[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Oct 4

[David Olean]

222 Night was quite an experience. It was the shakedown cruise for the 
newly repaired diesel generator. Happily it ran solid for the entire 
evening with no trace of speed instability.  It was steady all evening.  
It was also the evening that KA6U had planned to test out his new 
portable 222 EME setup that he takes out on the road in warmer months. 
He has been rebuilding things with a new vehicle and was  hoping to test 
out his dual 16 el yagis on the EME circuit. He can operate the whole 
system remotely from at his house with the car out somewhere else! I 
showed up a bit early looking for KA6U who is now in EL97, Florida. We 
worked via EME with great signals each way. He was running 600 watts for 
our contact. A few more folks showed up and I split my time between EME 
and terrestrial paths. At times it got confusing.  Here is my log page.


    DATE     TIME CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX       RX       BAND MODE 
PRO.REMARKS      QRB (miles)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

10/04/2022 22:09 KA6U            EL97    O       O           220 MHzJT65 
EME             1230+-
10/04/2022 22:30 W5EME        EM32AI  O                 220 MHzJT65 
EME             1460
10/04/2022 22:59 W1XR            FM19    55      55       220 MHzSSB  
TR               410+-
10/04/2022 23:01 N1JEZ            FN44AR  59       59    220 MHzSSB 
TR               105
10/04/2022 23:04 WZ1V            FN31    57       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR               165+-
10/04/2022 23:05 KV1J              FN42FI  59       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR                78
10/04/2022 23:06 WW1Z          FN42    59       59       220 MHzSSB 
TR                60+-
10/04/2022 23:08 WA3NUF      FN20    57       57       220 MHzSSB 
TR               286+-
10/04/2022 23:10 K2RMX         FN20    57                   220 MHzSSB  
TR               286+-
10/04/2022 23:19 K1PXE           FN31    59       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR               165+-
10/04/2022 23:39 W1GHZ        FN34    59       59       220 MHzSSB 
TR               126+-
10/04/2022 23:43 WA1PBU      FN42JG  59       59     220 MHzSSB 
TR                79
10/04/2022 23:44 KE1LI            FN41    59       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR               130+-
10/04/2022 23:47 W9KXI          FN12NE  57       57    220 MHzSSB 
TR               311
10/04/2022 23:53 K2AEP          FN32OW  55       55   220 MHzSSB 
TR                98
10/05/2022 00:10 W4ZST         EM84AO  O        O      220 MHzJT65 
EME              923
10/05/2022 00:20 WA4NJP      EM84        O    O           220 MHz JT65 
EME            930
10/05/2022 00:31 K5QE            EM31    O        O        220 MHzJT65 
EME             1452+-
10/05/2022 00:38 N1DPM        FN32    59       59       220 MHzSSB 
TR               118+-
10/05/2022 00:51 K7KQA          DN06GF  O        O      220 MHzJT65 
EME             2347
10/05/2022 01:13 WA3EOQ      FM09JO  429    FM09  220 MHzCW 
TR               500
10/05/2022 01:29 N1MIW         FN41          -4       -4   220 MHzFT8  
TR               120
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 22

For my try with WA3EOQ, I turned my directional array towards Howard in 
extreme western Maryland after working K7KQA in Washington State, and 
started calling. I went for several sequences of calling Howard, and was 
hearing absolutely nothing. Only then did I notice that I had forgotten 
to lower the elevation on the array and it was pointing up about 22 
degrees. I was hearing nothing while Howard was barely detecting me on 
frequency. When I figured out my error, things got much better, although 
WA3EOQ was quite a bit weaker than normal even with the array pointing 
at the horizon. I wonder if Hurricane Ian swirling around in mid path 
had something to do with the weaker signals.

I hope to be on Wednesday for the 432 night Sprint.

73

Dave K1WHS