Hello Mr. "Voice of Milford",
You are correct, Pete. We have not been lucky with 222 tropo this
summer. I have seen several mornings when things were hot along the
coast from the CT/LI shoreline down to VA and maybe NC. Each time that
has happened, the Great White North was left out of the action. It has
been exceedingly poor up here. One of the reasons for having an activity
night is to make sure that your 222 setup is ready for the day when the
band does open for tropo! I think it may have been Joe W1JR, who
lamented that we should all be monitoring the higher bands for tropo, as
it sets up there early on and then dissipates as the evening (or
morning) wears on and the lower frequencies get better. If we monitor
144 only, we might be missing all the good stuff that occurs on 432! By
the time we realize the band is hot, the higher freqs have already
faded. Inversion layers can and will act as waveguides. Too big and the
higher freqs will not get through as well.
So, paying attention to 222 and 432 is probably more important than
monitoring 144. Remember.....If a tree falls in the forest and no one
is there, will it make a sound? If the band opens on 222 & 432 and no
one is there to notice, will the band opening really happen? Along
those lines, I am trying to figure out how to remotely monitor the band
continuously. Without permanent AC power there, I keep thinking that I
cannot do it effectively.
I checked the rain gauge here, Pete and it registered 3.05" of water. I
am thrilled. We needed that!!
73
Dave K1WHS
On 9/6/2022 4:08 PM, Peter Motyl wrote:
Yes, its 222 mhz activity again and, you guessed it, its raining
again! Here, it rained all day. It stopped for a while. Just long
enough to go out and bring back the trash and recycle barrels but rain
is falling again. I’m not complaining. We needed the rain real bad.
We have only had a few hundredths inch of rain in the past month and
before that, well less than normal. But why does it always have to be
on Tuesday? It may not rain here tonight but I am sure it will
somewhere in the area and maybe even thunder storms. Wx does look
good for the contest weekend but I don’t know about band conditions.
The big storm area, the rapid change of seasons or the solar activity
could result in a change of the wx pattern. We will just have to wait
and see.
*If wx permits, I’ll be on tonight working who ever I can work.*
**
*73, Pete K1PXE*
**
*From: *David Olean <mailto:k1whs@metrocast.net>
*Sent: *Tuesday, September 6, 2022 12:08 PM
*To: *NEWSVHF@mailman.qth.net; vhfcontesting@contesting.com; 222 >>
222Activity@groups.io <mailto:222Activity@groups.io>
*Subject: *[NEWSVHF] 222 MHz Activity Night
Hi 222 Friends
I missed any chance at aurora by being at my camp up north on the
weekend and just came back home on Monday so any aurora fireworks were
missed by me. The good news was that I got to fly fish with my grandson,
who just turned 14, and we had a banner day on a very neat river
catching some very nice and rather large brook trout. Our initial
attempt on another stream was poor due to exceedingly low water. All the
trout had migrated to a large pool as a means of survival. We actually
found the pool where they were hiding, and were fascinated to see so
many trout in one spot. We did not even attempt to catch any of them,
and tried a different river instead. Our second choice had plenty of
water and we had a blast! I only say all of this as I am bummed to have
missed the K Index of 6 on Sunday!! I think I had a good excuse!
Tuesday night could be very interesting as, hopefully, there will be new
"blood" on the air and everyone will be chomping at the bit to work
him! Dave K3SK is building up a very good VHF station in FM07 at
Farmville, VA. Farmville is located SW of KO4YC and is about 575 miles
from my QTH here in FN43 Mumbo Jumbo. That is a very good distance,
being just beyond the ragged edge of what is normally possible on 222
MHz. Dave has four 10 element yagis up and wants to try them out. I
checked his distance to the Connecticut shoreline and it is just about
400 miles to New Haven, so K1PXE and Good Buddy Ron, WZ1V also have a
good test for their setups as well. Having four yagis on the FM07 end
will be a great addition for Tuesday night activity! At over 500 miles,
it is possible for the northern guys, W1AIM, W1GHZ, N1JEZ, VE2XX, and
K1DY to get a good chance, especially if Dave gets his Larcan amp hooked
up.
KE8FD has been active lately from near Columbus OH, and at 630 miles or
so is an awful long distance from me, but I did manage to hear him well
last Tuesday on FT8, but he could not hear me at all. I am not sure what
is going on with that, but I am encouraged to try again tonight. The
other regulars who get on and make noise will be all excited about K3SK
as well. K9MRI, AA9MY, AJ6T, W4ZST, N1GC, and a whole pile of others who
I don't normally hear will all be angling for a try with K3SK.
Meteors are quite good this time of year, even on 222, so don't hesitate
to try an MS sked over a seemingly impossible distance. W5EME, W4ZST,
K9MRI, WQ0P and others are always available for MS tries. I have been
known to try some MS as well after about 9 PM local time. Hearing a
meteor ping is downright exciting! Having a computer program to enable
high speed information harvesting on those short pings is exhilarating
as well. Those pings are audible when your ERP goes up. If you are
running at the 100 watt level, those pings get a bit more "rare", but
you can still hear stuff at the 100 watt level. I just takes longer! 3
dB can make a difference on a 222 MHz meteor path.
So, the bottom line is that we all get on 222.100 plus or minus, and
just start making noise and creating a nuisance of ourselves, all in
hopes of making some QSOs on the band. Conditions are probably not so
good in New England, but we are used to that. Hopefully, the rain will
stop. so my foray up the hill is dry. Activity starts at about 2300 UT
and continues until people get tired and sick of all the fantastic fun
they are having. I note that the midwest guys are still going strong
when I quit last week after about 0130 UT. They were trying MS and FT8
skeds all over the place! The ON4KST Chat page (144/432 Region 2) is a
good place to coordinate activity.
73
Dave K1WHS
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