Dave sure is right about the lack of activity these days! I hope he can
find a worthy recipient for that fine 222 station!!!
I fondly recall the days when there were a dozen or more stations up
here in central / northern Maine on 144, three or four in New Brunswick,
a couple in Nova Scotia. A smaller number had 432 and very few had 222.
Across the border I only recall VE1UT having 222. Times sure have changed!
The 222 Activity Nights are fantastic, and there are QSOs available from
here and from VE1, VY2, VE9 land! So do NOT let what I am about to say
discourage you from getting on 222! You WILL get contacts if you can be
on Tuesday evenings! It will be fun!
Now, as for the decline n VHF activity up this way and points north/east
of here... Many have become silent keys, sadly. But, speaking from my
personal perspective, I think VHF operation up this way has become a lot
less attractive overall. There are many factors that play into that. One
is having no locals to share the experience and compare notes with. For
me, a big one is the lack of opportunity to make fairly long distance
contacts. The long range ones have always been a big attraction for me.
There used to be a lot of big stations out there at the 400 to 500+ mile
range and it was exciting to get a few of them in the log every VHF
contest. There was a time when one could scare up such a "DX" QSO most
any morning or evening. Well, let me tell you those days are gone, at
least from FN55mf. Sure I still get a 500 mile QSO every now and then,
but it's not half a dozen of them in a VHF contest and one almost every
day like it once was. There are VERY few big stations left out there at
those distances. Not only that, but even with FT8 (which I personally
find boring and far less satisfying), one cannot get 90 to 100 144 QSOs
in a contest like we used to. Numbers are down sharply on higher bands
too. Even though my station now is far more capable than what I had back
then, the numbers are down and they are down a lot. Also, the big
stations that do remain don't seem to hear as well as they used to. I
suspect this is due to ever rising noise levels everywhere. With a kW I
used to be able to work anyone I could hear but not any more. I can
understand why people just aren't motivated up this way. I don't have
any solutions to propose. If you want more people up this way and beyond
active, you need to find a way to provide QSOs for them. But how? I have
no idea.
That said, yes it's true I am not on regularly myself. I continue to put
a lot of work and expense into maintaining and improving my station on
the "lower four" bands. There are times I question why I do this. I
expect in a year or two, three at the outside, my situation will change
and I will be able to be more active for things like 222 Activity Night,
the Sprints, etc. I want to be sure I am ready for those better days!
73,
Paul N1BUG FN55mf
On 5/1/24 10:54, David Olean wrote:
My efforts to find a suitable recipient for a self contained 500 watt
222 MHz station in New Brunswick, PEI, or Nova Scotia have met with
failure so far. I am imploring VE1 ops to scour the hills and find a
suitable ham who will pick up the gauntlet and install the gear for some
Tuesday night activity. What you get is a complete transverter and 500
watt solid state amplifier similar to what WZ1V, VE3KG, and W3CMP have.
I know GB Ron has his running and it works pretty well. I am building
up the GPS synthesized LO and transverter and W9KXI has offered to
supply an antenna. The 500 watt amp is a modified Larcan driver with two
MRF151G FETs and it is fitted out with LP filters and protection
circuits. I found a decent 50 volt power supply that will provide 25
amps so the whole station only needs a feedline and a 28 MHz exciter
that can provide 1 milliwatt of drive. I will even drive to the
Canadian border to deliver it. We really need more stations Northeast
of my location. I was the only Maine station on last night. I never even
turned my antenna Eastwards! Only KV1J, N1BUG and K1DY are QRV from
Maine now on 222 and there is no VE1 activity at all! It did not used to
be like that. There was fair 144 thru 432 activity in the past. I could
easily work stations out in FN95 and in PEI when I turned my beam. Now
all the gears on that half of my rotator are clean and have no wear at
all!! There is no one there!! Pretty sad, so we need to do something
about it. A big Thanks you to W9KXI and all who are helping to increase
activity by supplying extra hardware where needed.
73
Dave K1WHS
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