Today we’re busy digging out from the one of the biggest snow storms of the season. On Saturday the upper Midwest received anywhere from 9 to 20 inches of snow in a 24 hour period. Once the snow stopped falling, the wind picked up with 35 mph gusts and frigid temps on Sunday. On Monday we are sitting in the single digits for temps with sub zero wind chills. Locally I received just under 13 inches of snow and spent the better part of Sunday digging out.

J-Pole scanner antenna during the blizzardWhile a snow emergency was declared for most of the state of Wisconsin, I spent most of the day on Saturday monitoring the local repeaters and public safety frequencies. Fortunately our ARES/RACES group did not have to activate for the weather emergency, but many of us took snow reports throughout the weekend and funneled the information via radio to the area National Weather Service office.

My antennas fared very well during the storm, I had some tree branches down in the yard, but nothing was broken or damaged. The J-Pole worked like a champ, functioning as my scanner antenna for the weekend. In fact I highly recommend the J-Poles for scanner use as their heavy copper construction gives the antenna plenty of surface area for increased sensitivity and a lower noise floor than most antennas.

It’s sunny today, but they’re talking about more snow towards the weekend. Not sure where I’m going to put it though.

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