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Again today, I headed out at lunch time to the car.  It was hot ….  90F again, but this time before I left the building, I checked into WeatherUnderground and saw that the humidity was at 77%.  It was tropical to say the least.  I had a very pleasant QSO on 20 Meters with my good friend and fellow Polar Bear Ken WA8REI.  He was at home on his Mosley, so he was a solid 599+.  Fortunately, the beam was able to rope in my signal and I got a 579 in return.

Ken was enduring the sogginess in Michigan too, and was telling me that he is going to head on up to his trailer “in the country” soon to escape the heat and humidity.  Can’t say I blame him.  When I got back to my desk, I felt a bit soggy myself.

Tomorrow, I will bring a camera along with me to snap a few quick photos of the set up in the back of the Jeep.  A few have asked, curious to see exactly how I have the Buddistick set up.

With that much humidity, you know that sooner or later, something has to give.  Around 4:00 PM, we had a prototypical summer afternoon thunderstorm and downpour.  Sad thing is, it really hasn’t changed anything, and it feels just as soggy after, as it did before.  No cool fronts will be running through for several days at least.

After dinner, I got the first two radials down.  The lawn was all soggy and while that made things a bit messier than they would be otherwise, at least the gardening pins that I am using to hold down the wires went into the soil like a warm knife through butter.

The wires are screwed down onto to the sink strainer using crimped eyelets, which have been dipped in anti-oxidant paste.  I am using De-Oxit’s paste which is the same thing as Butternut’s “Butter it’s Not” as far as I can tell.  Each is also secured with a star washer.

When all is said and done, I hope to have another 20 radials down which will put me very close to 50 total if count the original 25 I put down years ago.

Oh, I worked Crete for the first time in 13 years this evening.  I heard SV9/SV2FPU calling CQ on 30 Meters (88′ EDZ antenna) and I threw out my call. Out of all the stations calling, I was amazed to hear him come back to me!  This also makes the first time I have worked Crete via CW.  Last time, all the way back in 2000, I actually used that mikeyphoney thing.  Don’t tell anybody!

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

It’s a good thing that I have my lunchtime QRP opportunities, as lately, I seem to get more “on the air” time from work than I do from home! The weekends seem to be filled with nonstop chores and house responsibilities. Time for Ham Radio is scarce and at a premium.

But during the work week, I get that one hour break for lunch. If I’m lucky, I’ll get out to the parking lot to find the bands hopping. This afternoon, I got lucky again.

I started my lunchtime session on 17 Meters, as has become my custom. I was fortunate enough to work two DX stations, S573DX in Slovenia and F5NTV in France.

After finishing with those two, I headed on over to the QRP Watering hole on 20 Meters. Once there, I called CQ for a bit, to be answered by John KG9HV, in Lafayette, IN. We had a nice 2X QRP QSO. I was on the KX3 and Buddistick, while John was using his Kenwood TS-570S to a dipole at 5 Watts. Even though the QSO was plagued by QSB at both ends, we were able to have a very nice conversation. And in fact, when the QSB let up, at times John was actually as good as 589!

The one bad thing about operating from the parking lot is dealing with the weather, kind of like a mini Field Day. It was hot (close to 90F – 32C), and it was the Noon hour, so the sun was at its peak. I didn’t feel like wasting gas to run the AC, though, so I just lifted the tail gate (rear door) of the Jeep and allowed it to provide some needed shade. The nice thing was that the building’s AC provided a nice refresher …… after a nice radio session.

Hamlog for Android is perfect for my portable logging needs. It’s super easy to use and has so many neat added on tools. I don’t even bother with plain paper, anymore. I recommend it highly.

As luck would have it, there’s not much to do at home tonight. While it would seem like it would be the perfect opportunity to get on the air, unfortunately there’s also a severe thunderstorm watch on until 10:00 PM.  I may get on for a bit; but I’ll have to be ready to pull “The Big Switch” at a moment’s notice.

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

New Mexico is dry. I was floored when it rained three days ago. But for 11 months out of the year, the air is dry, the sun is bright, the clouds are facetious, and everything’s on fire. 

Smoke plume from the 30,000 acre Silver fire

Smoke fills the horizon

 Such is life in NM. The 10% humidity caused me some pain and suffering for a while, but I seemed to got used to it. I used a lot of normal lotion, which wasn’t the best idea for being out in the sun so much.

Currently, a large chunk of the Gila mountain range is on fire, but thankfully few people live in the area. The Silver fire (named because its near Silver City, NM) is currently at 32,000 acres, making it the biggest fire in the US. From atop a VLA dish, you can see the smoke plume and the long trail of smoke being carried by 30-40 mph surface winds. It’s quite dark in Truth or Consequences.

Aside from the fire, the plains of central New Mexico have a variety of weather, typically involving some kind of dust and lots of wind:

Dust carried aloft by 40 mph winds

We even have tornadoes of dust! (Seriously, some of them are big enough to cause damage):

A particularly strong dust devil with a well defined center column

Then, all of a sudden, it storms:

A snowstorm to the north…it’s a rare event to see precip actually get to the ground.

Above, you see it’s snowing. Snowstorms in the southwest isn’t a myth after all! Just last year, a snowstorm dumped 2′ of snow on Socorro, NM.

