I don't know about everybody, but I am getting the impression that a 222
activity night was just what the doctor ordered! All in all, it was a
fun evening even though conditions in the NE were terrible. The good
news was that there was a big QSB fade and that, if you caught it just
right, you could do pretty well. I guess that means that condx were not
bad all the time, just 90% of the time. heh heh. Al, WA1T showed up and
we both played with the radio as well as passing notes on the chat
pages. Al's 222 antenna has problems so he came over to my shack on the
opposite side of the lake and enjoyed the evening along with me!
I got on at about 7:30 PM local time from FN43mj. There was already
activity before that. I have included my log to show what activity I
could hear in northern New England
04/27/2021 23:34 WW2Y 222.100 CW 579
589 TRS FN20QJ
04/27/2021 23:34 N3RG 222.100 CW 549
559 TRS FM29
04/27/2021 23:42 WW1Z 222.105 SSB
59 TRS FN42ET
04/27/2021 23:50 WW1M 222.105 SSB
59 TRS FN43PI
04/27/2021 23:53 WA1PBU 222.105 SSB 59
59 TRS FN42JG
04/27/2021 23:56 KB1JEY 222.105 SSB
22 TRS FN20JE faded out on SSB!
04/28/2021 00:21 VE3ZV 222.104 SSB 57
57 TRS EN92VW very loud on SSB 500 mi.
04/28/2021 00:46 K1PXE 222.106 SSB
57 TRS FN31KE
04/28/2021 00:54 W9KXI 222.107 SSB 56
57 TRS FN12
04/28/2021 01:12 VA3ELE 222.127 CW 559
529 TRS FN03
04/28/2021 01:43 VA3ELE 222.127 CW 559
559 TRS FN03
04/28/2021 01:50 K1RZ 222.110 CW 559
519 TRS FM19JH
04/28/2021 01:45 222.174 K1RZ FT8 FM19
04/28/2021 02:00 222.174 KR1ST FT8 FN21
WW2Y was my first contact. I knew that Peter had lashed a small yagi on
his porch just for Activity Night, so I was glad to work him, but was
also amazed at how loud he was. The amp on his end sure helped! The
first thing I noticed was that there was long and big QSB. If a signal
was S7 or 8, it could drop down to quite weak in a minutes time. I saw
that often.I must have caught Stephen VE3ZV on such a peak because he
answered my CW CQ with SSB, and he was running a solid S7 on voice! He
was much louder than I heard him in the 222 Sprint two weeks ago. I did
not see any big peak on VA3ELE, but his signal here seems quite steady
and easily workable over the past three weeks.
I was called by a VE2? station early on. Not sure who it was but I
swung the beam NW and called VE2XX to see if it was him. I heard no
response from that direction, so I am not sure who called me.
Many thanks to all who made the effort to get on. There was much
activity as seen on the chat pages that was just too far away for me to
hear, but it was re assuring to know that they were in there making
noise. I think the fact that people are active on Tuesday night will
entice more folks to get on as it is a lot of fun to try and make easy
and then hard qsos on any VHF band. I heard lots of comments about the
high level of "Fun Factor".
I tried a few minutes with N9HF in Florida on meteors, and then AA9MY in
EN50 on FT8, but had no luck with either station. The good news was that
it was fun just trying to make a contact or even to just get heard on
such long haul attempts. Most of the efforts were CW and SSB, with some
FT8
So I will be back next Tuesday for 222 Activity night. and hope that I
am as successful as in the first two weeks! It sure beats watching
videos. Thanks to folks who have been on each night: N3RG, K1RZ, WW1Z &
WW1M, K1PXE, VA3ELE, KO4YC, N9HF, AA9MY, and K5QE. I am sure there are
many more that I missed on that list. Getting some resident activity on
Tuesday evenings will help to build up activity everywhere! If people
know they have a good chance at making a QSO, they will show up. And
just wait for the bands to improve and start acting like Summertime!
Thanks again for your efforts.
Dave K1WHS
_______________________________________________
VHFcontesting mailing list
VHFcontesting@contesting.com
http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/vhfcontesting
|