Hi Good Buddy Ron and VHFers,
It sure was fun to be able to drive up to the shack and power things up,
with the generator behaving well. The temps were moderate and the inside
shack temp was 40 degrees when I got there. My only complaint was that
it was a bit muddy up there with some snow banks around the shack. My
contact totals look a lot like yours with the exception that I missed
WA1MBA and KA1SUN. I have come to the conclusion that there is just too
much rock and dirt between KA1SUN and myself. A few times I could tell
that someone was calling but then they would disappear. Mt Geylock is
right in the path between KA1SUN and me. For most of the night, I was
seeing tremendous QSB on signals and a cursory look at the K2DLL beacon
in FN23 indicated that it was a bad night. The signal was about 10 dB or
so out of the noise, and it had a distinct watery sound with multi
path. WA3EOQ noted tremendous QSB on signals from me, and I noted that
he would only be audible for 10 or 15 seconds and then disappear. We
worked, but it was extremely unstable.
Another tip off was when GBR (Good Buddy Ron) told me that he saw me
three times at once on FT8. Thank goodness he did not try to work me
three times. I only heard WZ1V on FT8. No other FT8 signals were
detected when I was active after 01:30 UT. I started out at about 23:40
and my first QSO was with Ellis, WA1RKS. The other contacts were those
calls that WZ1V contacted plus VE3DS in FN03. Toronto is about 430 miles
from me. I also tried with VE3MIX in Toronto who is running 10 watts.
We tried a slow speed CW sked, and I am pretty sure that I heard him at
one point, but no contact was possible last night. While working
VE2XX, he told me that my signals were about as low as he had ever heard
me. It was just that kind of night with wild swings either way for those
signals coming in over the horizon. I guess you could say it was a
typical wintertime evening on VHF! That being said, I did try with
KO4YC near Richmond, VA. and had an interesting development there. I had
asked for a sked but missed Cornell's response on the chat page. GBR
told me that he heard KO4YC calling me on 222.125, so I went there ASAP,
and did catch him and had a SSB QSO, but signals were weak. Then WA2LTM
called him, and I could hear Doug very well on SSB. He is over 280 miles
away and I was hearing him off the back of his antenna! I broke in to
let Doug know I could hear him, then Cornell just got really strong and
was an honest S5 or S6 on SSB. We had a quick chat again on sideband!
The path is about 520 miles. This was a QSB peak that was really hot.
It is also the reason that you should never think that a long and
difficult contact is not possible. The secret is to try a few short
skeds and invest some time in hopes of catching such a QSB peak when all
the atmospheric blobs align to focus that tropo scatter signal in your
favor.
In other news, K2AEP told me that he ended up getting about 40" of snow
dumped on him in that last snow storm and is still digging out! He sent
an unbelievable picture to prove it! Wow!
All in all a great night and it was great to see all the action going on
in the midwest and southeast playing out on the chat page. Pretty soon
we will be in better conditions with meteors and some long haul tropo
contacts. I can't wait!
73
Dave K1WHS
On 3/28/2023 9:12 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
Great activity, logged 22 on 222 tonight, lots of QSB though.
K1WHS FN43, WA1RKS FN32, WA3NUF FN20, KA3FQS FN20,
W9KXI FN12, WA3EOQ FM09, WA1MBA FN51, WA1NLG FN41,
K1PXE FN31, W1TR FN31, KC0IYT FN42, K1FSY FN31,
W1AIM FN34, VE2XX FN25, N1GLT FN42, KA1SUN FN32,
KO4YC FM17, WA1PBU FN42, VE3FN FN25, K2AEP FN32,
K1MAP FN32, and WA2LTM FN20. Thanks for the QSO's.
73 Ron WZ1V FN31rh
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