we used to call this "Indian Summer". I don't know why or how the term originated, and I suppose it's not politically correct to use it anymore. After the first frost or series of really cold nights of Autumn, there's usually a return to a few days of Summer like weather. We're going to experience that today, tomorrow with a tail off on Wednesday with a high of 81F (27C) today, 82F (28C) tomorrow and 78F (26C) on Wednesday. From there on it's down to seasonable temperatures again. As much as I prefer the warm weather to the cold, I've started getting used to chillier "sweater weather", and the onset of early darkness. I wouldn't mind the warm up if it would hang around for more than just a few days. This is just a tease of my favorite season that I'd prefer to do without. Breakups are best when you don't look back. LOL!
I was delighted to see an e-mail from DXEngineering in my inbox this morning. I placed that order for the Butternut replacement parts yesterday morning and according to FedEx tracking, I will have them by end of day tomorrow. That is fast service! The extended outlook for Saturday is for partly cloudy skies with a high of 66F (18C), so it should be a good day for Butternut repairs. Not sure when Saturday as Hadley Communications Technologies, the 501 C3 company that provides funding for SPARC is having a clothing drive fund raiser and I promised to help out at the drop off point. I will get the repairs done on either Saturday or Sunday, though, as I don't want to place all my bets on continued good weather for the long term. I don't want to go the entire winter without having the HF9V available to me.
Speaking of the early darkness - that means that conditions for 80 and 160 Meters should be improving as we head further into Autumn and Winter. I checked into the St. Max Net last night which has been on 40 Meters for the Summer. The QRM from shortwave broadcast stations has been horrific. I hope the net plans to return to 80 Meters soon, as it was hard copying weaker stations over the heterodynes. 80 Meters may cut down on the reach of the Net a bit, but it's a lot more comfortable listening there.
So far my MFJ-1982 HP seems to be performing as well as KD2FSI's has been performing for SPARC Field Day the past few years. The antenna fits nicely into a slightly different configuration, as it is a bit longer than the W3EDP. I had to get a little creative to make it fit. My midpoint mast used to be even with the backend of my neighbor's garage. Moving it to the last chain link fence upright post on that side of the yard did the trick.
Of course, the UNUN is bigger on this version, than the one on my 1982 LP, as that was designed to handle 20 Watts maximum. I had really wanted to purchase the MFJ-1982 MP version, which was designed to handle up to 200 Watts, but they were sold out already. Since I run up the power for the St. Max Net up to 85 Watts, the 1982 HP is a bit of overkill, but it was my only recourse.
I suppose I could have gone with an antenna from a different vendor, but I am familiar with the MFJ-1982's from Field Day, so it seemed to make sense to go with what you know that works.
72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP - When you care to send the very least!
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