Well, it was a very interesting evening as seen from FN43 Mumbo Jumbo
land. I suspected that there might be a little tropo squeaking in
between all of the thunderstorms, and I was not disappointed. The
storms were quite widespread in the NE making for spotty activity. After
all, who wants to be connected to a metal box with a wire going from the
box out to a big metal lightning rod in your backyard? I had a bunch of
storms move just to my South, but the static crashes to my SW were
downright "wicked". The edge of one storm came over here and we got some
rain out if it. I had 23 contacts with 22 different stations. I worked
no one to my East. All contacts were west or SW with the exception of
W1AIM and K1ZK who were NW from here.
My usual try with WA3EOQ was fantastic as his first transmission was Q4
copy but then he built up to 529 or maybe even 539 on subsequent
transmissions and we did not even have to keep to our timing schedule.
Howard was still banging in and I heard him work WA3NUF and WZ1V right
afterwards. I think Ron forgot to list his QSO with WA3EOQ. I figured
that condx were pretty good. Before that I listened on FT8 when N8LRG
was supposed to be on. This was about 23:45 UT. I could see a weak
signal on the waterfall, and I suspected it might be N8LRG. It was right
where he said he was transmitting, so N8LRG asked if we might try
Q65B-60. As soon as I switched to Q65, he decoded me and we completed a
615 mile contact. W7JW was on from EN82 but we never got a chance to
try a tropo sked. Would it have worked? I rounded out the evening trying
some EME and it was just terrible how the prop Goddess toyed with us
mortals. She wiped the floor with me and K3SK, N0AKC, W7TZ, and N1AV.
One way transmission was the rule, and getting a contact was very
difficult. I never heard my echo. Of course, that made me paranoid in
thinking that my AZ EL calibration was out of whack. N4QWZ near
Nashville showed up on the chat page, so we tried a meteor scatter sked.
In 15 or 20 minutes, neither of us heard anything. I was starting to
think that my antenna had crapped out again, so went back to EME and
this time condx had varied enough so that I could make a contact with
W7TZ and K3SK. N1AV in AZ was also worked but that was a easy QSO with
BIG signals both ways for the only really great EME contact
(signal-wise) of the evening. I went back trying meteor scatter with
N4QWZ again and this time it was entirely different. I was hearing him
very often with many nice short bursts. That was fun. EM66 is the same
grid as AJ6T so it was not a new one for me. AJ6T was a great Aurora
contact last year with him running 30 watts. Here is the log from Mumbo
Jumbo land. QRB distances are in km.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE
PRO.REMARKS QRB (Km)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07/01/2025 22:42 KA2ENE FN13FE FN43 fn13 220 MHzFT8
TR 533
07/01/2025 23:03 WB2VVV FN43EU FN43 fn41 220 MHzCW
EME 74
07/01/2025 23:04 WW1Z FN42ET FN43 fn42 220 MHzSSB
EME 84
07/01/2025 23:11 WZ1V FN31RH FN43 220 MHzSSB
EME 266
07/01/2025 23:12 K1PXE FN31 FN43 220 MHzSSB
EME 265+-
07/01/2025 23:15 K1OR FN42IR FN43 FN42 220 MHzSSB
EME 79
07/01/2025 23:24 W1AIM FN34 FN43 fn34 220 MHzSSB
EME 203+-
07/01/2025 23:24 N1JEZ FN44AR FN43 220 MHzSSB
EME 168
07/01/2025 23:25 W1AUV FN32II FN43 220 MHzSSB
EME 223
07/01/2025 23:34 W9KXI FN12NE FN43 fn12 220 MHzFT8
TR 501
07/01/2025 23:45 N8LRG EN80VI -25 -21 220 MHzQ65
TR 990
07/01/2025 23:55 WA3NUF FN20KE FN43 fn20 220 MHzSSB
TR 496
07/01/2025 23:57 W9KXI FN12NE FN43 fn12 220 MHzSSB
TR 501
07/02/2025 00:02 N2JMH FN12BW FN43 fn12 220 MHzSSB
TR 563
07/02/2025 00:06 W2BYP FN13IB FN43 fn13 220 MHzFT8
TR 514
07/02/2025 00:11 W2CCC FN23MH FN43 fn23 220 MHzSSB
TR 323
07/02/2025 00:16 K2AEP FN32OW FN43 fn32 220 MHzCW
TR 157
07/02/2025 00:27 WA3EOQ FM09JO FN43 220 MHzCW
TR 805
07/02/2025 00:56 K1ZK FN25BK FN43 fn34 220 MHzFT8
TR 451
07/02/2025 01:48 W7TZ CN83IA FN43 cn83 220 MHzQ65
EME 4168
07/02/2025 01:56 N1AV DM43FF FN43 DM43 220 MHzQ65
EME 3675
07/02/2025 02:09 K3SK FM07TJ -30 -24 220 MHzQ65
EME 915
07/02/2025 02:28 N4QWZ EM66OK FN43 EM66 220 MHzFSK
EME 1552
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 23
I did work a new station on 222 MHz, W2CCC in FN23. That was very cool
and it was very nice to see FN23 active now on 222 MHz. W2CCC was worked
on SSB with QSB but signals were mostly Q5 on this end. It was fun to
see all the activity to the West with W2CCC, KA2ENE, W2BYP, N2JMH and
others all working each other. They also had plenty of success
contacting N8LRG. I would say it was a great night marred only by the
nasty storms along the East Coast.
I looked over the list of contacts last night, and that translates to
almost four six packs of beer that I need to bring if everyone shows up
at the NEWS picnic. Yikes. I wish the 222 MHz Activity Committee would
have some compassion for us old people.
73
dave K1WHS
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