K3WWP's Diary

Friday, February 03, 2012 4:33 AM - Well, I'm doing this from my new (super-fast) computer. I'm slowly migrating files over from the old computer while I'm learning Windows 7 along the way. Sure are a lot of subtle little differences between XP and 7, but I'm already getting used to some of them now. Bruce drove me down to Best Buy in the big Pittsburgh Mills Mall this morning and he looked over the laptops there to see which one he would like to get when he does get one in the next month or two. He found a really nice looking HP laptop which is about the same overall power as this HP desktop I bought and am using now. Then we went to Appleby's and we both had a great (large) lunch courtesy of some Appleby's gift cards I had.

I see I've got to set up some custom tags here in HTML-Kit on this new computer. I had to type in those breaks manually or enter them from a list. In the customized version I just make one mouse click and the breaks are inserted. It's little things like that I'm going to be running into during the transition period.

I love the way this computer plays videos. My first hour or so after setting it up I was just watching some sports on ESPN3 or Weather World, etc. It's not quite TV quality, but very close. Still a very rare pause in the streaming video, but I only noticed a couple in the hour or so I was watching.

Bottom line - I've got a new toy I'm really going to love a lot. Or I should say like a lot, since someone once told my you can't really love inanimate objects. And that's my (early) entry for today. I think I going to take a break from computing now and get in a little walk. It's sunny and 46 degrees showing on the computemp right now. -30-

Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:23 PM - Well the very over-hyped fake event in Punxsutawney took place this morning, and "Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, and we will have six more weeks of winter" prediction was made. However, there was no sun for Phil to see his shadow and the prediction was actually made several days in advance of the event by those in charge of the circus.

OK, now if you believe the origin of the groundhog shadow story, actually winter is virtually over. Probably most of you know that the origin of groundhog day was laid in Europe some centuries ago. The story is that a sunny Candlemas Day (Feb 2) means more winter weaher on the way while a cloudy Candlemas Day means winter is at its end. The connection goes something like this, as far as I know. Somewhere in Germany, someone decided if animals see their shadows on Feb 2 (because it's a sunny Candlemas Day), there will be six more weeks of winter. Then moving ahead in the story, when Pennsylvania became settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch (actually Deutsch - Germans), the animal became the groundhog because of its abundance here in the state. And that's the story in a nutshell with a lot of details left out.

Two quick QSOs tonight for a change. Joe N2ADP in NJ and one of our NAQCC brothers as we call them, Tom KA2KGP in NY tailended that QSO. Oh the other brother is Mike N2COD, and there was a third with the club also, but unfortunately KA2RWL is now a SK.

I'm glad the QSOs are out of the way because tomorrow then the following days are going to be more busy than usual for me. Tomorrow I'm replacing my 8 year old computer with a new one although this one still works fine. I just like to get a new toy now and then. HI. Also I want to get caught up on the latest in the line of Microsoft O/S's with Windows 7. I always felt that Vista, like ME and 2000, was kind of a stopgap O/S to satisfy demand for something new and different while 95, 98, XP, and now 7 were the real 'serious' O/S's. Then I always like to wait a couple years until at least one SP has been issued before I change.

Once I get it set up, then transferring 'stuff' from this XP computer will be a slow process. I like to do it all manually instead of getting one of those transferral programs because I have more control over the process and can also clean up and update as I go along. I have a lot of 'junk' on this computer that I don't need starting to clutter up a new computer, even though it has a 1 TB hard drive plus my external 1/2 TB hard drive which I will transfer eventually.

So with all that said, my diary entries may be a bit lean the next several days depending on how things go with the transfer. -30-

Wednesday, February 01, 2012 10:44 PM - Here we are into the second month of 2012 already. Where does the time go?

My QSOs came fairly easy this evening. The first one on 30 meters of all places, and with TN which isn't so unusual. It seems TN is one of the states I seem to be able to work easily to a great extent no matter what time or band. That was Bob KJ4BJ, then it was Bob N3JJT answering my CQ on 80 meters after just a couple minutes. Incidentally Bob was 47 and Scott 49. That has to be the youngest pair of hams I've worked for my streak QSOs in a very long time.

For the second day in a row the high temperature was in the low 60s. I wish we could store this winter somewhere and replay it each year. At least the first two thirds of it, and if February continues the same way, I'd like to add it to the storage. According to AccuWeather it will be nice all the way through the 15th at least.

Oh, January was the third month in a row with the mean temperature at least 6 degrees above normal. The average high was about 8 degrees above, and the average low about 4 degrees above normal. Even with those extremes though, we set very few daily records. I took my records upstairs already. I wanted to list a few more stats about January, but I don't feel like going up to get them right now. If I remember, I'll try to get them here in the diary tomorrow. I do remember that the average high was the second highest since I've kept records starting in 1959. I think it was 2006 that was in first place.

Thanks to Geo N1EAV and Tim K6ACF for telling me it must have been the posting of my web site on eHam.net that increased my hits the past few days. I don't have time to peruse hardly any ham radio sites on the Internet, so I depend on kind folks like Geo and Tim to provide answers to some of the things I ask. -30-

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 8:08 PM - It looks like my web site got posted somewhere in the past couple days. I've had a big surge in hits - about 75% or more above average. If anyone saw such a post anywhere, I'd appreciate you letting me know where.

I was noticing my little Siberian tomato plant today. I put it in the sun on my kitchen window sill, and all the time the sun was bright, its leaves really didn't turn to face the sun, but later when it became cloudy, its leaves did turn to face more directly towards where the sun was in the sky. I don't know what it means, but I enjoy seeing little things like that in nature. Much better watching things like that than the crap they have on the appropriately named 'Idiot Box' some folks call television.

We closed out January with temperatures in the low 60s. It will be interesting to see what the average for January will be when I do the figures either later tonight or more likely tomorrow morning.

Although long range weather outlooks must be taken with the knowledge that many times they are educated guesses at best, here's what AccuWeather says for the first half of February through the 14th. The predicted high for each day ranges from 40 to 53, and the low from 26 to 35. That's compared to the long term averages for the same 14 day period of a high of 35-37 and low of 18-19. Just remarkable. I wonder if that huge mass of cold air is going to stay up in Canada until it just warms up in the spring. It has happened before, but very rarely do we go through a winter without at least one major spill.

Only one QSO so far in February. I just happened to tune to 3558 to hear my good friend Gary N2ESE asking QRL?, and I called him and we visited about a half hour. Before that I was on 40 meters and it seemed everywhere I went to call CQ, someone jumped on top of me. So the second QSO will either be later this evening or tomorrow morning or afternoon. Anyway Gary's QSO gave me 8 letters of the 79 needed to master our NAQCC February Dog Tribute Challenge. That's the maximum possible so far.

