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The past few days, “The Heat Is On” by Glenn Frey from the movie “Beverly Hills Cop” had been constantly running through my head.  It’s been a scorcher and was best described by my friend Kevin, who looked at me Wednesday night and just said one word – “Oppressive”.

Now, truth be told …. I love the Summer.  Just love, love, love it!  The heat and humidity normally don’t bother me too much, but (pardon the pun) there was no “warm up” to this.  One day – beautiful Spring weather. Next day – WHAM! – the height of Summer.  While we had the benefit of an accurate forecast, no one was ready for this, there was no ramp up of heat.

But today, the “Heat is Gone”.  Actually, it was still pretty bad all day; but at around 5:30 PM, while it was still around 90F(32C), dark thunderheads appeared in the western sky. By 6:00 PM it was lightning, thundering and pouring buckets of rain – and ….. it was also 72F (22C). A drop of almost 20 Farenheit degrees.  The balance of the forecast for the weekend looks good – sunny each day and highs in the mid 80s (29C).  That should mean excellent conditions for Field Day.

Tomorrow (and possibly Sunday) I have to continue to help my sister with emptying my Mom’s apartment. However, she just texted me that the David Sarnoff Radio Club will be having their Field Day just down the street (literally) from my Mom’s place.  The NJQRPers sometimes join in on Field Day with the Sarnoff group, so maybe on the way home, I can stop off for a few minutes and mosey a bit.

Another good friend, Rem K6BBQ posted another of his entertaining and informative portable ops videos.  The one shows his efforts during the 7th Call District QSO Party back on May 5th.

Since it was May 5th, Rem was also sure to celebrate Cinco de Mayo by partaking of a burrito for lunch.  It sure looked good and I’ll bet it tasted as good as it looked.  Rem is not only a superb QRP op, (and a superb PORTABLE QRP op) but is also a Ham in the finest tradition of the hobby, making sure that good food is also included as an important part of all these events.

Hope all of you have fun this weekend with Field Day.  You know, even if you’re not affiliated with a club, as long as you have time and no conflicting commitments, there’s always the backyard picnic table or patio table, or local park or whatever.  AND ….. even if you’re not into contesting (and we all know that FD is NOT a contest – Hi!) – Field Day is a good opportunity to try out that new portable antenna you just built. Or that new radio you just built, or that new antenna tuner you just built and need to try.  You get my drift – practical field environment!

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

But the flesh IS weak, tonight!

I would like to operate a bit more tonight; but I am almost falling asleep behind the key.  Due to the heat in the house last night, it was very uncomfortable trying to fall asleep.  My pillow felt like a big sponge all night long; and I finally ended up drifting off around 3:00 AM.  Of course, that was only to wake up for work about 3 hours later.

I will have to be satisfied with one contact on 20 Meters, having worked Serge RN3DN whose QTH is near Moscow.  He had a very pleasant fist and a nice 589 signal into New Jersey and I received a 569 in return.  I would love to tune around and work a few more; but it’s not a good thing when your head snaps as you fall into that grey area between being awake and falling asleep.

The KX3 continues to amaze me. So many features jammed into a radio that is really only just a little bit bigger than some of the 2M handhelds that were around when I first started my Ham career 24 years ago.

Thank the Lord, the air conditioner repairmen came today and were able to make repairs without the need for a new compressor.  It reached 98F (37C) here in Central New Jersey today – not quite high as they expected.  With the combined high humidity, it was quite oppressive.  But right now, it’s a relatively cool 78F  (25C) in the house which is much, much better than what I had to deal with last night.  I should be able to garner a good night’s sleep tonight.

Tomorrow is expected to be very hot and humid again; but not quite as warm as today.  Heavy and possibly some severe thunderstorms are expected late tomorrow afternoon and tomorrow evening, which will break the back of this heatwave.  High temperatures over the weekend are expected around 85F (29C).

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

The first day of Summer came as a prototypical Summer day – hot and humid!  The high temperature did reach 96F (35C) and is expected to be about the same tomorrow (maybe a little higher) and in the 90s on Friday. A heatwave is defined as a period of at least three days with temps in the 90s – so Summer is starting off with a bang!

Unfortunately, our air conditioning unit picked a heckuva time to give up the ghost!  We have a repairman coming tomorrow and I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will not need a new compressor.  Our Central AC unit was not brandy new when we bought the house 14 years ago, so it may be time for a new one. Eeep!

