[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz ACtivity Night

[David Olean]

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