Hello 222 phreaques,
I am all excited to be back home and available for an exciting 222
Activity night. There is only one problem. We had a terrible ice storm
on Saturday that pretty much wiped out parts of southern Maine. When it
was melting on Sunday and Monday, I measured one chunk that fell off a
guy wire at the house and saw 3/4" of ice away from the cable. That is
close to being a really bad event. As it was, over 185,000 homes lost
power in Maine, with most of the trouble in the two southern counties. I
lost power here at about 8 PM on Saturday night. There was no internet
as well. I have not been to my shack, but can see that the top 7 element
50 MHz beam suffered a broken brace from all the extra weight. The 222
array seems to have survived but looks a little worse for wear. The road
is impassable, so i need to walk up with my trusty Husky 365 and clear
the way. Only problem is that it is raining again and the temperature is
29 degrees. We are in another ice event.
The plan is to head up on foot and attempt to get on. Fortunately, power
was restored here on Monday evening and the internet came back sometime
about midnight. Living in the north woods is always exciting. I took a
trip South to Sunny Florida and Virginia in hopes of missing mud season.
When I returned we had the worst storm of the winter!! The woods are a
mess, with broken trees all over the place.
So don't forget to show up after dinner and look around 222.100 MHz plus
or minus the QRM this evening. Hopefully, your weather will be better
than what is in store for Mumbo-Jumbo Land. Freezing rain and rain is
forecast here all day and evening. I am hoping that I have an internet
connection on the hill. Using the ON4KST Chat page will alert others of
your presence. The 222 ops use the 144/432 Region 2 Chat for liaison. I
am not sure who will be QRV, but W2KV in FN20 is working on getting a
real beam up in the air. Also Phil K3TUF has been on in FN10. W3CMP is
in FN10 and working on getting a station up and running. Chris, W3CMP
has a 500 watt Larcan amp ready to go.
On other news, the last 1500 watt Larcan amp will be heading out to
South Dakota in the next day or so and W0VB (220MHz WAS #1) will be
installing it in Wyoming at a remote station. That project was held up
for months, but is back on track. I am also converting another 1500 watt
amp for KF0M in Kansas. The ice storm and loss of power slowed down
those projects, but things are getting back to normal. Finally, I have
a 1000 Watt Larcan here for N1SV that I picked up in Virginia where
WA1ZMS added some filtering, relays, and fans to make it ready to go.
Some QRO amps spread around the country will sure add to the excitement
and help many others to achieve WAS on 222.
I plan to be on a bit before 23:00 UT looking for contacts on 222.100.
I hope it all works!!
73
Dave K1WHS
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