I've read an old article by Ed Gillet and now wondering, - may be I do need a weather radio. More toys, you know... Somehow I didn't need it so far in Baja (I don't paddle In hurricane season, June through September), so may be I don't really need it ... NOAA weather channels don't work over there. Ed says there are 2 options, and I'm wondering if anybody tried either one: 1) Amateur net Chubasco 7.294 Mhz SSB (LSB) Ham, at 7.30 am. 2) AM stations from LA - KFI AM 640 and KNX AM 1070. I've got a portable SW/SSB radio Kaito 1103 (analog of Sony 7600 GR), they don't come any smaller or lighter. Size of a paper-back thriller book, 7"x4.5"x1", weighs more than 1 lb with 4 AA, - big angular item in drybag and heavy to fly with. Don't know yet how good is this Kaito on SSB - amateur ham transmission unlikely is powerful. The rumour is, - Chubasco provides too big of a picture and local forecasts are not accurate. May be it's valuable for yachties, they make long crossings to mainland. I do use sail with my folding kayak, but realistically have to rely on paddle. Often it's more important to me which corner it blows from in the cove that I'm launching a kayak through 2-ft mini-surf, than 200 meters off shore - off shore it is mostly tail wind anyway. So, what the heck... I can leave SSB "brick" home and take a tiny AM/FM radio - 4 times smaller and lighter, same battery life but only 2 AAA, and listen to AM stations. According to Ed again, if it's Wester in LA, it's Wester in Baja, and if it's North-East or Norther in LA (aka Santa-Ana winds), then it's Norther in Baja. Besides, I can listen to LA during bed-time tea and perhaps stay put and sleep late next morning, rather than making sudden change of plans at 7.30 am because of something said on "Chubasco". Eventually I might take the "brick" next year and see if Chubasco is of any use to me (and if there is any reception at all), - but in a short trip I could be wrong in conclusions. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Alex: Hurricane season does not end in September... it ends November 15th and with global climate change it could extend that. The good news is that hurricanes no longer appear out of nowhere; they are detected as they are formed and tracked and analyzed their entire lives. There is little mystery when one is approaching. The most common serious wind in the non-hurricane season is the "gulf norther" which is caused by a thermal low over the Sea of Cortes being filled by a high over inland CA, NV and AZ. The sea raised by a gulf norther is typically short and choppy. For a long time it was a mystery how to predict a gulf norther until about 1983 when the weather guys of the "baja net" in California figured out the mechanics. You can tell if there will be a gulf norther if the weather in the Sea of Cortes is hot and there is clear weather north. A Santa Ana wind in So. Cal. will almost certainly indicate a gulf norther in the Sea of Cortez. Gulf northers typically last 3 to 5 days and there can be several in any winter month. In order to receive SSB radio transmissions you will need a radio with either a BFO or a product detector. If the radio has a switch for "morse code" or "cw" or "ssb" or "lsb" or "usb" then you have one that will work for the ham nets. Chubasco net is on 40 meters which is traditionally lower sideband (LSB). Amateur stations on sailboats typically run 100 watts input or about 50 watts output into tuned backstays (for sailboats, at least). This is usually enough power to communicate several hundred miles under average conditions at the time of the Chubasco Net. I used to be active on these nets in the 1980s and I could easily communicate with stations in southern California and with sailboats all around the Sea of Cortes. The stations in So. Cal. typically run 1,500 watts (full legal power for amateur radio stations and have well tuned antennas. You should be able to hear their weather forecasts. The Chubasco Net typically uses amateur radio operators on sail and power boats (and on land) scattered around the Sea of Cortes for weather reports including barometer readings, wind speed and direction and temperature. The weather operators in the USA use up-to-the-minute NOAA charts to give predictions of weather. Local weather (such as which corner of the cove the wind is blowing) are impossible to predict. You won't hear that sort of information in the USA or Canada either. But barometric pressures from numerous points can give you a good idea of where the lows and highs are and this, along with the information from the So. Cal. stations, can give you a good idea of what the conditions are in the Sea. Local reports are the best for predicting a gulf norther since that wind moves from north to south and stations north of you will report it before it gets to you. And they can also report when it ends for them while it is still blowing where you are. I can't see why you wouldn't take the Kaito since it can also receive AM stations and it is not *that* big. The benefits outweigh the drawbacks, in my opinion. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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