[VHFcontesting] 222 Activity Night

[David Olean]

That is quite a list, Ron.  I ended up with about 21 stations worked. 
When I started out, I was greeted by a rotator that would not turn. IT 
eventually started to move, but then I found that antenna performance 
was bad with very high VSWR and hundreds of watts reflected power. The 
entire array was iced up. A quick check showed that the fixed array had 
stronger signals than the rotating yagi antenna. That was a bad sign. 
The degradation was at least six dB. I am hoping that it is just ice on 
the elements of the antenna and not something that is broken. I will 
know more in daylight when I can get a look at things. One look at my 
feedlines, and they are all ice covered, so I am hoping the antenna 
works after it thaws out. I did manage to work AA2SD in FM29 on SSB and 
also N1ROZ in FN32, but signals were very weak. I heard WA1NLG with  
good signals, but I do not think we ever made a contact. I quit at 01:30 
UT or so. My new computer system was not working properly and required 
much fiddling. It woud lock up and transmit when I was trying to 
receive.  I was trying to share a COM port with two programs. It did not 
work well at all.  Back to the drawing boards.  With all the troubles, I 
never bothered to try with any DX stations. The high reflected power 
scared me. A big RF arc could take out relays and preamps. I retreated 
back home.

73

Dave K1WHS


On 12/5/2023 9:10 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:

> 222 conditions not great tonight but lots of activity:
> K2RMX FN20, K1WHS FN43, WB2VVV FN41, KO4YC FM17,
> AA2SD FM29, WA3GFZ FM29, VE2XX FN25, K1PXE FN31,
> N1JEZ FN44, W9KXI FN12, WA1NLG FN41, WA1MBA FN51,
> K1FMS FN32, N1ROZ FN32, WA3NUF FN20, K1FSY FN31,
> W1GHZ FN34, K3SK FM07, K1OR FN42, W1AIM FN34,
> K1ZK FN34, N2DEQ FM29, and WA4YA FN42,. TNX !
>
> 73 Ron WZ1V
>
>