Typically though, the air is so dry that any precipitation just evaporates before it hits the ground. This phenomena is called virga, and is the sole reason why the clouds are so facetious. What does hit the ground are tendrils of lightning, graupel — basically mini snowballs from the sky — and hail.

A tendril of lightning betwixt two VLA dishes

In 2004, hail fell with a vengeance:

So its dry, its dusty, windy and usually boring (minus the bits of hail, getting caught in a haboob, and waking up to lightning barrages)…but now is the season for rain. And we’re in dire need. NM has been in a 10 year drout, and wells are drying up like int he community of Magdalena, NM, just east of the VLA.

Locals believe that July 4 is the day which marks the start of the monsoon season…don’t take monsoon to seriously though, it’s not like the monsoons of India and Asia. They may dump 2″ of rain, but that gets sucked up so quickly by the dry, absorbent dust and flora of the mountain ranges that it was like it never happened the next day.

We’ll see what the skies bring.

Tomorrow should be interesting. I don’t know if it’s just TV weatherman hype, out what, but I overheard the forecast for tomorrow, and I heard the possibility of three inches (7.5 cm) of rainfall.

So I stopped at Home Depot and picked up an old fashioned cylindrical type rain gauge. I installed it on the back deck, where it will be out in the open and not shielded in any way. It will be fun to see how much rain we actually get.

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

Not sure I like it; or will keep it, but it IS different from what I had.  Is this template easier on the eyes?  Some folks recently and privately commented to me that they didn’t like a white typeface against a dark background.  Is this any better?

I joined my CERT group to aid South Plainfield with the running of the Holy Savior Academy 5K walk/run this morning. Luckily, I only had one obnoxious driver to deal with who couldn’t understand that the main roads were closed so that people wouldn’t be run over.  “You actually expect me to park on this side street and walk a block to my house?”, I was asked.  “Yes, sir”, I replied, “It’s for your protection as well as theirs.”  He still huffed and puffed until he started getting unreasonable and a little belligerent, so at that point, I radioed for police assistance.  They arrived and suddenly the light bulb went on over his noggin – he got the idea.

The thing that gets me is that not only is this an annual event; but it’s also very well publicized.  Notice about it appears on the local cable channel. Sacred Heart Church, which loans out its parking lot for the epicenter of the event is by far the largest church in town.  The notices for the “Family 5K Run/Walk” appears in their bulletin for weeks ahead of time. The local town paper published the details about the run/walk and the road closures the week before the event, also.  The town puts it on their Website and their Facebook page. Don’t people read?  Several of our CERT members suggested to our Director of Emergency Management that perhaps next year, on the night before the event, that we do an automated “reverse 911” call and telephone all the houses anywhere near the route that the roads will be closed. Oh, and by the way, the roads are closed for all of about an hour – 90 minutes tops!

One of my Ham buddies, Marv K2VHW, who also lives in South Plainfield was at the event with me.  He told me that his rain gauge had close to 4.5 inches (11 cm) of rain in it due to yesterday’s visit from Tropical Storm Andrea.  Yesterday was definitely a soaker, and I’m willing to bet the cicadas weren’t too thrilled with it.   I know that the tropical storm season does officially start  with the end of May.  I don’t recall us ever getting a visit by a named storm so early in the season.  I hope it’s not a portent for things to come.  Irene in 2011 and Sandy in 2012 were enough for me for a long, long time.

Another warm, sunny day. It really seems as if summer has arrived. But it’s not the weather for sitting in the shack operating the radio. It actually gets a bit unbearable in the shack on warm days with all the equipment (not to mention the operator!) radiating heat.

The weather forecast is for fime weather on the next few days. I’m not complaining but dare I say it, Olga and I have been wishing for some rain – Olga to water the garden and me to see if the rain gauge of the new weather station is really working!

With some freshly charged batteries in the KX3 I thought I would see what I could hear from out in the garden. The answer was – not much. Band conditions seem to be pretty dire at the moment. True, the antenna I was using out there (a WonderWand L-Whip) is not the most efficient I could find but it is easy to tune and usually receives OK. But today I could hear almost nothing.

One word to describe the bands tonight – stinky! (I could have used a more colorful and apropos term, but I’ve sworn off swearing.)

Oh, I had my share of success. I worked St. Barthelemy again, but on 30 Meters this time, and I worked Morocco and Ecuador. But each was akin to pulling teeth.

These were not 599 QSOs, even though that’s the default DX exchange, it seems. Signals were weak, warbly, and almost hazy and indistinct, for lack of a better description.

I saw on the DX Cluster that a fellow NJ QRPer, Chris KQ2RP managed to snare an Algerian, 7T9A on 17 Meters. I tried for a while, also, but I couldn’t hear him well enough to be sure that he would be coming back to me.  And if you can’t hear him well enough to know that he’s answering you, then why even bother? I’d probably only get in the way of people who actually stood a chance, so I gave up the chase after a few tries.

Over the next 24 to 36 hours we’re supposed to get around 3 inches of rain from this first tropical storm of 2013. Maybe as our terrestrial weather deteriorates, the solar weather will improve. Here’s hoping, anyway!

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