Well, I have a lot of my end of month stuff done already, but still more to be done, so I'm going to close this entry and get some more done before bed time in 4 hours or so. -30-

Monday, January 30, 2012 8:41 PM - For the first time in quite a while, my first streak QSO of the evening came on 40 meters. It seems to be picking up of late as the sun sets a little bit later each evening, and will continue to do so for quite a while now with the quickest rate of change around March 21st. I had a solid QSO with K0ZXQ in MO. I also had the start of a second 40 meters QSO, but KC9NEH was quite chirpy and drifting when he answered my CQ, and he never came back after I sent my info. Perhaps he was on batteries which went dead. Then it took quite a while to get my second QSO on 80 meters, but finally Steve KM6XG answered my CQ, and we had almost a regular 30 minute rag chew. Amazing how conditions are so good on 80 meters, but very few folks seem to use it in the evening for some reason.

Only 6 more days and my multi-QSO per day streak will reach one full year. Then I have to decide if I want to continue it or discontinue it and go back to just the main at least one-per-day streak. That one will never be discontinued voluntarily. Something beyond my control will have to end that one.

I mentioned a couple entries ago that I was going to check my weather records to see if I could make what the Penn State meteorologists call an analog forecast. I was going to see how February turned out temperature wise after having Nov-Jan be above normal. Well there wasn't much of a relationship between Nov-Jan warmth and Feb warmth. 26 years had the period Nov-Jan above normal and of those, 15 times the following Feb was above normal - only slightly above half. Of the 7 times when Nov-Jan were 3.0 or more degrees above normal, 4 times Feb was above normal, again only slightly above half. The biggest discrepancy was in 2006-2007 when Nov-Jan averaged 4.7 degrees above normal, and February was one of the coldest in my records at 8.0 below average. So I can't make any kind of prediction for this upcoming February based on those stats. It's only slightly better than a 50-50 chance of being an above normal month. Interesting though.

Speaking of temperature, it's just time now for me to go out and get my readings. Nice to be able to walk on green grass to get to my thermometer shelter. Unusual for January 30th. Supposed to be in the 50's here tomorrow and Wednesday, too. -30-

Sunday, January 29, 2012 9:24 PM - A day when you get up in the morning, do some things, look around, and it's almost bed time. That was my day today. I don't even remember half the little things I did. I know I did some NAQCC work. I also took a couple of long walks. Let's see what my mileage total is so far - 9.72. On one of the walks I checked the pedometer against a measured quarter mile and full mile on the Rails to Trails path. The quarter mile checked out exactly. The mile showed up as 1.05 miles. I figure that was because there was very little wind for the quarter mile, but a very strong headwind for the mile which caused my steps to be a little shorter and hence needing more of them to make the mile. When you figure about 1900 steps to the mile in my case, if a lot are 32.6 or 32.7 inches for example, that difference from my normal 33 inch pace adds up, and the pedometer is still figuring each one at the normal distance of 33 inch, that accounts for the difference. I'm not going to try to edit that sentence. I think you know what I'm saying. HI.

I never did get in the 160M contest beyond using it for my streak QSOs. I did briefly try calling N0NI in Iowa who usually copies me well, but didn't this time, so I figured conditions weren't good enough to warrant staying up late or getting up in the middle of the night. I think I will do that for the ARRL DX contest though to try to get KL7 on 80 meters to complete my 80M QRP WAS. If I can fairly easily get KH6 on 80 with QRP and even be heard there with QRPp, I should be able to get Alaska if I can hear a KL7. Although it is a more northerly more disturbed path than that to Hawaii. I'll just have to wait to mid-February to find out.

Tonight I worked 2 NAQCC members for my streak QSOs - Craig N4PLK and Mike N8IUP. -30-

Saturday, January 28, 2012 7:05 PM - A pretty quiet day here. I worked a couple jigsaw puzzles, and went for a walk. Also helped Bruce with a couple things. In a couple minutes I'll go and extend my streak another day by getting a couple QSOs in the CQWW 160M contest. I may even stick around there and work some more stations. At least give out some QSOs to my contesting friends to help them out. I won't be going for any kind of score myself.

Still a green January. Wonderful to see a lot of green this month instead of white. The long range outlooks are tending to say a change is coming around the 7th of February or so with some of the cold Canadian air spilling down here, but they also say the cold will be short lived. I don't put a lot of store in long range outlooks, but it is nice to hear that no realy bad winter weather is in store for the rest of January and the first week of February. We can only hope this one is correct.

My little Siberian tomato plant still looks very good. No sign of any true leaves yet, but the seed leaves look good and healthy. I haven't checked to see if anything else has sprouted yet since early this morning, and there was nothing then.

Well, off to get the QSOs now. -30-

Friday, January 27, 2012 10:27 PM - Right now, the transitioning of NAQCC jobs to helpers seems to be a little more work than if I was doing the jobs myself. However the training is coming along just great and I know that Ki VA3PEN and Jerry W7GAH are going to be doing the jobs pretty much without intervention on my part. That will be great. And I'm just starting on handing off a third job as of a few minutes ago. I'll talk about that in a future entry.

I took advantage of the help today and finally got a chance to go and help my friend Bill do some work on his new computer, such as transferring his web favorites from his old computer to the new one along with some other things I won't list here. His computer has Windows 7 so that gave me a chance to work with that O/S since I still have XP here. I do plan to get a new computer sometime this year, and it will have Windows 7, so what I learned today will come in handy. 7 is quite a bit different from XP, but I think I'll become familiar with it very quickly once I start using it regularly.

I also got in a couple walks today including walking to Bill's house which is just a little under a mile. Our weather continues to be just wonderful. It got up to 54 very early this morning, but then a cold front came through and dropped that quickly to the low 40s where it stayed the rest of the day. Maybe they should rename it a mild front instead of cold front. But that's the way our winter has gone so far, and the long and medium range outlooks seem to indicate it will continue through February, but I don't know if I trust that. I need to do some analog checking to see what February was like in other years when Nov, Dec, and Jan were mild and almost s*o$-free.

The CQWW 160M contest gave me two quick streak QSOs this evening. I should get into the contest again later tonight to see if I can get some of the few remaining states I need for 160M QRP WAS, but I'm not really in a contesting mood now. Maybe tomorrow night. It should be better then as stations will be going begging for QSOs more then after getting a lot of QSOs tonight. I learned from the NAQCC 160M sprint last night that apparently my signals are getting out better than I thought. A few stations said they were hearing me well, but I wasn't hearing them at all. Well, in the CQWW contest, I won't be trying to hear QRP signals, but QRO ones, so who knows, if I do get on tonight or tomorrow night I could possibly pick up a new state or two. I think the closest ones I need are MS and LA, and then NM. The other 5 are AK HI (forget those two, I think), ID, NV, and WA.

