That is quite a list you provided, Ron. I quit a few minutes before 9
PM as I had another commitment at 9 PM at the house, but it was sure fun
to see all the activity on 222 this evening. I worked many of the same
crew and it was nice have some semi stable conditions for a change. I
was on a bit after 23:00 UT and I wanted to test out a few things after
all the antenna work recently done here. I wanted to verify that my
azimuth readings were accurate, so I bore sighted the Moon and it was
spot on with the Moon setting in the southwest. Next I checked the
antenna VSWR after repairing one of the yagis. The curves look good with
a 1.2:1 VSWR at 222.1 and it gets better higher in the band. I even
tried sending towards the Moon and had some big echoes come back. (-9
dB) That was gratifying after all the work done here in the last few
days. There was no one around EME-wise and no takers interested in
looking for any Moon reflections, so I cranked the array back to the
horizon and the first station heard around 23:30 was N2YQ, Mark, out
near Rochester, NY. Mark was very loud and steady. Right after working
Mark, W1XR called with another good signal on SSB. We had a nice chat
with S7 signals . Wow! Things are looking great on 222 tonight. Here are
the others who got into my log:
KA2LIM in FN12 Very loud.
WA3EOQ in FM09 502 miles very weak but quite steady just above the
noise. This path always amazes me. 90 watts on the Maryland end!
W1GHZ in FN34 Paul was heard by WA3EOQ as well. Wow! that is a long
haul.
N2GHR in FN30 very loud as usual
K1PXE in FN31 Pete is happy that his rotator is working. He is also
beating the bushes for contacts all evening!
WZ1V in FN31 Good Buddy Ron with a great signal as always.
N3RG in FN10 It was great to hear RG and have an FN10 QSO!
VE2XX in FN25 Stu had a good signal to WA3EOQ also. Another very long
haul. Some QSB on VE2XX but always fairly loud.
N2SLO FN30 Good signals tonite!
K2RMX in FN20 Very loud from the Big Apple.
N1LHP in FN42 Wilmington, MA with a quarter wave whip! He had a 59
signal!
NZ3M in FN10 worked on CW and I never got to peak up the beam!
KO4YC in FM17 CW QSO 559 and 100% copy 525 miles
WA3DRC in FM28 CW QSO
KC0IYT in FN42 SSB in Medford, MA. 4 element yagi pointed out a
window.
VE3DS in FN03 Weak on CW. Then I discovered I was using the wrong
antenna. (Duh!)
W1AIM in FN34 The Chipster. Chip and Paul try to make every 222
night.
WA1T in FN43 All of 2.5 miles northwest of me!
WA1PBU in FN42 Kim in Mass and off the back of his beam. No
problemo! What a great night!
So conditions were a bit unusual last night. If you looked at the
Hepburn maps for the evening, you would have not bothered to even turn
on the rig. There was nary a color within 1000 miles of New England or
the midwest for that matter. The only enhancement looked to be Florida
and extreme southern Georgia, extending along the shore of the Gulf over
towards Texas. So why were things so great last night? I have no idea.
Possibly it was just a lack of upper air winds, or just the right
combination of upper air winds to enhance tropo scatter. From my
perspective, I found conditions quite stable without the extreme fading
that has become common these last few weeks of the Fantastic Tuesday
Night Activity periods. Honestly, KA2LIM was a solid S8 to S9 on SSB for
our entire chat that must have been ten minutes long. There was a
distinct lack of fading on non mountainous paths.
My contact with VE3DS was interesting. After hearing N2YB very loud in
Rochester, NY, and KA2LIM blasting in from the Finger Lakes District, I
figured that VE3DS would be pretty good copy. Well, we worked, but
signals were not as good as I had expected. It was sort of a struggle,
and I was wondering why that was. It was only later that I noticed that
I had turned my rotatable yagis directly at Toronto (Tahrahna) but
forgot to switch the motorized relay to that antenna. I was transmitting
on my fixed antenna aimed at 225 degrees, not 275 degrees! You would
think I knew how to operate my own station.
I did see some QSB on the Vermont boys and VE2XX. It was long and slow.
That path for me is a terrible one, as the signals must traverse the
tallest portions of the White Mountains. The path goes right over Mt
Moosilaukee, and the 5000 ft peaks of Mt Lincoln and Lafayette. It is
ROUGH terrain! Signals are never that loud when you consider the
distances involved.
So we are expecting some snow in the next days and there us a good
possibility that my trips to the VHF shack will stop at least on a
regular basis. The road is getting a tad sketchy too. I took K1EP up for
a tour of the hilltop shack and he figures I took ten years off his life
just riding in the truck!! The road is not for the faint of heart!
73 and thanks to all who got on 222 MHz last night. A special thanks to
KC0IYT and N1LHP who made a special effort to check things out on
Tuesday night. I am hoping we can build on the momentum created over the
Spring and Summer months. We have about three months of good sledding
before Spring appears. I am looking forward to April!
73
Dave K1WHS
On 12/7/2021 10:10 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
I was on from 7 PM to 9 PM, got 19 in the log tonight:
WA3EOQ FM09, KA2LIM FN12, VE2XX FN25, K1WHS FN43,
K1PXE FN31, N2GHR FN30, N2SLO FN30, WA3DRC FM28,
K2RMX FN20, KC2KAE FN20, W2BVH FN20, N3RG FM29,
KO4YC FM17, W1GHZ FN34, W1AIM FN34, N1YCQ FN41,
VE3DS FN03, WA1T FN43, WA1PBU FN42.
-73 TNX, Ron WZ1V, FN31RH
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