Gosh, you certainly have been having a hard time. Several years ago we had a bad storm around here and I had no electricity for slightly less than 24 hours but that was more than enough! The temperature inside the house got down to 38° and I was seriously considering a bailout to a Red Cross shelter. I can't imagine how bad things would get without electricity for as long a time as your outage has lasted. I sure hope they get things fixed for you very shortly. As far as having the road plowed, have you considered bribery? Only joshing of course.
I tried to check into both the 20 and 40 meter nets last Sunday. 20 meters was totally dead here. I managed to snag a couple of fairly weak 40 meter contacts but heard nothing else. I don't think band conditions were very good that evening, at least around here. I will have another go at it next week. Bruce-W8FU -----Original Message----- From: elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net [mailto:elecraft-boun...@mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Kevin Rock Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2008 10:02 PM To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net Subject: [Elecraft] Preliminary Elecraft CW Net Report for December 28th & 29th, 2008 Good Evening, I am still without power but ran both nets from my battery bank of four Trojan T-105s linked in series parallel. Luckily I had them charged the day the power went out (Wednesday) and they are still over 12 volts. According to West Oregon Electric Cooperative the repair crew is only a few miles away working on the last feeder line up to me. I know there are a few more breaks between there and me so I expect to be awakened when a few lights and the fans come on during the middle of the night. All I can say is hot running water is the most valuable luxury in the world :) Luckily power got to the lower parts of the mountain yesterday so I am able to use the telephone. I have worked through many county agencies including the sheriff and fire departments but the one I need the most is not answering. I need them to plow the current five feet of snow off the road. Then I can resupply for the next power outage. It would sure be nice to see another human being again too! I have not seen anyone since last Saturday when there was a break in the storm. I am starting to get just a little stir crazy :) But, to get back to net news, I was running my rig at 50 watts today into an artificially lowered G5RV. One of my antennas got snapped right at the feedline connection to the doublet. The other, the one I am currently using, was lowered about twenty feet by what I think is the same branch which took out the other one. However, it tunes nicely. But then so did the coax stub left from the other antenna :) I just receive and transmit so much better with the unbroken one ;) The twenty meter net went swimmingly. There were a dozen check ins. Plus, we got the very rare AC7AC. He needs to keep his K3 in one piece for longer than 30 minutes at a time. Ron, maybe we need to hide your tools and put you on emergency power. That way you would be forced to use your radio more than you tear down and rebuild it! I am glad you weathered the storms off the Pacific. Once the snow melts off up here this will only be a memory. Well, except for the folks in Vernonia. They are sweating out another flood. All of my many feet of snow melts into the Nehalem River watershed which flows right through their town. Thus, what is good for me is bad for them. Enough already and on with the lists => On 14050 kHz at 2300z: W0CZ - Ken - ND - K3 W0JFR - John - CO - K3 W1TF - Ty - GA - K3 WC7S - Dale - WY - K2 NO2D - Pete - CO - K3 - 2126 JH1VIG - Kaz - Japan (near Tokyo) K6DGW - Fred - CA - K3 AC7AC - Ron - OR - K3 VE7XF - Ralph W6ZH - Pete - CA - rig unknown :) K6PJV - Dale - CA - K3 N0AR - Scott - MN - K2 On 7045 kHz at 0200z: WC7S - Dale - WY - K2 W7SF W0JFR - John - CO - K3 Since I cannot boot the regular computer which holds the database I cannot give all of the information necessary to complete this report. When West Oregon Electric is kind enough to give me back AC power I will rewrite this report with the blanks filled in. Currenty I am running my laptop through an inverter hooked to my battery bank. I am very happy the phones are working again; it is very nice to hear people talking. I was able to check into the ECOM nets and hear about the local emergencies and could have helped if only to relay traffic. But, now the police, fire, road crews, and power company all know I work with ECOM and train people in ECOM methods. I set up the folks at West Oregon Electric with www.qrz.com and a list of call signs so they can find the local amateurs they need to assist them during power outages. They were most grateful. I need to work on my antennas though but luckily the VHF/UHF antennas have weathered the various storms much better than the HF antennas ever have. My J-pole, my 6 meter loop, and my GP-9 are all working just fine. However I could work the state's HF ECOM net if necessary because my antenna is now tending toward NVIS behavior :) Thank you for your support and a very Happy New Year to all of you! 73, Kevin. KD5ONS (Net Control Operator 5th Class) - _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com _______________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Post to: Elecraft@mailman.qth.net You must be a subscriber to post to the list. Subscriber Info (Addr. Change, sub, unsub etc.): http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/subscribers.htm Elecraft web page: http://www.elecraft.com
