Re: [IRCA] -23F Below TP Report 11/28/16

[Walter Salmaniw <canswl@xxxxxxxxx>]

Paul, I have to give you my cold weather DX story.  For others who have
heard it, my apologies.   Takes we back to the late 80s/or very early 90s.
January in Victoria.  We had had a very cold spell of - 15 to - 20 deg C
for a couple of weeks.  Very unusual for Victoria.  About a foot of snow on
the ground.  I ventured out to our favourite DX sites at Jordan River which
is about 1 1/2 outside of Victoria, many km from anyone.  To access our DX
site, one left the roadway and drove a few hundred meters down an old
logging road.  Snow covered of course!   After setting up my antennas, I
proceeded to DX for the next several days, alone.  Using my NRD 535 D (or
possibly Kenwood R5000) plugged into the cigarette lighter.  Toyota Previa
van.  Comfortable.   No heat at all.  I lived fully clothed and DX'd from a
winter sleeping bag.  I did find that every time nature called, it would
take me an hour or two to warm up again.   It was that cold!    DX was
excellent, especially to Africa in our local mornings on 60 meters (I was
into SW DXing in those days).  Anyway, towards the end of my time out
there, I decided to turn the engine on to recharge the battery and warm up
a bit.   No go.  All I got was the dreaded "click-click-click-click".
What to do?   I had no extra battery.  After a while, I thought that if I'd
warm up the battery, it would give me enough juice to turn over the
starter.   I removed the battery, built a little tee-pee over top of it
with a space blanket, and built a fire.  Well, things didn't go my way.
The space blanket quickly caught fire, and threatened to spread to my
vehicle!   Ouch.   Stomped that one out quickly.   Back to square one.  I
did have booster cables.   I trod back to the road, which might see a
handful of vehicles/hour only.  Well a truck did come along, and
hallelujah, the driver stopped and believed my story about needing a boost,
a 1/4 mile off the road.  He drove down the logging road, and kindly jumped
me, much to my relief.   Had no one stopped, I have no idea what I would
have done.  No cellphones in those days, and besides, even if there was,
there was certainly  no cell service there.   That's what we did for DX!
Now, I could tell you about the time Vlad Titarev and I drove out to Rose
Spit on Haida Gwaii for really off the grid MW DXing, during storm force
winds.   That was really something.  Perhaps Vlad can share that story
sometime!  73,  Walt Salmaniw

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 8:00 PM, Paul B. Walker, Jr. <
walkerbroadcasting@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Yeah, it was that cold today... I wanted to see what my upper limit is,
> probably -25 to -30 I think
>
> 1745UTC to 1845UTC
>
> 567: fair signal with what sounds like soul music. Audio:
> https://youtu.be/CwmvMzuhMMM
>
> 1422: pretty good signal with contemporary sounding music. Audio:
> https://youtu.be/63N71fnWG_Y
>
> 1134: REALLY good, solid, steady signal. Audio:
> https://youtu.be/4mrdL6G2Blg
>
> Paul Walker
> Galena, Alska, USA
> Grundig Sattelit 750
> Two 225 foot long wires
> DXEngineering HF Preamp
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