A ham radio blog entry about… not doing ham radio.
Forget about photovoltaic cells. Wind generators are the way to go. What’s up with the weather here? Much too warm for the season which means wind and rain coming from over the Atlantic through the Channel. It happens once in a while and some years more than others. And always much to my dismay. But this fall and early winter have been terrible. Remember the CQ WW SSB weekend and the following Monday?
Ever since we moved in here in spring 2003, I remember playing Low Band Hero during the last weeks of December. Or pursue those fluttery West Coast signals on 30m. I participate in some winter contests like 9ACW, Stew Perry and RAEM. During this period the tower is up at least two thirds and loaded with low band wire antennas. But not this year.
We had a calm period after CQ WW CW that ended just before (of course before and not after!) the weekend of the ARRL 10m contest. That calm period was very cold with WX coming from the NE. That is the way to go here, even in summer. It’s always dry and sunny with no strong winds when the weather moves in from the east or north-east. Hot in summer, cold in winter. But almost always dry and sunny. When the weather comes from the opposite direction, from the Atlantic over France, it’s always bad weather. Rain and wind. And thunderstorms in summer. Only in summer? No – there was a short burst of thunder and lightning last week.
So now there is a continuous 5 Bft wind which is my comfort limit but with plenty of 6 Bft periods and strong gusts. And major storms. The coming night yet another strong storm will move along the North Sea shore producing 80 km/h or stronger wind gusts inland. More at the sea side. That’s exactly what kept and keeps me from cranking up the tower. The forecast predicted more of the same for the coming week so I’m very unhappy with this situation.
Last Saturday I did not start in the 9ACW contest. Although I usually do to some degree but not only was the wind blowing too hard, the XYL had bought tickets to go see a show with the kids. I specifically asked to go on a weekday when se booked the tickets a while ago because the weekends are reserved for ham radio. But ‘for some reason’ the tickets we received in the mail showed Saturday 21st. It’s good that the weather spoiled my plans anyhow, otherwise I would have been very unamused. Now I was just plain unamused.
Actually we’re Tuesday now and I was typing the above yesterday morning (Monday 23rd) and then went off to run some errands. When I returned the wind had considerably gained speed. I replaced some of the children’s toys and shut the garage door in ‘storm mode’. The updated forecast predicted winds around 100 km/h or more locally. I tried to go to bed around 2230 local time and woke up every two hours because of the noises the wind made. I heard some sounds I don’t remember having heard before so I guess it’s safe to say it was mayhem outside. It was much worse than the previous storms earlier this fall. Those seemed to focus on the coastal areas whereas this one hit us right between the eyes. I got out of bed a few times and went to look through the window but all antennas seemed fine. Although things were shaking heavily. Alas when checking the antennas in daylight this morning I immediately noticed the 40m rotary dipole had shifted a bit on the mast compared to the yagi. Not much but too much to leave it alone. Fixing this in essence is no biggie but a real PITA as I need to tilt over the tower to fix this and even then the antenna is a bit high to reach comfortably. I won’t be doing this any time soon since the forecast predicts more of the same turbulent weather by the end of the week and after the weekend. I guess I’ll take the opportunity for a general inspection and some maintenance when I address this situation. I think it’s safe to say that with the current WX and what’s heading our way later this week, this marks the end of 2013 in ham radio for me. Not my best year (number crunching season is just around the corner) and certainly not the year with the highest fun factor. The latter has to change in 2014.
Other than this: The K3 came in from the Italian repair centre last week. UPS tracking said ‘ETA: late in the afternoon’. I don’t know by which clock they live but lunchtime / noon is not late in the afternoon for me. Luckily I had just got home from work. I unboxed the rig yesterday and did a quick test. All seems fine.
Merry Christmas ho ho ho!