Well, I guess I'll get a late snack now and listen to the TL show. -30-

Thursday, January 26, 2012 11:13 PM - Conditions weren't all that good for our 160M sprint this evening. I did manage to eke out 19 QSOs, but came up short of my goal of 24 to beat my previous best 160M sprint total of 23. It sure is nice not to now be frantically processing logs and posting scores. I hope Ki VA3PEN is having things go smoothly on his first day as mW/160M sprint manager for the NAQCC.

It was another non-typical winter day here with temps in the low 40s and rain - ordinary rain, not freezing, sleet or that white junk. I still wonder what February holds in store. There's an awful lot of very cold air bottled up in Canada, and if someone pulls the drain plug in February, watch out.

My first little Siberian tomato looks very healthy so far. Popped right out of the seed cover almost as soon as it popped out of the ground. It has two very nearly perfect seed leaves right now that are very photosensitive. I put it by the kitchen window today, and it very quickly turned its leaves to capture what light there was. Actually there was a gap in the rain for a while, and the sun came out for a short while. The tomato plant really liked that. Other than that one plant though, nothing else has sprouted. -30-

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 7:50 PM Gee, when's the last time my first 2 daily QSOs were DX on 30 meters? Well, down the road if I ask that again, you can answer January 26, 2012. First I worked PJ2/AA9A on a single call, then Gus LU/DJ8QP on my second call to him. I'm not surprised by the PJ2, but LU on 30 is a little harder for me usually. Although I do work Antarctica easily on 30, so maybe southern Argentina shouldn't surprise me.

A lot of signals on 40 had flutter this evening, so that may account for the enhanced N-S propagation on 30 meters. It's strange that both stations I worked were pretty much going begging for answers when I worked them. Maybe HK0NA is still around somewhere although I didn't hear any pileups on 40 or 30.

That's my first Siberian plant at age 2 days. It got its first dose of sunlight today as the sun came out for a while this afternoon on yet another great January day. A bit cooler, but still in the upper 30s a little above normal.

I hope you're planning to enter our NAQCC 160M sprint tomorrow evening as sort of a dress rehearsal for the big CQWW 160M contest this weekend. You say you don't have an antenna for 160? If you have a GOOD antenna tuner, you should be able to tune an 80 or 40 meter antenna to work on 160. Give it a try - you may be surprised how well you will do. Give our new special sprints manager Ki VA3PEN a good workout with a large batch of logs to work with on his first sprint. -30-

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 8:40 PM - In a couple of weeks my streak of making at least 2 QRP/CW QSOs a day will reach one whole year. I'm thinking of perhaps ending it and continuing on only with my at least 1 QRP/CW QSO per day. It just takes up a lot of time getting the second QSO sometimes not because CW and QRP don't work, but because the bands seem to be very deserted when I get the chance to get on the air which is usually in the 0000-0200Z period. But then if I can hand off more of my NAQCC work to other members, that may free up time during the day for me to get on when the bands are more occupied. I'll just have to wait and see how things develop. As I've said, I've got VA3PEN taking over our NAQCC special mW and 160M sprints starting now. Soon I hope to have W7GAH taking over my task of updating our membership list from the FCC database every 5 days. So little by little my workload is easing hopefully leaving more time for more on-air work like I used to have before the NAQCC. Absolutely nothing against the NAQCC. I love it and think we are doing an excellent job of helping preserve CW on the ham bands just as FISTS is doing, and I'm proud to be a very active part of both clubs.

We're back to bare ground now except for a few piles of the white crap here and there. It was nice to walk again today without having to step in the stuff anywhere. I see I've got over 8 miles on my pedometer for today so far.

Now I've got to work on our NAQCC newsletter for a while after I get my 9 PM weather readings. -30-

Monday, January 23, 2012 9:28 PM - Another beautiful January day today. Rain this morning and again late this afternoon with a sunny period in between. Again I got to see my favorite winter sight - s*o( melting - significantly! We bid good riddance to most of the 5 inches we got a couple days ago, except where it was piled from shovelling or plowing. This winter has been hard to believe but very easy to take. Hope it continues this way through March. Oh, it was 60 degrees today. We also had a strange anomaly a little while ago. When I came down from getting my QSOs, my computemp showed 40 or 41 degrees, then in about 15 minutes it shot up to 48 degrees and has stayed there. Something to do with the warm air at the leading edge of a cold front, I imagine. There is a front coming, but perhaps it should really be called a cool front as it's not going to get much colder than it is now.

QSOs were easy to come by tonight, at least once I got started. I worked K5ACO in AR, Craig N4PLK in VA, and Scotty KG3W in PA.

I closed up our NAQCC sprint report today except for those who may appeal their final score or GOLDEN LOG status. I also worked another jigsaw. I've been doing about one a day lately for some nice relaxation when I can't get out to get in my walking as much as I'd like. Oh, my first Siberian Tomato seed sprouted today. I had to look hard to see it, but it is definitely started now. No sign of any activity from the pepper or cucumber seeds yet.

Not a lot more to talk about, so I'll close and maybe play a bit with Morse Runner after I upload this page and the index and propagation page. Oh, looks like some nasty space weather tomorrow. Check it out. -30-

Sunday, January 22, 2012 11:42 PM - Almost midnight and I just finished the cross-checking of logs from our NAQCC sprint. I'm glad I don't have to take care of the upcoming NAQCC 160M sprint later this week. Of course there is no cross-checking for our special mW or 160M sprints, but still it's a big job posting scores and soapboxes on the web site page. Ki VA3PEN will be doing that this Thursday through Sunday.

It was a 'Watching the snow melt' day today as temperatures went from 7 this morning into the mid-40s under bright sunshine. Still some left though, but not for long if the forecast for the next few days is correct with rain and 40s temperatures. A wonderful winter so far. I hope February doesn't try to make up for the lack of snow and cold.

Too late to talk about much more tonight. -30-

Saturday, January 21, 2012 9:28 PM - It went and s%o#ed overnight to the tune of about 5 inches. Now Kittanning looks extremely ugly again.

A couple of good things today though. Looks like I found someone (Ki VA3PEN) to help out with our NAQCC special sprints. He'll be processing the logs for our 160M and mW sprints as well as updating the web page for them. So that's a little bit of the NAQCC workload off my back.

I also received my gift from the ARRL for renewing. A Software Library CD. Now a great deal of it is devoted to non-CW junk, but I did get the program Morse Runner from the CD. It's a really neat CW Contest Simulator, and I had a lot of fun with it today running stations as fast as 240 per hour. That's something I can't do in real life with my simple setup. Maybe someday I'll get the chance to operate a big contest station once, and see how close to reality this Morse Runner simulation really is. I'm sure I have the skill to do it except perhaps handling the really big pile-ups since I've never really experienced that. About the biggest pileups I've ever experienced were maybe 3 or 4 stations. The Morse Runner has a pile-up mode to it so that should help. I've mostly tried just the single-call mode, but when I get used to it more, I'll try the pile-up mode as well.

