It is Tuesday and you know what that means! Besides fighting off the
Murder Hornets, it is also the day set aside for making real contacts on
the 222 MHz band. Here on the East Coast, the activity usually starts at
about 7 PM local time. Last week we had some much needed activity in
the midwest and that spawned a number of rather "longish" schedules to
be set up and tried between East Coast stations and those more inland
stations. 800-900 miles is a great distance for meteor scatter!
N6ZE did a cursory investigation of how many 222 & up QSOs were made
during the ARRL 222 & Up UHF Contest. His results were interesting, and
showed up some significant activity in some rather surprising sections
of the country. There are other areas with zero activity as well, and
it is our job as VHF hams to help improve activity levels on the bands
that we love. The 222 Activity nights are meant to be an activity
builder. K6TSK has been active running a 222 MHz net in California as a
means to promote activity in his area. There is a nucleus of dedicated
W6 VHFers keeping activity up on 222 MHz. There is some activity in the
Southeast and If we all show up and set skeds up between the different
areas of the country, the outcome will be more excitement and more activity!
Last week I tried some Q65 with disappointing results. The path loss
was about 15 dB more than my reliable range limit on CW (800 km) I was
thinking that possibly Q65 with 60 second sequences could bridge the
gap, but nothing was detected. Of course the best scenario is to have a
station at the proper distance. Our effort seemed to be a "bridge too
far". As more people decide to get on for 222 night, more of these
difficult paths can be explored!
I hope to see you on 222 this evening!
73
Dave K1WHS
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