[VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] 222 Activity Night K1WHS

[David Olean]

Hello 222 ops,

Well , I seem to have flummoxed my Tuesday night activity by messing up 
my only EME sked. I should have been there the night before! I was only 
a day late. Thank goodness I wasn't a "dollar short" too. As a result, I 
missed the best time for local contacts, 8:30 to 9:30 PM.  It was nice 
to hear and work WA3NUF and N3GNC.  Phil & Jerome had great signals here 
into FN43 Mumbo Jumbo.  When I started my EME sked I had 11 QSOs in the 
log. One new one was N2SLO with his temporary 222 setup of 25 watts and 
a single yagi on one of those famous Radio Shack TV masts. Dave made it 
all the way up to northern New England with that small yagi only 20 ft 
off the ground. There was some QSB but he was always Q5 for our short 
ragchew. Thanks to all the new 222 night stations for getting on in the 
evening.

I had a nice long ragchew with KA2LIM in FN12. We got talking about a 
new 144 antenna for here along with some 222 elevation ideas.   I 
started out on 222.100 and pretty soon it got awfully crowded. I had 
multiple callers and heard other QSOs there at the same time, so I moved 
up quickly to .115. I heard K1PXE and WZ1V on SSB while I was in CW 
mode. I never ended up working Pete, nor Ron WZ1V.  VE2XX called off the 
back of the beam, and I turned the 4 yagis up NW for Stu. I also snagged 
N1QG near Burlington, VT and Chip, W1AIM, while aiming up there. Ed, 
N1QG was very loud considering the path is awful between us, going right 
thru the White Mountains and 4800 ft Mt Moosilaukee. Others I heard and 
worked include WW1Z, WA2VNV, K1DS, and N1BUG (Who is gosh awful loud 
even off the back of the beam here!

My EME attempt was a letdown. I assumed KB7Q would be there for three of 
my moonsets, but he was only there on Monday evening. I thought his 
first try was on Tuesday! I called for an hour with nothing copied, but 
got some play by play feedback from KL6M, K1OR, N1BUG, and WA4NJP. At 
least we had fun chatting on the HB9QQ logger. (That is the watering 
hole for 222 EME stuff) KL6M & WA4NJP heard me via the moon. At least I 
know the TX works!

When I came back at 9:30 PM, local activity has dried up. I tried some 
Q65 efforts with W8RU at about 650 miles. We tried 30 and then 60 second 
sequences with absolutely no results.  That is 150 miles farther than I 
typically get on CW to the West. I figured it was worth a try. We did 
hear a few meteors.

So it seems that I managed to tie with WZ1V with 11 QSOs for the 
evening. I am catching up to you, Good Buddy Ron!   W0VTT was there 
looking for any skeds with the East Coast. Meteors are good now and a 
100 watt single yagi station will make contacts on MSK144 or FSK441.  
Try it! It can be lots of fun.

Thanks to all for getting on.

73

Dave K1WHS

On 8/11/2021 5:42 AM, N1BUG wrote:
> Well that was nearly a bust! I don't know when I have seen conditions 
> so poor and I made an error in strategy.
>
> I had a brief chat with K1WHS at the start.
>
> Tried a chat-coordinated sked with K1DS using Q65-60A. I saw nothing. 
> Rick reported seeing a sync tone but no decodes. Discovered when it is 
> hot in the shack my driver amp gets warmer than I feel is a good idea 
> so I scrambled around really fast and found a 12V fan to sit on top of 
> it and made a quick connection to a nearby power supply.
>
> Tried chat-coordinated skeds with KA2LIM and WA2VNV. Not a peep.
>
> Heard VE2XX talking to K1WHS but I was busy with a coordinated QSO 
> attempt and didn't get a chance to work Stu.
>
> Heard someone else (N1QG I think but not 100% sure) with Dave but I 
> was busy with a sked.
>
> Heard two stations chatting on 222.119.4, didn't give calls before 
> they both faded out.
>
> Called CQ on CW for a while and worked WZ1V.
>
> So I had just two QSOs, K1WHS and WZ1V. Conditions seemed really 
> horrible. One lesson learned for next time is no chat coordinated 
> attempts in the first hour or so. That time should be left free for 
> working the easy ones that I can hear around the band without assistance.
>
> There was some EME activity and since I had not had any prior 
> opportunity to see if I could hear signals off the moon on 222 I went 
> down to listen in on that. The only station transmitting was K1WHS. I 
> was decoding him direct of course, but for 45 minutes or so I was also 
> seeing his sync tone clearly via the EME path. At times I could also 
> see all of his tones via the EME path, but I never got an EME decode. 
> This was curious because I know Dave's EME signal was strong enough 
> for solid decodes, probably around -20 to -18 or so. Does WSJT-X 
> refuse to decode the same call sign twice on two different frequencies 
> within the passband on JT65? I am encouraged that I could see Dave's 
> EME signal so well despite a bit of power line noise, but it doesn't 
> appear there is much interest in Q65 among the 222 EME crowd.
>
> I will be on ON4KST chat and Ping Jockey trying to find folks to run 
> meteors this morning until 1300z. I have modified my schedule to free 
> up all of Thursday the 12th and Friday the 13th (oops, do I want to 
> run radios that day considering how my luck has been lately? HI HI) 
> for meteor scatter. Unfortunately I don't think there are many within 
> range on 222 that I haven't already worked. I hope some come out of 
> the woodwork as I have been having a lot of fun with the meteors over 
> the past week.
>
> 73,
> Paul N1BUG
> FN55mf
>
>
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