[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Results

Allen Oldfield aoldfiel at stny.rr.com
Thu Aug 3 14:44:28 EDT 2023


Even though my computer was on the chat page before 7pm, I got a late start Tuesday night.  
All signals were down here.  My "benchmark" always is my cousin, Ron - WZ1V.  He was probably a 5-1 and there was QSB on his signal.  With those conditions, working K1PXE would have been impossible, even on CW. Sorry Pete.  I tried and tried to work NE9EE in Ft. Wayne on FT8.  It just didn't happen.  Meanwhile, Joe - K9MRI, who lives (maybe) 30 miles South of him, WAS decoding me.  Joe and I then tried on FT8.  Again, he could hear me, I couldn't hear him.  I am certain that Joe has more Gain to his antenna than I do.  It was, though, a fun Tuesday night.

Best DX for the night was my old friend Bob "TQK". It was good to have him in the log again.  Living here in a "Black Hole", I sure do enjoy working people that live on hills.

Here are my modest results:
BAND	CALL	DISTANCE (KM)	FREQ	GRID SQUARE	MODE	RST RCVD	SENT	TIME_ON
1.25m	WZ1V		375	222.104.850	FN31		USB	59		59	2023-08-01-232732
1.25m	KB2YCC	5	222.104.850	FN12		USB	59		59	2023-08-01-232841
1.25m	K8TQK		630	222.100.680	EM89		CW	529		519	2023-08-01-234045
1.25m	K1ZK		388	222.175.570	FN34		FT8	+02		-20	2023-08-01-235815
1.25m	VE3DS		273	222.175.570	FN03		FT8	-11		-05	2023-08-02-001345
1.25m	WA3NUF	267	222.175.570	FN20		FT8	+10		+09	2023-08-02-001645
1.25m	K1WHS		502	222.110.000	FN43		USB	59		59	2023-08-02-002053
1.25m	N1DPM		348	222.107.900	FN32		USB	52		52	2023-08-02-002821

Look for me this weekend on 222, 432 and 1296.

73,
Al - W9KXI

-----Original Message-----
From: 222Activity at groups.io [mailto:222Activity at groups.io] On Behalf Of David Olean
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2023 9:43 AM
To: 222 >> 222Activity at groups.io; vhfcontesting at contesting.com; NEWSVHF at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [222Activity] 222 MHz Activity Night Results

Hello 222 addicts

The last 222 night in July had T-storms around with horrendous 
lightning. At about 6:30 local time, some lightning strikes were hitting 
the hill up behind the house. I had to wait a bit before I could go up 
to operate.� One week later, the weather is cool and the sky is mostly 
clear. There is a huge drop in the humidity and I expected a quiet 
evening with rather poor conditions. I turned on the solid state amp 
power supply and started CQing at about 22:45 UT. It took awhile for 
stations to show up, but pretty soon I get called by N1BUG. I turned the 
beam NE and we had a great ragchew. Paul is taking a deep dive into 10 
GHz and he filled me in on what is going on up there in FN55.

Here is my log:

 �� DATE���� TIME CALLSIGN������� LOCATOR TX������ RX������ BAND MODE 
PRO.REMARKS����� QRB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
08/01/2023 22:57 N1BUG���������� FN55MF� 59������ 59������ 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 161
08/01/2023 23:03 WZ1V����������� FN31RH� 55������ 55������ 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 165
08/01/2023 23:07 K1FSY���������� FN31LN� 57������ 55������ 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 165
08/01/2023 23:09 KV1J����������� FN42��� 57��������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR��������������� 60+-
08/01/2023 23:10 N1SV����������� FN42EP� 57��������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR��������������� 62
08/01/2023 23:14 VE3DS���������� FN03FQ� 559����� 559����� 220 MHzCW�� 
TR�������������� 430
08/01/2023 23:22 K1ZK����������� FN34JJ� 559����� 559����� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 132
08/01/2023 23:33 WA3NUF��������� FN20KE� 559�������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 308
08/01/2023 23:34 K1MAP���������� FN32SB� 559�������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 119
08/01/2023 23:35 K1PXE���������� FN31KE� 559�������������� 220 MHzCW�� 
TR�������������� 188
08/01/2023 23:36 W2TMA���������� FN30HV� 559�������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 212
08/01/2023 23:38 N2SLO���������� FN30JU� 559�������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 210
08/01/2023 23:45 WA3EOQ��������� FM09JO� 429����� 429����� 220 MHzCW�� 
TR�������������� 500
08/01/2023 23:53 W1GHZ���������� FN34��� 429�������������� 220 MHzCW�� 
TR�������������� 126+-
08/02/2023 00:00 KC1V����������� FN31SX� 599����� 599����� 220 MHzCW�� 
TR�������������� 124
08/02/2023 00:03 KB2YCC��������� FN12NF� 599����� 599����� 220 MHzCW�� 
TR�������������� 310
08/02/2023 00:24 W9KXI���������� FN12��� 599�������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 698
08/02/2023 00:29 K1TEO���������� FN31��� 59������ 59������ 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 287+-
08/02/2023 00:30 WB2SIH��������� FN31DD� 59��������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 210
08/02/2023 00:31 K1BX����������� FN43EB� 59��������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR��������������� 41
08/02/2023 00:32 W1AIM���������� FN34UJ� 59��������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR��������������� 96
08/02/2023 00:32 WA1MBA��������� FN51AS� 59��������������� 220 MHzSSB� 
TR�������������� 123
08/02/2023 01:58 W5EME���������� EM32AI� -18����� -21����� 220 MHzQ65� 
EME������������ 1460
08/02/2023 02:05 W5ZN����������� EM45��� -23����� -26����� 220 MHzQ65� 
EME������������ 1193+-
08/02/2023 02:14 K9MRI���������� EN70IU� -21����� -22����� 220 MHzQ65� 
EME������������� 754
08/02/2023 02:37 W5ZN����������� EM45��� -10����� -15����� 220 MHzQ65� 
EME������������ 1193+-
08/02/2023 02:37 W5AFY���������� EM04��� -19����� -29����� 220 MHzQ65� 
EME������������ 1614+-
08/02/2023 02:49 K3SK����������� FM07TH� -21����� -21����� 220 MHzQ65� 
EME������������� 573
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 28

