The New Year Continues To Test Us All
The New Year is proving to be a challenging one so far for many of us across the Globe. Here at Baildon Moor, Yorkshire we have been suffering now for almost 3 weeks with no sign of improvement. At present the temperature has dropped down to -2.5°C which isn't helping much regarding the frozen pipework that is preventing the use of the kitchen sink and shower.
We have been visiting the Family on a regular basis where hot food and the use of the shower is available, but to be honest it has been really hard going.
The upside was a chance to play on my new Yaesu FT-817 at a different location using the Miracle Whip and 5 Humble Watts. It wasn't long before I got my first long distant QRP contact on 20m, which was Andy - EW6GF from Belarus.
The QRP rig worked very well for me and back at the QTH, I decided to try the little FT-817 with the Hustler 6BTV.
The mighty Hustler Vertical and 5Watts began to impress me as I continued having QRP fun working as far as The US thanks to K3C, K3LP and W1AW, all worked and logged.
I also got lucky on the Amateur Satellites as I made it into Canada - VO1ONE, via AO-51 using the Yaesu FT-847 and the home made IO-TEN EL Sat antenna.
The Satellite DX didn't stop there, as I managed to get into the new Chinese SAT XW-1 which is now known as HO-68.
The new SAT has a fantastic footprint which allowed me to make it across the Atlantic into FN34JK, where Daniel - KB1RVT came back to my Call via the new SAT.
I have had plenty of other excellent QSO's via SO-50, AO-51, VO-52 and the new HO68 into Europe over the past couple of weeks, thoroughly enjoying the whole affair.
I'm looking forward to meeting some more of you soon via the Sats in 2010.
Back to the WX. With the snow coming down thick and fast I battled into work yesterday in the excellent snow munching Toyota RAV-4, (full time 4 X 4) only to find that the College where I work was closed due to the bad WX.
This was a another great opportunity to forget about the WX for a while and get on the bands during my usual working time.
I made some nice QSO up and down G-Land on 40M working some interesting Stations such as M0CNU - Tom, from Falmouth and Ivan - G4WIA, who was near by to Helston. Both Stations were very strong on my FT-767GX which is fed into a 130ft Dipole pointing North/South.
I enjoyed some lengthy conversation from the County of Cornwall from both Stations which was very nice, as we had visited their region only last Summer when we went to the Marconi Centre.
So you could say every cloud has in this case a Snowy lining, but at least I got the day off work and played some radio.
I was back in work today with a slightly earlier finish and as you can see from the pictures of my 20M Delta Loop and Hustler 6BTV any more Snow could cause a bit more fuss and trouble!
If we all think warm thoughts hopefully the pipework will thaw and we can get back to normality, but in the meantime its slow safe driving and plenty of thermals. Not forgetting as much RF as I can possibly generate, Micro waves preferably! 73 Stay warm and safe.
We have been visiting the Family on a regular basis where hot food and the use of the shower is available, but to be honest it has been really hard going.
The upside was a chance to play on my new Yaesu FT-817 at a different location using the Miracle Whip and 5 Humble Watts. It wasn't long before I got my first long distant QRP contact on 20m, which was Andy - EW6GF from Belarus.
The QRP rig worked very well for me and back at the QTH, I decided to try the little FT-817 with the Hustler 6BTV.
The mighty Hustler Vertical and 5Watts began to impress me as I continued having QRP fun working as far as The US thanks to K3C, K3LP and W1AW, all worked and logged.
I also got lucky on the Amateur Satellites as I made it into Canada - VO1ONE, via AO-51 using the Yaesu FT-847 and the home made IO-TEN EL Sat antenna.
The Satellite DX didn't stop there, as I managed to get into the new Chinese SAT XW-1 which is now known as HO-68.
The new SAT has a fantastic footprint which allowed me to make it across the Atlantic into FN34JK, where Daniel - KB1RVT came back to my Call via the new SAT.
I have had plenty of other excellent QSO's via SO-50, AO-51, VO-52 and the new HO68 into Europe over the past couple of weeks, thoroughly enjoying the whole affair.
I'm looking forward to meeting some more of you soon via the Sats in 2010.
Back to the WX. With the snow coming down thick and fast I battled into work yesterday in the excellent snow munching Toyota RAV-4, (full time 4 X 4) only to find that the College where I work was closed due to the bad WX.
This was a another great opportunity to forget about the WX for a while and get on the bands during my usual working time.
I made some nice QSO up and down G-Land on 40M working some interesting Stations such as M0CNU - Tom, from Falmouth and Ivan - G4WIA, who was near by to Helston. Both Stations were very strong on my FT-767GX which is fed into a 130ft Dipole pointing North/South.
I enjoyed some lengthy conversation from the County of Cornwall from both Stations which was very nice, as we had visited their region only last Summer when we went to the Marconi Centre.
So you could say every cloud has in this case a Snowy lining, but at least I got the day off work and played some radio.
I was back in work today with a slightly earlier finish and as you can see from the pictures of my 20M Delta Loop and Hustler 6BTV any more Snow could cause a bit more fuss and trouble!
If we all think warm thoughts hopefully the pipework will thaw and we can get back to normality, but in the meantime its slow safe driving and plenty of thermals. Not forgetting as much RF as I can possibly generate, Micro waves preferably! 73 Stay warm and safe.
Comments
Temp dropped to -10.5C here last night. Where is global warming when you need it?
Good luck and I hope to see you soon.
Thanks for all the support it is greatly appreciated especially during these unusually difficult times.
The WX has decided to warm up and of course the pipework decided to give out when the ice thawed causing a burst. - Sods Law I'm afraid!
Anyway you wont be surprised to hear I used to be a Maintenance Engineer as well as working at the Colleges Plumbing section back in the day. So yes earlier today, I was laid underneath the QTH in 2Ft snow drifts repairing the damaged pipe work.
I can laugh about it now as I have just had the hottest shower in a while ;-)
Once again your kind comments have helped us both get through the bad WX. Thank You All and Stay Warm!