[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz activity Night and other stuff

[David Olean]

Hello 222 ops.

Tuesday night is coming up fast and that means it is time to get on222 
MHz and experience real contacts with real people.  Just imagine  
turning on the power switch of your VHF UHF station and hearing other 
stations calling CQ and actually trying to make contacts! Yes I know, it 
is a novel approach, but in the "olden days" people used to get on the 
VHF and UHF bands and do just that! That was before 24 hour television 
news, 23 bazillion TV channels, Smartphones, streaming videos, pub 
crawling,and the Dodgers being in Los Angeles!

Activity on 222 is a tad sparse in a few areas of the country, but the 
solution for those areas is to get on and make noise even if you have to 
call up your buddy in the next grid to get on to make a contact.  Actual 
time is after dinner. Here on the East Coast it all is usually swinging 
after about 2300 UT. There is considerable activity building in the mid 
west and they tend to appear a bit later and stay on well after the East 
Coasters have all called it a night after about 01:30 UT. It all depends 
on conditions and activity of course.  N0URW worked a pile of station 
last week from Iowa, and K9MRI was cleaning up as well. Many other  
stations were in there as well. N6ZE is lamenting a lack of activity 
around California. He gets on anyway and makes noise and works a few 
stations, but it must be a labor of love for the results he gets.  I 
hope things turn around there. The Pacific NW has some fair activity as 
does the SE part of the US, but activity could be better in every corner 
of the USA.  For my part, I get on starting at a bit B4 23:00 UT and 
start CQing on 222.100.  I monitor the ON4KST Chat page and   am always 
looking for skeds over paths beyond what I can normally work.

Last week was the 222 MHz Sprint and I had a blast here in the first few 
minutes after 23:00 UT. The Moon was just setting and I nabbed a few EME 
contacts to pick up two grids not normally worked from Maine, EM84, and 
BL10.  NH6Y is in BL10 and he entered the Sprint with two contacts from 
Maui.  Now there is a 222 Sprint first!! Activity was pretty good here, 
but was better five to seven years ago, so we need more activity to take 
up the slack!

My generator was limping along pretty well in the Sprint . It suffered 
from intermittent speed variations that happened at a 1 Hz rate. The 
speed control would hunt for a proper speed and. after awhile, would 
settle down. (or not!) I had fixed the problem that kept it shutting 
down, but was struggling with the speed problem. At first, I figured it 
was a speed controller problem. Then it was possibly a fuel problem. I 
had a diesel guy neighbor come look at it and his opinion was that my 
fuel system was working just fine and that it must be a governor setup 
problem. I removed everything and set it up again with the actuator 
resting position at fuel stop. I also rigged up a nifty test box with 
test probe receptacles so I can easily plug in a VOM to monitor all 
important governor voltages. I found that my actuator current was way 
too high. The manual calls for 1 amp at no load, and I was seeing 5 or 6 
amps. So I re rigged the linkages to have the actuator work on a 
different part of its curve. The voltage dropped to just under 2 volts 
with no load after considerable tweaking.  2 volts is an optimum point 
at zero load. That represents about 1 amp current draw in the actuator. 
As soon as I reduced the actuator current, things got much better. The 
instability is gone and the engine purrs along nicely. I had cranked 
down the RPMs while testing, so my last effort was to set the speed back 
up for 60 Hz.  A trimpot on the controller will set the speed. It is now 
at 60.2 Hz.  I was very excited and celebrated by listening on ten 
meters only to find high VSWR and poor pattern on the yagis.  WHAT?  It 
never ends at Dave's station.  I will be back with my handy dandy 
antenna tester and climb the ten meter tower to see what is wrong up 
there.  BUT tomorrow night is reserved for 222 Night. I can't wait to 
see how the speed regulation is.  Circle the date! Tuesday night 23:00 
UT, 222.100 MHz.  Spread out if things get busy!!  CU there.  Maybe 
we'll have an aurora?

Dave K1WHS