[VHFcontesting] It's 222 Activity time.

[David Olean]

Hi 222 MHz ers

I ran into some minor problems and ended up losing my kilowatt amplifier 
after about 1/2 hour. I bypassed the amp and tried going on with just 
100 watts. It worked pretty well. I had a great QSO with N3RG, and an 
FT8 QSO with K1RZ. A try with VE3ZV on CW at almost 500 miles did not 
work. Stephen heard me only about 50% of the time. I heard him OK but 
very weak.  We did not complete. The band had some deep QSB.  VE2XX was 
way up and then  down quite abit. K1PXE was 559 and watery sounding on 
CW with his beam fixed SW, then peaked up at 5X8 on SSB a bit later with 
a blasting signal.  It was great to hear K2AEP & W1GHZ in VT.   K1OR was 
on with a big signal along with KV1J in FN44. WW2Y in NJ had a great 
signal into Maine too.  Thanks to "Good Buddy" Ron, WZ1V for getting on 
and making a bunch of contacts.

I took a look at the HV power supply, and traced the problem to a fried 
power relay.  (my fault) I'll do better the next time. I can fix it easily.

My apologies for not trying any meteors etc, but my 100 watts is quite a 
bit down from the normal KW level!

73

Dave K1WHS

On 5/18/2021 4:19 PM, David Olean wrote:
> I will be on 222.100 or so this evening again looking for contacts on 
> the Tuesday Night 222 Activity Night.
>
> For the occasion, I am running a new HV supply on my amplifier. I did 
> not gain much over the old one. I have a huge bank of electrolytic 
> caps for HV ripple reduction, and the high current on charging peaks 
> seems to make the regulation not so hot. It works tho' so I will be in 
> there making noise.  The temps are warm and it should be a great night 
> to spend on the hill. To celebrate, I may even have a few bottles of 
> birch beer to savor in between contacts.  I hope to see you all there!
>
> 73
>
> Dave K1WHS
>
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