[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night

[David Olean]

I was overwhelmed by the level of 222 activity on Tuesday night. I was 
also aware of the exceedingly poor conditions, high winds, and attendant 
power line noise. I was so overjoyed to hear signals all over the band.  
Contacts ranged from WW1M running an indoor loop and low power in the 
next town, to W8ZN in FM09 about 500 miles away!  I think I made 17 
contacts for the evening. It was very tough working stations in the 
Philadelphia area as there was serious power line noise in that 
direction.  I think it is time to call the power company!

Thanks to all who got on 222 MHz and made some noise. It was a big plus 
having signals on the band where a person could check out their system 
and evaluate how things are working. I spent much time A-B ing antennas 
on various signals on 222 MHz.  Having activity in different directions 
and various modes on one night of the week is a great start.

I am speaking from a perspective of living in the northeast. I wonder 
what happened in other parts of the world? I know that K5QE was active 
and made some EME effort using JT65. I believe that he had a contact 
with W8ZN!  I tried some FT8 and MSK144. AA9MY and I tried an MSK144 
sked after he heard a big ping from me while I was CQing in his 
direction on FT8.  We did not hear anything in 15-20 minutes of trying, 
but that is not the point. AA9MY and I were both  QRV and willing to try 
something on Tuesday.

Now, we have to keep this up on every Tuesday. Who knows, maybe the 
activity will spread! For my part, I tried to inform 222 ops about the 
push for an activity night here in the NE. I am not sure, but it seems 
that others picked up the idea and pushed it in their area.  or my part, 
I will be on 222.1 +/- next Tuesday looking for contacts.

I am also thinking that maybe the Lyrids meteor shower will be good late 
tonight after the 432 Sprint.  I would love to play with MSK144 or 
FSK441 on 222 again. I could be easily persuaded to get on!

Thanks to all who supported 222.

Dave K1WHS