I never got a chance to try with KO4YC. Cornell was on, but I missed him 
and never heard him in QSO with any of the regulars.� I missed a few 
more as I disconnected my solid state amp at 00:30 or so to get ready 
for my Moonrise at 00:45 UT.

The Moon was rising on the East Coast at about 9 PM local time, and I 
was hoping that a few folks would try to listen for signals as the Moon 
came up. I know that N1BUG was listening, but was thwarted by huge power 
line noise.� AJ6T near Nashville was also listening but heard nothing as 
his Moon rose close to 01:45 UT. W5ZN was on with his EME array of 2 X 
yagis. I expected that I might work Joel first, but W5EME snuck in on 
his moonrise and he used his single tropo antenna. I could hear tones in 
the headphones. He was very loud witha single yagi.� Joel was calling at 
the same time about 200 Hz below Rick and he was EME contact #2. The 
Moon was just rising and he was looking through a big tree or two or 
three.� The next signal copied was K9MRI who has 400 watts and a single 
5 wl yagi. At times Joe was audible in my phones, which is incredible 
and shows you what a great band 222 is. EME with a single yagi and 400 
watts!!! Ya gotta love it!!� I think that contact was #1 on 222 EME for 
K9MRI.

The Moon cleared the trees at W5ZN and Joel got all excited as signals 
got much louder. My signal peaked at -10 and he called me and I saw the 
same strength here. If you are unfamiliar with EME strengths, a -10 
means that you can try it on SSB. Joel was that loud!� While Joel was 
completing our 2nd contact I saw W5AFY calling. He has a dish, but on 
Tuesday night, he was using his single yagi tropo antenna in EM04. He 
was very loud as well. So the EME conditions were great. If you had the 
proper Faraday at your house it was great. If the Faraday did not line 
up, you got skunked! I am sure that AJ6T was suffering from Faraday 
Rotation. Linear polarization will do that for you.� My last QSO was 
with Dave K3SK. He was having noise problems and had to wait for the 
moon to get above the horizon a bit.� By now it was 0300 UT and I was 
pretty tired. I was still recovering from my Little Rock road trip.� A 
look at the log shows six EME contacts in a bit less than an hour, and 
four of those QSOs were with tropo stations with single yagis and no 
elevation.

I was wondering how the tropo would be here now that we had no humidity 
in the air, but I still managed to work WA3EOQ at 500 miles with no 
sweat at all. I tuned to the proper frequency and heard him calling 
right away. I answered with calls and a grid square and Howard was right 
back with RR and his grid. Signals were in and out on this end, but we 
completed about as fast as possible, so I am not complaining.� A QSO 
with VE3DS on CW was a bit weak. Dana said I was pretty weak out there. 
I was running on battery power with my little amp, but I would agree 
that signals at that time were a bit down. WA3NUF was fairly good and 
maybe down in strength by a few dB. We have many contacts so I can gauge 
his strength quite well now.

All in all, it was a fantastic evening for me. The EME contacts were a 
hoot, and it was great to be back enjoying 222 MHz again after CSVHFS.

73

Dave K1WHS



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