If anyone is into the digital modes, glancing at the table of contents of this CD seems to show a lot of things on it pertaining to all the digital modes. I'll probably wind up giving the CD away since as I said, the only thing that interested me was Morse Runner, and there is also the N1MM contest program on there. I prefer GenLog for contesting, but I may install N1MM just to see what it is like. Someone said the interface for Morse Runner is similar to that of N1MM.

Think I'll go play with MR for a bit now.

Oh, only one QSO this evening, so the second will have to come in the morning or afternoon. I worked DL6FBL on 40 meters in the HA DX contest. FBL is pretty much always a sure bet to copy my QRP signals with his great ears. -30-

Friday, January 20, 2012 6:58 PM - Let's talk about a little mystery tonight. First take a look at these two pictures. The object in the middle of each is a Golden Poet Award my mother won. It doesn't enter into the mystery which concerns the two photos of me and Joe.

Mystery? Well the right picture of Joe keeps rotating. Every time I reset it, eventually it will slowly move back to the 45 or so degrees position. Those who are into the supernatural will try to make something of it that relates to Joe's "spirit" or some such thing. I'd love for it to really be something like that, but I have the logical explanation for it, I believe.

When I can't go outside for my regular walks or just don't feel like going out, but am getting tired of sitting at the computer, I walk in the house. I loop from the parlor through the living room then the kitchen and back. I do that many times for the exercise. Now apparently the vibrations from my walking shake the entertainment center on which the pictures set. That causes the picture to rotate.

OK, why doesn't the other picture rotate also? It doesn't, but stays perfectly straight. Probably because although the frames look identical, there is just enough of a difference in the base for the one to move while the other one doesn't.

If it really bothered me, I'd do some experimenting like switching the two pictures from one side to the other. Or even switch them in their frames, the left picture to the frame on the right side and vice versa. But you know what, I kind of like the idea that perhaps there is a one in a billion chance it is something supernatural so as of now I'm not going to play with it.

How's that for something different in the diary?

Oh, I also took a new picture of my shack with the K2 and KX-1 today. I'm going to touch that up and replace the old K2 picture that was there in the pictures page in this section. -30-

Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:47 PM - This will be another brief entry. It's almost midnight as you see from the time stamp. A lot of time today was spent processing sprint logs. We got 104 in the first 24 hours after the sprint ended. I think that may be the quickest we've reached 100 logs. It was a s*o*y day today with a couple inches of the ugly stuff messing up that nice green area I showed you. I only got out for a brief walk before the stuff started around noon.

I guess that's it. -30-

Wednesday, January 18, 2012 10:44 PM - Just finished the sprint and a short chat QSO after that. This was the first time over 40 QSOs in a sprint in a while now. I wound up with 42, but only 15 multipliers. I did the entire two hours just sitting on 3559.6 kHz. calling CQ. I probably should have done some S&P, but I just enjoy sitting in one spot and calling CQ too much. Our sprints and perhaps the PA QSO Party are about the only contests where I can successfully call CQ so I like to take advantage of it.

Now after I finish my web site update, I guess it's off to my email program to start processing logs. Don't know how far I'll get tonight as I feel like going to bed already. -30-

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 9:07 PM - Mike surprised me and showed up today instead of tomorrow. I asked him if I had slept through Tuesday, and was it now Wednesday.

We got caught up on all the NAQCC prizes and got all the ones that needed to be mailed into the mail. Then we had pizza from Vocelli's Pizza here in town. After that a trip to Radio Shack for a couple things he and I needed. I settled up with him for the K2 and KX-1 so they are now completely officially mine. We did a little bit of planning for our Messier Marathon in March. He showed me a nice pair of astronomy binoculars - 10.5 X 70, and we fitted a pair of Sun filters on them. Unfortunately Mr. Sun didn't make an appearance to try them out. A few other odds and ends things and it was time for Mike to go. The day sure flew by.

We had some beautiful weather today. How about this picture I took this morning before Mike arrived.

Yes, that was really taken on January 17, 2012 in the morning. Doesn't that look just wonderful. Not a speck of s*o( to be seen anywhere and some raindrops on the window. We hit a high of 56 today after an overnight low of 37. That low of 37 is a few degrees above the normal high for January 17. The best part of all is that according to some outlooks, this warm weather is going to continue for the rest of January with just a couple cold days thrown in here and there. Of course that's an outlook, and in many cases outlooks are equivalent to guesses, but we can hope.

Those of you who are regular diary readers know what this next picture means.

It means I've started my Siberian tomato plants. However this year for various reasons, I'm late getting them started, so I may not have my usual ripe tomato in May. However in other years, they seem to go dormant for part of the growing span from Jan-May, so maybe starting them later will eliminate that period, and I will get my May tomato. Time will tell. Oh, and also there are a couple pepper plants there, and a lemon cucumber. Of course they're not plants, but just seeds in the ground right now. I'm not sure if that lemon cucumber seed is a hybrid or not. Bruce gave me a couple of the cucumbers last summer and I saved some of the seeds. Another wait and see situation.

For my QSOs this evening, I worked Pip WB4FDT and Lind WA2WMR which not only gave me my streak QSOs, but two new prefixes for the FISTS PPA and the letters D and R to finish our NAQCC January challenge. I just love the events our NAQCC and FISTS put on. They sure add to the enjoyment of ham radio and in so doing, really help to increase CW activity on the ham bands which is really the bottom line purpose of the two clubs. Communicate via CW, not via the Internet! -30-

Monday, January 16, 2012 10:58 PM - Mike came down with a cold and postponed his visit so as not to share his germs. Now we're shooting for Wednesday.

A lovely day today with some rain and temperatures in the 40's. That melted a lot of the ugly white stuff and it's so much better to look out and see grass and sidewalks and streets, etc.

Man, here it is 11 PM already. I was going to post a picture or two in the diary, but no time left now. They will have to wait.

At least I didn't have to wait too long for my streak QSOs this evening, so that helped with my busy schedule. Larry W2LJ answered my CQs after a few minutes, and we had a nice chat. Then just a couple more minutes of CQs after that netted Craig N4PLK. I couldn't figure out at first why his call was so familiar. Turns out our NAQCC net manager Dan AF4LB had emailed me today and said that N4PLK was going to take over as a 'Pinch NCS' for our NAQCC NQN net Sunday evenings while Dan recuperates from some surgery in mid-February. My memory is just getting worse as I have all this NAQCC and other work to do.

Now I've got to process a bunch of NAQCC membership applications and take care of some other emails before bedtime. It just never ends. -30-

Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:38 PM - I can't get my streak QSO any quicker than tonight. One CQ at 0000Z and Gary N2ESE answered me. He said he was just getting ready to call CQ on that frequency and heard a ? and waited to see who was there. It was me. He heard the ? at the end of my second QRL? The second QSO wasn't that easy though and I had to go back to the shack a little after 0200Z for that one. I found NP2F calling CQ and worked him. No, it was Michigan, not what you thought.

