Hi Chris,
I can sympathize with your situation. I lived in an apartment in Dover
NH almost downtown (Near lower square) and tried to make contacts on
144 MHz. I had a 15 element HyGain yagi up 30 ft on a guyed mast along
with a pair of 4CX250B tetrodes in PP. I couldn't get out of New
Hampshire with that QTH. (That antenna was a dog too) I was behind a
hill. One night the band opened up and I remember W1JSM working out into
Michigan and Illinois. I managed to make it all the way to Long Island
NY! It is frustrating. It was also not good when someone chopped down
the mast late at night. I spent the rest of my time there building FET
receive converters for 50 through 432 MHz. Still, I could work the
locals and had a lot of fun doing that. On 222 night, I typically can
work a fellow in the Boston area with his ten watts and a quarter wave
vertical. There is plenty of action near Boston and in southern NH, so
you would definitely make easily 5-8 contacts on Tuesday. Maybe you
should just run your rover setup in the driveway. The idea is to get on
and make noise. More activity equals more fun. I am positive that I can
work you if you have a piece of salted spaghetti in your output center
pin. If I can work you, that means Good Buddy Ron will be chomping at
the bit to work you as well. WZ1V seems to work everybody.
I guess you don't want to knock yourself out putting in a bunch of
effort for little reward, but most folks who are on 222 MHz on Tuesdays
have determined that it is a whole lot of fun and much better than
watching videos or staring at your smart phone. You could do much worse
on a Tuesday nite. I have some sections of KTV tower that you can have
for free. I think it is 70 or 80 ft. worth. I looked on the "Hey Whats
That" site and you are definitely blocked to the South. The good news is
that the obstructions are not really bad. Beyond the blockage the land
is not all that high. The other good news is that you are good toward
Europe!
Dave K1WHS
On 4/21/2023 2:01 PM, Chris Lumens wrote:
I can no longer sit idly by and read about people making contacts on 222
activity nights. I've got a transverter, I've got an amp, I've got an
antenna. I use all this stuff when I go roving. The reason I haven't
gotten on is the same reason I rove - my house is not very good for VHF.
I own one fairly wet acre with a lot of tall trees around the edges and
a bunch of crappy smaller trees that are all in the process of falling
down. There's not much in the way of flat open ground. The majority of
that is in the front yard, on the north side of the house, where I'm
obviously not going to put up an antenna. Even worse, I am kind of down
in a low spot, especially to the south. Living in southern NH, that
means most of the people are to my south as well.
Aside from putting up a tower, what can I do? Couple sections of
surplus aluminum mast in the trees and hope for the best? I would be
happy to post pictures, or grab a cooler of beer if someone wants to
walk around outside and brainstorm with me, if it would help figure out
what I could do.
Unrelated... I've got the standard M2 LEO-Pack, az-el rotator, and
IC-9700 here. I've been having fun making satellite contacts. Is that
sufficient gear to do some other 2m/70cm activity?
Thanks!
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