The weather from Friday afternoon until now has been wild and woolly. Our Ohio Valley and Great Lake region friends have had to contend with snowfalls of up to 2 feet. Here in NJ, we've had to deal with torrential rains, flooding and windy conditions of up to 60 MPH hour gusts. A mere 400 miles made all the difference in the world. On Saturday, while Bob W3BBO was running his snowblower for the umpteenth time, tropical air descended upon New Jersey. Even though we were already soaked, it felt like a sauna if you stepped outside in the afternoon (after a pretty chilly morning!) with temperatures that hovered around 65 Degrees. I knew something was strange when I noticed all the windows in the house were actually fogged up!
Then, "the other shoe dropped" with nightfall last night. The winds changed up direction and regained speed again. The temperature started to drop like a stone - and the power went out. For 2 and 1/2 hours we were without power; and all that you could do was listen to the wind and rain batter the house. At times, it sounded like a freight train was going by on the street outside. You could listen to and hear the house creak and groan.
I contemplated (for a few moments) going down the basement and putting the K2 on the 12V battery to see what I could hear. With the neighborhood in blackness, I definitely would not have had to deal with my local QRN on 40 Meters. I was just about to do it, when the darkness was ripped asunder by a few flashes of lightning. In this case, discretion was definitely the better course; and the rigs remained off the air and disconnected from the antennas.
My two children were tucked in for the night and were sound asleep. I had a few candles going to provide some illumination; so I plopped down in an easychair and turned on my Palm Tungsten E. It was a great time to catch up on a few podcasts; so I listened to a few episodes of "Solder Smoke" and "Long Delayed Echoes".
Ham Radio had triumphed once again, even with no power and lightning in the area to keep me off the air.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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