Hi folks,
It is Tuesday and that means 222ctivity Night. People are still talking
about last week. The activity level in the Northeast area was through
the roof, with quite a number of stations active. It sounded almost
better than a 222 MHz Sprint night! I made about 27 contacts or so.
This is the time when we should be getting some tropo openings. There
have been a very few good tropo periods, but none of them have amounted
to much at least in Northern New England. I have been sniffing out
possible times for potential auroras as well.
When I was a new VHF ham, it seemed that we had auroras all the time in
the Spring and Fall. I lived in CT in the 1960's just up Route 111 a few
miles north of K1TEO. If there was any hint that an aurora would be
possible, we would all be monitoring the 144 band and usually the first
AU signal we heard was the powerhouse station of W9BRN. I don't know
what Richard did, but his aurora signal was always head and shoulders
above everybody else! Dick changed his call to W9SR and passed away in
2020. I know there has not been much AU activity of late. My hope is
that the next cycle brings a bit of auroral buzz for us to enjoy and get
excited about! There was a pretty good M Class flare last week and good
things were predicted as the charged particles were expelled from the
Sun's surface and directed at the Earth, I was standing by, but there
was only a minor blip when the solar wind hit our magnetosphere. If you
are not familiar with auroras, I would suggest that you give the 222
band a listen if there is any evidence of auroral condx on the lower
bands. The frequency difference between 144 and 222 is not all that
great. The spread between 50 and 144 is a much bigger percentage.
I am still waiting for some tropo. With all the rain we have been
getting, slow moving high pressure systems have been scarce. Hope always
springs eternal, however, and I will be on or about 222.100 starting at
around 7 PM this evening, September 7th. I hope there is some Ohio,
Michigan, or Indiana activity this evening. There must be stations on
the air at both ends of the path to hear any tropo!
73
Dave K1WHS
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