[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night

[David Olean]

This is a friendly reminder that another Tuesday is upon us, and Tuesday 
means 222 Activity Night.  So grease up those antennas with your best 
formulation of RF grease and  and recharge the liquid nitrogen cooled 
preamps and get on 222.100 starting at about 00:00 UT and look for other 
222 denizens with similar thoughts.

I will hopefully be on a bit before 00:00 UT but I have noted that 
things are getting tough with winter approaching. A few days ago, I put 
my tea mug on the back step of the house. When I came back and brought 
it inside, the tea had frozen solid. It was there for about an hour.  I 
have been trying to re work my VHF ham shack and the cold temperatures 
really slow me down. Having no real AC power is also bad as the shack is 
very dark now . The building started its' life as a CATV head end 
building and windows were not a high priority.  I substitute LED work 
lights instead. So I am stomping around in the dark and temps in the 
shack hover around 30 degrees or so. It isn't much fun, but I am slowly 
moving my 144 station into the room with all the other higher bands.  My 
144 MHz 8877 amplifier uses cooling air from remote blowers that are 
mounted outside the building in small wx proof boxes.  Moving the 
amplifier is not a simple ask as the remote blower must be moved as 
well.  All of the gear gets hauled down to the house and cleaned up. 
Much mouse debris is in evidence as the 144 station is not a mouse proof 
building. I had to wash all the connecting cables and do considerable 
work on the 8877 to clean it up.  All that stuff is now in the other 
building and is clean and almost ready to go. All I need is a 144 MHz 
antenna!!  With the cold temps, I find that I last about an hour or so 
stumbling around in the dark and then have to go home and warm up a bit. 
It is slow going.

The weather promises to be rather OK tonight. Temps are forecast to be 
about 26 degrees and cloudy.  I still have to contend with a very cold 
shack when I start up. I have an electric baseboard heater, but it takes 
about an hour to get comfortable.  I also have a small space heater to 
warm up my toes!  I need to investigate a way to preheat the shack with 
propane. The problem is to limit condensation. A kerosene stove was 
terrible in that regard. I am thinking of an un vented propane heater 
that mounts on a wall.  All of this stops when the snow starts piling 
up. I will have to quit around mid December, only 2 or 3 weeks  away!

So the drill is to get on 222 and see who you can work.  There is 
activity spread out all over the place lately.  Fellows such as N1GC, 
W5EME, AJ6T, K9MRI, K8TQK, and AA9MY are usually there and present an 
opportunity to see how well or poorly your station is doing with some 
long haul sked attempts. W5EME usually tries some meteor scatter and it 
is fun to see if you can hear a return of his signal from a falling 
piece of space dust as it enters the atmosphere.   WA3EOQ is usually on 
and has a unique position from a geographical standpoint. He is quite 
far west and can work stations in the midwest as well as along the east 
coast. Hopefully the ice has melted off Howard's antenna.  Most people 
use the ON4KST chat page for setting up contacts.  See : 
http://www.on4kst.info/chat/login.php?band=8. You want the 144/432 
Region 2 Chat page.

CU on 222

Dave K1WHS