[VHFcontesting] [222Activity] 222 MHz EME Weekend wrapup.

Tue May 17 10:12:16 EDT 2022

Hi Grant,

I did see that you came on after I went QRT. I should have stayed up, 
but these old bones can't do what they used to do when I was younger.  I 
used to be on 144 EME every night when the Moon was in positive 
territory around the Universal Wondow, and up across the USA. Then I 
would go to work the next morning!   That regimen would kill me now!

Thanks for the report and the aurora comments.  I was always fascinated 
by the scintillation effects during geomagnetic disturbances.  I miss 
hearing those weird hollow sounds as the CW note went through disturbed 
ionospheres!

I am updating my 222 station, adding a new cavity preamp box, a solid 
state PA, and even a new 10 MHz locked transverter.  Not sure what 
happens to the old un locked transverter and 8877 PA. They work great 
I'll probably use them as "spares" in case of an emergency!

73

Dave

On 5/16/2022 10:08 PM, Grant wrote:
> Dave:
>
> I guess we never crossed paths due to the low declination and late 
> start to my moon window.  I need ad 25 degrees of elevation a low 
> declination unfortunately.
> Thanks for organizing the activity however.
> I did manage to work a few stations starting on Tuesday evening.
> N1AV, and K7KQA were both added to the log.  I found that being into 
> the auroral zone complicates polarity and had to tx and rx 90 degrees 
> apart at times.
> On Friday I worked NX9O and W5EME.  Unfortunately NX9O and W4ZST which 
> I had previously worked are the same station but still fun to here 
> Brian's big sigs.  W5EME was an easy completion with his two long 
> yagis and 400w.
> No one else showed up but still nice to put 3 new grids and initials 
> into the log.  This brings me to 19 initials/17 states/3 provinces on 
> 1.25 cm and around 22 grids worked.  Hoping to hit the VUCC mark at 
> some point.
>
> The old pair of 4CX250s is still surviving the Digital modes so should 
> be good to go next time the activity picks up..
>
> 73
>
> Grant
> VE6TA
> (18' dish with pol rotation and 700w on digital modes.  Sun noise 6.5 
> dB at SF 117.)
> DO33gs
>
>
> On 2022-05-15 10:46, David Olean wrote:
>> Hello VHF mavens,
>>
>> The 222 MHz EME Activity Period happened over the Friday and Saturday
>> May 13-15.  Springtime is a good time for EME. In all of my
>> experience, I would categorize summertime EME on 144 as not very good.
>> I could never give an explanation why, but signals typically were not
>> as good as winter or spring.  I hoped that May would be good. I think
>> it was!
>>
>> When I started things up on Friday, there was some good activity on
>> the HB9Q Logger. AJ6T, N1SV, K7ND, ND0B, VE6TA, and W7ID were all
>> checked in.  AJ6T is near Nashville and has only 10 watts, but was
>> interested to see if he could detect anything. I started calling CQ on
>> 222.080 as soon as I could so that AJ6T had something to listen for.
>> He did not detect anything that looked positive, but at about 23:30,
>> the Moon rose at North Dakota and ND0B came blasting in with his
>> single yagi and kilowatt on the horizon.  Around that time, AI5I
>> logged on to the logger. Marshall, K5QE showed up at 00:00 as well and
>> he  and I had a quick QSO and then we both started sending CQs spread
>> out around 222.080.
>>
>> At 00:25 UT, WA4NJP turned on his rig and saw the activity and called
>> me right away. We had a great QSO as well. I noticed that W8RU was
>> checked in to the HB9Q Logger. He is very active on 222 MHz now too.
>> As the Moon appeared to drift across the continent, K7KQA showed up
>> with a great Moon rise signal at 0100 UT, followed immediately by N1AV
>> at 01:10.  WA4NJP and K5QE were working stations as well and it was
>> pretty neat having many signals from different areas, as it reduced
>> the Faraday effects, giving potential new listeners a choice of
>> signals to decode.
>>
>> I noted that KB7IOG logged on HB9Q and Peter, KA6U and W6TCP also
>> showed up.  Ian, W6TCP, had a great signal. I heard him working Ray,
>> WA4NJP, and Ian was rolling my socks up and down here. He worked Ray
>> for a new state I believe, and then his PA squealed and let out some
>> smoke. It seems there was an arc over on the PA output relay, along
>> with the attendant "Schmutz".  Did I mention that W5EME was there too?
>> Rick has been very active and we had a QSO at 0147. Signals were quite
>> loud when they peaked up. By 0200, I was beat and the activity let up
>> a bit. I went QRT, but VE6TA showed up a bit later and more fun was
>> had by all on 222 MHz.
>>
>>
>> Saturday evening produced more great signals. I noted that my
>> generator power plant was running on fumes, so planned to bring six
>> gallons of diesel up to help power the evening. ($36 worth of fuel in
>> a six gallon container!) I got up to the hilltop at 23:30 only to find
>> that I had brought the wrong keys and I could not unlock the generator
>> shed or the shack! I walked back down to the house and retrieved the
>> proper keys, then trekked back up and opened the shed to re fuel the
>> Cummins engine. The walk is about a mile round trip. I was on the air
>> by about 00:00 and saw that NX9O and K1OR were there.  John, K1OR made
>> lots of noise CQing and it was neat that I could see his loud
>> terrestrial signal along with the doppler skewed echo slightly up
>> frequency.  W5EME and N1AV were also QRV. Charlie, N0AKC was there too
>> testing out his system, heard but it sems that he still has a hearing
>> problem. He tested the preamps etc, so the problem is most likely some
>> bad cabling or maybe a dirty relay.  K1OR and  I worked NX9O, N1AV,
>> and W5EME. There were some pretty good signal reports.  Many in the
>> -15 range among the participants.  Marshall, K5QE was on the logger
>> but not at the shack, so could only hand out moral support.  We went
>> up to almost midnite on the East coast. K1OR heated up his basement
>> shack and was getting hot.  I had my 8877 running at 1400 watts or so
>> and had the AC on in the shack, so I was comfortable, but my eyes were
>> getting droopy  N1AV and W5EME tried for a QSO after John and I QRTed,
>> but had only limited success. Still it sure was a fun weekend.
>>
>> I think AJ6T is going to work on improving his receive setup. He is
>> getting hammered by some RFI, a digi TV station no doubt!  For my
>> part, I am putting in a new WD5AGO cavity preamp over the next few
>> weeks. I have to remove the existing tower mtd box, and swap out all
>> the connectors and relays into a new and bigger box to accomodate the
>> larger preamp. I am hopeful that this preamp (running at 100 ma of
>> current) will not cough and wheeze when I aim at Channel 11! I hope
>> that my hearing improves as a result. If I aim SW my noise floor goes
>> up 10 dB!
>>
>> I will be on a trip to Iceland late May & early June. Busy time, and
>> not sure I have enough time to set up another EME weekend on 222.
>> Then we have KA6U, who will be embarking on his summer EME and MS
>> trip. Pretty exciting stuff!!
>>
>> Please relate your EME results from this weekend. It is nice to
>> publicize the activity!
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Dave K1WHS
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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