Hi 222 MHz ops,
Last night was quite active on 222 MHz again. In fact, it was VERY
active! For the past three weeks in a row a few guys have made over 20
contacts on Tuesdays. People were coming out of the woodwork. Perhaps is
was due to the January Contest coming up next week, but some portion is
due to people putting gear back in service to participate in the
activity evening. I talked to George W1JHR for the first time on 222
Night and he was running a recently "uncovered" transverter at 20 watts
and a small HO loop. He related that he just got the stuff hooked up and
was glad to get something running for Tuesday night.
The Packrats were out in force. I know that Phil, WA3NUF has been
pushing to get more activity from the Philly area. As luck would have
it, a bunch of Packrats showed up last night, but I never worked Phil!!
I know he was on as I heard him working another station at one point,
but his beam was not aimed my way and he was barely audible. We never
hooked up. With so many stations making contacts and chasing other
stations, it is easy to miss a few. I never connected with Ellis,
WA1RKS. Things were just too busy, and by the time I got
re-combobulated, Ellis had left the building!!
Here is a summary of the action as heard from Mumbo Jumbo Land.
23:56 N1YCQ FN41LP 122 miles
23:58 N3RG FM29KI 354 miles
00:00 WA1MBA FN51AS 123 miles
00:03 WZ1V FN31RH 166 miles Good Buddy Ron.
00:13 W1JHR FN42FL 73 miles
00:20 WA3EOQ FM09JO 502 miles Very poor condx. QSO took many
repeats. A squeaker!!
00:24 K1TEO FN31JH 186 miles
00:30 KB8VAO EN91PB 524 miles An FT8 attempt Nothing heard.
No QSO.
00:34 KC0IYT FN42KJ 70 miles
00:37 K2AEP FN32OW 98 miles
00:42 KE1LI FN41AU 119 miles
00:45 WA1PBU FN42EK 75 miles
00:50 K1PXE FN31KE 190 miles The Voice of Milford
00:51 K1UU FN31RX 127 miles
00:52 N2SLO FN30JU 211 miles
00:53 W2SJ FM29JR 336 miles
00:56 KA3FQS FN20JF 276 miles
00:58 N3EXA FN20IJ 306 miles
00:59 W0RSJ FN20JQ 289 miles
01:01 W1FKF FN43GI 25 miles We resorted to FT8 for a 25 mile
path. I dropped power as low as I could go. Don was at +37!!
01:07 VE3FN FN25DK 275 miles
01:08 W1GHZ FN34UJ 95 miles A very rough path for us. 95
miles of granite!
01:10 W1AIM FN34UJ 95 miles
01:12 W1JR FN42EV 49 miles Joe has his 222 setup all
fixed and working as it should.
01:20 VE2XX FN25WK 212 miles
01:22 WA1MBA FN51AS 123 miles 2nd contact helping him work VE2XX
and W1AIM.
01:33 W0RSJ FN20JQ 289 miles 2nd QSO with antennas aimed properly.
01:46 K9MRI EN70IU 759 miles FT8 attempt I heard one
ping. Joe heard two pings.......A moral victory, if not a QSO.
If you look at the mileages of the stations worked, there were 8 local
stations within 100 miles of my QTH. That is pretty good local activity.
There are 7 stations between 100 and 200 miles. That covers New England.
Over 200 miles is beyond New England for me and there were 7 stations
that were over 200 miles away.
I actually drove the truck up the hill last night. There was only 3 or 4
inches of snow in the woods, so it was worth a try. Coming back down was
a bit tense as I slid sideways at one point. I went slowly and had no
problems other than that. A bonus was that the room was at 38 degrees
when I got there and it wormed up rapidly with the electric baseboard
heat and my little foot warmer heater running. I brought a small laptop
with me for logging and digital modes. The goos news was that it all
worked with no issues. The COM ports behaved and I even had a good
internet connection. As for the internet, I use a 5 GHz link running
at about 100 mw and 23 dB dishes at each end. Signal level is about -42
dBm (Loud) It used to be -37, but the trees keep growing. Anyway, when I
run my 160 meter station at 1500 watts output, all that energy is in the
near field and sometimes the 5 GHz link resets itself to factory
defaults and the link goes down. Lately I am unplugging the downhill end
of the link and that seems to avoid the reset action. I am crossing my
fingers.
The next 222 Activity Night is on January 24th and there is movement
afoot to have some EME activity at the same time or earlier that
evening. Lunar conditions should be great with the Moon close to
perigee. Elevation will be low. as the Moon is at a southerly
declination. It might be a good time to see if you can decode some EME
signals on 222 MHz. The Moon will be setting on the East Coast at 0130
UT for me here in Maine and later as you move westward across the
country. NH6Y promises to be on 222 and looking for some contacts.
Having Hawaii show up will guarantee that there will be activity
galore. I am hoping that the storms keep away and that I can
participate next Tuesday. I could make it an "event" and start early at
maybe 21:00 UT or 5 PM local time. The first two hours would be EME only
and then some terrestrial contacts starting at 00:00 UT. My Moonset
would be close to 9 PM local time. With significant EME activity as the
Moon sets across the country, it will be a good time to evaluate how
well your receiving setup is on 222 MHz. I can give you a hint.....It
is probably not good. Remember that sky noise is very low on 222 MHz.
There is still noise on the horizon as the ground and all those trees
that your antenna sees are at about 290 degrees Kelvin. Still the low
noise makes 222 a great EME band. All you have to do is make sure that
you are not getting digital TV signals overloading your front end.
(highly likely) or having a green neighbor move in and put up a solar
farm! Anyway, listening for some EME stations is a good first step in
quantifying how well your stuff is working.
More news on the 24th as things progress.
73
Dave K1WHS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|