[VHFcontesting] 222 activity night

[Ron Klimas WZ1V]

Hi Dave: You did terrific with the lower power. 
Last year I purchased an Ampere Time 50 AH LiFePo4 
for emergency power. They make them up to 400 AH. 
Very happy with it, it has the built-in BMS and 
stays above 13 VDC for most of the discharge cycle. 
I'm planning on getting their 100 AH battery for an upgrade. 
I paired it with a Bioenno Power BPC-1510A charger from HRO. 
Very reasonably priced battery, runs my FT-991A up to 100W 
for most of a day. I designed my own DC-DC UPS which 
instantly switches my radios to it if AC power fails. 
A classic KISS design with no voltage drop across it. 
I probably should write it up for an article in Newsletter. 
I put a large powerpole connector at the battery for connection 
to the UPS, and a smaller one for the charger and other uses. 
The battery is very light and easy to disconnect to take 
with me for operating portable on 10 GHz etc. 

73 Ron WZ1V

----- Original Message -----
From: David Olean <k1whs at metrocast.net>
To: wz1v at sbcglobal.net, newsvhf at mailman.qth.net
Cc: vhfcontesting at contesting.com
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2022 08:24:04 -0400
Subject: Re: [VHFcontesting] 222 activity night

> Well, other than sitting in the dark, I had a great time running on 
> battery power! I decided to run the transverter and Teletek driver amp 
> that normally  drives my 8877 amplifier.  It is about to be retired with 
> a new solid state amplifier ready to go, but it was a simple task to 
> just run the driver cable over to the coax relay. I had an Astron linear 
> supply running the Teletek and output was about 90 watts or so.
> 
> First station worked was N1BUG and we had a nice chat with my beam up 
> aimed at Milo Maine. Good buddy Ron WZ1V called on frequency and I 
> answered but he could not hear me. I had to turn my beam SW. I had no 
> trouble working Ron and Peter K1PXE with my lower power. W3CJK had a 
> good signal and W9KXI in FN12 was hearing me on SSB with my beam aimed 
> south!  When we aimed at each other we had S7 signals peaking up.  W9KXI 
> is at about 310 miles. Other stations included W3CJK with a great signal 
> from FN41, along with "Iron Man" George, N1GJ.  KE1LI was on with low 
> power, but still had  a good signal when we were aimed at each other.  
> At one point I saw a comment from KE1LI on the chat page. "15 watts 
> sucks!" The conditions in New England were not very good.  Before the 
> action commenced, I had been watching the 222.049 K2DLL beacon and it 
> was weak and watery with strength between 10 to 20 dB above the 
> background noise. It was much louder in the afternoon by about another 
> 10 dB, so things had deteriorated locally. We had mist and drizzle here 
> during 222 activity.
> 
> I did work Dave, N2SLO with his newly installed 222 yagi up in the air 
> and I was glad that he had made the changes as signals were not their 
> normal strength. He was OK on SSB, but any weaker and it would have been 
> a CW only type of contact. There was lots of QSB. I missed all the 
> Massachusetts ops. Normally the Boston area has several guys on. I guess 
> the weather kept them away.
> 
> I wondered what would happen if I tried to work WA3EOQ with just 90 or 
> 100 watts on my end. Howard has always been running 100 watts and we 
> work regularly with few misses. This night was easy. I heard him start 
> calling and I sent calls and my grid. Howard came right back and his 
> signal was actually a bit above what I normally hear. So figure that 
> out. Everyone in New England is having trouble making contacts, but this 
> 500 mile path is not affected. It seems, condx down South were much 
> better, and long haul tropo is not very affected by local conditions.  
> Later on, Howard WA3EOQ also connected with W1AIM in VT for another 
> almost 500 mile QSO.  Up North, I snagged VE2XX with a very loud signal 
> along with W1AIM in Cabot, VT. Cabot is a big cheese producing area.  
> Chip's signal was not the least bit "cheesey".
> 
> My attempt to work VE3DS Toronto did not work out. I heard VE3DS calling 
> me a number of times, but my low power could not make the grade on a 430 
> mile path to the west. I always contrast the Toronto path with  my shot 
> down the East Coast. KO4YC is at 225 degrees and we worked on SSB over a 
> 525 mile path last night. I have a pretty good negative horizon angle 
> around 215 degrees, while my horizon at 275 degrees is almost at zero 
> degrees. A few tenths of a degree in the horizon makes a big difference 
> in tropo scatter.  I see this a lot. I tried again later on, but Dana 
> had left the building!
> 
> When I quit just after 9 PM I had been on and making noise for 2 hours 
> and 15 minutes with about 100 watts output. My battery was at 72% when I 
> shut it all down. I wish the batteries were not so expensive. If I had 
> two, I could probably run a 400 watt amp with no problem. Lithium prices 
> are almost double that of lead-acid types, but they last longer. At 
> least I hope they last longer! My old lead acid bank made it for only 
> six years. ($220 per year of use)
> 
> All in all, it was another very interesting night.   Next week is the 
> 222 Sprint. WA1T will be here and we hope to have the generator running 
> again. I will have my band decoder running so I can be a real single op 
> and not have toplay musical chairs while running the bands. The newly 
> revised band decoder has only one voltage supplied (24 VDC) so there is 
> no way I can goof that up! I tested it yesterday and it switches just 
> fine. Now to get all those higher bands hooked up again!
> 
> 73
> 
> Dave K1WHS
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 73
> 
> Dave K1WHS
> 
> 
> 
> On 9/20/2022 8:59 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
> > Pretty good night on 222, despite the QSB on some paths:
> > K1WHS FN43, N1BUG FN55, K1PXE FN31, K2RMX FN20,
> > W9KXI FN12, WA1T FN43, N2SLO FN30, KE1LI FN41,
> > W3CJK FN41, WA3EOQ FM09, N1GJ FN41, KO4YC FM17,
> > and W1AIM FN34 - Thanks for the QSOs.
> > Can't make it next Tuesday so carry on without me,
> > and look forward to the 432 Sprint.
> >
> > 73 Ron WZ1V FN31rh
> >
> >
> 

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