Imagine that: snow on Easter. Yes: there is snow as we speak here in Belgium. Three months late for a white Christmas. The last snowy Easter goes back to 1975, as was told on the TV news. A good year that was ;o) Last year Easter was very good: calm WX, dry, blue sky and warm. Granted: it was 2 weeks later than this year but still a big contrast…
Regular readers will notice I often mention the weather. That is because it is very important for everything I like to do. Go out for a walk with the dog? You need nice WX. Crank up the tower all the way for a contest? Better no storm then. Clean up the garden, mow the lawn and trim some trees? Not while it’s snowing… But the last couple of weeks have been horrible up to the point where it is REALLY getting on my nerves and my mood. We’ve had some stormy days and lots of rain in December. After a calm period January brought more of the same: rain and wind. We had two very nice weeks then, too good for winter. Then a couple of storms in a row and lots of rain and now snow. Even now while I am typing this very sentence! I’m having two weeks of Easter holidays and with last year in mind I laid out some plans: be outside during the day and crank up the tower to work some 30m DX at night. Forecast tells me I’ll be inside a lot with the tower down.
As a coincidence National Geographic showed a documentary yesterday about the sun and one of the topics was the Maunder Minimum and wether the 11 year solar cycle can influence the earth’s weather. Propagation has hit rock bottom and I really can’t remember the weather being so bad for such a long period. So if you ask me: yes there is a link. But of course I am biased and my gut isn’t a scientific proof. There was this tribe in New Mexico that migrated in a proven period of low solar activity but unfortunately something got in the way and I missed the rest of the story including the answer to the question.
I have been chasing 9X0R and 5T5DC today to save some contacts. Worked them both 3 times up to now. But it doesn’t please me. I have been thinking I need something new to get away from what I always do. That way I’ll see that what I always do is what I always have to do because I like it. I think the arrival of the K3 early June (fingers crossed) and assembling it will boost my eagerness. The scholar year will end then and so does preparing the classes so that burden will fall off my shoulders. And the K3 offers 6m – new playground for ON5ZO not considering those 10 QSOs I once made with an attic dipole and 10W. I’m sure I’ll be having fun again soon. It’s not that I have lost interest in the hobby. It’s just that I need some sun on my skin, get away from ‘job’ work and get some ‘fun’ work done. Some propagation might help too. And I just worked a loud 9M6/N1UR and 5T5DC for QSO #5 on 20m CW. Twenty always works.