Hi VHFers
There is a lot t report on this week!! Not only is it 222 Activity
Night, but I have also gotten word from the 222 Activity Committee about
their plans for the K1PXE Gift Shop soon to be located in Benton, NH
just west of North Woodstock. Rock removal is going along well in
rendering Mt Moosilaukee to become the 3 dimensional likeness of Pete
K1PXE. The Visitor's Center will be the first building that you see in
the shadow of the K1PXE monolith. Incidentally, the shadow of the K1PXE
sculpture will extend across Route 93 all the way to Lincoln, NH and the
Loon Mountain ski area. At exactly 6 PM on June 21, the shadow of
Pete's nose will block the Sun from the main doorway at G&H Pizza on
Main Street in Lincoln. Residents are ecstatic as the timing of the
occultation of Pete's nose is akin to the solar effect at Stonehenge on
the Salisbury Plain at the Equinox. Pete, who is being honored for his
many years of activity on the VHF and UHF bands will have much
memorabilia and "tourist product" for sale in the new Gift Shop.
Proceeds will go to the 222 MHz Activity Committee. The oncoming winter
will slow down the construction, but planning and much work is forging
ahead on the Visitor's Center and Gift Shop. The 222 Activity Committee
has planned out many trails to accentuate the views of the K1PXE
likeness, and all of those trails will come back and funnel all of the
visitors right through the planned Gift Shop! There will be many
exciting toys games and books for young and old alike.
In addition to the stuffed toys and bobble-head dolls, A reproduction of
the K1PXE CQ machine that can make 45 minute long CQs will be offered to
the public at the Gift Shop, and I am excited to announce the addition
of a full 16 disc 33 1/3 rpm vinyl record set of K1PXE practice Q65
records to bring you head first into the 21st century with digital
communications. Not only will you become well trained to able to copy
Q65A tones, but there are added records to cover Q65-B, C, and D as
well. If you purchase these records for your very own, just imagine
sitting in your shack every night for a few hours, listening and
learning how to copy those tones until you become one of those rare
skilled veterans of ham radio. Your radio club associates will look up
to you. Your ham radio friends will envy your skills. They will be
jealous at how you effortlessly work DX, and dare I say it, but I'll bet
it will improve your love life as well. I should add the the record set
comes in a deluxe Saskatchewan Moose leather Gold embossed binder with a
small exquisitely printed booklet that describes a few study hints to
help you along in your quest to master Q65. These vinyl discs will
definitely become a family heirloom.
Today is Tuesday. That means that all sorts of fun can be had if you
power up your 222 MHz gear this evening. Any increases in general
activity start off slowly, but at some point the growth expands at a
high rate. We are not quite there yet. but we are getting there. N1AV
just completed his project of doubling the size of his 2X cross
polarized yagis and he was on the air last night and worked everyone who
was QRV at the time. I also hear that a new station in Oklahoma is
almost on the air, so that means another state is just about ready to go
witha permanent presence. I had to get W5ZN to drive over to Oklahoma
and set up a single yagi in my effort to complete my 222 WAS. There was
no QRO activity in the state back then in 2021. Anyway, I digress......
The 222 activity starts after dinner time or about 00:00 UT on the East
Coast and participants in the midwest are also there, but tend to stay
on later than us Easterners. After 02:00 UT most easterners go QRT and
work on stamp collections or pickle insects in Formaldehyde, while the
Midwesterners are still happily making skeds and trying to work over
obscenely long paths. There is a bunch of activity in the Pacific NW
with K7ND and friends, but I do not hear much about the Golden State
activity. N6ZE and W6TCP are there but activity has not picked up as
much there as some other spots. So, if you are new to all this, just
get on and look for contacts around 222.100 starting a bit before 00:00
or 7PM on the East Coast. The ON4KST Chat page is a good place to
monitor activity. The 222 guys use the 144/432 Region 2 Chat. The Moon
will be well up in the sky this evening, so no rising Moon shots, but
there will be plenty of activity off the Moon there as well. They all
use HB9Q Chat and the 222 MHz page. N1AV will be there along with W7JW,
K3SK, W4ZST, W7TZ and others. Maybe the Oklahoma station will appear?
If you are curious, you can eavesdrop on the HB9Q Chat. So please make
an effort to get on. The numbers are down slightly from the Summertime
activity highs, but the activity levels are still as good or better than
what you will find on 222 in an ARRL contest! I am not kidding! No
malarkey!!
One last note. I am hearing grumblings of some serious events happening
in Iowa and Arizona that could change the landscape on 222 MHz VHF in
the future. Please standby as I get more information.
73
Dave K1WHS
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