{"id":28267,"date":"2017-09-13T08:57:40","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T12:57:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=28267"},"modified":"2017-09-13T08:57:40","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T12:57:40","slug":"no-power-but-radioactive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2017\/09\/no-power-but-radioactive\/","title":{"rendered":"No power, but radioactive–!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

My CommRadio CR-1a, with an internal lithium battery, is the perfect off-grid radio companion.<\/p><\/div>\n

Monday night, the remnants of Hurricane Irma moved through western North Carolina. Because the SWLing Post<\/em> HQ is at a high altitude compared with the surrounding area, we received higher than forecast winds. Still, we made it through fine and feel pretty darn lucky.<\/p>\n

Yesterday afternoon, even though we maintained power throughout the storm, the utilities company cut power to our road due to a tree that had fallen on a pole that also supported a transformer. It’s a tangled mess. Since there are about 17,000 without power in our rural area, it’ll be some time before power is restored to our road–likely late Friday evening or sometime this weekend.<\/p>\n

Loss of power isn’t a major problem for us since our refrigerator and freezer are off-grid and solar powered 100% of the time anyway. We also have a propane stove to cook on and plenty of charged battery packs and flashlights (and at least half a dozen HumanaLights<\/a>\u00a0in service).<\/p>\n

On the plus side? \u00a0Even though our house is pretty RFI free, when the power is cut, it’s amazingly radio quiet.<\/p>\n

I listened to RRI last night on the CommRadio CR-1a (see above). Later, I sat in bed with the pilot run CC Skywave SSB<\/a> and tuned through the 31 meter broadcast band, the 40, 80 and 160 meter ham bands and the mediumwave broadcast band. Happy to say that the Skywave SSB did an amazing job–and propagation was decent. Reception was so good, it felt like I was camping in a national forest. Just makes one realize how all the devices in our home add to that RFI noisy environment.<\/p>\n

We count ourselves lucky as news from all of the areas that took the full impact of Hurricane Irma is simply gobsmacking.<\/p>\n

This morning, I listened to a few HF nets on the 80 and 40 meter bands with the Digitech AR1780<\/a>–I noted no less than five hams reporting that they were operating on generator power. I believe this hurricane has caused one of the largest power outages we’ve ever had in the US due to a natural disaster.<\/p>\n

Note that since I don’t have power at home, I also don’t have Internet service–keep this in mind if you attempt to contact me this week. \u00a0I will post quick updates to the SWLing Post<\/em> while I’m in town, however I will certainly fall behind on correspondence. Thanks for understanding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday night, the remnants of Hurricane Irma moved through western North Carolina. Because the SWLing Post HQ is at a high altitude compared with the surrounding area, we received higher than forecast winds. Still, we made it through fine and feel pretty darn lucky. Yesterday afternoon, even though we maintained power throughout the storm, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,553,43],"tags":[6398,2773,6332,4500,1489,6486],"class_list":["post-28267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-preparedness","category-shortwave-radio","tag-c-crane-cc-skywave-ssb","tag-commradio-cr-1a","tag-digitech-ar-1780","tag-emergency-preparedness","tag-hurricane","tag-hurricane-irma"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-7lV","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22367,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/the-commradio-cr-1a-has-been-discontinued\/","url_meta":{"origin":28267,"position":0},"title":"The CommRadio CR-1a has been discontinued","author":"Thomas","date":"November 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributors R. Lewis (KF5GV\/HS1) and Dave Zantow (N9EWO) who've both noted that the CommRadio CR-1a receiver has been listed as \"discontinued\" by Universal Radio, and HRO. I imagine CommRadio has stopped manufacturing the CR-1a as they gear up for production of the new\u00a0CTX-10 10 watt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ham Radio"","block_context":{"text":"Ham Radio","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/ham-radio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The CommRadio CR-1a","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CR-1a-left-front.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CR-1a-left-front.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CR-1a-left-front.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/CR-1a-left-front.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9329,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/commradio-introduces-the-cr-1a\/","url_meta":{"origin":28267,"position":1},"title":"CommRadio introduces the CR-1a","author":"Thomas","date":"April 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Dave Zantow (N9EWO) for apprising me of an update to the CommRadio line: the new CommRadio CR-1a. Based on information published by CommRadio, it appears that the main difference is a change to the\u00a0USB hardware which has been improved to provide: Digital I-Q (for third-party SDR developers),\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "New Products"","block_context":{"text":"New Products","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/new-products\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CommRadioCR1a","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14050,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/new-firmware-and-software-for-the-commradio-cr-1a\/","url_meta":{"origin":28267,"position":2},"title":"New firmware and software for the CommRadio CR-1a","author":"Thomas","date":"July 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post reader,\u00a0Grzegorz Jasionek, who notes that CommRadio has just released a firmware update for the CommRadio CR-1a that includes a new Graphic User Interface (GUI) with a 3D spectrum display. The CommRadio Dropbox site has an 18 minute video showing how to operate the GUI and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CommRadio-SpectrumDisplay","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/CommRadio-SpectrumDisplay-e1436970878134.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/CommRadio-SpectrumDisplay-e1436970878134.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/CommRadio-SpectrumDisplay-e1436970878134.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12626,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/ray-compares-his-jrc-nrd-515-and-commradio-cr-1a\/","url_meta":{"origin":28267,"position":3},"title":"Ray compares his JRC NRD-515 and CommRadio CR-1a","author":"Thomas","date":"March 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"SWLing Post reader, Ray (WB8VDS) recently commented: \"I have continued to run A\/B comparisons between my CR-1a and an NRD-515. Digital to Analog competition. My NRD-515 has been a station favorite for many years. I find the two radios are pretty much equal in terms of performance. Sensitivity between the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"CommRadioCR1a","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/CommRadioCR1a.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8527,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/commradio-cr-1-and-wrth-power-outage-essentials\/","url_meta":{"origin":28267,"position":4},"title":"CommRadio CR-1 and WRTH: Power outage essentials","author":"Thomas","date":"January 7, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Like much of North America, we're currently experiencing record low temperatures and strong winds here at our mountain home. This morning, I woke to no power and no Internet. My iPhone still works though, hence the ability to publish this post. But no power is really no problem when it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10677,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/commradio-cr-1-a-superb-travel-radio\/","url_meta":{"origin":28267,"position":5},"title":"CommRadio CR-1: a superb travel radio","author":"Thomas","date":"September 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're a regular reader, you'll know that I've been on the road for the past three weeks, and have enjoyed\u00a0some quality radio time in New Mexico and Colorado. While I brought four portables along (the CommRadio CR-1, the Sony ICF-SW7600GR, the Tecsun PL-380, and the Tecsun R1212A), when conditions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The CommRadio CR-1 in Taos, New Mexico","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CommRadio_CR1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CommRadio_CR1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/CommRadio_CR1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}