[VHFcontesting] 222 Sprint & Activity Night K1WHS

[David Olean]

Hello Sprinters,

Well, I was rather surprised last night. In comparing scores from 
previous years, it seems that activity has definitely been climbing in a 
positive direction. Last year I had 39 QSOs in 21 grids for the Fall 
Sprint, and several of those contacts were on EME. (My first QSO in that 
Sprint last Fall was with Hawaii!!) This time around, my totals were 47 
QSOs in 23 grids and the Moon was nowhere to be seen! I missed that BH 
grid along with EM84 in Georgia, but ended up with more Qs and more 
grids this time. Condx were average, so I would assume that activity is 
going up. This is good.

The evening started for me with poor conditions. The new PackRat beacon 
was very weak and a QSO with W8ZN was rather tenuous. Normally W8ZN is 
rather loud considering the distance involved, and we struggled to make 
the Q on CW this time.  I ran with Howard WA3EOQ at 502 miles and I 
barely could hear him. Howard's remarks were that it was a struggle as 
well. That did not stop the callers though. My Q total was climbing 
fast.  I think the band got better over time as just about everybody had 
better luck later in the evening. I listened in on a N1DPM sked with 
WA3EOQ, and was very surprised to hear Howard peak up quite loud during 
that time, and Fred made the contact.  EOQ was armchair copy and the 
interesting fact is that the peak was the same in western Mass and in SW 
Maine. I would like to know what is going on when that happens. Was it 
aircraft scatter? I think not. Was it a confluence of atmospheric 
scattering "blobs" that happened to focus the energy in both 
directions?  Back in the 50's all those "B" sci fi movies all blamed 
nuclear radiation.   As a side note, I highly recommend watching "The 
Claw" on You Tube.  The monster is a wonder to behold. My best distance 
Qs were with KO4YC FM17, WA3EOQ & W8ZN FM09, and VE3ZV in EN92. All are 
around the 500 mile mark.

I also saw that Good Buddy Ron, WZ1V, worked VE3DS later on in the 
evening. My attempt with Dana in FN03 was about as weak as I ever heard 
in that direction, but, clearly there were times when things were 
definitely better. Maybe it was GBR's *  new amplificator?   ( * GBR= 
Good Buddy Ron)   I think you just had to be patient and wait for your 
chance last night. If you paid attention, you could do well.

I was really hoping that I could hear Herb K2LNS up here in Mumbo Jumbo 
land. K2LNS was going to a portable FN11 location specifically for 222 
night. I spent a lot of time with my antenna in that direction, but 
never heard him. I was glad to see that W9KXI mentioned that he worked 
K2LNS in FN11.  That would have been a new grid for me.  K2LNS was the 
first "DX" that I ever heard as a new ham on 144 MHz. It is hard to 
imagine what things were like back then, but no one had a VFO on 144 
MHz. They just drifted around too much. Multiplying an 8 MHz VFO up 18 
times was not trivial then. So I had a crystal in my Tecraft 10 watt 
transmitter. It was 8075 kc. That put me up in the cheap seats on 
145.350 MHz. One night I heard K2LNS really loud from Somerville, NJ.  
Now, how far away was Somerville NJ from my home in Westport, CT?  I 
checked the map and it was 126 km. That was DX for this kid who knew 
nothing about anything back then. ( No jokes at my expense, please)  I 
had to wait for Herb to tune his receiver up from the bottom at 144.0. 
With all of the activity back then, it took a few hours of calling. He 
would answer a station at say 144.12 and have a conversation and then 
tune up from there. 145.35 was a long way off.   I still have his card 
here somewhere. For the record, my station consisted of a Tecraft 6360 
10 watt TX and an International Crystal 144 converter built on a PC 
board with a 6BQ7A front end. My receiver was a surplus Bendix aircraft 
receiver that I paid $22.50 for at Fair Radio Sales. I used the 7-11 MHz 
IF range. My antenna was fed with green RG-59/U coax and was an 8 
element Telrex at about 25 ft.  I still have one of those Bendix RA-10 
radios here as a reminder of how things have progressed over the decades.

I was monitoring the ON4KST Chat page and was marveling at some QSOs 
made out to the west. AJ6T in TN has low power but made some almost 500 
mile contacts!  KA6U was at K5QE and making plenty of noise on CW and 
digi. Ditto for W5EME and a cast of hundreds.  I am hoping to hear how 
our more western friends did in the Sprint. Some great contacts were 
accomplished. Then, again, it's 222 MHz, one of our best VHF bands What 
should you expect!  I had a ball and a big Thank You to the sponsors. 
Post your score on 3830 and add some notes. People enjoy hearing about 
interesting contacts.

73

Dave K1WHS

Don't forget......Check out "The Claw"