I woke up about midnight last night and turned on my heated mattress pad because it was cold(!). I woke up again at 5 a.m. to turn it off because it was no longer cold outside. No snow, clear skies, and a very lovely day ensued. I even opened the window in my office / computer room because the sun shining in the window made the room very warm.

I spent much of the day working on a website and got quite a few little issues fixed for them. Tonight was our monthly Pocatello Amateur Radio Club meeting and the topic was solar power and using that to power ham radios. Most ham radios run best on 13.8 volts, but will work reasonably well from about 10 volts to 15 volts. Solar panels have fluctuating voltage, particularly under load, so most of the discussion was about the various ways to smooth out the voltage without loosing very much power. It was an interesting discussion. There have been quite a few recent advances in solar panels and I suspect that the price is going to come down fairly rapidly as the efficiency increases and demand increases.

Nina has been in Pleasant View, Utah this evening at a Church meeting. She’ll be home after I get to bed. We’ve got another early Friday morning on tap.

TTFN!