My wife and I just went to the east coast for the first time.  My oldest
son, and his family, moved there due to employment three years ago.  We
landed in Phily, a cool place if I ever saw one, but my son lives 45 minutes
away in New Jersey.  We went back to Phily for a tour and I really enjoyed
that city.  Feeling the Liberty Bell was almost a spiritual experience; no
fooling.  Anyhow, of course, I packed my Sony 20 10 and couldn't wait to
fire it up the first time.  Living out west all my life, I've never heard
Europe on 80 meters 30 over 9.  I have, when I owned a 40 meter beam, heard
Europe on 40 meters even louder but that's when the bands were good.  So, as
I was saying, I was like a kid with a new toy when I cranked up the short
wave radio.  Dad gum it, I never heard one European, except for maybe on 20
meters, and the bands were almost dead.  I heard a few local high powered
stations rag chewing on 75 meters at night but I could hardly copy WWV on
any frequency at any time and some nights I was tuning the bands after
midnight.  I heard a goodly amount of stuff when I got home and listened to
Field Day but unless my memory is fading fast, in my 39 years of being a
ham, these are about the worst band conditions I have ever heard even if it
is summer.  I thought it was just because I was in the mountains but I guess
not.  You gals and guys on the east coast?  Is it really as bad as it
sounded a couple of weeks ago out there?  Oh, one more thing.  If you
easterns don't do something about the high humidity out there, I'm never
coming back to visit you.  Denver's drier climate is Heaven compared to what
I suffered out there.  I never drank so much water and pop, soda, in my life
than when I was out there and it wasn't even hot when we were there.  You
folks have got to fix the weather out there or I will never build my big DX
contest station on the east coast.  Man, winter must be deadly out there.
My cowboy hat nearly wilted from all the water in the air.

73,
Phil,
K0NX