As the temperatures sizzled in NJ today; so did the bands fizzle.
QRP operations the last three days were very good from the park that I go to in Carteret, NJ during lunchbreak. The K1 and the PAC-12 have been doing an outstanding job for me. Not only have the QSOs been good; but I've been getting compliments from the ops on the other end when they have been finding out that I've been using a QRP radio with a portable vertical antenna. You see, QRP skeptics? You can get 589 and 599 reports using 5 Watts!
Today, however, as the temperatures soared past 95 degrees; the bands seemed to head in a proportionally inverse direction. 20, 30 and 40 Meters yielded few, if any signals. After about 15 - 20 minutes of tuning around, I packed up and headed back to work. Not that I wanted to go back there by any means; but at least it was air conditioned.
By the way, the park I set up in is the Joseph Medwick Memorial Park. Joseph Medwick is better known as "Ducky" Medwick - professional baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals as part of "The Gashouse Gang" in the 30s and for the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants in the 40s. He was the last National League Player to win the Triple Crown (league leader in three categories for any one season - home runs, runs batted in and batting average). Joe Medwick, who was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1968, was born in Carteret NJ; so the park bears his name. Since I'm such a big baseball fan, it's fitting.
73 de Larry W2LJ
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