Fall is tropo time in New England. This year we are finally getting
some, and I am grateful. Some parts of the country have been blessed
with an insane amount of DX. I have read comments such as " I added 39
grids and ten states to my DX list last night" Well it has not been
that good up here in Moose country, but I am very thankful that we got
anything. Results compared to the previous few years are way up.
Last night was a good example. I got a late start and at 22:45 UT the
222 calling frequency was busy. There were stations coming out of the
woodwork and everyone seemed to be having fun. N1JEZ and N1BUG were
remarking that signals seemed up and the QSB was low. I never checked
the beacons here, as I was busy trying to see what stations were already
making noise on 222! N1BUG said his shack was way too warm and was not
sure how long he would last, so I turned my beam NE and had a great QSO
with Paul. He was 59+40 with a monster of a signal.
I then saw that WA3EOQ was trying a sked with K1ZK in northern VT,near
Burlington. Zach is about 450 miles away from FM09 and his heading is
about 17 degrees different from my heading to western Maryland. Normally
WA3EOQ is barely copyable here, but last evening, I heard him Q5 calling
K1ZK. Both stations were calling each other. Woah! This is different. I
listened for awhile, then couldn't resist and called WA3EOQ. He came
right back and turned his beam on me and signals shot up to 559. That
was the loudest that I ever have heard Howard in several years of
actively trying to work each other.
I listened again when WA3EOQ and N1BUG were attempting their sked. At
one point Howard's signals crept up to 569 or maybe even 579 and that is
when Paul, N1BUG heard him well enough to complete the contact. I was
really surprised and amazed that Paul made the contact over a 650 mile
path, The azimuth track takes the signals right over the White
Mountains of NH., and is quite a bit farther North than the path to my
house. The path goes right over Mt Osceola and is just about 5 miles
south of the summit of Mt Washington at 6288 ft. A look at the Hepburn
map tells the story. As you go farther north, conditions looked better
for a NE SW path. For the first time in ages it looked like northern New
England had slightly elevated condx while the Connecticut shoreline
seemed just normal. Having N1BUG, N1JEZ and W1AIM etc all active
allowed us to see this in action. I remarked that N1BUG definitely won
the Bass Boat and trailer for the week. That is the longest QSO that I
am aware of.
I also listened to the sked between KO4YC and N1BUG. I thought Paul
would make that one too, but no joy this time. Cornell had a great
signal here, but I am much closer to him then N1BUG. A look at the
Hepburn map shows the enhancement. Before it goes away look at 0300 UT
on Sept 6 for eastern North America. I enclosed a screen shot, but
usually it gets stripped off when sent. You can see a filament of
enhancement that extends from the St Lawrence river outlet down across
northern New England , central New York, and then couples into an
adjoining min or ridge through western PA, WV and into Kentucky. You can
also see a slight enhancement down the coast, but it is slight. Now you
have to take these maps with a grain of salt. In my experience, I would
say that you will always do better than what the map tells you will
happen. If you see green to light green, that is good for at least 10 dB
or so and should be checked out. You want to look for long filaments of
color and realize that either side of the axis might also be
productive. Note the hurricane remnant off Nova Scotia. They have a
habit of pulling in warm moisture from down south and running it up over
dry and colder Canadian air this time of year.
slideshow
Last week, I had worked W8PAT a few times on the big Sept 2 event when
things were really great, and figured that a sked with him might be
interesting. A look at the map shows mostly blue and purple along a
projected path, but we tried and John was hearing me just fine. I had to
wait for a QSB peak but then I could copy him as well. We used FT8 and
his best level was -17 and he was audible in my phones. We could have
worked on CW. I checked afterward and found that he was running a CC
boomer and about 50 watts at the antenna. You have to use your
imagination when looking at the path on the Hepburn map. There is a
little green near my QTH down to Connecticut, but not so much in a line
out to the Cleveland area. There was a small hot spot in central New
York. I wonder what allowed this contact? Distance is 596 miles.
I tried with K9MRI and AJ6T, but there was no propagation other than
meteors. So my best DX for the evening was WA3EOQ, KO4YC, and W8PAT. All
were between 500-600 miles. Definitely a good night, but not enough to
win the bass boat and trailer. I had 25 QSOs and missed a few more that
I heard but never got a chance to work. (WW1Z and N2JMH) All in all,
222 was way too much fun. You do not know what you are missing if you
have not tried it. 222 MHz "rocks".
73
Dave K1WHS
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