[VHFcontesting] [222Activity] 222 MHz activity Night and other stuff

[David Olean]

Hi Peter

Wow, condx look quite good for 222 EME. 3 I'll be on a bit before 2300 
UT and watching HB9Q along with ON4KST for the terrestrial stuff. I have 
been re working the setup with a band decoder so I can be a single 
operator and have one operating position. I have 222 & 432 working and 
am now adding in 144 as well.  Lots of changes for the better. I really 
am hoping that my generator is now fine. It sure seems to be.

73

Dave K1WHS

On 10/3/2022 5:18 PM, Peter KA6U wrote:
> Dave,
> I will try to be on 222EME tomorrow at 2300UTC.
> That time is in the "quieter zone" for me from this location.
>
> Peter KA6U EL87SQ Florida
>
> On Mon, Oct 3, 2022 at 4:43 PM David Olean <k1whs at metrocast.net> wrote:
>
>     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
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _._,_._,_
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Groups.io Links:
>
> You receive all messages sent to this group.
>
> View/Reply Online (#1190) 
> <https://groups.io/g/222Activity/message/1190> | Reply To Sender 
> <mailto:petervanh143 at gmail.com?subject=Private:%20Re:%20Re%3A%20%5B222Activity%5D%20222%20MHz%20activity%20Night%20and%20other%20stuff> 
> | Reply To Group 
> <mailto:222Activity at groups.io?subject=Re:%20Re%3A%20%5B222Activity%5D%20222%20MHz%20activity%20Night%20and%20other%20stuff> 
> | Mute This Topic <https://groups.io/mt/94100552/443943> | New Topic 
> <https://groups.io/g/222Activity/post>
> Your Subscription <https://groups.io/g/222Activity/editsub/443943> | 
> Contact Group Owner <mailto:222Activity+owner at groups.io> | Unsubscribe 
> <https://groups.io/g/222Activity/unsub> [k1whs at metrocast.net]
>
> _._,_._,_