On the CW-Bugs Yahoo group, Donnie WA9TGT posted a picture of a beautiful (and I mean beautiful!) picture of a bug that he fabricated himself.  I would love to post a copy here; but the original is in his picture folder on the group, so  it is not public property.  If you are a member of the group, however, you can take a  look-see for yourself at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cw_bugs/photos/recent/1291589982/view  It is a thing of beauty and I wish I had the talent to make things like this.

Now for something not radio related: If you have a kindle and are also on Facebook, here’s a site to “like”:
http://www.facebook.com/EreaderNewsToday

Over the past few months I have been able to “buy” about 30 or 40 books for FREE.  There are all types of genres available and there may be days when it seems that nothing good is being offered except for a bunch of turkeys.  But then the days come when there are a lot of good mysteries, suspense novels, thrillers, etc. In true Ham fashion, stuff that’s offered for free can’t be all bad, can it?

This weekend is Field Day and the weather here in the Northeast looks to be perfect for it. I will not be participating this year as my sister and I have to finish clearing out my Mom’s apartment before the end of the month.  We’ve gotten a lot taken care of so far; and are about halfway done.  I think all the small stuff will be boxed up and moved out this weekend.  Whatever furniture is left over will be donated to charity and will be picked up next week.

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

to the beautiful Spring that is upon us.  Celebrated with Amateur Radio by Jim W1PID:

http://www.w1pid.com/april/april.html

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

The weather has been phenomenal this winter, as you all know.  Due to Arctic air staying way up north, we’ve had one of the warmer Winters that we’ve had in a while.  Who would’ve thought last Halloween, when we had that early snow, that Winter was going to turn out the way it did?

The early warmth and early blooming and budding is playing havoc with my head, though.  My nose is all stopped up and my eyes are itchy and watery.  Allergies are no fun; but this too shall pass.

So when my friend Rem K6BBQ posted about another video from last year, it’s gotten me all torqued up for portable operating for this coming Spring and Summer outdoor operating season.  Shorts and T-shirt weather may not be immediately imminent; but I dare say it’s closer than father away!

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

Spring officially begins in about 5 hours from right now.  But the weather here today had to be record breaking, or darn near close to it.  As I left work today, for the drive home at 5:00 PM, it was 77F (25C) – on March 19th!

The extended forecast for the next week is informing us that daytime high temperatures will be in the upper 60’s and into the 70s’ and that on Thursday, we may even break 80F (27C).

I was telling Bob W3BBO during our weekly Echolink chat the other day, that we will probably pay for this with a Memorial Day holiday weekend in the 50s (13C).

Ah yes, W2LJ is ever the optimist!

On a radio note, I tried getting on the bands a few times over the weekend only to hear not much of anything.  The bands seemed to be dead for me.  BUT ….. the bands have been real good for my friend Jim W4QO, who announced that he finished working the countries he needed to accomplish Diamond DXCC – all QRP.  Way to go, Jim – a hearty hand shake and slap on the back for you!

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

Jim W1PID was at it again today:

Prepare yourself for some beautiful photos as well as a good story.


http://www.w1pid.com/spring/spring.html

On a side note, some of you may have noticed that I removed the “Capcha Code” from the blog comments area.  I did that in response to a couple of you out there that were having difficulties posting comments.  It’s a good thing that comments are on moderation and that Blogger has a good spam detection process.  Since removing the Code, I have been averaging about 15 – 20 spam comments a day!  Don’t people have better things to do?

Today was more like the end of April than the beginning of March.  Around lunchtime, the high was 68F (20C).  We really shouldn’t be seeing temps like this for another 4 to 6 weeks; but you know what?  I’ll take it any day.  Unfortunately, tomorrow is supposed to be more seasonable with highs only in the upper 40s (8C or so).

Tonight is the 40 Meters QRP Foxhunt.  I managed to get both Foxes Tuesday night in the 80 Meter hunt.  I worked Lee AA4GA quite easily; but was having a devil of a time with Ray KX9E in Illinois.  Turns out I had the K2 set to 1 Watt. When I bumped it up to 5, Ray was able to hear me a bit more easily.  I had forgotten that I had set it to 1 Watt over last weekend, and forgot to reset it.  That means I worked AA4GA in Georgia with only 1 Watt as it turns out. Cool!

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