[VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] 222 activity night

Wed Jan 4 14:59:18 EST 2023

Thanks for the geography lesson, Dave.  😊   I’ll make it even more difficult by letting you know that center of my H frame is 44ft above ground.   Maybe a wave bending antenna is the answer.  Something that not only bends over terrain but also around those higher hill tops.   When I get some free time later today I’ll look on Amazon and see what they have.  😊  

On a more serious note, we’ll need to wait on one of those middle 1980s super tropo ducts that run up & down the east coast.  Or, off the moon.   

de K3SK

From: David Olean <k1whs at metrocast.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, January 4, 2023 1:58 PM
To: wz1v at sbcglobal.net; newsvhf at mailman.qth.net; Dave K3SK <k3sk at buckwalter.co>
Cc: vhfcontesting at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [NEWSVHF] [VHFcontesting] 222 activity night

Hi Dave K3SK and Good Buddy Ron, WZ1V,

I was hoping that a path between FM07 and FN43 would be a good test for band conditions on 222.  We are 575 miles apart. If I plug the station info into the KA1GT tropo scatter program, I get a barely negative path loss figure. (I entered a zero degree horizon angle for K3SK).  I was hoping that I might be able to get some indication of a signal over that path but no luck last night and a few times before. I dd a quick look at the K3SK QTH and note that there is rising terrain in the direction of New England. With a base elevation of about 390 ft, the land rises to about 520 ft at 1.4 miles distant.  I have a feeling that this rise kills your main lobe and raises it enough to kill the long haul tropo scatter effect.   Horizon angle is between +0.26 and +0.35 degrees assuming the antenna is at 100 ft.  I think this is the problem.  At my place, I see small positive horizon angles to my west from about 230 degrees to about 345 degrees. I can see the difference. Working stations to my West is harder.  Below 230 degrees azimuth, I have a negative horizon and I do much better.

I did note that the path last night from where I sit in New England down to the South was below normal summertime levels. It was actually quite good to the West from here.Signals were enhanced by 10 dB or so.  I should not complain as we are into January now and conditions can be quite awful in the North as we all know. The activity level last night was awesome. It was especially gratifying to hear some Packrats show up.  Really there was not enough time to work them all in a short period.

A few notes on the terrain profile. I did a plot at about 43 degrees azimuth from K3SK that aims at my location in FN43. The 33 degree azimuth is the worst case obstruction. K3SK QTH is situated on the far left side of each plot with an antenna height of 100 ft.  The ground drops off, but then rises gradually to 520 ft or more out to 1.4 miles on the extreme right of the plot.  The elevation angle is +0.26 degrees at 43 deg azimuth. I forget how much attenuation that will cause, but a move from 0 degrees to -0.5 degrees counts for over +10 dB of gain!!   all very interesting stuff!!

We just have to try harder!!

73

Dave K1WHS

On 1/4/2023 7:25 AM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:

Hi Dave - I was hoping to decode you on FT8 but no joy. 
I somehow failed to list KO4YC FM17 as one of my QSOs. 
Cornell is a bit closer but we should be able to work 
if we get a good QSB peak. 

73 Ron WZ1V

----- Original Message -----
From:  <mailto:k3sk at buckwalter.co> <k3sk at buckwalter.co>
To:  <mailto:wz1v at sbcglobal.net> <wz1v at sbcglobal.net>,  <mailto:newsvhf at mailman.qth.net> <newsvhf at mailman.qth.net>
Cc:  <mailto:vhfcontesting at contesting.com> <vhfcontesting at contesting.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2023 22:19:27 -0500
Subject: RE: [VHFcontesting] 222 activity night

Tonight in FN07 was difficult.    Worked 3 stations --   KO4YC (SSB & FT8),
K9MRI FT8, VE3ZV SSB.      Heard several others just above the noise several
times with some CW on .102 and a few SSB on .110 but couldn't raise them
from here.    I didn't hear a peep out of the NE except 2 FT8 decodes from
Fn12 with not completion.   

I'm glad I installed my new preamp today otherwise it would have been worse,

de K3SK   FM07th
Dave Buckwalter

FM07 - Farmville VA

-----Original Message-----
From: Ron Klimas WZ1V  <mailto:wz1v at sbcglobal.net> <wz1v at sbcglobal.net> 
Sent: Tuesday, January 3, 2023 9:10 PM
To: newsvhf at mailman.qth.net <mailto:newsvhf at mailman.qth.net> 
Cc: vhfcontesting at contesting.com <mailto:vhfcontesting at contesting.com> 
Subject: [VHFcontesting] 222 activity night

Despite the damp weather, a great night on 222: 
K1WHS FN43, K2AEP FN32, N1JEZ FN44, WA3NUF FN20, WA3GFZ FM29, WA2ONK FN20,
KA3FQS FN20, N2SLO FN30, K1PXE FN31, K1TEO FN31, WA1RKS FN32, W9KXI FN12,
K2RMX FN20, K1MAP FN32, VE2XX FN25, WA3EOQ FM09, WA1MBA FN51, W1TR FN31,
W1AIM FN34, KC0IYT FN42, KV1J FN42, N2DEQ FM29, W1SMS FN31, VE3ZV EN92,
VE3KG FN24, and K1TR FN42. Thanks for the QSO's. 

73 Ron WZ1V FN31RH

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