RadioBanter - Today's "Antenna Wire Weather Report" for 28 December 2007

On Dec 28, 3:31 pm, RHF wrote:
Today's "Antenna Wire Weather Report" for 28 December 2007
- - - From Twain Harte, CA north of Yosemite NP.http://www.mymotherlode.com/Weather/
.
Well I woke-up this Morning at about 6:00 AM to Falling Snow.
.
-ps- We did not get a 'White Christmas' -but- It is White Out Now !
.
The Old Antenna Wire was covered by a Half-Inch of Snow
with about 4~6 Inches falling on the Ground Overnight.
.
Currently the Outside Temperature is about 30*F at this time
and the 'Quiet Sound' of Falling Snow is in the Air.http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Twain_Harte.html
.
Weather Radar {Radio} for Twain Harte, CA -USA-http://tinyurl.com/yv92vj
.
Weather Radar {Radio} for Sacramento Valley {North}
NORCAL -http://tinyurl.com/2w4h7v
Redding + Lake Tahoe + SF Bay Area + Sacramento + Yosemite
.
Weather Radar {Radio} for San Joaquin Valley {South}
CENCAL -http://tinyurl.com/yqjwon
Stockton + Monterey Bay Area + Yosemite + Fresno + Bakersfield
.
Twain Harte is near 4K Feet so we expect more Snow through
the Week-End; even though the California Central Valley Cities
below will only be getting more Rain for the Week-End.
.
right now the old antenna wire is snowy cold ~ RHF
.

30 degrees F is ??COLD??.

Man you are a wimp!

30 degrees is a heat wave around here come January!

I have replaced random wire antennas in zero degree weather with snow
or
ice covered roofs. Never said I had any sense.....And I am sure you
know that
the worse the weather when you erect an antenna the better the
performance.
Perhaps one reason why all my recent random wires don't work so well
is they
all went up during sane, er good weather.

Perhaps that is one reason why I have switched from wire antennas to
active ones.
Now if the snow or ice manages to take my 8" spike down from the roof
ridge I think
I will bigger problems to worry about.

When the metal roof went on, the installer was a ham, so he made some
very nice
NMO mounting boxes that are sealed from the weather and low loss is
protected by
the roof. We have 4 'air terminals' (lightning rods) and 3 NMO's
mounted up there.
Each metal panel is bonded to it's neighbor with stainless steel sheet
metal screws
sealed with some special silicone.

I think you are a ham, so you will understand my joy in being able to
talk to a friend in
146.52MHz simplex from here to a friend about 35 miles away with an HT
on high power,
1.5W. I am using the Lankford redesigned PA0RDT micro-whip with a base
mounted
Lankford amplifier. Having an antenna up about 35' really knocked the
RF noise down a
couple of notches. We will be having a power outage for 4 hours
Saturday because
they are moving our subdivision feed from one substation, to another.
I can't wait to see
how well I can receive with the R8B and the new antenna and no local
AC crud!

A friend built the whole thing into a unneeded 800MHz NMO "stubby"
that looks like a
slightly larger salt or pepper shaker with an 8" 'passivated' brass
rod as the active
antenna.

30 and cold..I will invite you down when it gets to zero or lower.

Enjoy the moderate temps.

A good friend is moving to Flagstaff AZ because he is sick of the cold
and snow.
It does get chilly and they do have snow there but nothing like here.
His sister moved
there and has a web camera for family and friends and it is so
depressing to look
out her window and see bright sunshine when we are cloudy and
miserably.

Terry