[VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] 222 Activity Night - N2SLO & K1WHS After Action Report

[David Olean]

Hello Dave

Gads! Having wall to wall equipment problems is the pits. Don't lose 
heart! The philosophy here is (when possible) to try to make the stuff, 
so when it breaks, there are no shipping charges back to any factory!  
That being said, last night, I twirled the main tuning knob on my K3 and 
all of a sudden, it bound up and got very wobbly. It acted like the 
tuning knob shaft had broken. I limped along carefully trying to keep 
things steady, and not do any more harm. Turns out, the two 3/8-24 panel 
nuts had fallen off under the big knob, and the rotary encoder was just 
hanging there. I found this all out after coming home after 0200 UT.

The evening on 222 MHz was very enjoyable up here in FN43 Mumbo Jumbo 
land. I am getting the impression that our ranks are increasing at a 
moderate rate. There are enough stations on now, that it is well nigh 
impossible to work them all between all the interactions and what-not 
between all of the actors. I know that I missed a bunch of people in the 
Philly area. Between turning beams and having fun and chatting with 
friends, the evening flies by in no time flat.  These are all good 
things. It is a sign that activity is expanding.  222 MHz is an "orphan" 
band. We need all the help we can get to keep it occupied. We already 
lost 220-222 MHz and with few stations using any band, the chances of 
losing more frequencies are quite high now that the FCC has become an 
auction house rather than a regulating agency. (But I digress)

A big Thanks to all who showed up. An even bigger Thank you to anyone 
who turned on their 222 MHz gear in a low activity area. It was very 
nice to see some serious action and chat page usage from many areas of 
the country.  If you live in Quartzite, Arizona, you may have a bit of a 
problem finding activity on 222 MHz, but, being VHF ops, we all know 
that VHF is not a line of sight band. The goal of 222 Night is for 
everyone and anyone who has 222 gear to turn it on and try to make a 
contact.  I belong to a local radio club. Their central geographic area 
is Kennebunk, ME. You know, where Geo Bush Sr had his summer home.  The 
members are quite interested in many things. The meetings can be lots of 
fun as we talk about various facets of ham radio. I hear all about 
EMCOM, HF propagation, 1200 baud two meter packet, mesh nodes, Digital 
modes, Field Day etc.  I keep putting in plugs for VHF, but the words 
fall on deaf ears. No one has any interest in learning about making 
distant contacts on any VHF band (other than 50 MHz in June or July!)  
Just recently I told the group about the 222 & Up contest and a QSO that 
I had with W2RMA/ rover who was in FM08us.  Now these folks in Kennebunk 
think that VHF is worse than line of sight. No one can manage to get 
their 1200 baud packet signal out of their own town. Their solution is 
to add more stations and build repeating stations to increase their 
range. To them, a Baofeng and a flexible rubber duck antenna is VHF.   
So I provided pictures and arrows and a description on the back of each 
one,  of what W2RMA simply used to make a 222 MHz 503 mile contact on CW 
from the back of his compact car on a road stop on Skyline Drive in 
western Virginia.  He had a $40 amplifier kit with 50 watts output and a 
homebrew six element yagi held together with wooden clothespins!  I do 
this periodically with the group, and each time, I am greeted by the 
sound of crickets. OK, fair enough, VHF DXing is not for everyone.  
Still, it takes an awful lot of work to get anyone interested in VHF 
beyond the Baofeng and rubber duck phase!  So what am I saying? If you 
develop a small 222 MHz station, you should be using it regularly and 
seeing what can be done on our precious frequency allocations. Get active!

Last night, AJ6T was QRV from TN and EM66. So that was great as he lives 
near Nashville and was making noise, trying some skeds out of his local 
area. He ran an FT8 sked with N4SVC in Florida and N4SVC actually 
decoded him twice. AJ6T was running 10 watts and a single beam.  He ran 
quite a few skeds with stations that were quite far away. While the 
success rate was a bit low, I am sure he had fun and is planning on a 
few rig improvements!

I got on FT8 when I saw that N4SVC was there at the same time with 
AJ6T.  N4SVC started hearing pings on the FT8 freq, so we switched to 
MSK144 for meteor scatter and we had a FB QSO that took us all of 5 
minutes to complete! So N4SVC, who is in the boonies of North Florida, 
did not work any locals on his Baofeng, but did manage an 1100 mile QSO 
with 500 watts on 222. I am sure the same path would have been possible 
with 100 watts!  Thank you to Steve, for firing up the rig at N4SVC and 
making some noise!

I wonder if I should tell the folks in Kennebunk about this 1100 mile 
contact?  I'll probably hear more crickets!

73

Dave K1WHS

ps. Contact total was 18 or 19 contacts. Nothing to the west. I think it 
was heavy rain in that direction.  Down the coast,  KO4YC and WA3EOQ 
made it in the log again. I never did get a chance to try with N1GC last 
night.  Conditions seemed normal or below normal in some directions. 
K2DLL/b in FN23 was very weak last night.  K1PXE was enjoying his fixed 
rotator!

On 8/18/2021 7:10 AM, David Pearl via NEWSVHF wrote:
> sorry, forgot to add Mike N1JEZ in FN44. Mike, so excited to work you on 222 with 20 wattsforgot to add you to the log!
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Pearl <dpdiamond at aol.com>
> To: NEWSVHF at mailman.qth.net <NEWSVHF at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Tue, Aug 17, 2021 9:10 pm
> Subject: 222 Activity Night - N2SLO
>
> So I was busy over the weekend. Wired up Yaesu 450 7 pin rotor connector (not easy) and was able to get the rotorin line and retire the old radio shack rotor to the scrap heap. I then assembled my 2M M29, M2 22210E, and finally 432 15Eon top with proper masting. At 19-20 feet on my deck, all work great very happy. Then activity night, and another blown amp.
> Worked K1WHS, WZ1V, WA3FQS, WB2SIH, K1PXE, WA2VNV, W1SV and I think K3GNC (not sure on that one) all with 20 watts.
> Then the bad news. George told me my signal went up if I shut the amp off. Its the TE 2252G, 225 watts. I even ordered new 6AWG flex cables to ensure no voltage drop. Well the amp is not transmitting. No idea. First the BEKO had to be shipped to CA last week, now this. Getting really old with these issues. Owner error? Yes, I have had my share due to stupidity and carelessness. TE probably wants like $300-400 to fix it... No protection amps. Waiting on BEKO news, after a $200 ship charge to CA.
> Any way, was really happy and now another debbie downer.  I will get this right, worried now about my ACOM 1000 sitting on floor, with no 220 line yet. Geez--- what next. If you have an amp, keep it far away from me LOL.David
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