I spent a lot of time on 222 MHz last night as the hits just kept on
coming. The activity was spread across both terrestrial modes and the
EME route. WQ5S in Texas had his Moonrise occur just before 2300 UT.
There was bad weather in Texas so he had said that he was going to miss
the Moonrise, but as luck would have it, he showed up with not so severe
weather and was my 2nd contact of the night. KA2ENE always shows up
first from the Rochester, NY area for contact #1. I also worked KA1QAS
and K1STK, both in FN42 for (I think) initial contacts on 222 MHz. That
is great. K1STK was on FT8 while Scott KA1QAS was on SSB. I had
recently met Scott in person at the NEWS conference this past weekend.
I spent most of the evening swinging between EME and tropo type
contacts. There was a lot of swinging yagi syndrome going on here as the
moon started out at about 100 degrees azimuth. The elevation kept
climbing as the evening wore on, so the rotators got a workout. I missed
many local stations as the EME activity was really good. W4ZST was on
from Georgia. He has two yagis, but they sound like eight or nine! He
worked five stations on EME last night. Others worked included N1AV in
AZ, N0AKC, K3SK, AA5C, and WQ5S single yagi on his Moonrise. VE6TA was
there and was hearing me with the Moon just rising through the henhouse
and other out buildings. It was getting late and I could not wait
another hour until he could transmit without killing the chickens and
melting his old polyester suits from the 1970's that are stored there
near the chickens.
With all that action on EME, I missed a few on the terrestrial circuit.
I never heard K1TEO and also missed WA3NUF in Philly. I did work W8ZN
on FT8 and CW. Terry peaked at +10 on FT8!. There was much QSB and his
CW sigs went from 579 down to weak and watery in about 1 minute. That is
almost 500 miles. WA3EOQ was also worked in FM09 at 502 miles with weak
signals. At times his signal was not there. At other times he was just
copyable in the noise. Contacts with Howard are so much fun and
difficult at this distance, but really get the blood flowing. There was
some alleged tropo along the salt water in Southern New England. Not
sure if anyone worked any dx. This was no doubt due to the water hose
project demanded by the 222 MHz Activity Committee. It is back breaking
work for me, dragging all that old fashioned water hose around New
England. I am running into water pressure issues as well. Many homes
still have their outside water faucets turned off for the winter
months.....but I digress. I would rate conditions locally as a bit
below normal, which surprised me, as temps were warming up and humidity
levels are rising.
WA1NLG was extremely loud as he raised his antenna another 20 ft. I saw
59+40 when I peaked him up on the antenna. I did work VE2XX and VE2GDR
up near Montreal. I also heard the VE3WCC beacon on 222.062.4 with
pretty good peaks to 15 dB out of the noise, but the QSB was still
there. The beacon is in FN15. I sure wish there was some VHF activity
on 222 there besides an unmanned beacon. I did manage to work KA2ENE on
SSB from Rochester, NY. It needed a QSB peak to do it. He was in the
noise level most of the time.
All in all, it was a neat evening with lots of excitement andI was very
busy. From the look of my log I can tell I was busy. I did not even log
a few strations as I worked them. I quit a bit after 10 PM or 0200 UT.
My eyelids were drooping as I headed home down the hill.
Dave K1WHS
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