[VHFcontesting] [222Activity] 222 Nite Summary

[David Olean]

Hi Al & vhfers

The 10 GHz guys are all excited about the red blob this morning, but 
there is no activity. When I quit last night just before 02:00, the red 
blob was looking quite impressive. It went from VE3 down to Florida in a 
thin line.  It is there this AM but not as pronounced.  It would be 
really nice to hear reports from others who were inside the "blob" to 
see how it related to their experience with typical CW and SSB paths. 
The APRS map is generated by (obviously)  APRS signals that are 
typically low power small gain antennas so their coverage is quite 
small. Such signals are heavily influenced by local conditions where 
inversion layers will provide huge improvements within say 200 miles but 
no farther.  Our situation, with higher power and bigger antennas 
already provides the gain needed to extend coverage well beyond those 
short ranges.

  I am reminded of the experience of Ross Hull back in the early 1930's 
on the 5 meter band. Modulated oscillators and whips were the typical 
setup. Coverage was 15-20 miles.  Ross had been to Brandt Rock, South of 
Boston and saw a telephone company radio link that used a high gain 
array to cross Cape Cod Bay. He duplicated that array on his 5 meter 
station located on Selden Hill in West Hartford and immediately started 
contacting hams in the Boston area all the time. They all thought he was 
a bootlegger as no one had ever heard signals from so far away. All 
because he put up a big antenna!  His coverage went from LOS paths  to 
diffraction and tropo scatter range immediately.  This revelation got 
him on the road to discovering the mechanism of tropospheric refraction.

I was well out of the path of the big red blob but did note some slight 
enhancement on WA3EOQ. We are talking about maybe 5 dB on average. On a 
500 mile path a 5 dB improvement sure comes in handy as signals are very 
weak. Path loss is around 240 dB +/-.   I did work N2SLO on Long Island 
in New York and his signal might have been a bit weaker than normal.  
Not sure how to explain that. Maybe a case of path QSB alone. Maybe we 
worked on a QSB trough!

So did anyone note any anomalous long haul contacts during the evening?  
Inquiring minds want to know.

Dave K1WHS

On 10/26/2022 9:13 AM, Al W9KXI wrote:
>
> I got on later than usual last night and was rewarded by numerous good 
> contacts, culminating with Bob K8TQK.  There was little to no 
> enhancement between the two of us as his CW signal was quite weak, 
> almost as if he was running without the amplifier.  Regardless…we 
> managed.
>
> WA3EOQ, KO4YC and W1XR had their usual Nice signals here.  Always nice 
> to get them in my log.
>
> Re the Red Blob.  I didn't see much enhancement here but we were on 
> the edge of it.  Having said that, I did point the beam South for FT8, 
> called CQ and worked Phil off the side of the bam and Dave off the 
> back corner.
>
> VE3KG.  Nice to work Dave for the first time and have FN24 (new grid 
> on 222) in my log.  With the hills here in FN12ne, FN24 is a tough 
> direction for me.
>
>
> 	
> 	
>
> DISTANCE (KM)
>
> 	
>
> GRIDSQUARE
>
> 	
>
> MODE
>
> Jeff
>
> 	
>
> K1TEO
>
> 	
>
> 330
>
> 	
>
> FN31
>
> 	
>
> SSB
>
> Ron
>
> 	
>
> WZ1V
>
> 	
>
> 373
>
> 	
>
> FN31
>
> 	
>
> SSB
>
> Howard
>
> 	
>
> WA3EOQ
>
> 	
>
> 348
>
> 	
>
> FM09
>
> 	
>
> SSB
>
> Dave
>
> 	
>
> K1WHS
>
> 	
>
> 500
>
> 	
>
> FN43mumbojumbo
>
> 	
>
> SSB
>
> Cornell
>
> 	
>
> KO4YC
>
> 	
>
> 477
>
> 	
>
> FM17
>
> 	
>
> SSB
>
> Jim
>
> 	
>
> W1XR
>
> 	
>
> 706
>
> 	
>
> FM19
>
> 	
>
> SSB
>
> Chip
>
> 	
>
> W1AIM
>
> 	
>
> 447
>
> 	
>
> FN34
>
> 	
>
> CW
>
> Phil
>
> 	
>
> WA3NUF
>
> 	
>
> 267
>
> 	
>
> FN20
>
> 	
>
> FT8
>
> Dave
>
> 	
>
> K1WHS
>
> 	
>
> 500
>
> 	
>
> FN43
>
> 	
>
> FT8
>
> Dave
>
> 	
>
> VE3KG
>
> 	
>
> 311
>
> 	
>
> FN24
>
> 	
>
> CW
>
> Bob
>
> 	
>
> K8TQK
>
> 	
>
> 630
>
> 	
>
> EM89
>
> 	
>
> CW
>
> 73,
>
> Al - W9KXI
>
> FN12ne
>
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