Weather and band conditions

I worked the 40 Meter Fox Hunt last night - for the first time in a while, I actually had enough energy to stay up and do it. Added to that, the basement had warmed up to the low 60s, as we're in the midst of Spring time temperatures. The overnight low held at 54F (12C) and it was rainy. The only bad thing was that 40 Meters sounded like it was in full time "Summer mode" with lots of static crashes and noise. From looking at the Web, I see that some areas of the upper Midwest were experiencing severe weather conditions and that some places even had tornado warnings put in place.

The other reason I joined the Hunt was a somewhat selfish one. The two Foxes were Drew K9CW in IL and Dave N1IX in NH. I usually can hear the both of them quite easily and last night did not ruin that pattern.

I came across Dave N1IX in the upper portion of the Fox area right off the bat. He was LOUD and I thought to myself that Drew would be even louder, because he usually is. So I went hunting for him, found him and to my surprise, he was a bit weaker than I had expected. He was an easy 579, but he usually blows the cans off my head.  Evens o, I got in his log after figuring out where he was listening. and switching from the Butternut to the W3EDP. I called several times on the vertical with no joy. I switched over to the W3EDP (which is a bit noisier for me on receive on 40 Meters) and got him on my first call via the wire antenna.

Then I went back to the frequency that I had written down for Dave and nabbed him soon thereafter. Dave was 599+ and was so loud, it almost made you wonder if he had previously gone QRO and had forgotten to return the rig back to 5 Watts for the Hunt. However, experience tells me that is just how propagation works, sometimes. So much for the guys who insist that QRP signals automatically equals weak signals!

When the Hunt is over, or after I have been lucky enough to nab both Foxes, I like to go to the Reverse Beacon Network and see how the Foxes are being heard, and where.

Here's Drew's map:

As you can see, Drew K9CW was being heard from coast to coast. Totally respectable and I wish MY signals propagated so well. Still, I was surprised by his less than robust usual signal. Maybe the stormy weather in the Midwest attenuated his signal.

Dave N1IX, on the other hand:

If we had any Hounds in Europe last night, they would have been in for a treat!

Getting back to the weather, it's a warm but rainy day in New Jersey. The high temp this afternoon is supposed to approach 60F. Of course, it's February and that won't last as a cold front is supposed to come rushing through overnight. In fact, the lightning detector app in my phone detected some strikes very early this morning around 3:00 AM, but they were more than 20 miles away.  So before I left for work today, I made sure to go down the basement and disconnect the antennas just in case we get any localized  afternoon thunderstorms. Better safe than sorry.

72 de Larry W2LJ

QRP - When you care to send the very least!