Hello Terry and 222 ops,
Twenty QSOs is a fantastic number. It also brings home the point that I
am so far away from the VHF activity due to my location in the extreme
Northeast with no VHF activity to my East. Imagine the luxury of
turning your beam! I stay between 190 and 265 degrees for the most
part. I figure that my reliable range is about 500 miles to a well
equipped station. The population centers within that range includes
Boston, NYC, Philadelphia, Wash DC, and Rochester NY/Toronto. Terry,
W8ZN is so far West and South of me that his 500 mile range includes the
same areas that I can see plus Nashville, Atlanta, Chicago suburbs,
Cincinnati, Charlotte, Richmond, Savannah, Charleston. Indianapolis,
Louisville KY, and Detroit!
Having a great 222 MHz station so centrally located can be a shot in the
arm for increasing activity on the band. A few days ago I responded to
an email from KK4MA in South Carolina. He informed me that he had just
got a new 222 station going and was looking for any local nets in his
area to check out the new setup. I told him about the Tuesday night
activities, the chat page, and mentioned some of the stations active
that he could look for. I did not mention W8ZN as Terry has not been
active lately, but KK4MA showed up and worked several stations including
K3SK and W8ZN. and WA4GGC. So now we have another decent station in S
Carolina for 222 MHz. He has 200 watts and a good beam, so his presence
will bolster activity in the SE. This is all good. Aim your antennas
towards SC on Tuesdays!
I worked 20 stations last night and came close to working K3SK who is a
bit out of my range at 575 miles. I had terrible powerline noise on his
heading. I suspect that noise masked his signals via the digi modes.
K3SK heard me quite well, but I never decoded anything here. I know my
RX is good, so my only excuse is the powerline noise. heh heh. I think
W8ZN was my longest QSO at just under 500 miles. WA3EOQ was not QRV so I
did not get a shot at a 500 mile path there. Before the evening started,
I was heating up the shack and monitoring the W3CCX beacon. It was quite
steady for several minutes but at least 10 dB below normal moderate
temperatiure conditions. It peaked at 20 dB above the noise on my
panadaptor. Then it would take a long fade over a minute or so and drop
down to the noise level. It was still there, but was not copyable in the
noise. I watched it for a long time and it came back to the 20 dB
level. I tried comparing signals with my fixed LVA (18 dBd) and it was
noticeably weaker, but I did see cases where the LVA achieved parity at
times as ground reflections favored the height of the LVA. The center of
that array is at about 80 ft. The four long yagis are at 106 ft.
Another interesting situation developed while working N2JMH. Normally he
is quite good copy here, but I must have caught him in a fade as he was
weak on CW. I signed with him and then K1BX in NH called him and they
worked on SSB. I was listening and could tell that N2JMH was there on
SSB, but I could not really copy what he was sending. It seems that Art
had a much better path than I did. So I guess the bottom line is that
you should always try with contacts that are beyond your normal range
and maybe the prop princess will grant you a wish.
Enough for now.
73
Dave K1WHS
On 1/28/2025 10:29 PM, Terry Price - W8ZN wrote:
Worked 20 folks tonight which for conditions was pretty good. K1WHS
was weaker than normal and caught him on FT8. Worked a newbie, KK4MA
in EM93 at over 400 miles and he was +5 at times and easily could have
worked him on SSB. Welcome to 222 Mike !!!
Got two decodes from N1SV but he saw nothing from me which is puzzling
to me since I was running 1.2kw on FT and he was running half that.
Everyone needs to point towards EM99 to work K8RYU, we worked on SSB
and he was very loud.
73, will be in Orlando next week for Hamcation, might try to take
something to get on from Florida !!
Terry Price - W8ZN
Directive Systems and Engineering
703-754-3876
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