[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Night Wrapup

[David Olean]

I was hoping for a quiet evening with no thunderstorm crashes or rain 
static. The report was for some rain and fog, but when I drove up t the 
shack at 22:30 it was partly sunny and looking good.  Signals seemed 
good right at the start. I was working WB2VVV in FN41. He is in RI just 
about on the Connecticut border about 200 degrees azimuth from me. When 
I signed with Chris, I was called by WA3NUF near Philly, who was on my 
1st sidelobe of the antenna and was about normal strength. When I peaked 
him on the main lobe he was S8 or S9! That is about 10+ dB better than 
what I usually expect. So it was no surprise that when WA3EOQ (FM09) 
answered  my call, he was Q5. I was actually watching the S-meter bar 
graph jump a bit on Howard's signal.   Signals did not stay loud all the 
time, but I never missed a word in our quick 502 mile CW contact. KO4YC 
was another great contact at 510 miles or so. I worked Cornell early in 
the evening when he first got on. He was Q5 on SSB and I heard him for 
quite awhile answering all his callers with a good 5X5 SSB signal.

Well I was sure that things were a a tad better than normal, so I let 
K3SK in FM07 know and we started a q65 sked. In about 4 or 5 minutes, I 
was decoding Dave and we finally completed our first tropo scatter 
contact. There was a rumor going around that GBR WZ1V had applied a hex 
on our path that prevented a contact.  I am not sure of the mechanics of 
Ron's witch craft. Not sure if he used Jamaican dolls with pins, or just 
a straight celtic magic spell over a bubbling cauldron, but Dave K3SK 
and I finally broke the spell. The path is about 570 miles I think.  As 
far as I can tell, the QSB peaks were quite good last night if you 
caught them at the right time. Out to the West, I tried with K9MRI and 
we heard nil, not even a meteor bump in the few minutes we tried, but 
VE3DS at about 440 miles was very loud. He started out calling me on CW 
and he was 599. Many other nights Dana's signals are weak and watery, 
but this time he was sounding like clear channel 50 kilowatts! I 
answered him on SSB, and he was very surprised too. As  we chatted on 
SSB, the signal kept dropping and Dana got fairly weak as we signed off. 
Quite a difference from when we first made contact.

At 00:45 I elevated my tropo antenna and started calling CQ on 222.085 
using Q65. When I stopped the first transmission I heard a strong local 
signal quit at the same time. It took me awhile to realize that it was 
my own echo. It was the loudest I ever heard on 222 MHz. Really it 
scared me it was so loud.The Moon was already up in Tennessee and AJ6T 
was listening, but no joy. He was not hearing anything. Then I got a 
call on EME from K3SK again! WE worked easily and I went back to CQig. 
W5EME was listening on his single yagi from Louisiana, but he heard 
nothing, so he went to his EME array ( 2 X 22 EL) He still heard 
nothing.  All of a sudden, I see a huge bunch of blips on the screen. 
Who could that be. It was W5EME! He saw the same thing. It was if 
someone had turned on the ON-OFF switch. Signals were loud both ways.  
Hard to explain that.   I had another contact with K3SK while we waited 
for W6TCP's moonrise at about 0225 UT. K3SK needs California on 222 MHz. 
After a few minutes, I started hearing W6TCP along with K3SK. They were 
both around the same strength at -19 to-21 on the digi-meter. 
Unfortunately, Faraday was preventing them from a 2 way contact and I 
got tired and quit at about 03:15 UT.

I looked at the latest Hepburn maps and things are starting to change. 
The Friday morning event for southern New England does not look anywhere 
near as good as before, but still looks great down the coast.  while 
northern New England  sees nil at that time, and by Saturday morning, 
the northern areas are spotty while southerly spots in New England are 
great along with the midwest.   I will still hope and pray that we get 
something. K1TEO and W1VD claim that the last tropo event was the best 
they ever heard.  N1BUG, W1AIM, N1JEZ, and I are still waiting.

73

Dave K1WHS