In between my two QSOs, I went over to Nancy's, and Bruce looked at the pictures of Joe I gave them in a digital picture frame for Christmas. Losing Joe was pretty emotional especially to Bruce since they pretty much were glued to each other most of the time. It was hard enough for me and I only saw Joe an hour or maybe 2 most days. But Bruce said he was finally ready to look at the pictures, so we did.

I said I'd have a little story about Joe and the pictures. Bruce's son Josh was here for the past few days from the state of Indiana. It was Josh who started it all with Joe. He and a former girlfriend got Joe who was supposedly an abused puppy, and when they broke up, apparently neither one could take proper care of Joe, so Josh gave Joe to Bruce. Now there's a little bit of suspicion about that story. Not long before that, Bruce lost Joe the first, and he thinks maybe that Josh got Joe (who was called by another name then) just to fill up the loss that Bruce was feeling. At any rate, like the TV program Connections with James Burke where some event in history leads to something else entirely different. Josh getting Joe eventually led to giving me 3 very enjoyable years with Joe.

That's why I worked so hard on the Joe pictures the past couple days. I wanted to be sure Josh had a copy on a flash drive to take back to Indiana with him.

So with that story told, I'm going to close now as Mike KC2EGL is visiting tomorrow and I have a few things I want to get done tonight so I'll have the day tomorrow free to do whatever Mike and I wind up doing. -30-

Saturday, January 14, 2012 10:04 PM - This was another winter day with s#$w flurries off and on all day, but no real accumulation so that was good. I'm getting cabin fever already though and haven't been for a good outside walk in two days now. Brion VE3FUJ says it's good the s#$w kept me indoors and let me get all that inside work done. I suppose so, but I just feel so much better when I get in those good outside walks. It's not the same putting in the miles indoors just circling the first floor rooms here.

Since I was inside, I spent most of the day doing two things. After scanning all the Joe pictures yesterday, I did the touch-up work on them today. Getting rid of red-eye, brightening or darkening, cropping, etc. I've still got the story about the pictures to tell. I could tell it now, but I'll wait as I have other things still pending. Oh, the other thing was wandering in and out of the NA QSO Party. I mostly was just looking for the final few states to complete my Elecraft WAS award, and also for new prefixes for the 2012 FISTS PPA.

I do now have all the states except one, and if you are a long time follower of my site and the diary, I'm sure you know it is Nebraska. I don't know what it is with that state. I root for the Cornhuskers as one of my favorite dozen or so football teams, so it can't be that. Anyway NE is just plain hard for me to work under any circumstances. Probably because I don't hear it hardly at all. If I do hear it, I can usually work it, but.....

I've got 71 prefixes now for the FISTS award, but that means there are still 179 to go. The rough part is you must get a name and a QTH in the QSO. That means the NAQP QSOs qualify, but most all other contest QSOs don't, except for the FISTS sprints and maybe a couple others.

It's the day for changing my web site poll, and I think I'll see if I can get that done before I call it a night. -30-

Friday, January 13, 2012 9:56 PM - We got the ultimate in bad luck on this Friday the 13th. About 2 inches of the obscene s%^w. At least it kept me indoors and I got a lot of things done.

The only time I went out was to go over next door a couple times and to sweep the stuff just a little while ago. Otherwise I did my walking indoors today to the tune of just about 4 miles. I also worked a jigsaw puzzle, got some little pots ready to start my tomatoes, and a few other little things.

My big project was scanning pictures of Joe with my new scanner. Now I've got most (if not all) of the pictures taken of Joe by me and Nancy scanned into my computer. I'll tell you a little more about that in a couple days.

Oh, I also finished up and posted the latest NAQCC newsletter, and amazingly I got a response from a member who is willing to help out with a couple NAQCC jobs after posting a Help Wanted item in the newsletter. So if that pans out, I'll be on my way to keeping my resolution of cutting back on my workload this year.

This evening my two QSOs came from two NAQCC friends whom I've worked a few times each. Dale K3PXC and Ron NT8P. So no new challenge letters or FISTS prefixes, but it's always nice to keep in touch with friends.

That's about it for tonight. I wonder if I'll be in a contesting mood again tomorrow as I was last weekend when I didn't have any contests of interest to enter after being ready for the NAQP a week early. It really is this weekend for sure, so I have one of my favorites if I'm in the mood. -30-

Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:33 PM - Where do the days go. Seems like I just got up a few minutes ago and here it is 14 hours later and only a couple hours away from going back to bed. Some of the time was passed in walking over 10 miles again since I wanted to get in some good walks while the weather is still nice. It looks like a taste of winter is coming the next couple (few?) days now. Still we're just a couple days away from winter being half over so that is good.

I also spent some time this morning getting my second QSO of the day. Took a little while to get Paul W3HGT on 40 meters. This evening it was different. I worked Dan AF4LB a few minutes after 0000Z, then 6 minutes after that QSO I worked an old friend I haven't worked in some time now when Bob K8FN answered my CQ.

Let me share those couple emails I mentioned last entry, then it will be about time to take my clothes out of the dryer and put them away.

First this long email from Mike N4VBV, "John, Really enjoy reading your site and diary comments. While I don't get to get on the air as much as I'd like due to family and work commitments, CW is really relaxing and I've had some great QSOs, especially the ones I've had to work hardest to complete. I do run a 5w/CW beacon on 10m (28.2615 MHz), and it's designed to show what can be done with an attic dipole and 5w on CW. Figured it would help folks decide to get on the air if they thought they couldn't have a QSO due to no big beam, tower, amp, etc. Has been heard in quite a few countries/states, even at the BOTTOM of the sunspot cycle. More info on my QRZ page (N4VBV) , but it's fun to see where all it's been heard. At least it keeps plugging away while I'm at work or doing family things. I still like to get on the air, especially catching slow, weak, or halting CQs. It's always nice to draw folks out and have a nice QSO with someone who starts out a bit nervous. You're in FISTS also, you know why we do it.
Just wanted to let you know that your site is very inspirational to get back on the air after being off a bit due to life's other requirements. Even one QSO an evening makes you feel much better before going to bed. A few times I've really not felt like turning on the radio, but then remembered reading your diary during the day and ending up with a nice QSO after listening around a bit. Thanks for the little push to get up and spend even a few minutes on the air.
The other diary comments are also fun reading. Shows you're not spending all the time in your shack playing radio, but living life as well. I do have a couple of telescopes, so enjoy the astronomy stuff as well. And the fishing stories. Took my 11 yr old daughter fishing a couple of Labor Days ago back in my old home town in southeast KY. Thought she would latch on to one of the big carp below the Main Street bridge, but she pulled up a 12"-13" smallmouth bass on her Pocket Fisherman (like on TV a long time ago; she loves that thing). Note the grin, she was happy (so was I, and very surprised; didn't know there were smallmouth bass in the river).

