[VHFcontesting] [222Activity] 222 MHz Activity Night

[k3sk at buckwalter.co]

I started 222 evening around 2130 UTC while calling CQ using Q65 off the moon, I got a chat message on HB9Q from John, K1OR.    He said he would listen for me.  After a few minutes of no copy, John realized I was on EME and he wasn't.   I still need NH on 222 and was excited about the chance to make the connection, so I dropped the elevation and rotated the array around toward FN42.   I copied John on quite a few sequences over the next 30 minutes.  His signals were between -16 and -23 indicating a lot of QSB.  Unfortunately, John reported he had a very high noise level, and never copied my transmissions.    

QSB was prevalent the remainder of the evening, and signals were down quite a bit, with me only working 4 stations.  

WA4NUF 	   SSB
WZ1V        FT8
K9MRI      FT8
KO4YC     SSB    ( I also heard WZ1V SSB work KO4YC before QSB took him out.   There was also another SSB station not copied, right at the noise level).

As a full disclosure, I also was multi-tasking and not paying a lot of attention to operating.   I had the air fryer on my work bench and was performing surgery to repair a self-inflicted casualty.    The mounting screws for the air fryer fan had come loose and the fan rattled and while attempting to tighten it, I broke a wire from the motor winding.   To make the repair, I had to completely remove the motor and unwind one turn from the motor coil so it would reach back to the connection point I had broken it from.   

FYI --  I have been and will be for the remainder of this week listening on 222 EME around moon rise here on the east coast.   I will be logged in on the HB9Q 222 page. 

Dave
K3SK - FM07