[VHFcontesting] 222 Activity Night

[David Olean]

No I did not forget. I have just been busy with many loose ends....not 
the least of which has been what is attached to my neck.   I have been 
doing small amounts of work on the remote shack on the hill. I finally 
got the 432 system back and working. I do have a semi HF presence there 
with a ten meter setup and I have been doing lots of work there to get 
ready for the ARRL Ten Meter Contest this weekend. Lots of problems with 
broken tic Ring rotor indicators, a bad meter in a T2X control box,  
busted yagi feeds etc. The last thing was building a new antenna switch 
and then finding that my 6 element yagi was an open circuit!  Turns out 
it was intermittent. I managed to lower the whole 36 ft long yagi to the 
ground and found that the feed was flaky. I had over engineered it and 
made it worse somehow!   But enough of that stuff! It is Tuesday and it 
will be raining in the northeast, so Pete, K1PXE will be happy and it 
will be 222 activity night.  What better way to spend an evening with 
lousy weather than to sit by your fantastic 222 VHF setup and try to 
work DX while being warm and cozy.

For my part, I will be on 222.100 starting a  bit before 00:00 UT 
looking for contacts.  I will monitor ON4KST 144/432 Region 2 Chat page 
in case you want to run a sked or listen for a weak signal beyond your 
normal working radius.  It is early December. I will probably get snowed 
out pretty soon, and not be able to keep active on the tuesday evenings, 
but while I still can, I will be there making noise and calling on 222.  
The Moon should be way up during the evening, and I will check the HB9Q 
222 page if anyone wants to exercise their elevation rotator this 
evening.  I did look at my 222 antenna and it seems to be still in one 
piece. Nothing looks broken yet but winter has barely gotten started. I 
use the same antenna for tropo and EME sessions.

I hope to hear a bunch of great signals this evening.  Maybe K2AEP has 
lengthened his 222 antenna some more?

73

Dave K1WHS