Hello Dave & 222 addicts,
I found condx to be pretty good considering that a bunch of bad weather
was heading our way. I was on 222 a bit before 00:00 and one of my
first QSOs was Ellis WA1RKS. Ellis and I have a really bad path between
us as Mt Greylock is in the way and very close to his end of the path.
He called me and I was not even aimed at him. We had a good 579 contact
on CW and his signal held steady for quite awhile, unlike most other
nights. It was apparent that QSB was minimal for most of the evening.
N3RG was also very steady.
I am going from memory but here s a list of stations heard and worked
from Mumbo Jumbo land.
N3RG FM29
WA1RKS FN32 CW
WA1NLG FN41
WA1MBA FN51
WA3EOQ FM09 CW
W9KXI FN12
VE3FN FN25 CW
K1ZK FN34
W1GHZ FN34
W1AIM FN34
K1OR FN42
N1GLT FN42
WZ1V (Good Buddy Ron) FN31
K1PXE FN31 Who has a cool Smart Phone now.
W2TMA FN30
WA3NUF FN20
WA3SSG FN20
KC3BVL FN20 located in downtrown Philly!
K1FMS FN32
W2BYP FN13 CW
N1LHP FN42
I did work WA3SSG who is a new addition on 222 MHz with a brand new Q5
transverter and some sort of LPY antenna at 25 ft. He is 320 miles from
me and we managed a pretty good SSB QSO.
I missed NZ3M in FN10 and never could connect up to try with Cornell
KO4YC down near Richmond, VA. I was pleased with my WA3EOQ contact at
501 miles. We set up a sked on the chat page and I went to 222.130 and
sent a few dashes and signed my call. Lo and behold, I heard Howard
come right back sending calls and his grid square. There was no QSB and
I did not miss a character. I replied and then WA3EOQ came back with
RRRs and 73. Now the signal strength was very weak but it was there and
pretty darn steady. I was impressed that such things are possible on 222
MHz in late November. Thanks to the tropo scatter Gods for that QSO. I
remember being a kid and reading the 1st edition of the ARRL VHF Manual
edited by Ed W1HDQ. I digested everything that was in that manual, and
still remember the curves showing path loss vs distance on several of
the bands (50 thru 1296) I was always intrigued by the hook in the
curve and how the path loss dropped very slowly after a few hundred
miles. That was magic to me and I could see that having a good antenna
was worth the trouble and aggravation of assembling it. About seven
years later I was at Ft Monmouth learning all about tropo scatter
systems. During the Vietnam War, that entire country was held together
by tropo systems with hundreds of voice channels criss-crossing the
country. I always marveled at the one tropo link at Vung Tau that went
to Thailand, smack dab in our 900 MHz band. It was over 615 miles long
and contained over a thousand voice channels. Will all those who can
maintain a 600 mile voice path on 903 MHz please raise your hands!! All
it takes is a good antenna and a 15 KW klystron. I believe that the
receivers employed REL parametric amplifiers in a diversity setup. NF
was probably 2 dB. But I digress....
As it got close to 02:00 UT I elevated the antenna and looked for any
EME action. I had hoped condx would be good and they were. I needed
more than my Gonset Sidewinder, but it was still a great night. I
worked Tom NH6Y in Hawaii, W5EME in Lousiana, N1AV in AZ, and K3SK in
Virginia. Ian, W6TCP in CA had some sort of remote issues and we could
not try. He had been QRV earlier before the remote mishap. Signals were
all very good. NH6Y was quite loud. When he called, he covered up N1AV
who was also very loud. They seemed to be spaced about 50 Hz apart here
and I could not separate them. We used Q65B with 60 second sequences. I
heard everyone in the headphones at one time or another. I spent about
an hour on EME and had four QSOs for my efforts. I wish there had been
more activity as signals peaked up quite well. I quit about 02:45 and
went home before the snow started. I have my preamp located at the
antenna. It sits in a box above the elev rotor with a flexible loop of
Super flex about 2 ft long and looped to the power divider. You
definitely need that on 222 if you want to hear well. It makes a big
difference.
This coming weekend is the EME contest. Moonset on Saturday is 09:30 UT
late at night, and Moonrise is 20:15 on Saturday afternoon. If you have
a horizon only setup, you should check your moonrise and set times. With
luck you might hear something. I will be on 222 over the weekend. I will
check 432 at my rise and set times as I have no elevation on that antenna.
73 & good luck
Dave K1WHS
On 11/21/2023 9:27 PM, David McKenzie wrote:
Lot of QSB but overall decent conditions with 11 in the log in the
hour or so I participated.
K1PXE FN31
WA1NLG FN41
NZ3M FN10
W9KXI FN12
WA3NUF FN20
W2TMA FN30
K1WHS FN43
K1OR FN42
K1XK FN34
WZ1V FN31
K1FMS FN32
73's and thanks for the contacts
Dave K1FSY
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