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The storm that wasn’t
27 January 2015 | by By now, most of you have heard that, at least in the New Jersey area, "The Blizzard of 2015" has turned out to be a big bust. The forecasters were warning us of 18-24 inches (45-60 cm), plus. Instead what we actually received was about 4 inches (10 cm).
I am one of the ones who is not disappointed. I would much rather have the weatherman tell me I am going to get 24 inches of snow, and only get 4, as opposed to the other way around. Meteorology is an art, even to this day. To anyone who is forcing the weather people to eat crow today, I say, "Let's see YOU try it for a while!". I am hearing so many people say, "Oh yeah, I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to be that bad." Yeah ..... right.
Listening to New England stations coming through Echolink on the local repeater, I understand they are getting hammered, as predicted. Stay safe, warm and dry, my friends.
Even though we didn't get the snow, we did get the cold and the winds. Not gale force winds, but when I was out there shoveling snow, I was chilled to the bone. And the whole time I was removing snow, I was dreaming of something like this:
Thanks to Sean KX9X for posting this. Some portable outdoor QRP in a nice, warm sunny location is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered, right about now.
On a side note, the office was declared closed for the day last night, when the ominous forecast was still hovering over us. So when the snow stopped this afternoon, having some time available, I went out and switched the coax from the EDZ over to the W3EDP. Much to my relief, the W3EDP hears fine again! It loads up easily on every band and the KX3's auto tuner handles it with nary a whimper.
As it turns out, the coax problem on the W3EDP was entirely may fault. When I went to disconnect the coax from the balun at the end of the W3EDP, I noticed to my horror, that I had never sealed the connection. It's no wonder that water got in there. This time, I double coated the connection with tape, added some plumber's putty over that, and added a final layer of tape. If the W3EDP plays as well as I think it will, I may just end up taking down the EDZ this Spring and keeping the W3EDP as my primary wire antenna.
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].I am one of the ones who is not disappointed. I would much rather have the weatherman tell me I am going to get 24 inches of snow, and only get 4, as opposed to the other way around. Meteorology is an art, even to this day. To anyone who is forcing the weather people to eat crow today, I say, "Let's see YOU try it for a while!". I am hearing so many people say, "Oh yeah, I knew from the beginning it wasn't going to be that bad." Yeah ..... right.
Listening to New England stations coming through Echolink on the local repeater, I understand they are getting hammered, as predicted. Stay safe, warm and dry, my friends.
Even though we didn't get the snow, we did get the cold and the winds. Not gale force winds, but when I was out there shoveling snow, I was chilled to the bone. And the whole time I was removing snow, I was dreaming of something like this:
Thanks to Sean KX9X for posting this. Some portable outdoor QRP in a nice, warm sunny location is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered, right about now.
On a side note, the office was declared closed for the day last night, when the ominous forecast was still hovering over us. So when the snow stopped this afternoon, having some time available, I went out and switched the coax from the EDZ over to the W3EDP. Much to my relief, the W3EDP hears fine again! It loads up easily on every band and the KX3's auto tuner handles it with nary a whimper.
As it turns out, the coax problem on the W3EDP was entirely may fault. When I went to disconnect the coax from the balun at the end of the W3EDP, I noticed to my horror, that I had never sealed the connection. It's no wonder that water got in there. This time, I double coated the connection with tape, added some plumber's putty over that, and added a final layer of tape. If the W3EDP plays as well as I think it will, I may just end up taking down the EDZ this Spring and keeping the W3EDP as my primary wire antenna.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
4 Responses to “The storm that wasn’t”
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Warm & sunny in Texas.
I think we had 18 to 20 here in our part of Suffolk. More with the drifts. amazingly, my end-fed stayed up this time. I rigged up a 2meter attic vertical for getting into our various emergency nets, and had everything charged. Thank god we didn’t lose power! I wish we had been spared like you were, and I’m sure my back will be envious of your snow total tomorrow.
Actually, it’s both an art and science. The GFS weather model has predicted the storm’s track and snowfall and other extreme weather effects perfectly. If you watch CNN you would have heard extreme weather meteorologist Chad Myers explaining the problems and differences with the 3 weather models (NAM, European and GFS). The GFS totally disagreed with the other two and you have to play the odds as a forecaster but Chad had his doubts and said so and so should have the other forecasters at least for the NYC and Jersey areas. MA was going to get hammered in all 3 models by the Nor’easter. However, if the powers-to-be cry “Wolf!” too many times, the next time people tend to ignore warnings and end up in the shite. They really did a poor job of explaining the situation with weather models and the probability wasn’t 100% it was “only” 66.6% statistically speaking and the Chief Government Forecaster/Meteorologist has actually apologized for the SNAFU.
I spent 9 years in the old Canadian Aeradio/Marine FSS system and did weather observations and briefings in the days when we didn’t have supercomputers. Local knowledge, experience and “going with your gut” was just about as accurate as they are today, albeit they can look ahead much farther than in my time in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
73,
Robert
http://www.va3rom.com
Thanks for sharing the video… great little operation there!