Greetings kidlets.

Due to the nature of my job, my work schedule is non-standard. A 2-week cycle goes: Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, Monday and Tuesday; each day being 12 hours (1900 to 0700). It gives me every other weekend off and gives time off during the week. This schedule came about because we need the NOC manned (personed?) 24 hours a day.

I try to do an activation every week, though sometimes it doesn’t happen that way due to weather, my non-work schedule, and life in general. SWMBO is pretty tolerant of me and my foibles including my owl decoys and gnomes.

Today I activated Tuscarora State Forest US-5479 for the 16th time. It is close by and there are a lot of nice areas to activate from. I was up on Elk Hill this afternoon (just North of Newville PA) and the weather was nice. It was partly cloudy and 17C (64 F) while I was there, though it did start to cloud up before I left. I heard Red-eyed Vireos, Black-throated Green Warblers, Ovenbirds and Yellow-rumped Warblers. I didn’t see to many animals, just a couple squirrels. Over the course of about 3/4 hour, I was able to work 13 contacts including a station from Brazil. This was in spite of the static crashes that were dominating the bands due to approaching thunderstorms. Generally, you can hear static crashes from storms a few hundred miles away.

A word or 2 about safety: I do not operate during thunderstorms. When portable I shut down when a storm approaches. At home I disconnect my antennae and wait the storm out. It would not be fun to have my rig blown up by a nearby lightening strike.

Anyway, I am back at home, just finished supper and am relaxing with my cats. I hope the week is kind to you. For your enjoyment, I am including some of the local plant life from my activation site. Namaste