[VHFcontesting] Tuesday means 222 night!

[David Olean]

Hi folks,

It is Tuesday and that means 222ctivity Night. People are still talking 
about last week. The activity level in the Northeast area was through 
the roof, with quite a number of stations active. It sounded almost 
better than a 222 MHz Sprint night! I made about 27 contacts or so.   
This is the time when we should be getting some tropo openings. There 
have been a very few good tropo periods, but none of them have amounted 
to much at least in Northern New England. I have been sniffing out 
possible times for potential auroras as well.

When I was a new VHF ham, it seemed that we had auroras all the time in 
the Spring and Fall. I lived in CT in the 1960's just up Route 111 a few 
miles north of K1TEO. If there was any hint that an aurora would be 
possible, we would all be monitoring the 144 band and usually the first 
AU signal we heard was the powerhouse station of W9BRN. I don't know 
what Richard did, but his aurora signal was always head and shoulders 
above everybody else!  Dick changed his call to W9SR and passed away in 
2020. I know there has not been much AU activity of late. My hope is 
that the next cycle brings a bit of auroral buzz for us to enjoy and get 
excited about!  There was a pretty good M Class flare last week and good 
things were predicted as the charged particles were expelled from the 
Sun's surface and directed at the Earth,  I was standing by, but there 
was only a minor blip when the solar wind hit our magnetosphere.  If you 
are not familiar with auroras, I would suggest that you give the 222 
band a listen if there is any evidence of auroral condx on the lower 
bands. The frequency difference between 144 and 222 is not all that 
great. The spread between 50 and 144 is a much bigger percentage.

I am still waiting for some tropo. With all the rain we have been 
getting, slow moving high pressure systems have been scarce. Hope always 
springs eternal, however, and I will be on or about 222.100 starting at 
around 7 PM this evening, September 7th. I hope there is some Ohio, 
Michigan, or Indiana activity this evening. There must be stations on 
the air at both ends of the path to hear any tropo!

73

Dave K1WHS