The National Weather Service has posted a number of severe weather alerts
for this evening. The weather radar shows several severe thunderstorm
warnings over Vermont and Western Massachusetts heading east.
I was planning on listening for K1WHS with my Quansheng.
John WW1Z
On Tue, 16 Jul 2024 12:07:13 -0400 David Olean <k1whs@metrocast.net>
writes:
> Hello boys and girls,
>
> We live in exciting times. A portion of that excitement happens
> with
> many of us on Tuesday nights. The last couple of weeks showed a
> distinct bump in activity on the 222 band. There is now a reasonably
>
> sized group of operators so that it is possible for Good Buddy Ron,
> WZ1V, to make 30 contacts for two weeks running! That was with
> K3SK
> missing due to antenna refurbs and VE3DS, KO4YC, and others not
> being
> able to get on and make noise etc etc.. So the activity is
> spreading!! I just delivered two boom to mast plates to Jay, W1VD.
> He
> is revamping some old 220 Boomer yagis and I expect that we will
> hear GB
> Jay soon on the band. Both K1TEO and W1VD are in fantastic locations
> in
> SW New England and can make those long DX contacts South and West,
> and
> can detect those miniscule openings that might be missed by a
> "smaller"
> station. Having such beacons on the air should really improve
> activity
> even more and provide a realizable goal for stations that are far
> away
> from the high activity areas of Washington DC up to Southern New
> England.
>
> I am always excited when Tuesday rolls around because you can get on
> the
> 222 MHz band and make some nice SSB or CW contacts and spin your
> rtators
> all around looking for stations to work. This is just like the good
> olde
> days and you are guaranteed to make a few contacts. If you are in
> an
> area with zip, zilch, nada activity, then it is up to you to talk up
> the
> band and try to enlist others in your operating area to get on.
> W7JW
> worked a nifty meteor scatter contact from Michigan when he was only
>
> running 25 watts a few weeks ago! Being in a far away place with
> no
> local activity does not mean that you are out of luck. It is just a
> cue
> for you to explore the DX modes and see what is possible. Ant
> distance
> to about 1000 miles is typicaly possible on 222 with a normal VHF
> setup. It will not be simple and easy, but who likes "simple and
> easy"?
> ..... Well maybe we do like "simple and easy", but you get my drift.
>
> I am at the far end of the activity corridor that extends from
> Washington DC up to Boston. I am maybe 80 or 90 miles North of
> Boston. I
> can work lots of stations but things slow down after about 00:30
> UT. By
> 01:00 UT most of the activity has dried up. It sure would be nice to
>
> extend that time by utilizing MSK144 skeds and even Q65B-60 or 120
> skeds
> and play around with digging signals out from the noise. I always
> try
> long haul skeds after about 00:45 or so. Last week, I stopped at
> 02:30
> UT as there were a few long haul skeds involved. Get on the ON4KST
> chat
> page and set something up with another station out of your immediate
>
> area. The worst thing that will happen is that you don't make a
> contact.
>
> N1JEZ and I have been discussing a tropo path that affects both of
> us. A
> few times we have found very week tropo enhancements extending from
> Northern New England out to Indiana. After finding this path open
> occasionally over the years, when other paths are not viable, I am
> convinced that the two Great Lakes, Erie and Ontario, have a lot do
> do
> with it. We suspect that the path loss drops when conditions are
> just
> right over those water bodies. More investigation is needed, but
> Tuesday
> night skeds are a good way to look into it. A quick look at the
> tropo
> scatter models shows a path loss of over 265 dB, and some of the
> models
> are out of range at 750 miles, but all it takes is about a 15-20 dB
> enhancement (reduction of path loss) and we are at 245 dB which is
> possible with the amateur power limits and a god setup. I am sure
> there
> are other paths worth exploring.
>
> So fire up the gear. Turn off Tik Tok, and spend some time on 222
> this
> evening. Let us know what happens.
>
> 73
>
> Dave K1WHS
>
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