Hello Paul, N1BUG
N1BUG wrote:
"Having not heard anyone new in over 45 minutes and fighting to keep my
face from impacting the desk,"
Having been a big fan of Dilbert, the cartoon strip, I was reminded of
Wally, who fell asleep and his face hit his keyboard. When he was asked
what was wrong with the bumps all over his face, he said he had a case
of Qwertyitis.
I am really missing the Tuesday nights, and I would have been contact #
5 for you. I admire your perseverance in setting up such a good 222 MHz
station that is so far from major activity areas. If you can work these
guys in January, you can work many others when the band gets good
again. I remember ur big signal on MS!! It can be hard to line up with
stations at times. The ON4KST page can serve as a reminder to let
people know that you are there. Those in the activity hotspots near
large cities have everybody pointing their way most of the time. Those
of us on the outside and looking in do not have that advantage. We have
to hope that people turn their antennas. K1TEO and WZ1V are experts at
beating the bushes for contacts. Ron does not miss much!
Speaking of Ron, I saw WZ1V's report, and it looks like all the regulars
are on, and that is a great thing. Thanks to you all who get on. You
know who you are. The bottom line is that we have to keep this effort
going, in hopes that it spreads around the country. It won't happen in a
week or a few months. It will take much longer, but I am sure that we
can adjust our lives and spend the time necessary and keep a few times
open when the VHF bands come to life and real contacts are made. The
reward is big, as these evenings are just so much fun. We also are
occupying a VHF band at a time when commercial interests are looking for
frequencies everywhere! I get periodic updates from the West Coast,
and they are promoting 222 on Tuesdays as well. Activity is building
there. The hard part is in the middle of the country. The few people
with good 222 stations are far apart. There are plenty of hams, just no
one on 222. That is where we all come in. We need to talk up our efforts
on 222 so that others will see that there is a benefit from being on the
band.
I am not on for Tuesdays now, due to the remote shack being so
inhospitable in late winter, but I am not sitting idle. I am working on
a solid state driver amp system for 50,144,222, and 432 MHz, that uses
some Larcan pre driver amps. I cut down the 24" rack to 19" and have a
bunch of drivers all mounted and am now wiring up the 50 volt PS and
metering/keying stuff. I just made up some shunts for the metering
circuits. I also have the 1500 watt solid state amp out and am going to
wire up and test the protecto- board and RF filter. The filter is
mounted on top of the amp, so the RF output has to be routed up there
with a solid high power connection. I will use a short piece of 3/8"
semi rigid coax. Not sure it will bend well. If not, I can always use
some 1/4" stuff.
I wonder if Qwertyitis is contagious?
73
Dave K1WHS
On 1/26/2022 4:48 AM, N1BUG wrote:
Well, conditions were as bad as they get. That's not too surprising
considering the cold, breezy conditions with a cold front passing
through. I worked only four stations.
W1AIM 279 km CW
W1GHZ 279 km CW
WZ1V 524 km CW
K1PXE 562 km CW
Interestingly, K1PXE was the strongest of the four at the time of
the QSOs. Good job, Pete! I did later hear W1AIM louder on SSB.
I missed some that should have been really easy. What time do people
start? Are many not getting on until later in the evening? I was there
for 90 minutes starting at 0000z. Having not heard anyone new in over
45 minutes and fighting to keep my face from impacting the desk I
pulled the plug at that point. I will try to stay on later next week
but as I keep saying, evenings are VERY difficult even with my Tuesday
schedule cleared out.
222.100 is not working out well for me. First off, it is very busy.
Even I can tell that being way up here in the boonies. Second, I had
problems with a birdie. 222.100 CW is fine if stations are exactly
zero beat with me. Some were as much as 300 Hz high, and were getting
beat up by a persistent birdie. It's not strong, maybe 6 dB above the
noise floor, but when signals are weak and exactly zero beat with it,
it's a problem.
I will investigate to see what is a really clear spot for me and try
that next week. I do hope people will help spread the word about where
I am hanging out, otherwise those who aren't watching ON4KST chat will
never find me.
73,
Paul N1BUG
FN55mf
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