Monday, January 21, 2013

What a difference a day makes

As we go from Spring back to Winter.  Yesterday we had a high temperature in the low 50s. Today's high was in the low 30s. There's a chance for a light dusting of snow tonight. High temperatures for the next three or four days are not supposed to even make the freezing mark.

I started the big shack clean up this weekend and got maybe a third of the way done - well, maybe a little less.  Step one is tossing out all the junk that's useless and has no value. Step two will involve reorganizing what I keep. Step three will be to take care of whatever odds and ends are needed.

As expected, I have found a few items that I had looked for in the past, but was never able to find. "Oh, so THAT'S where that was!" I said that a couple times.

Hopefully, if I get a little bit done each night, I should be able to finish this next weekend. Going forward, I really have to avoid the hoarder mindset where I think that I will use every scrap that I save. If it's not of really useful value, from here on out, it gets tossed.

I had a modicum of success on last night's Run For The Bacon. The bands were pretty dead. Not sure if that was due to bad propagation, or if everyone was tuckered out from the NFC playoffs. I managed 7 QSOs - two on 40 Meters and five on 80 Meters. As usual, that puts me solidly in the middle of the pack.

Oh, I took a closer look at that "no-name" antenna switch that I had been using, and now I know why the Butternut performed so badly when it was connected to it. It turns out the SO239 connector was not soldered well and only "partial" contact was being made. I guess there is some mighty fine junk out there that is not MFJ!

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!

1 comment:

  1. Well do I feel silly.....I was so looking forward to taking part in the Run for the bacon contest. I looked it up on WA7BNM contest calender and there is was. It said Jan 21/13 it was odd that it was not a Sunday as its advertised on the FPQRP site??? Maybe it was due to the NFL games or that Monday in the states is a holiday??? I emailed and got my piggy number 3064. I then read your blog Larry of how you took part in the contest yesterday!!!!!! Then it clicked the times 0200 UTC is the 21st!!!!!
    A sign of me getting old I guess but I do have my piggy number all ready to go for the next contest on a SUNDAY.
    Mike

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