How cold is it?

50°F

• Miami rotators need heat applied
• Southern Californians wear jackets to install radials
• Alaskan moose find browse instead of guywires

40°F

• Californians guywires shiver uncontrollably
• Florida hams burn radio ads for heat
• Minnesotans go on field day

35°F

• Italian coax breaks
• Alaska time for tower work with no mosquitoes
• Spain has shack heaters on high setting

32°F

• Clean Water freezes, some frost on guy wires
• Arizona grass dies and reveals radials
• Mississippi antenna work stops

30°F

• You can see your breath freezing to the tower
• You plan your DX vacation to Hawaii
• Montana hams put on field day jackets

25°F

• Californians turn on car heater instead of radio
• Wisconsin hams think of finalizing antenna work
• Cat tries sleeping on your radio

20°F

• You can hear the antenna rotator groan
• Miami radio operators frozen in place
• Canadians still having antenna parties

15°F

• You plan a warm DX vacation
• Cat insists sleeping on your radio
• Dog sleeps near the amp

10°F

• Hawaii coax breaks
• Minnesota hams finish up antenna work
• Alaskans still building antennas before winter

5°F

• You QRO your amp to heat the shack
• You look up to see why the antenna seems slow rotating
• Ice detunes your yagi

0°F

• Mobile radio LCD will not work
• Alaskans put on jacket to work on antennas
• Coax freezes to the side of the house

-15°F

• Alaskans build a field day igloo
• North Dakota hams turn heat up in shack
• Miami hams cease to exist

-20°F

• Cat moves to sleeping on the amp
• Reading the technical manual becomes informative
• Antenna rotators are very slow

-25°F

• Too cold to operate without feet on keyed amp
• You need more than a new country to get DX'ers excited
• You burn the old radio ads for heat

-30°F

• You scrape ice off the inside of the shack windows
• You think of metal fatigue as the tower groans
• You learn something new reading the manual's small print

-40°F

• Remote antenna coax switches fail
• Antenna rotators are frozen
• Canadian hams note C or F doesn't matter, -40°C = -40°F

-50°F

• Congressional hot air about band reallocation freezes
• Alaskans note the shack window has thick ice on the inside
• Alaskan shack inside window sill freezes beer

-80°F

• Alaskan rotators refuse to turn (-82°F recorded without wind chill)
• Yukon coax breaks if moved
• Alaska Vibroplex Key paddles are frozen solid