Hello VHFers
Just a friendly reminder that this evening is the time for 222 MHz
activity and from the looks of it, our midwestern sisters and brothers
probably have a jump start on the festivities. The northern part of the
great northeast has once again struck out. I kept checking the band but
never heard a thing! Some famtastic tropo made its way into southern
New England, but no joy up here in the pine woods!
I will be on this evening along with a bunch of other folks all making
noise on 222. These 222 activity nights are having an effect on the
minds of the uninitiated. I just read that some ham is selling his two
transverters for 144 and 432, but he is willing to trade them for a
single 222 transverter, Now what does that tell you? It is obvious that
the fun on 222 is the equivalent of both 144 and 432 at the same time.
So the plan is to just get on and make noise on the 222 band as best you
can. I tend to start looking for contacts on 222.100 just before 23:00
UT, but then move off the calling frequency as other stations show up.
Most folks use the ON4KST Chat page (144/432 Region 2) to coordinate
skeds. It can be handy to set up longish attempts. If you are in the
populated areas a simple CQ is all that is needed. Last week SIgurd,
KJ1K was on Mt Greylock and caused quite a stir. Having a 3800 ft tower
is always helpful.
The big tropo seems to be still going on and will probably keep many of
the central and southern US ops busy. New England prop will be zilch, I
suspect few meteor skeds this evening when tropo reigns supreme.
I did get an e mail from the president of the Providence RI radio club
about including FM in the activity fun. It sounds like an intriguing
way to build up possible more weak signal work. I have been asking
around at how much activity there is on 223 FM but the results so far
are not encouraging for my area. I guess it is a big thing in
Providence. I would be willing to get an FM setup going here if there
was any chance of some success. I do have a 223 MHz vertically polarized
yagi left over from our multi-op contesting days. I can probably find
the coax for it in the shack somewhere! I am looking for information on
223 FM activity. Let me know. 223.5 is big in Packrat land, but that is
325 miles away from here.
73
Dave K1WHS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|