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Re: [VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] 222 MHz Activity night

To: David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net>
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] 222 MHz Activity night
From: Fred Stefanik <n1dpmfred@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2023 16:52:49 -0500
List-post: <mailto:vhfcontesting@contesting.com>
Oh come on Dave!.....1 more is only an 11% increase!  That's only 0.4dB!

Fred

On Wed, Feb 1, 2023 at 3:03 PM David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net> wrote:

> Hi VHFers
>
> Last night was quite an adventure.  With a VHF shack that is way out
> behind the house, access can be difficult in winter.  With about 2 ft of
> snow, my only way to get on for the activity night was via snow shoes.
> Fred, N1DPM suggested a snowmobile. I have so many small engines here
> that I cringe to have any more as they are a huge amount of work with
> maintenance, storage, and all that goes with it.  Too bad my neighbor
> doesn't have one and likes ham radio! (see below)
>
> I was working on all my 160 meter Beverage wires while we had some snow
> free days, and I made the best of it. We got a big dump of snow towards
> the end of that project, and I ended my Beverage repairs by using the
> snow shoes. While I was traversing the property, I decided to break a
> trail up the hill toward the ham shack. I broke a trail about 2/3rds of
> the way up there. I stopped when I gained the ridgetop and the remainder
> of the trail was only a slight upward walk.  In hindsight, I should have
> gone to the top as the snow developed a pretty good crust which made
> snow shoeing pretty hard. If you have not done any snow shoeing, just
> imagine your big web feet breaking through a hard crust, and then try to
> lift your feet up and have those big web feet get caught on the crust
> and you have to lift that crust along with your feet! It is difficult.
> Last night I broke the remainder of the trail and it took a long time. I
> left the house cat 6:15 PM and made my first contact 47 minutes later.
>
> It was quite beautiful trudging through the woods with all the snow, but
> then I had to dig out the two doors of the shack. There was a lot of
> snow all drifted up! I keep a snow shovel up there just for that
> reason.  I stowed the snow shoes and entered the building and turned on
> the genset, 30 seconds later I saw the voltmeter come off the bottom peg
> and go up to 120 volts.  (Yay!) The 30 second delay is due to glow plugs
> heating the cylinders for awhile so the fuel will ignite in cold
> weather.  My old military 30 KW diesel did not have glow plugs. That
> beast had a metal bottle of ether, and you yanked a lever and sent pure
> ether into the cylinders to aid starting in cold weather.  Kaboom!
> Since my generator repairs, the diesel has been working great!  I have
> its 12 volt battery on a tiny solar panel and charge controller,  and it
> keeps the battery healthy in winter.
>
> Here is my log. Conditions were OK. I cannot complain when I have two
> contacts over 500 miles in January!
>
>     DATE     TIME CALLSIGN       FREQUENCY  MODE   SENT RECEIVED   PROP
> GRID   REMARKS
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 02/01/2023 00:04 N1YCQ            222.100 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN41LP   1st contact solid signals from
> the Cape.
> 02/01/2023 00:08 N1GLT            222.106 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN42IW     Wally in the derry area
> 02/01/2023 00:10 KA3FQS           222.106 SSB    55
> 55                        TR  FN20JF    311 MILES
> 02/01/2023 00:11 K1FSY            222.106 SSB    59        55
>                          TR  FN31LN   I think my 1st QSO.
> 02/01/2023 00:13 K1PXE            222.106 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN31KE     Voice of Milford!
> 02/01/2023 00:15 WW1Z             222.106 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN42ET   reliable John
> 02/01/2023 00:15 WZ1V             222.106 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN31     Good Buddy Ron.
> 02/01/2023 00;16 WA3EOQ        222.130 CW    429    529
> TR    FM09    502 MILES!  Thanks Howard!
> 02/01/2023 00:26 WA1RKS           222.130 CW     559
> 589                       TR  FN32IN   Great tropo peak to S7! (then
> down to about 449!)
> 02/01/2023 00:27 WA3NUF           222.130 CW     559
> 599                       TR  FN20KE    310 MILES
> 02/01/2023 00:38 WA1MBA           222.115 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN51AS   Tom  great signal 50 watts
