find. We’re not saying they’re in there, but the journey to discovery has been fun so far.

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

I was poking around on 40 meters last night with the Atlas 210X and my random wire.  I spent some time listening to the end

of the Brothers Net, and a bunch of Hams from the middle of the country, and caught someone with a heavy accent using a recorded CQ.  The accent was not familiar, and the callsign was CU7AA, which according to QRZ.com is in the Azores.  Looking at the picture, I’m guessing that many of you have probably talked to this station, but it’s still a thrill for me, and my bargain-basement setup.  I threw my callsign out, and snagged a QSO with him.  I love this.  Why is it so addicting?

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].