[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz news and views

[David Olean]

The ARRL  EME contest was this weekend for moon bounce activity on the 
non nose bleed bands. I have not been serious about EME for many years. 
I do dabble with it on 222 MHz of late,  but in the dim past I had spent 
loads of time on 50, 144, 222, and 432 CW. The last time I tried an EME 
contest back in the CW days, I made hundreds of CW QSOs on 144 MHz.  So 
this time around I am sitting at nine digital contacts on 222 and 432.  
The contacts were not as fast or furious this time! I monitored the HB9Q 
Chat page for 222, and will note that WA4NJP gets the Energizer Bunny 
Award (EBA) for beating the bushes on 222 MHz. He has an 11 meter dish. 
For those who are bad at math, it is 36 ft in diameter and his signal is 
very loud especially when you consider that he is running only 400 watts 
RF output.  If he had 1500 watts, I would need back to back silicon 
diodes across my preamp input. Thanks to K5QE, VE7HR showed up on 222, 
and tried his luck with a single 11 el yagi at his moon rise. He does 
not have a PA, so it was a receive only test. I missed his moon rise, 
but did rush up to the hilltop shack and fired things up in hopes that 
he would hear something...anything on his Moon rise.  Faraday rotation 
effects were in strong evidence both Friday and Saturday night.  Cross 
polarized signals in opposite directions were the norm, so contacts were 
difficult compared to those days when the Faraday was more forgiving. 
The take away is that when you do not hear anything on your first 
attempt, that is no reason to think that it is not possible.  About a 
week ago, I ran a sked on 432 with W7JW. Jeff has 8 X 33 EL 
flamethrowers and 700 watts.  My 432 antenna is 1/2 of my old contest 
array: 4 X 25 el at 100 ft.  The old 8 yagi array worked well on EME on 
the horizon. I have never tried the cut down version on EME, but 
suspected that it would work with bigger stations.  We each heard 
nothing over a one hour sked. All of our RF went to a place that neither 
of us could find. With linear antennas, this can happen on 432 and 222. 
So I tried to listen at 432 Moon rise on Friday night. DL7APV was CQing 
and was heard with the Moon at -1.6 degrees below the horizon. When the 
Moon poked above the horizon here, his signal was -4.  OK he has a huge 
antenna, but -1.6 degrees?  In short, 432 worked to Europe from here on 
Friday night! I also worked UA5Y with great signals as well, then my 432 
transverter quit. Some sort of intermittent TX problem. I found a 
suspicious chip cap joint and resoldered it. ("Its' always sumthin'" .   
says Rosanne Rozzanadana ) ON Sunday morning, I tried with W7JW again, 
and neither of us copied anything. We quit when I had 1.5 degrees of 
Moon left but then I quickly worked VK2CMP right as my Moon set. He has 
4 X 21 el x pol. On 222, I nabbed WA4NJP, W4ZST, W5EME, N0AKC, K5QE, and 
K7KQA. For some reason the EME test was scheduled when the Moon was 
crossing thru the Milky Way, so noise was up and made things a bit 
difficult.

I mention all of this in hopes that more people try 222 MHz on their 
rising or setting Moon. Don't give up after one or two unsuccessful 
sessions. The Faraday rotation can be very finicky and success can elude 
you for a long time.  432 can be more frustrating than 222 as far as 
Faraday rotation goes. The good news is that on some days everything 
will fall into place and what seemed to be impossible becomes simple!! I 
am pretty sure that you can make contacts with some big stations on 222 
using just a single long yagi when things line up. If you can swing two 
yagis, you have hit the BIG TIME!

Tuesday night is the 222 MHz activity night, and last week was quite 
exciting as two new stations showed up from the Cape cod area. Both W1LE 
and WA1NLG had great signals.  WA1T was listening in on my sked with 
Howard, WA3EOQ in FM09. Al actually heard WA3EOQ  using his small log 
periodic antenna. That thing probably has 8 or 9 dBi gain. I am not sure 
how he did it, but hearing a station 500 miles away on a LP array merits 
a comment!!  Howard was weak here with a 22 dBi antenna. I can't imagine 
doing that with a 13 or 14 dB pad in line!  WA1T got a great tropo peak!!

I somehow got signed up to give an antenna stacking talk out in 
Wisconsin on Tuesday, so I will be scarce on the band tomorrow. I'll be 
on until about 23:45 UT then QRT until at least 01:30. Usually people 
are gone by then, so look for me early on. I will be on 222.100 MHz 
starting at 22:45 UT. I monitor ON4KST 144/432 Region 2 Chat Page.

73

Dave K1WHS