[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night

[David Olean]

Hello 222 people

There was a pretty fantastic VHF opening in the midwest this Sunday 
evening. I would hope that it moves eastward but it will probably not 
and we will be stuck with normal summertime conditions on Tuesday. The 
good news is that normal summertime conditions are a lot better than 
wintertime!!!

I have always had a little voice inside my head, telling me that I 
should have a menial job at some point in my life. The closest I came to 
that was in Army boot camp. We had to coordinate our barracks cleanup to 
pass the morning inspections. My job ended up as cleaning and polishing 
the copper pipes in the bathroom. I got pretty good at it and still have 
the urge to polish a pipe or two in my old age.  I thought about being a 
dish washer in a restaurant if only I could do it for maybe two days at 
the most. There is something about such jobs that rests your mind and 
you can think to your heart's content while doing the mindless work. Why 
do I mention this?

I just got a temporary menial job and will have to miss the Tuesday 
night 222 activity night. I will be away in New York state along with a 
work crew to remove two rather large 600 KW diesel Caterpillar 
generators from a large building along with all the copper cables and 
switching gear. So while I am pulling cables from large conduits while 
standing on a scissors lift, I can be thinking about all of my new 
hamster projects! I will be away until about Friday. I should get very 
dirty.

So by missing the Tuesday night activities, I will be bummed out for 
sure, but secure in knowing that there are many people who can take up 
the slack and the evening should go along great!  Activity starts about 
2300 UT and goes on for about two hours (or more if the band is good). 
The ON4KST Chat page is a common meeting place for coordination. Choose 
144/432 Region 2 Chat.  Please make a point to get on.

I made a couple of MS QSOs in the Perseids and many others had some luck 
as well. I know N1JEZ worked W0PN, W7XU and K9MRI on 222. I ran with 
ND0B in ND before the peak. He copied me OK, but I did not hear much 
that could be decoded. That is a longish haul. The meteors should still 
be good on Tuesday evening so don't be bashful! Make a sked or even two 
skeds!

After seeing KA6U's portabobble EME setup at CSVHFS in LaCrosse WI., I 
decided to employ checkbook engineering to duplicate it, and now have 
the same dish AZ-EL system here all checked out and working on the bench 
at least. The system is a Sub Lunar AZ-EL gear box controlled by a Green 
Heron dual AZ EL RT-21 controller. With some simple added software, I 
have it auto tracking, following the Moon, and it works just fantastic! 
The plan is to mount it outdoors with a 4 meter dish on counter weights. 
While I am doing all that menial work later this week, and getting very 
dirty and oily, I can dream about how I want to mount the dish. Either 
it goes on my old 20 ft Maine Monster EME tower, or I make a new 10 ft 
Rohn 45 with some concrete in the base.  The cash might even pay for the 
new AZ-EL gearbox!

So remember to be on 222 MHz on Tuesday evening. 222.100 is a good 
stating place, and see what you can work. Maybe that midwest tropo will 
surface a bit east on Tuesday. If you are not there, you will never know!

73

Dirty Dave K1WHS