It was a rather slow night on 222 MHz and the contact total was quite
low compared to other weeks. I started listening just after 22:30 UT and
noted that the W3CCX beacon was about 10 dB down from summer time
levels. If i listened on the fixed antenna which is aimed at Philly,
the beacon was rather weak and just above the noise. It was at best
about 20 dB on the bigger antenna. I worked WA3EOQ early on and signals
were very weak on my end. Howard's third TX sequence just about
disappeared. I guess that means winter is on the way. Still, we did
manage a CW QSO. i did not get a chance to try with K3SK, but Martin,
PJ4MM showed up on the chat page and we quickly worked via the EME
route. He has a pair of long yagis. He was -18 here and the Moon path
degradation was close to 4 dB as the moon was in front of the Milky way
(our galaxy center, not the candy bar!) He could be worked with ten dB
less signal than produced by the four yagis that I have. In my
opinion, PJ4MM is quite workable.
Other good contacts were W9KXI who was bombing in on SSB. I also worked
KC2SGV on SSB from FM29. He was weak but solid on SSB. W1AIM and VE2XX
were quite loud too. KA3FQS was solid at S7 and it made me want to check
the CCX beacon again to see if it had improved. I think I made 15
contacts over the period and I quit just before 0100 UT. I made noise
in the direction of K8TQK, but copied nil. WZ1V and K1PXE were both
good and loud. I have been working K1PXE since 1962, so that makes 63
years. I had a nice chat with John WW1Z. We talked about all the
comets that are whirling about lately. John is quite the astronomer and
had more luck than I did at catching the comets.
Remember that the upcoming weekend is the last EME Contest weekend and
all the 222 ops are hoping to be QRV on the 2nd pass on Sunday. saturday
and sunday promise to be great for 222 EME. If you are thinking about
giving it a try, now is the time.
73
Dave K1WHS
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