[VHFcontesting] 222 Activity Night for December 14

[David Olean]

Winter is here in Maine anyway.  The weather this week is pretty good 
and I am sure that I can be QRV for the fantastic 222 MHz Activity Night 
for Tuesday evening. If you have some 222 MHz gear in working order, 
this is your chance to work someone with it. I looked at the Hepburn Map 
and it does appear that there might be a bit of a lift as Tuesday night 
progresses. Nothing really good, but better than nothing! Western New 
York, and of course that path from Tennessee to Louisiana should be good 
or maybe just a bit better than stinko! Last week was pretty good for 
stable signals and the map did not show any enhancement at all. The best 
way to tell is to get on for Tuesday night and see for yourself.

The week is promising to be rather mild for Northern New England. After 
the Tuesday night excitement, I am climbing the tower and slipping the H 
frame and elevation rotor down a few feet on the main mast. I will be 
unable to really use the antenna after that, but it will help protect it 
from winter winds and ice storms that seem to plague us up here. SO this 
looks like my last weekly participation for the next three months. That 
does not mean that Tuesday night 222 activity will stop. There will 
still be plenty of really good home stations who will be on. N1BUG in 
FN55 is promising to get on in the winter months. If we get some good 
weather, I can make the trek up the hill and get on with my fixed yagi 
that covers down the coast as well.

Tuesday night will also be a good meteor night, so a good idea would be 
to set up a meteor sked out at about 1000 miles when the local activity 
slows down. I saw a beautiful semi fireball while I was driving up the 
woods road Monday night. I saw even with all the trees blocking my view. 
It was a big meteor! The Geminids will still be going pretty well on 
Tuesday night. The ON4KST page is good for setting up tropo skeds. Many 
folks use Ping Jockey for meteors.  The EME guys tend to use HB9Q 
Logger.  Check with other ops in your area if you are unsure of what is 
popular for liaison in your area.

CU on 222 I hope.

73

Dave K1WHS