I wrote this up once and somehow it never got sent but went into some
bit bucket and left no trace.
W3CMP stopped by to catch what a 222 MHz Activity Night sounded like in
Maine. He has been up in the area for the VHF Conference and some dog
training in NH. (Actually Chris wasn't the subject of the dog training,
it was one of his wife's little pooches) We drove up the hill and
turned on the station to find that the rotator indicated 160 degrees but
the array was pointing at about 305 degrees. Chris wondered if the array
had gotten spun around in the wind, but we have had no serious winds
like that lately. We found the W3CCX beacon and noted the new heading.
Instead of 222 degrees we were seeing about 60 degrees. So we had to add
162 to whatever the beam indicator said. I tried calling N2SLO. I heard
Dave working GB Ron, WZ1V and tried to peak him up but never heard him
again. We went back to find the CCX beacon and now it was at a
different spot! Not only was the beam indicator off, but it was showing
gibberish that had nothing to do with any beam headings. I suspect the
week and a half of rain managed to get in the precision pot on the
rotator and wreck it. That made finding people almost impossible.
Somehow I did connect with about 16 stations in spite of that. Finding
people with the misbehaving rotator was no fun. My sanity was in grave
danger with all that transpired.
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE
PRO.REMARKS QRB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/13/2025 23:05 W1XIV FN34 55
220 MHzSSB TR 440+-
05/13/2025 23:05 WA3NUF FN20KE 55 220
MHzSSB TR 308
05/13/2025 23:07 WZ1V FN31RH 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 165
05/13/2025 23:16 WB2VVV FN41 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 130+-
05/13/2025 23:32 WA2LTM FN20 55 55 220nMHz SSB TR
05/13/2025 23:33 WW1Z FN42ET 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 52
05/13/2025 23:33 W1XR 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 406+-
05/13/2025 23:33 WB2ONA 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 269+-
05/13/2025 23:42 W9KXI FN12NE 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 311
05/13/2025 23:48 K1PXE FN31 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 165+-
05/13/2025 23:50 W1TR 55 220 MHzCW
TR 119+-
05/14/2025 00:03 K1BX FN43EB 55 220 MHzCW
TR 41
05/14/2025 00:52 K2AEP FN31VW 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 119
05/14/2025 00:52 N1LHP FN42KM 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 61
05/14/2025 00:52 K1FMS FN32 55 220
MHzSSB TR 125+-
05/14/2025 00:52 W1AIM FN34 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 126+-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By 00:30 both Chris and I were ready for something else, so we bagged it
and went down the hill for a schnapps before he headed home to his
sainted wife who sort of allowed him to play ham radio on a "sort of"
vacation. I was pretty close to losing whatever was left of my mind.
The last time something like this happened, I woke up in a cheap hotel
in Pittsburgh with empty pizza boxes and Papst Blue Ribbon bottles
laying all around. I am sorry that I missed a try with WA3EOQ. He gets
home at about 01:30 UT. Also PJ4MM was possibly going to appear around
02:00 UT for his Moon rise. It is worth listening for him as he has QRO
and a big dual yagi array on 222. I knew that i could not even try EME
with the rotator misbehaving. Sorry folks, but I had an excuse.
73
Dave K1WHS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|