222 MHz activity summary. The big 10 GHz weekend was quite an event with
the hurricane coming up the East Coast. All the folks who made it to the
islands off southern New New England had quite the time with the surf
and cancelled ferry service, not to mention all the energy expended by
many as they traipsed across all of the local high spots around the
northeast. That and very poor conditions kept the QSO totals low in
this part of the world. I was up at the shack around 4:30 PM and noted
that the W3CCX beacon was way down in signal strength. I got dumped on
by some winds and a rain squall then, and I figured that the evening
would be difficult. The atmosphere was really unstable.
What a difference from the beginning of the month when everyone was
enjoying great conditions. For the first time in a long time, I did not
try any long haul skeds. Signals seemed way down. I was using the
solid state amplifier that was scheduled to go to W0VB in Wyoming. It
was running off a big 48 VDC server PS and the fan was about as noisy as
a P-51 or maybe a P-47 . The amp itself was nice and quiet and stayed
nice and cool even after some FT8 extended episodes. I called CQ on FT8
quite a bit to see how the amplifier handled the digi modes. It was fine
and the heatsink stayed pretty cool.
I was curious to see how the Tuesday night try with WA3EOQ would go. The
signals down that way were quite weak on average, but I heard Howard
right away as I got on frequency. After my 30 second calling period, he
came right back sending grids and we completed pretty fast for such a
poor night. At no time did signals come up to Q4 or Q5 but it was good
enough for a QSO. VE3DS in Toronto was pretty good at 559, but was
weaker than in the recent past I believe. Dana thinks he is getting TV
station overload from a local TV station. Join the club Dana. That is a
very common problem now.
Here is the log for the evening.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX MODE
PRO.REMARKS QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09/19/2023 22:59 N1JEZ FN44AR 59 59 SSB
TR 168
09/19/2023 23:04 VE3KG FN24AV 559 559 CW
TR 432
09/19/2023 23:07 N1SV FN42EP 559 59 CW
TR 99
09/19/2023 23:10 WZ1V FN31RH 59 59 SSB
TR 266
09/19/2023 23:12 K1NKR FN42FI 59 59 SSB
TR 125
09/19/2023 23:21 WA3EOQ FM09JO 429 429 CW TR
806
09/19/2023 23:28 K1DY FN54JQ 59 59 SSB
TR 200
09/19/2023 23:44 W9KXI FN12NE 59 SSB
TR 501
09/19/2023 23:47 KC3BVL FM29JW 55 SSB
TR 522
09/19/2023 23:48 KA3FQS FN2ØJF 55 55 SSB
TR 498
09/19/2023 23:57 N2JQR FN13CE 55 SSB
TR 553
09/20/2023 00:02 N1DPM FN32QB 59 59 SSB
TR 201
09/20/2023 00:04 WA3NUF FN2ØKE 55 56 SSB
TR 496
09/20/2023 00:07 K1FSY FN31MR 55 55 SSB
TR 247
09/20/2023 00:26 W1AIM FN34UJ 55 55 SSB
TR 154
09/20/2023 00:30 WB2SIH FN31DD 569 569 CW
TR 337
09/20/2023 00:34 W1JR FN42EV 59 59 SSB
TR 78
09/20/2023 00:43 WA1NLG FN41XS 59 59 FT8
TR 196
09/20/2023 01:10 VE3DS FNØ3FQ 559 559 CW
TR 692
I am not sure how, but the distances changed to kilometers rather than
miles. So the QRB column is km.
I worked a total of 19 stations and 20 QSOs as I also worked W9KXI on
FT8 in addition to SSB. He called while I was beating up the amplifier
on FT8!! The QSB was a wild as I have ever seen. At one point, I called
a CQ and got a strapping answer from WB2SIH on CW with S9 signals. I
said Hi and sent my grid to Buff, and when he returned, he was weak and
watery sounding. He dropped down to S3 or S4. The QSB was that severe! I
quit about 01:20 UT and headed home. I was pretty tired as I had been
mowing my field that day with a walk behind brush cutter. With all the
rain, all the grass and brambles in the field were quite overgrown.
Next week is the 222 Sprint. I hope we have some good participation and
the weather is good. I'll be there and I hope to work as many stations
as I can. I looked at the Moon position for the sprint, and it is
really great. At 23:00 UT when the sprint starts, the Moon will have
just risen here and will be at 12 degrees or so. Just right for a rising
Moon try with the midwest! Degradation will be very low, so signals will
be booming if the Faraday lines up. ( Always a bugaboo). Anyway, I will
be monitoring the HB9Q Chat page as well as the ON4KST page and looking
for EME contacts during the sprint. Usually that last hour of the sprint
is slow, so it would be quite cool if a bunch of the EME gang made an
appearance to add some excitement to the evening. At 0300 UT my Moon
elevation will be at 31 degrees and just past the highest point due
South. That is not good for Alaska and Hawaii, but at 0300 UT the Moon
will be at 20 degrees in California, so most of the continental USA can
get in on the fun. Dust off your EME arrays and maybe we can make a few
contacts via the Moon route next week!!
73
Dave K1WHS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|