Summary:
Day1: RAIN!
Day2: WIND!
Good News: Nobody was hurt! Well that is the best I can say. No
lightening like June.
I activated 7 grids. 3 grids in the pooring rain, 1 grid was nice and 3
were in wind. I gave up attempting to stay dry! I was soaked but there
was no lightening! Next year I bring a bathing suit. Conditions were
not great on the bottom 4 bands both days, in fact some of my regulars
like K1TEO and W2SZ were a lot lighter than normal at times. Two
surprises, K8GP and K1WHS were heard in more than one of my grids both
days neither of which were hardly ever heard in previous years. I also
noticed both of them were pushing hard for passing.
Microwave bands seemed a little lighter than June as well. I made fewer
than expected 5ghz contacts. I had some fun attempting to "run the
bands" with K3TUF and N3NGE at the same time. These two guys seemed to
attract people to join in the run and I bumped into a guy that was also
in FN02. A grid I activate but almost never work. So this
practice seemed to pay off for me but I am not sure why it attracts
other contacts. It was cool.
I met three non-ham people in three grids that owned the properties I
was either on or near. ALL three were wonderfully interested and
delighted I was there. The FN02 farmer wanted to know why I did not
tell more people to come up there? I responder by saying there are not
to many nuts like me! Another farmer at FN12 has 1200 acres of land and
offered to let me use his driveway. Unfortunatly it has a great view to
the north but not much any other direction. In my last grid the owner
of the house closest to me came out to see what was going on when a
gust of wind lifted my van off the sizzor jacks andcaused some damage.
It was dark when it happened but he said things did not look right when
he saw I was shining the flashlight all over the place. He said he knew
there was trouble because I never use my white lights, I always use the
red ones. I try not disturb the neighbors by using red flash lights. He
saw the large white light and came out to offer help! He helped me make
sure I lowered the dish and recovered my beam with out damage to them.
Ron was a great guy. It seems that there are nice people out there even
when nuts like me are around.
My last site, FN22, about half way though the grid schedules, a wind
gust came up and knocked my van off the sizzor jacks breaking them. I
also had a 2x4 split as well as a short 2 foot peice of EMT (Yea I
should not use EMT) bent. The winds were steady at around 15 knots when
I set up but it got gusty. I had to quit since using a 2m quarter waver
vertical does not do well. I did make a few contacts on the way home
though! I took a picture at a nearby gas station of the orange flag I
put on the bottom of the antenna mast for safety. It has a slat in it
to help it stay down while I am driving. It was horizontal with the
wind in the shelter of the gas station! You can also see that my log
periodic antenna is kinda bent forward over the windshield when it
should be level front to back. The dish is also tilting to the right
because of the 2x4 damage on the right side. They had DUCK tape at the
gas station and laughed when I was wrapping it around the 2x4. I just
wanted to to keep from splittng more and flopping around. They also
gave me a left behind sizzor jack. One more and I will be back in
business.
All in all the most significant damage cost will be to replace a sizzor
jack. It was an exciting night! Got home at 2am. I drove slower in the
winds with the damage being unsure of the troubles I might have.
,,,Tim KE3HT/R