It has been incessantly snowing since early this morning. Wet and heavy snow. A very quiet afternoon . I have had a number of good QSOs in the morning. The bands have been widely open to the US. Among them, Bob N2UU was one of the most impressive one to me. He has retired 1.5 years ago. But he would like to do something worth doing again and returned to his work recently. It was not for the income. Nine hour long duty turned out to be a little bit tiring to him, though. He has shortened the work load a little bit now. Though I don't think I would back to a full time duty like he does any longer, I feel the same way with him. There should be many more retirees with the same feeling for work.
From the window of the shack. Everything is covered with snow. Some wind is blowing from north. Large flakes of snow are flying almost horizontally. It is the first snowfall here this winter.
The antenna elements got much icy snow, I guess. The SWR reads very high even with 28MHz monobander. The radio has been turned off now. I have been going on tidying up the storage room in the shed. From now, it is the time for music. Listening to some chamber musics and playing cello. Snowfall is not bad at all. I only hope the antenna elements won't be bent with the heavy snow.
I guess you fixed the missing element on 10m?
ReplyDeleteEveryone is different but I can hardly wait to retire and will never return. Life is to short with to many hobbies and things to do. I work to live and not live to work.
Enjoy the snow, it is very peaceful.
I have been working 25 or so EU stations most mornings starting at 1500 utc on 20 CW. I am at work after that and usually to tired to return to the radio when I get home.....Enjoy your retirement Shin, We are only here for a little time in our life.
161, Steve N6TT
Steve,
DeleteRetirement is a real drastic change in life. Some people would fully enjoy it whilt the other would look back and miss their work in the past. Noone knows which way he or she would go. I am sure you would fill your retirement with much joy from your hobbies and family affairs. i would do that in the future. So far, I would go on my parttime work for a while. It takes me some more time to take off.
I thought the dancing dog you had uploaded was your Sadee. But she should diet a little bit before starting practice of dancing!
See you.
Shin
I am interested in your weather comments. We too have been experiencing cold weather, below freezing the past three mornings and we expect one more. So far our high temperature has only gotten to 39 degrees Fahrenheit. I see many trees, and shrubs with dark brown leaves from having been frozen. I took time the day before this cold storm moved into our area, and wrapped all our visible water pipes with a foam tubing insulation, and covered that with a shiny aluminum foil tape, the valves and faucets are covered temporarily with multiple layers of Cloth Towels as a blanket and we have been letting one faucet in the back of our house run a small stream through a hose to the base of our Orange tree. I run the Swimming pool pump all night to help keep the water from freezing up and damaging the plastic pipes. But I have no worry about my antenna, as in the cool weather it does not sag so much, and the wire is actually higher in the air! So far I have not gotten up early in the morning, and have had company over Saturday and Sunday with our grandson staying with us, so radio has not been turned on. I wish you the best of luck on your yagi antennas, but from the pictures I have seen they seem strong enough to handle the extra load from the Snow and Ice.
ReplyDelete73'
Bob Gates
W7AYN
Hi Bob,
Deletewe have done with the water pipes and faucets exactly in the same way. But, recently, we are getting a little bit lazy! We knew what part is most vulnerable to freezing accidents now.
So far, the antennas are OK. The 4 element tribander has faily long elements for 40m with trap coil in the middle. I was concerned about it. But it seems OK. SWR returned normal.
In such a weather, I envy your antenna! It seems exceptionally cold over there.
Have you had a pleasant weekend with your guests?
I will see you soon again.
Shin@tired from tidying up the shed rooms.