Well I was very happy that Fred N1DPM showed up for 222 activity night.
We had a nice rag chew and signals were 59+ each way. Fred's signal was
outstanding. I listened to Fred run with KO4YC near Richmond, VA.
K04YC was peaking up really fine, hitting a good 559 on the S-meter.
That is pretty impressive for over 500 miles away. I tail ended KO4YC
and called Fred. I had worked Cornell earlier with my driver amp at 80
watts. It was a squeaker, but while I was ragchewing with N1DPM, KO4YC
heard me OK on ssb with my 80 watts, so there were definitely some good
tropo peaks going on. You should not be able to work 525 miles with 80
watts on 222 normally.
A try with VE3DS was not successful with my 80 watts. Still it was a
great evening on 222 with 13 stations worked including
KA2LIM Ken in FN12
W9KXI Al also in FN12 Ken and Al seem to be FN12!!
WW1M Bruce in FN43 (just down the road a few miles)
WA1LWC in FN42 5 watt power house!
VE2XX Stu near Montreal in FN25. I could hear him working KA2LIM. 59
when we aimed at each other!
N1SV Les in FN42 One of the 222 night regulars
WZ1V Good Buddy Ron. Always shows up for 222 night and stirs up the
pot with lots of contacts.
N3RG Ray way down at the bottom of FM29
K3WHC Steve in FN10pa.
K1PXE Pete in FN31. The voice of Milford! and a staunch supporter of
activity night.
WA2VNV in FN30 on Long Island with a booming signal up here in Maine.
K2AEP Pete in FN33 Vermont. One of the few people who keeps a briefcase
full of alphabetically organized jokes.
KO4YC Cornell in FM17 near Richmond, who must have a fantastic takeoff
angle. Just a phenomenal signal up here every week.
I had some excitement here. Not too long after I got on the air, There
was a very large explosion and a flash behind the rack as the 222 MHz
8877 amp decided to arc over. I hate it when that happens. The high
voltage fuse is about 4 1/2" long and is a phenolic tube with brass end
bells. When it went off. The two end bells were blown out of the tube
ends and one of the brass end bells shattered into little pieces. It
even blew up the beryllium copper fuse holders! This could be serious.
At a minimum, I probably have shorted diodes in the metering circuit. At
worst, the tube might be hosed. I dragged it back to the house and will
look it over in the morning.
I recall this happened another time many years ago with this same
amplifier on Pack Monadnock Mountain in New Hampshire during a June
Contest. The 220 rig was set up in a cargo van and I had built up an
eight yagi array of NBS 4.2 wavelngth design for EME. The group was W1FC
and there was an aurora on both Saturday and Sunday evening. We were
cleaning up on 220 MHz and our section total was way ahead of the 144
station. I remember working Iowa and Minnesota that weekend along with
EME to California. Word got around that we were doing so well, and a
crowd formed all poking their heads in the van door to see what we were
doing. At that exact time, the 8877 amp decided to arc over and that
same HV fuse exploded. It sounded like someone shot off a M1911 45cal
pistol inside the van and to add some spice to the effort, the two end
bells went ricocheting off the walls of the van. The crowd instantly
thinned out and we replaced the fuse and got back to working DX.
Thanks to all who came out to play, including Marshall, K5QE from Texas.
He ran some MS schedules. Thanks Marshall!
73
Dave K1WHS
On 6/15/2021 9:59 PM, Fred Stefanik wrote:
I was able to get on 222 here tonight for about 30 minutes. I worked
VE3DS at 369 miles, KO4YC at 385 miles, and K1WHS at 125 miles.
Hopefully I can get on more often on Tuesday nights.
Thanks Dave for drumming up the activity!
73
Fred
N1DPM
FN32qb
On Tue, Jun 15, 2021, 5:18 PM David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net
<mailto:k1whs@metrocast.net>> wrote:
Just two days after the big June VHF Contest. I know everybody is
probably sick to death of working 50 MHz DX. You would most likely
rather do anything but more ham radio, but it is 222 Night! I will be
on starting around 7 or 7:30 PM local time or 2300 UT and will be
making
noise on 222.100 thereabouts. When we quit contesting Sunday
night, I
am sure that the diesel generator was running on fumes. I will
drag up a
6 gallon can of diesel fuel to make sure I don't run out.
I hope to see you on 222 MHz
Dave K1WHS
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