[VHFcontesting] [222Activity] 222 Activity night

[David Olean]

Hi Al

That is a good idea to place the distances beside each  contact so it 
puts everything into perspective with contacts from different 
geographical areas.  Seeing those numbers is also a good way to gauge 
how well your station is working compared to others. Times have changed 
but I still hear the words of Sam Harris W1FZJ, as he pushed and prodded 
VHFers in his VHF magazine columns in CQ and then QST.  Rather than just 
reporting the month's news, he spent time urging hams to improve their 
stations and justify their existence on the band. His columns were a 
treasure trove of VHF practical experience and knowledge. I would 
compare him to the equivalent of a fiery southern Baptist minister 
telling his flock what they needed to do to get to heaven.  If your 
receiver suffered from poor noise figure, fix it! If your transmitter 
was low power, you should improve it. If your antenna doesn't block out 
the Sun, it needed to be bigger!!He kept telling the 144 folks that they 
should have a range of 600 to 700 miles. If you look at the scatter 
programs available now,, you can see that he was, as usual, correct! If 
you could not work 600 miles.....Fix it!

So with a single good yagi and decent power, (a few hundred watts) you 
should expect to cover well over 300 miles with suitably equipped 
stations on 222 MHz.  Sam was always running skeds and pushing the VHF 
horizon.  It was infectious and others started running daily skeds over 
impossible distances in an effort to judge how station improvements 
affect the bottom line. After all DX = Distance!  I recall that activity 
always stopped on 144 late each evening as K2IEJ on Long Island, NY, 
fired up his KW CW rig and skedded Art, W8KAY in Akron Ohio. The 
distance was a tad over 400 miles, which is much more easily achieved 
today with better receivers and more effective antennas, but in 1964, 
400 miles was a great achievement. I used to marvel at how many of the 
old DXers would tune in every night to see what happened. I would get 
excited if I even heard W8KAY!

The Activity nights are serving a similar purpose, and have become a 
great way to gauge your station and push everyone to want to improve 
their station in the ways available to each individual.  I heard W9KXI 
pushing the envelope, sending many CW CQs later on in the evening around 
222.100.  It sure is great to hear all the activity and see so many 
people having fun on the band. I am looking forward to the Spring 
Sprints and better weather.

73

Dave K1WHS

On 4/5/2023 8:44 AM, Al W9KXI wrote:
> 8 contacts, 7 were SSB and One (K8TQK) was CW.
> K1WHS   FN43  312mi.
> WZ1V    FN31  233mi.
> WA3NUF  FN20  166mi.
> KA3FQS  FN20  152mi.
> WA3EOQ  FM09  216mi.
> W1AIM   FN34  235mi.
> VE3DS   FN03  170mi.
> K8TQK   EM89  370mi.
>
> Generally, I found signals were up and down here, BIG swings on most
> signals.  The SSB signals were ALL Q5 here.
>
> W1AIM.  Chip called me on CW when I was calling CQ towards EM89.  He was off
> the back of my beam!  I swung the beam around and worked him on SSB.  Thanks
> Chip.
>
> VE3DS.  I heard Dana when he and Ron WZ1V were try to work. I tail ended
> their contact.
>
> K8TQK.  It has been a while since Bob has been in my log.  I had been
> listening Bob and Dave (K1WHS) trying to work each other.  Visualizing their
> path, I thought that I was on Bob's path to Dave, so I waited until they
> finished and called Bob.  The signals weren't the best (529) but we managed
> to complete the contact on a "peak".
>
> I'll be looking for everyone on the 2M Sprint next week and again on 222 on
> Tuesday.
>
> 73,
> Al - W9KXI
> FN12ne
>
>
>
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