Well, other than sitting in the dark, I had a great time running on
battery power! I decided to run the transverter and Teletek driver amp
that normally drives my 8877 amplifier. It is about to be retired with
a new solid state amplifier ready to go, but it was a simple task to
just run the driver cable over to the coax relay. I had an Astron linear
supply running the Teletek and output was about 90 watts or so.
First station worked was N1BUG and we had a nice chat with my beam up
aimed at Milo Maine. Good buddy Ron WZ1V called on frequency and I
answered but he could not hear me. I had to turn my beam SW. I had no
trouble working Ron and Peter K1PXE with my lower power. W3CJK had a
good signal and W9KXI in FN12 was hearing me on SSB with my beam aimed
south! When we aimed at each other we had S7 signals peaking up. W9KXI
is at about 310 miles. Other stations included W3CJK with a great signal
from FN41, along with "Iron Man" George, N1GJ. KE1LI was on with low
power, but still had a good signal when we were aimed at each other.
At one point I saw a comment from KE1LI on the chat page. "15 watts
sucks!" The conditions in New England were not very good. Before the
action commenced, I had been watching the 222.049 K2DLL beacon and it
was weak and watery with strength between 10 to 20 dB above the
background noise. It was much louder in the afternoon by about another
10 dB, so things had deteriorated locally. We had mist and drizzle here
during 222 activity.
I did work Dave, N2SLO with his newly installed 222 yagi up in the air
and I was glad that he had made the changes as signals were not their
normal strength. He was OK on SSB, but any weaker and it would have been
a CW only type of contact. There was lots of QSB. I missed all the
Massachusetts ops. Normally the Boston area has several guys on. I guess
the weather kept them away.
I wondered what would happen if I tried to work WA3EOQ with just 90 or
100 watts on my end. Howard has always been running 100 watts and we
work regularly with few misses. This night was easy. I heard him start
calling and I sent calls and my grid. Howard came right back and his
signal was actually a bit above what I normally hear. So figure that
out. Everyone in New England is having trouble making contacts, but this
500 mile path is not affected. It seems, condx down South were much
better, and long haul tropo is not very affected by local conditions.
Later on, Howard WA3EOQ also connected with W1AIM in VT for another
almost 500 mile QSO. Up North, I snagged VE2XX with a very loud signal
along with W1AIM in Cabot, VT. Cabot is a big cheese producing area.
Chip's signal was not the least bit "cheesey".
My attempt to work VE3DS Toronto did not work out. I heard VE3DS calling
me a number of times, but my low power could not make the grade on a 430
mile path to the west. I always contrast the Toronto path with my shot
down the East Coast. KO4YC is at 225 degrees and we worked on SSB over a
525 mile path last night. I have a pretty good negative horizon angle
around 215 degrees, while my horizon at 275 degrees is almost at zero
degrees. A few tenths of a degree in the horizon makes a big difference
in tropo scatter. I see this a lot. I tried again later on, but Dana
had left the building!
When I quit just after 9 PM I had been on and making noise for 2 hours
and 15 minutes with about 100 watts output. My battery was at 72% when I
shut it all down. I wish the batteries were not so expensive. If I had
two, I could probably run a 400 watt amp with no problem. Lithium prices
are almost double that of lead-acid types, but they last longer. At
least I hope they last longer! My old lead acid bank made it for only
six years. ($220 per year of use)
All in all, it was another very interesting night. Next week is the
222 Sprint. WA1T will be here and we hope to have the generator running
again. I will have my band decoder running so I can be a real single op
and not have toplay musical chairs while running the bands. The newly
revised band decoder has only one voltage supplied (24 VDC) so there is
no way I can goof that up! I tested it yesterday and it switches just
fine. Now to get all those higher bands hooked up again!
73
Dave K1WHS
73
Dave K1WHS
On 9/20/2022 8:59 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
Pretty good night on 222, despite the QSB on some paths:
K1WHS FN43, N1BUG FN55, K1PXE FN31, K2RMX FN20,
W9KXI FN12, WA1T FN43, N2SLO FN30, KE1LI FN41,
W3CJK FN41, WA3EOQ FM09, N1GJ FN41, KO4YC FM17,
and W1AIM FN34 - Thanks for the QSOs.
Can't make it next Tuesday so carry on without me,
and look forward to the 432 Sprint.
73 Ron WZ1V FN31rh
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