This turned out a bit better than I expected, despite the pop-up T-storms in the area all afternoon.
I’m always a bit leery of the August NAQP’s. My first radio in the shack after re-licensing in 2000 wound up being zapped by a nearby lightning strike in the midst of NAQP in 2001. It turns out one of my neighbors had more three houses over had a lot more damage. We think it hit the utility pole in front of his house. It seemed to come into everyones house via the CATV lines. My CATV boxes were shot, and the CATV lines cross the shack where the antennas come in. But the radio was toasted via the connection to the computer. The radio’s CPU was shot.
Come to think, NAQP has been an expensive contest. I lost a power supply in January NAQP. Hmmm…
So the T-storms always give me cause to pause. The WX at 1800z wasn’t looking good, but I decided to give it a whirl. I checked 10m first, and there were signals. Hot Dawg! After three quick Q’s, There’s a loud static crash on the radio followed by a distant rumble of thunder. Plug Pulled PDQ.
THAT didn’t last long.
After a few hours but-not-in-chair, around 2030z a check of the local WX radar seemed to show the KazShack QTH would be in a hole between the scattered storms, so I hopped back on. After a short bit of S&P, I got in a […]
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