Weather! Both Terrestrial and Space

I’m sitting in the shack with the antennas disconnected while Mother Nature participates in a light show and bowling match outside. Heavy, heavy rain and lots of lightning and thunder. Flash flood warnings and the whole enchilada! Been HOT and HUMID, too.

The space weather has been pretty unsettled today, as well. I’ve checked the bands several times today and haven’t been at all impressed. It has been a dismal day, propagation-wise. QRN has been high.

The rain is supposed be with us, on and off, through Sunday … seems like it’s always a weekend thing, doesn’t it?  The forecast for next weekend is a chance of rain again for what a forecast that far out is worth. We’ll see.

Keep smilin’ de Dick N4BC

A Full Day

It was a good evening on the bands. I had FT-8 contacts on 80 through 10 meters … even picked up two new countries. Sixty meters was busy, and I had a Jamaican CW QSO on 40 meters.

In my guise as a public safety radio professional, I spent the day listening to a sales/technical representative from JPS Interoperability Solutions tell us all about their products. They offer ways to tie together disparate communications equipment (UHF, VHF, landline, cellular, , HF, trunked, analog, digital, video …). You name it, they can make it talk together. I’ve used their equipment over the years, and they build good stuff! I even have a JPS NRF-7 here in the shack, which was an early product for the Amateur market. It’s an audio dsp unit, and still holds its own, even after many years.

I bought a copy of Stu, KB1HQS’s new book, Portable Operating for Amateur Radio, and hope to get a chance to read it this weekend. I’ve followed his blog online for a while, and enjoy reading what he has to share. It’s $9.95 for the Kindle edition on Amazon ($19.95 for the softcover). I prefer the Kindle editions. Not only do you get them pretty much instantly, but they’re a considerable savings over the physical book. You don’t need a Kindle to read them. You can download a free app for your computer or phone.

Have a great weekend, and GET ON THE AIR!

73 de Dick N4BC

Lackluster Propagation This Evening

I worked quite a few stations on  FT-8 earlier this evening, around 1900Z … North America, South America, and Europe. From there, it’s been downhill. Not much going on with CW or digital modes now (2400Z/2000 EDT). Forty and eighty are pretty crappy, too, with high noise levels here at my QTH tonight. Ah, well …. there’s always tomorrow! Sure is different than this past weekend!

73 de Dick N4BC