Thanks again for the great site. Nice inspiration to relax and get on the air, and lots of other interesting stuff to complement radio activities.
Good luck, and hang in there. Only a couple years until 10,000 days!
Mike, N4VBV"

And from Paul, N0NBD, "Hello John, For me I have always found puzzles frustrating, I really like the nine piece puzzle and I can understand how difficult that one could be. I for one will be intrested in hearing more of you work time at the TV station... CUL de Paul N0NBD"

Well, it's an AM/FM station, not TV, but anyway I will be doing some stuff about the station. -30-

Wednesday, January 11, 2012 10:21 PM - It's late after getting home from the computer club meeting, so I'm going to make this short.

I got a couple of very interesting emails today in response to the diary, and I'm going to share them with you, probably in tomorrow's entry. Briefly one states they would like to hear more about my days at WPIT. OK, will do, but not right away.

Otherwise I got a new printer/copier/scanner today. I mainly needed a scanner as I want to scan some photos of Joe that my neighbors have. I was going to get just a scanner, but I figured for the same price, I might as well get a combo even though my printer was still working fine. I may wind up hooking it up again and use it for printing and use the combo unit for copying and scanning. Some day perhaps I'll rescan some or all of the QSL cards in my QSL card album here on the web site. Some of them are pretty low in quality now since I saved them mainly as low quality jpeg's to save space on the site. But with the external album now, I can use higher quality.

Finally only one QSO tonight, and I didn't think I was even going to get that. I was just a couple CQs away from giving up for the night and waiting till morning for my QSOs, but just then Paul K9NO answered me and we had a nice little visit. So I'll still have to get the second QSO in the morning or afternoon, but at least the big main streak is intact for another day. -30-

Tuesday, January 10, 2012 9:49 PM - Another jigsaw puzzle working/walking day today. Our great winter continues. It was 50 today again, and I went over the 11 mile mark in walking. Tomorrow will be warm again but some rain late in the day. However we don't mind liquid precipitation at all in January. Much better than that unmentionable ugly white stuff.

Take a look at this puzzle I worked today. Only 9 pieces, but extremely hard to work. I did manage to luck out, and it was pure luck, to work it after only about 3 or 4 attempts. One time I got 8 pieces fitted nicely, but the remaining piece didn't fit, so I had to start over. When I did work it, I wound up with 8 pieces again with a 9th that didn't fit. However just swapping that piece with another corner piece completed the puzzle. I think a couple of friends who did a radio show on WPIT gave me that puzzle way back when. I had forgotten about it, till I started to look through my puzzles a couple days ago and found it. They also gave me some other nice gifts to thank me for helping with their show. One was another jigsaw with a picture of a celestial planisphere since they knew I loved astronomy. You know I've never talked much about my days at WPIT here in the diary. Maybe I'll have to remedy that. Hopefully if I do, you'll find the stories interesting.

And this other one I worked since I got the first one done so quickly.

I always liked those round puzzles, especially the Tuco puzzles with their thick pieces.

My QSOs came easily tonight as 80 meters seemed a little more active than usual. Maybe it was because I started a little later (0020Z) than my usual 0000Z starting time. Anyway Bevin K4ALE answered my CQs after a couple minutes, then Gary N2ESE tail-ended that QSO, and Ron NT8P tail-ended that QSO. So I didn't use up very many CQs at all tonight.

Tomorrow evening is our computer club meeting, so I'll get an even later start on the bands, and may have to wait till the morning to get my QSOs, but I will get them.

I haven't been too eager to get my tomatoes started this year as I think I mentioned in the diary a little while ago. However today I bought some potting soil, and maybe in the next few days I'll plant some seeds. -30-

Monday, January 09, 2012 9:45 AM - Here's the picture of the jigsaw I mentioned in the previous diary entry. If anything interesting happens today, I'll have more comments to add this evening.

-30-

Sunday, January 08, 2012 9:23 PM - Three....uh Four diverse topics in the diary tonight.

First I wonder after watching the end of the Broncos/Steelers game if Tim Tebow is maybe the second coming of John Elway. Admittedly I don't watch much football nor really follow it closely any longer, but the little I've seen of Tebow, not just that play tonight, does make me wonder. Elway started off slowly his first couple years and did little with the Broncos, but then..... Also I wonder just how far New Orleans will go this year. They have quietly put up some great numbers, but all you seem to hear about is Green Bay this, Green Bay that. Years ago when I really followed football seriously, I could have given a more thorough analysis, but just thought I'd throw out those thoughts. Oh, and Tebow is a left-handed quarterback just like my favorite of all time - Ken Stabler.

Next I did something this evening I haven't done for several years. I worked a real jigsaw puzzle. By that I mean one where you actually move the pieces on a card table by hand. I have worked a few computer jigsaws during those several years, but this was the only real one probably since 2003 or so. Years ago when I worked at WPIT in Pittsburgh, and came up here on my weekends, my mother, aunt(s), and I would work at least one puzzle each weekend. Then my aunt Josie died in 1971, followed by aunt Laura in 1994, and my mother in 2001. After that I worked several puzzles on my own for a year or two, then just quit. I took a picture of the puzzle I worked this evening, and maybe I'll post it in the entry tomorrow night.

Thirdly last night while listening to the TL show on the Internet, I got to thinking about other DJ's I'd listened to back in the 60's, and decided to look up some of them on the Internet. I guess my favorite station back then was WLS in Chicago which of course I could hear easily after sunset. Two of my favorites on there were Dick Biondi and Art Roberts. I see that Dick is still active today, but Art passed away at age 70 in (I believe it said) 2002 or 2003. Those two, although probably my favorites are just the tip of the iceberg as far as great DJs of that era. I plan to do some more research when time permits. Jack Armstrong, Ron Riley, Cousin Brucey, Clark Weber pop into mind as I'm writing. I think another was Emperor (Hal?) Murray. As far as stations go, I mostly listened to WMCK for TL, WABC, WLS, WKBW, and a station on 1100 in Cleveland whose call letters escape me at the moment (it was KYW). KYW had a countdown every Sunday evening, and I remember Cherish by the Association was #1 for many weeks in a row. Ah, those were great days, and thanks to the Internet it's possible to relive them some 40-50 years later. I've just started looking around on the Internet on this topic, and I'm sure I'll be doing much more.

