Yes girls and boys, it is getting perilously close to the June VHF
contest. This is the premier operating event for most VHFers. I always
preferred September, but I have been told on multiple occasions that
several of my screws are loose. Anyway, it is a good occasion to get
the cobwebs out of your gear. On Tuesday, yu gave a good chance of
making some contacts on on 222. There is quite a contingent that is
showing up via the Moon when the lunar orb is positioned there in the
sky. Tonight is one of those nights, and several of the regulars are
planning to be on. I should mention that PJ4MM was copying me last week
at -13 dB. Contacts can be made down to about -30 or so. That is a 17
dB spread with Martin and a lot of head room. Of course, the secret is
to get signals peaking on both ends of the circuit and Faraday has a
habit of disrupting that plan. My only point is that many stations on
the horizon can now be heard by PJ4MM and his new yagi array. If you
have a single yagi and some power, there are opportunities available. I
believe that W5AFY will be on from Texas via the moon as well.
The bad news is that WZ1V will not be on with his 500 watt amplifier
this evening. Last week, it hiccupped and wiped out the output
combiner. Good Buddy Ron is thinking that I may have given him a lemon
as the amp has failed a few times. In my defense, I can only say that I
had nothing to do with doing any shoddy work on the amp, but I will
admit that I had some of my Haitian Oungan and Manbo friends visiting me
at the time, and they were quite active Voudoo dancing around the
amplifier while i was building it and tuning the filter. I did not think
much about it at the time. I am hoping that GB Ron shows up with his
alternate Quansheng 222 MHz rig this evening. It is always fun to try
copying a QRP station. Ron is well along with Quansheng WAS on 222.
So the fun starts at about 7 PM local time here on the East Coast. 23:00
UT. I try to get on a bit before then and activity is heavy for about an
hour. Most people have quit by 01:00 UT but the central US keeps going a
bit later. The EME activity will extend well past 0100 UT I suspect.
Don't forget to let people know you are there via the ON4KST Chat page
(144/432 MHz Region 2) The EME activity is usually there on HB9Q
Chat. I am hauling some diesel fuel up the hill in case it is a long
night. You never want to run out of fuel with a diesel!
73
Dave K1WHS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|