As Dave noted, I believe I can be on tonight and hopefully continue to
be active Tuesday evenings through the winter months. I regret that I
have not been able to be active in past weeks. This has been a most
challenging summer trying to recover from extensive damage to antennas,
masts and towers. Much of the work had to be done in the overnight or
pre-dawn hours due to situations I won't go into. I never knew what days
I would be able to do what, or anything at all, so I had to just be
ready for windows of opportunity at all times. It takes me a long time
to get anything done, in part because I am slow and in part because I
must work alone. Having no ground support makes doing anything at 100
feet frustratingly slow and involves many trips up and down the towers.
This and other factors, including chronic fatigue, have greatly impacted
my ability to enjoy radio or even be awake during the evenings. I
finally finished restoring things a week ago and now only have a few
remains of wire antennas to remove as conditions permit, so I am
shifting my schedule around to allow me to be on 222 Tuesday evenings! I
am extremely fortunate that I was able to recover from last winter's
damage at all.
I run 800 watts and have a K1FO-22 yagi at 115 feet with preamp at the
top of the tower. It's obviously not a K1WHS setup but I do OK! I hope
to work several of you tonight. I don't know where Dave will be
operating but I will try to find a quiet spot some 10 or 15 kHz above or
below him and make some noise. I prefer to call CQ on CW but will
happily switch to SSB if someone calls me on that mode. I will likely
check FT8 occasionally if I am not finding anyone to work on CW or SSB.
I will be on ON4KST chat and will gladly make QSO arrangements there. I
do work meteors and am set up for both MSK144 and FSK441 which often
works better on 222. If you need FN55, I am your only hope barring
someone doing a portable operation here.
In Dave's absence due to this pesky thing we call winter, I hope we will
all do our best to keep these wonderful 222 Activity Nights going! Let's
keep the ball rolling and have these activity nights all warmed up and
humming along when Spring comes and Dave returns his antennas to full DX
mode! Thanks Dave and everyone else for all the work done so far to
bring this tradition back and create activity on 222.
73,
Paul N1BUG
FN55mf
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|