[PVRCNC] Ice damage

[N4CW@aol.com]

Here in North Raleigh, lots and lots of tree damage...mostly pines, but I 
have a large hickory that snapped about 1/3 of the way up and it's laying 
across my front lawn. Only serious damage was to my valuable Japanese maple, 
hit by an errant broken branch from a tall tulip poplar. Lost several pines 
on my property...none hit the house.
No power all day Thursday; no heat, either. Internal house temperature just 
kept creeping down (40 degrees around 6:30 PM last night). 
I opened up the 160 meter contest using my IC-706 MkIIG and laptop on battery 
power. Lighting was provided by a kerosene lamp which also kept my hands warm 
when I'd put my hands over the chimney!!! I operated that way for about 1h 15 
mins when the laptop shut itself off to protect memory and HD contents. 
Power was restored around 7 PM last night while I was at my neighbor's 
thawing out in front of his gas log. Got home around 9:30 or so and changed 
the station configuration to the MP and the Hercules II. Lost quite a bit of 
time chasing a non-existent problem (try plugging your stereo headphones into 
the front panel key jack and see what happens....). I lost a half hour 
figuring that one out. Of course, anybody else would have spotted that right 
away..........yeah, right! After that, I got some good rates going, and the 
heated house (with lights, yet!!!) sure felt good. I crapped out about 3:30 
A.M. Will resume the contest this evening, perhaps with KO7X who's without 
power at his place!
I'll tend to the yard and debris when the ice melts...maybe next week...maybe 
later...
73,
Bert N4CW