[VHFcontesting] 222 Activity night is Tuesday!

[David Olean]

Hello VHFers

November 23 is the 222 Tuesday night activity period.  I have been 
checking the band out and notice that conditions up here in the soon to 
be Great White North, are sliding down along with the temperatures. 
There are very few 222 MHz beacons that I can hear from my spot in FN43 
Mumbo Jumbo.  K1IIG had a great beacon on 222.060 but that has gone 
silent, leaving K2DLL/b FN23,  and VE2FUT/b in FN25 as the only reliable 
ones I can hear. W2UTH on 222.050 is quite weak and drifts out of the 
noise at times on QSB peaks. Usually I need a waterfall display to find 
it!  So yesterday, I was monitoring K2DLL and was very interested in 
observing the multi path propagation. I am not sure if multi path is 
constant, or if it gets more pronounced when the airmass is not stable. 
Anyway, it was fun to crank in the selectivity and tune in multiple 
carriers on different frequencies, all signing K2DLL/b! I was seeing 
times when the signal fluctuated between 25 to 30 dB down to maybe 5 dB 
above the noise. That is quite a range of QSB!

A check of the Hepburn Map for Tuesday night is bleak for the entire 
country. There are no tropo conditions forecast for any part of the 
eastern USA.  On the other hand, the conditions for outdoor barbeques 
and volley ball gaes is significantly reduced as well, so you have no 
excuse but to fire up your 222 MHz gear instead of the propane cooker 
and spend some quality time with your experimenter friends on 222 MHz. I 
have been quite active with my recent addition of an elevation rotor, 
and worked VE6TA last night in the pouring rain. He was running about 
600 watts and a4.5 meter HB parabola. The past weekend was the ARRL EME 
contest, and I spent some time looking for some contacts on 222, but it 
was very slow. I guess we have to face the fact that 222 is the wayward 
and lost relative of the other VHF bands. 144 and 432 were probably much 
more productive and the activity on 222 was pretty sparse in the early 
to late evenings.  It was still fun ti get on and twirl the knobs and 
look for stations.

So, for Tuesday evening,  we all plan to show up after dinner and make 
noise around 222.1 MHz. I usually make it by 7 PM EST or 00:00 UT. My 
internet link was working again last night, so I hope I can check in to 
the chat pages on Tuesday. Most 222 ops in the NE and midwest use ON4KST 
144/432 Region 2 Chat. HB9Q Logger is a good one to monitor 222 EME 
activity too.  Moonrise in the midwest will start just after 00:00 UT. 
That is 7 PM EST and 6 PM CST. That will be a busy time for tropo and 
local contacts here, but the far West will have moonrise starting at 
about 01:30 UT. If you want to try and listen for signals, let someone 
know on ON4KST or HB9Q.  I know that Marshall K5QE shows up on Tuesday 
nights with some regularity. He has more elements on 222 MHz than Carter 
has pills. He is always looking for "new blood".  If things are slow in 
your area, why not try to set up a rising moon sked and see what 
happens. That is what these Tuesday nights are for.  Get on and make 
noise on the band.  I hope to be on ON4KST all evening and the HB9Q one 
too if there is any EME interest.

CU on 222 MHz.

73

Dave K1WHS