Finally ham radio. Once again two easy QSOs. That's 9 days now and just 19 QSOs to start the year. I've got to do some more daytime activity and see how those high bands are. Tonight it was W0LGU, Tom in MN, and Larry W2LJ in NJ. Both NAQCC members. I've worked both before often times, but I haven't heard much from Larry of late, and it was very nice to visit with him again on 80 meters. I especially like one of his New Year resolutions - to be more active in our NAQCC sprints in 2012. I told him to be sure to keep that one! -30-

Saturday, January 07, 2012 9:36 PM - Gee, maybe I better re-instate the more complete listings in my Contest Calendar pages. I was thinking today was the NAQP, but after going to WA7BNM's calendar, I saw it was actually next Saturday, the 14th.

Anyway when I got on this afternoon looking for the NAQP, I worked some DX instead - HH2/HB9AMO for some letters for the NAQCC January challenge. I'm thinking there's a slight possibility since that was on 17 meters, it might have been a new band country - let me look. Nope. Had it been on 12 or 10, it would have been as I still need Haiti on those bands plus 160 and 80.

Another beautiful day today and I took just about full advantage of it with 11.21 miles on the pedometer - a goodly portion out in the 56 degree temperatures. Actually that was the high, but it was above about 45 for a large part of the day.

For the past 3 evenings now, my streak QSOs have come easily. Tonight it was Jim K1TMJ, followed by a tail-end call from my friend Gary N2ESE. That's about 110 or so QSOs with Gary now.

I'm kind of disappointed in being wrong about the NAQP dates. I got myself into a bit of a contesting mood this afternoon, and there aren't any other contests this weekend that I have any interest in except the DARC 10 meters, and band conditions and the timing of the contest are no good for me. Well, maybe I can re-kindle my interest next weekend when it's really time for the NAQP. Of course then there is our NAQCC sprint on the 18th local time, and our special NAQCC 160 meters sprint on the evening of the 26th local time. Hope to see you in 1, 2, or all three of those. -30-

Friday, January 06, 2012 8:35 PM - Two quick QSOs again this evening. Ron NT8P answered after a few CQs, then a couple CQs after that QSO brought an answer from Dick K8MW. Besides being nice chats with both, I also got some more letters for our NAQCC Janauary challenge and both were new prefixes for the FISTS 2012 Perpetual Prefix Award (PPA). In my QSO with Dick, we both noted that FISTS activity seems to be picking up again of late. I think the fire at FISTS HQ a couple years ago really hurt the club, and it is just now starting to recover. I love those two clubs, our NAQCC and FISTS, and will always do my best to support them in any way that I can. They are the only two clubs that I really have any interest in, and it always will be that way.

I underestimated the time of my shopping trip with Nancy today. Actually it lasted about 4 hours, but we both got a lot accomplished in the way of stocking up on things. It was a great day to do it. Sunny with a temperature around 60 or so. I saw 57 on my Computemp a couple times during the day when I was home, and my shelter temperature (right or wrong) is usually a couple degrees higher on sunny days because of the heating of a large concrete slab in back of my back yard. Anyway I'll know in about 15 minutes when I go out to get the readings.

Tomorrow it will be one month since we lost Joe, and all of us are still missing him very much. My life has sure changed since that fateful day. There is still a void in my life that hasn't been filled. Nancy is talking about getting another dog. I don't know about that because Joe was so special. It's not like replacing a pet, but like trying to replace a very dear friend. That's how special he was. -30-

Thursday, January 05, 2012 10:01 PM - I got to talking to Tom on the phone, and after that started my washing. Almost forgot about the diary entry.

Tom and I were putting some details to our NAQCC February challenge. If you don't know yet, it deals with dogs that members have owned, but are no longer alive. It's called the Dog Tribute challenge. We want our NAQCC members to add the name(s) of their deceased dog(s) to our list of words for the alphabet type challenge. Also we want to hear how the dog got its name. Of course it was brought on by the loss of Joe, and agreed to by Tom who also lost two dogs this past year or so. If you're a NAQCC member and fit the premise, check out the challenge on the NAQCC web site for info on how to submit your dog names.

I worked my first DX of 2012 today when needing a 2nd QSO for my streaks, I checked out 17 meters around noon and found Josh 6Y5WJ there and worked him easily. Then this evening my 2 QSOs came pretty easily from Frank K3DZ and Dan AF4LB.

So I won't have to worry about that during the day tomorrow. It's a good thing too, because tomorrow is my monthly trip with Nancy to the shopping malls to stock up on the items I can't get here in downtown Kittanning. It's supposed to be a nice day with temperatures in the mid 40s and a lot of sunshine. Today wasn't bad either. It got up to 40 permitting me to engage in my favorite winter sport - watching s**w melt away. Still some left to watch disappear tomorrow also. -30-

Wednesday, January 04, 2012 9:06 PM - Our coldest day of the year/winter so far with a low of 5 degrees at 3 AM this morning. Good thing it got cloudy or we might have gone below zero.

Pretty much a nothing day around here as are many of the days in this very undesireable season. Too cold for a decent walk although I did have to go out to take care of some business. Four layers of clothing along with a scarf, hat, and hood at least made it bearable. Can't wait for the warm weather to come. At least it looks like we will be in the low 40s Friday through Wednesday if the outlook is correct, and the odds of that are..... I hope at least it is warm enough for one of my favorite winter activities - watching s$o^ melt.

Deserted bands again this evening. There just has not been much activity in the 0000Z hour of late on any bands except for the traffic nets on 80. My CQs did eventually net an answer from my friend Gary N2ESE, but again I didn't get the second QSO, and will have to do that probably in the morning. I wonder what else there is to do on these winter evenings that is keeping folks off the ham bands. -30-

Tuesday, January 03, 2012 9:09 PM - A little bit of diary feedback this evening. Dave W4DUK emails, "Hello John, I saw your recent diary entry requesting information on the archived magazines. It's 73 Magazine (but not CQ) and it's on the Internet Archive website at www.archive.org. Hope this helps. I wish you a happy, healthy, safe, and prosperous 2012! Dave W4DUK"

Thanks Dave. I was never much into 73 magazine. I subscribed at one time to CQ magazine, mainly for their awards program and county hunting info. I picked up a copy of 73 occasionally, but never really cared too much for it.

Let's see if there is any other feedback anywhere in my emails. Just this New Year's greeting I thought was rather clever from Jozef N6NZE, "MY WISH FOR U IN 2012 - MAY PEACE BREAK INTO YOUR HOME, AND MAY THIEVES COME TO STEAL YOUR DEBTS. MAY THE POCKETS OF YOUR JEANS BECOME A MAGNET FOR 100 DOLLAR BILLS. MAY LOVE STICK TO YOUR FACE LIKE VASELINE, AND MAY LAUGHTER ASSAULT YOUR LIPS. MAY HAPPINESS SLAP YOU ACROSS THE FACE AND MAY YOUR TEARS BE THAT OF JOY. MAY THE PROBLEMS YOU HAD FORGET YOUR HOME ADDRESS, IN SIMPLE WORDS MAY 2012 BE THE BEST YEAR OF YOUR LIFE!"

