I was very curious to see how activity would be in the 222 MHz Sprint. I
suspected that it would be pretty good. When the smoke cleared and the
Sprint was history, I came to the conclusion that the activity level for
me was a bit down from the Spring Sprint and from previous years as
well. The poor conditions up in Northern New England did not help much
either. Really, the band was FLAT! The score ended up at 42 Qs and 18
grids. The good news was that WA1T stopped by so we both operated the
Sprint and had fun yakking all evening. I think Al, (WZ1V's good buddy
and Lithuanian brother) did most of the operating. I am not sure what
that does to our log entry. We both operated and had fun in the
process. There were some missing call signs in the Sprint for sure.
That translated to many missing grid squares and a semi depressed QSO
total. Still it was a fun evening. A look at my grid map does show some
glaring omissions! Here is a list that compares grids worked between
Spring and the Fall Sprint.
Spring Fall Net Change
fn02 1 0 Down
FN03 1 1
fn10 1 0 Down
fn11 1 0 Down
fn12 1 2 Up
fn20 4 7 Up
fn22 2 1 Down
fn25 2 1 Down
fn30 3 3
fn31 5 4 Down
fn32 1 2 Up
fn34 2 2
fn35 1 0 Down
fn41 2 0 Down
fn42 10 9 Down
fn43 2 2
FN44 0 2 Up
FN54 0 1 Up
fm19 1 1
FM28 0 1 Up
fm29 4 1 Down
FM17 0 1 Up
en92 1 1
I am not sure what conclusions I can draw from this exercise, but it
seems that there were a few missing big guns and not much in the way of
planned portable operation for the Fall event. (N2SLN Excepted! Thank
you for FN22!) The list of missing grids within normal working range
seems to be growing. I am hoping that we can turn this trend around.
Having regular activity on the 222 MHz band will help to improve this
situation. I am seeing a bit of that as there are newcomers appearing on
the band now. KB8VAO just put up a new yagi in EN90. He was a bit too
far away for me this time, but he was QRV and making contacts. There are
others working on new setups as well. That is GOOD!
Some high points of the evening: Al worked VE3DS 15 minutes into the
Sprint with good signals at well over 400 miles. Four minutes later he
snagged W1XR in Maryland for another long haul QSO. We worked VE2XX off
the back and side of the antenna. He was loud enough that we didn't
bother to line things up. I tried running a sked with W4JST in FM17.
While I was calling and listening on CW, I hear some fairly loud ssb on
frequency. I opened up the bandwidth and it is (obviously) KO4YC in FM17
calling me. Cornell was S5 or so. We said "Hi" and I went back to CW and
calling W4JST. Neither W4JST or I ever heard anything either way. (?)
Towards the end of the sprint, Al tried looking for VE3ZV in EN92. In
short order Stephen appeared and was a steady S7 on SSB. I was convinced
that there must be some form of tropo enhancement as S7 on SSB from
about 500 miles is not a common occurrence! S1 or S2 is more like it.
We made lotsa noise to the west but heard and worked ZILCH that way. It
seems that there was some very nice tropo from western NY and PA out to
the west. I know that N2JMH made a 560 mile QSO to EN61 or thereabouts.
Folks farther west were doing even better. A look at the Hepburn map
showed possible paths from Southern New England to the West, but Maine,
NH and VT were not involved at all.
N4SVC was on from Florida and heard very little in the way of meteor
pings. We did not bother to try a meteor sked. I think we worked in
18minutes just last week on Activity Night. I tried an MSK144 sked with
N0URW at the end of the Sprint with nothing heard in 15 minutes, so we
stopped. It was late. The Sprint had ended. No beer, and WA1T needed his
beauty rest. We closed things down and bumped our way down the hill. My
woods road is getting bumpier by the week. I was cross eyed by the time
I reached the house. Thanks to all who got on last night, and a big
Thank You to the Sprint Sponsors.
Dave K1WHS
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