They say April showers bring May flowers, but I never heard of April Snows bring May flowers. This April has been a wild ride for weather, and its been slowing me down with outdoor HAM antenna work, but I’m making the best of it. So in this months edition we are looking for articles. I’ve got one on a 160M antenna I’ve been working on. Hopefully others chime in.
Mike K9KQX
This year’s MS Walk is on Sunday, May 6, 2018. We’re needed from approximately 7 am until noon. All you need to work this event is an HT and a chair to sit and monitor the location. Contact the Public Service chair if you’re interested in volunteering for this event.
The event takes place at the Schaumburg Baseball Stadium, 1999 South Springinsguth Road, Schaumburg.
With the upcoming weather spotting season, this article we recently unearthed is very timely. My wife recently came across a newspaper clipping from around 1959 that her family had kept. At that time the use of black and white television was still predominant and I believe the following method of tornado detection worked best with a black and white TV (you do remember those don’t you?) on an outdoor antenna.
I can attest that the Weller method did work for detecting lightning and strong storms. There is enough energy at 54 Mhz (approximately channel 2) in a lightning storm to trigger a TV screen to turn white and flicker with the energy. Although it was somewhat crude it worked well. Fortunately I was never close enough to a tornado to see my screen turn completely white. Today we have digital TV and cable in place so we are stuck watching the weather channel or a weather app on our smart phone. Ahh… the good old days.
The North Shore Radio Club is offering a technician through extra class starting Wednesday April 11 and concluding on Wednesday May 30. Classes are 7pm to 9pm in Northbrook.
Detailed information can be found on their web site North Shore Radio Club.
The club recently helped Ray WA9BLP refurbish his tower, antennas and shack. A full write up can be found in the March 2018 RHG. Kevin K9AAB provided this video documenting the process.