Only one QSO this evening so far as 80 was a vast wasteland of unused RF space. I'll have to get my second later tonight or more likely tomorrow morning or afternoon.

Our coldest temperature of the season so far. It was 7 when I got my readings a little while ago. If it stays clear and calm, we could be headed below zero. At least we can be thankful we got only a trace of s*o$ the past couple days. -30-

Monday, January 02, 2012 10:35 PM - One of my goals (resolutions?) this new year is to cut down on the amount of work I get involved in as I get older. That means either simplifying the things I do or in the case of the NAQCC, hopefully get someone to help out with some facets of running the club. Of course we do have several members now who take care of particular club activities, but we need more.

One thing I have just done is to simplify my streak table on the main page of the web site. It has been too cluttered anyway. I've eliminated the entries for a DX QSO and for a mW QSO, and now list only the main streak QSO and a 2nd QSO for each day. That in itself cuts down on the work of updating the table each night as I had to figure where each QSO went and figure how many days in the year I had now worked a DX or mW QSO. It doesn't look like it took all that much time just looking at the table, but it did.

Of course I've also eliminated a lot of work with my contest calendar by simply listing some of the big contests and my favorites for each month, and letting the very fine calendar provided by Bruce WA7BNM provide any further details for any contest that may interest you.

I'm not sure where I'm going from here, but I will be studying things. One think that might be worth studying is my propagation page. At one time my propagation info and that from WWV were about the only info available on the Internet. Now there is literally almost too much propagation info to be had. Perhaps more folks spend more time studying the propagation than just getting on the air and making QSOs. Heck, back in the 60s and even the 70s, you maybe checked WWV at 18 minutes past the hour once a day to see if there were any major propagation events in progress or upcoming, then no matter what the situation, you got on the air anyway and had fun making QSOs.

I think I will keep the diary going just as it is. I enjoy writing it each day and it even serves as a reminder of things that have happened to me that otherwise I may have forgotten. Right now I'm slowly going through the diary archives looking for things that Joe and I did together in the almost 3 years we were together. I'm compiling the events into sort of a Joe biography to help keep his memory alive and complete.

Incidentally I believe it was exactly 3 years ago tomorrow (3rd) that Joe came to PA from IN and I first saw him. I didn't note the exact date in the diary and actually didn't mention Joe much for the first couple of weeks or so as far as I have found.

Another thing I'm cutting back on this year is starting my tomatoes so early. I really only did it as a challenge to see if I could get ripe tomatoes in May and now that I've proved I can, the thrill or challenge of doing it has diminished. I may still start some Siberians a little early this year to try to get some ripe garden tomatoes before my regular Early Girl tomatoes bought as plants produce ripe tomatoes in mid to late July at best.

I also plan to do a lot more fishing this year and get started much earlier than I did last year. Bruce has threatened to get a license again this year and go fishing again which he didn't do last year. We'll see how that pans out.

Of course this year will be much different overall than the past three without my little friend Joe to share my time with. He really provided some great relaxed breaks for me. I think maybe if he were not so much of a friend and more like just a pet, it might be easy to replace him, but barring an exact clone, it would be very difficult for me to get involved with another dog. That seems as of now anyway to be true for Bruce and Nancy also.

Well I've rambled quite a bit tonight. I think I'll end this now and listen to the TL show or maybe an old Fibber McGee and Molly show before going to bed.

Oh, bed reminds me of one more thing I'm going to try to do this year. When I do go to bed, I always spend time working a crossword puzzle or reading before going to sleep. Lately it's been virtually all the puzzles for the past couple years. This year I've started to read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings again for the 4th or 5th time as my bedtime project. -30-

Sunday, January 01, 2012 8:32 PM - Isn't it March that sometimes comes in like a lion? Well in our mixed up weather the past several months, January just came up with a mighty roar of thunder as I'm sitting here working at the computer. My Internet went down for a minute or so after the thunder, but I'm back in business now.

I compiled all my weather records from 2011 this morning. It turned out to be the warmest year in my span of records dating back to 1959.

Average daily minimum - 43.4 or 3.7 degrees above normal
Average daily maximum - 65.2 or 3.5 degrees above normal
Average daily mean - 54.3 or 3.6 degrees above normal

Also one of the wettest with 52.50 inches of rain (53.91 in 1984, 53.88 in 1990, 54.69 in 2004 being the only wetter years.)

The 144 days with .04 inches or more precipitation is a record beating 137 in 1972.
The 74 days with .25 inches or more beats 72 in 2003 and 1979.

The growing season (days between last spring and earliest autumn frosts) of 196 days is second longest to 197 in 2007.

There were several times the monthly temperature departures from normal exceeded 6 degrees, an abnormally huge departure:

Average minimum: May +6.5, Sep +6.1
Average maximum: Jul +7.8, Nov +8.6, Dec +7.0
Average mean: Jul +6.2, Nov +6.0, Dec +6.5

For the first time ever, December had no days where the maximum was 32 degrees or lower.

46 days with a maximum of 90 or greater is second only to 47 days in 1980.

113 days where the minimum was 32 or less is the fewest since 112 days in 1973 and 1977

25 days in July when the maximum was 90 or greater is by far the most in a single month, eclipsing by far the 17 days in Aug 1980, Jul 1987, Jul 1988

1259 base 65 cooling degree days the most ever beating 1077 in 1991 by a large margin.

The summmer (Jun, Jul, Aug) of 2011 was the greatest contributor to the record setting warmth:
Ave minimum: 62.7
Ave maximum: 88.0
Ave mean: 75.3
All record highs.

Enough on meterology for this entry. I think that's enough to give you a good idea of how extraordinarily warm 2011 was in Kittanning, PA. I don't keep s*o$fall records, but I'm sure the months of Oct, Nov, Dec had to have one of the least amounts of that ugly stuff of any year. I'll have to see what the Pittsburgh records say when I get a chance.

SKN last night was rather disappointing in the lack of activity at least in the 0000Z hour. Generally it's almost too crowded to find a place to operate on SKN, but there was a lot of room last night. My CQs went unanswered for quite a while till K3PXC, then a little later K4UK, both NAQCC members answered me. I never got on the bands again after that to see if activity picked up later or was maybe better during the day today.

Getting my two QSOs this evening for the streaks was easy. Only a few CQs netted VE3VGI, then after we finished, a couple more CQs and KN8B answered me.

Say, isn't the FISTS special activity for 2012 neat! I never did get far with the ones from the past couple years, but collecting prefixes this year really peaks my interest. If you don't know, you need to get 25 unique prefixes for each of the numbers 1 through 0. That's a total of 250 unique prefixes. For example under 3 you could have K3(WWP), VE3(VGI), DL3(MM) and so on. Complete rules are or will be on the FISTS web site so I won't elaborate any further here. -30-