Hello VHFers
Tuesday night was very interesting, as there was a bit of tropo lurking
about.The Hepburn map did show some local enhancement in coastal New
England over a small area. I was not expecting much. The Packrat beacon
on 222.060 was about normal and the VE3WCC beacon in FN15 was quite weak
and audible less than 30% of the time. KA3FQS was a bit stronger than
normal and I noticed that I was using the lower gain antenna when i
worked him on a 500 km path. The surprise was when I went looking to see
if I could detect K3SK on FT8. He was blasting in at -04 dB and he gave
me a -02 level which is crazy. I normally cannot work him but he has
changed his antenna and his signal got much better on the EME route and
I have made a FT8 QSO last week I think with his new antenna, but seeing
a rather strong signal surprised me. I asked Dave K3SK to try CW and a
bit later he showed up on CW and we completed a CW contact. The real
surprise was that I also worked Dave on SSB with Q5 signals. So we had
three modes of communications tonight and later on we also connected via
mode four on Q65 via EME. K3SK is a 915 km path. Later on I saw that
VA3IKE was QRV from EN82, and he copied me on FT8 while I was working
KB2KIR in FN22. I was not aimed at VE3 so I turned the antenna and
started calling VA3IKE on FT8. He was decoding me, but i could not
detect his 25 watt signal For a few transmissions, I saw a weak and
wispy signal that would not decode. It was very dim and barely visible.
I suggested we try Q65B-60 and we immediately worked. Ike is SE of
Detroit near Lake Erie and 963 km away. Signals were -22 on my end and
-18 out in EN82. That was another surprise. After working Ike, I swung
the antenna to the southeast and elevated it to start some EME tests
with the rising Moon. KA2ENE and K1ZK were monitoring. I do not think
they heard anything his time, but VA3IKE informed me that W7JW in
Michigan had decoded me when I was working VA3IKE. Too bad I missed that
tropo contact as it is 1030 km. I worked Jeff later on EME, but it would
have been more exciting over the tropo path! The prop page that shows
the "Big Red Blob", can be tricky as there was no great DX in evidence,
but there was definitely something going on. You must remember that
those stations that supply the data to that page are all low power and
low gain antennas, usually omnis and vertical whipe etc. Some tropo
paths are there, but you need some power and antenna gain to take
advantage of things. Tuesday night was a good example of that.
My EME efforts turned out OK but a few stations were missed. This always
happens with Faraday rotation. Besides KA2ENE and K1ZK, K3SK, and K9MRI
were listening and we worked easily as the Moon was rising thru the
trees at their QTH. As the Moon rose higher, W5EME was listening in
Louisiana, but he was hearing nothing. That is unusual. Closer to 0200
The Moon rose for WQ5S in Texas. At first it was the same as with W5EME.
No signals were copied, but eventually i started hearing Brad. It took
about 20 minutes or so, but all of a sudden, his signal bounced up in
strength and he started hearing me. we completed a contact. To me it
seemed like the east coast and midWest were aligned up, but the deep
South was out of sync and contacts there were tough this evening. K9MRI
and W7JW were loud all night, as was K3SK. I never heard W5EME and WQ5S
was very weak until right at the end where his signal finally was lined
up and got fairly loud at -22 or so. W6TCP showed up at about 0330 UT
and was busy. I worked him a bit later after midnight local time. W7TZ
was on, but he was having Faraday problems too. I figiured it was time
to quit. The highlight was working K3SK on FT8 (-04) CW (539) and SSB
S3, and EME at -15 dB. Wow. The VA3IKE contact was icing on the cake
as Ike runs just 25 watts on 222. I think he greases his yagi every night.
Here is the log:
09/09/2025 22:43 N2JQR FN13CE 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 553
09/09/2025 22:47 KC2KAE FN2ØXX 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 370
09/09/2025 22:52 KA2ENE FN13FE +8 +19 220 MHzFT8
TR 533 50 watts
09/09/2025 23:01 WW1Z FN42ET 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 84
09/09/2025 23:02 K1PXE FN31 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 265+-
09/09/2025 23:06 WZ1V FN31RH 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 266
09/09/2025 23:08 WB2VVV FN41CR 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 197
09/09/2025 23:08 N2SLO FN3ØJV 55 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 334
09/09/2025 23:09 WA1MBA FN51AS 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 198
09/09/2025 23:14 KA3FQS FN2ØJF 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 498
09/09/2025 23:26 W1XIV FN34JJ 57 59 220 MHzCW
TR 212
09/09/2025 23:31 W9KXI FN12NE 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 501
09/09/2025 23:35 WA3NUF FN2ØKE 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 496
09/09/2025 23:36 W2KV FN2Ø 54 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 460+- 10 watts
09/09/2025 23:38 W1AUV FN32II 54 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 223
09/09/2025 23:39 WA1RKS FN32IN 54 220 MHzSSB
TR 211
09/09/2025 23:45 K3SK FMØ7TJ -4 -2 220 MHzFT8
TR 915
09/09/2025 23:46 K1TEO FN31JH +0 +0 220 MHzFT8
TR 296
09/09/2025 23:51 N1CD FN32 +0 220 MHzSSB
TR 190+-
09/09/2025 23:57 K3SK FMØ7TJ 539 220 MHzCW
TR 915
09/10/2025 00:00 K1TR FN42 539 220 MHzSSB
TR 97+-
09/10/2025 00:01 K3SK FMØ7TJ 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 915
09/10/2025 00:03 W1AIM FN34 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 203+-
09/10/2025 00:17 KB2KIR FN22EN -10 -14 220 MHzFT8
TR 391
09/10/2025 00:31 VA3IKE EN82QB -22 -18 220 MHzQ65
TR 963 25 watts
09/10/2025 00:58 K3SK FMØ7TJ -22 -19 220 MHzQ65
EME 915
09/10/2025 01:17 W7JW EN82FJ FN43 EN82 220 MHzQ65
EME 1030
09/10/2025 01:45 K9MRI EN7ØIU en70 fn43 220 MHzQ65
EME 1213
09/10/2025 02:55 WQ5S EM13CI FN43 em13 220 MHzQ65
EME 2576
09/10/2025 04:17 W6TCP CM97 FN43 cm97 220 MHzQ65
EME 4215+-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone was listening on 222.085 and heard or decoded any EME, let us
know. I do not think K1ZK or KA2ENE heard anything via the Moon, but
KA2ENE was hearing me direct off the back of my beam. I was looking at
the the ON4KST chat page late in the evening and a bunch of folks in the
midwest and down around Texas were banging away late into the evening on
222. That was gratifying to see all the activity.
73
Dave K1WHS
My HV transformer got quite warm with all the action. Usually it stays
pretty cool.
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