> 02/01/2023 00:38 N1SV             222.115 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN42    Les
> 02/01/2023 00:47 K1TR             222.115 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN40IU   Ed  (we talked about 160 meters.)
> 02/01/2023 00:57 KA1SUN           222.115 SSB    55      55
>                            TR  FN32LN     FT736 120 watts  13 el yagi
> 02/01/2023 01:02 W1AIM            222.110 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN34   Chip in Cabot, Cheese land!
> 02/01/2023 01:15 KE1LI            222.110 SSB    59
> 59                        TR  FN41AU
> 02/01/2023 01:25 KO4YC            222.129 SSB    42
> 42                        TR  FM17GV     520 MILES
> 02/01/2023 01:31 VE3DS            222.131 CW     559
> 559                       TR  FN03FQ   433 MILES
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Number of QSO listed: 18
>
>
> My try with Howard, WA3EOQ was rather difficult. There was fairly rapid
> QSB where he disappeared into the noise. I only copied him on peaks. It
> took about 5 minutes to complete. Howard mentioned that I was pretty
> solid there, but I had a 12 dB power advantage. Howard runs 100 watts
> output. The only way I worked Howard was due to the low noise efforts on
> my system here. My first try with no tower mtd preamp was not good
> enough for EME. Yes, I made contacts, but I could tell that the other
> station always heard me better than I heard them. Upgrade #2 was a tower
> mtd preamp, but I was always plagued by RFI from a CH 11 digital TV
> station at a 219 degree heading. Other directions well away from 219
> degrees worked fine, but 219 degrees is the main heading for all the VHF
> activity. What made the situation difficult was that the overload
> artifacts from CH 11 did not sound like RFI. The only evidence was a
> slight increase of the noise floor. It sounded like natural random
> noise. Many attempts at high dynamic range preamps could not eliminate
> the problem. I tried a LNA Technology cavity preamp and it did not fix
> the degradation.  When confronted by this, Who ya gonna call?  Not the
> Ghostbusters, but WD5AGO!!!  He made up a silver plated cavity thatuses
> a TX FET as the active device with the silver plated cavity to reject
> the CH11 signal.   After fitting that preamp in a larger box up on the
> tower, I was finally getting down to the nitty gritty and that made it
> possible to contact Howard and others down that way.  I mention all of
> this to relay the fact that such RFI is everywhere and it may be harming
> your frontend.  Remember that the TV signal will have peaks that are 10
> dB above what you will see on a spectrum analyzer. TV frontend overload
> is everywhere.  On 432, I was getting hammered by a CH14 TV station in
> Portland Maine off the back of my 432 antenna. The tower is about 45
> miles away. I had to install a large copper HB cavity up on the tower to
> get rid of that problem.
>
> KO4YC was a difficult contact as well. Cornell was using SSB and was
> very weak. I was calling on CW in a narrow passband and heard what
> sounded like weak SSB so I kept going between CW and SSB trying to
> figure out what was happening.  Finally we connected up with the right
> passband and completed. Signals were very weak.  I tried with K8TQK with
> little success. A few meteor pings were heard each way. That is a long
> haul over 700 miles.
>
> The shack was not as cold as I figured. It was 30F when I started and
> soon it was rather comfortable. Still, I had the long trek back home on
> snow shoes, so I quit early at about 8:30 so I could make it back home
> at a reasonable time. It took about a half hour to get back home. I was
> very [leased that I could participate in the 222 MHz Activity period and
> would like to thank all who made an effort to get on and make noise.
> AJ6T had an iced up antenna and apologized for not being able to
> transmit! NiGC, AA9MY, K8TQK, W5EME, and K9MRI were all in there making
> contacts.  In the NE, semi newcomers like WA1MBA, KA3FQS, N1FSY, WA1RKS,
> and K1FSY are adding to activity and it shows.  It bodes well for an
> upward climb in 222 MHz activity coming in the future. Thanks to all.
>
> Dave K1WHS
>
>
> Dave's Small Engine Collection:
>
> Husqvarna Snow Thrower
> Toro Snow Thrower
> Honda Lawnmower
> John Deere Lawnmower  (his and hers lawnmowers!
> Husqvarna Chainsaw
> Homelite Chainsaw
> DR Brushmower (The lawnmower of death)
> Stihl brush cutter
> Honda Brush cutter
>
> That is nine small engines that have to be maintained. Note the
> redundancy. When you need these things you need these things!! I sold my
> Troy-Bilt rototiller. I used to have ten engines!
>
>
>
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