I apologize for being even more grumpy than normal but I haven't had much sleep. Olga and I were woken up at around 1 in the morning by a lot of noise outside. It was a group of young people who had apparently been having a party in the house opposite. Despite the fact that the temperature was heading for -7C and the girls, according to Olga who was looking out of the window, were none too warmly clad, they were not simply saying goodbye but continuing an animated conversation. Someone decided the party must be carrying on outside so they switched on a car's headlamps and turned on the stereo very loud. Because of the way the houses are crammed together here with virtually no front gardens this was taking place right below our bedroom window. After ten minutes we were both getting very angry. It isn't often that Olga uses the f word about people.
I felt like calling the police, but the chances of them actually making an appearance before the miscreants had slept off their hangovers was pretty remote so we discarded that idea. Olga went downstairs and turned on the lights to try and make it obvious that we had been disturbed. I went into the shack, switched on the K2 and sent a 10W dit on 30m, which switched on the security lights of the nearby neighbours that have them. This did appear to have the effect of making the tiny minds think "gosh, other people live around here and oh my, it's after 1 in the morning, perhaps they are trying to sleep and our noise has disturbed them!" because shortly afterwards the group dispersed and peace and quiet resumed. But neither of us are good sleepers and it took a while before we calmed down enough to sleep again. Hence the foul mood this morning.
It has sometimes been a bit annoying that I can't go on any band except 80m after dark because of the problem with security lights. But on this occasion it turned out to be useful. If only I knew that the thoughtless young people had touch sensitive lamps by their bedside I might even have been tempted to try a bit of all-night WSPR!
Hello Julian, but you didn't? I mean WSPR? My latest experiences on 80 with WSPR is that best DX is around midnight. After 1.00 UTC the DX dropped down. I like the story of your remote neighbors security lights. Hi. In a situation like this it can be very handy. I wish you and Olga a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. (We are off for holidays just after X-mas and we'll be back January 3) 73 Paul
ReplyDeleteGood one Julian, better get to bed early this evening and get some sleep (or take a nap today of course). The neighbours can be gratefull to you if any of them knew there's a HAM radio op between them ;-)
ReplyDelete73, Bas
Last Summer we were spending a nice and calm evening at the lake shore. Then suddenly car full of young boys appeared and they decided to test their car audio. I can't find the right words how f#^#g loud music they were playing. We could barely stand maybe 10 minutes or so and were going to leave and then music suddenly stopped and then some of them screamed: BATTERY!!!! I told you that it won't last long you Idiot!
ReplyDeleteOh man that was FUN!!!!!z
Great story! Especially if the tide came in and they could not start the car to drive it to dry land!!
ReplyDeleteHuh - Kids today ! we;ve all been there done it got the T-shirt - hopefully they'll grow up...!? At my previous QTH a key-up set off two adjoining alarms Grrrr no Dx ing.
ReplyDeleteI have been there before. Fortunately now I live far out in the country. My nearest neighbors are more than 100 yards away. The noise on the road is rarely audible inside and never lasts long. But previous times had me wishing for a 5 inch deck gun (like the submarines of old had) with an impressive tracking/targeting system. Just lights on is not enough to truly get their attention.
ReplyDelete73 and Merry Christmas.