[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Wrap up.

David Olean k1whs at metrocast.net
Wed Jan 18 10:38:16 EST 2023


Hi 222 MHz ops,

Last night was quite active on 222 MHz again.  In fact, it was VERY 
active!  For the past three weeks in a row a few guys have made over 20 
contacts on Tuesdays. People were coming out of the woodwork. Perhaps is 
was due to the January Contest coming up next week, but some portion is 
due to people putting gear back in service to participate in the 
activity evening. I talked to George W1JHR for the first time on 222 
Night and he was running a recently "uncovered" transverter at 20 watts 
and a small HO loop. He related that he just got the stuff hooked up and 
was glad to get something running for Tuesday night.

The Packrats were out in force. I know that Phil, WA3NUF has been 
pushing to get more activity from the Philly area. As luck would have 
it, a bunch of Packrats showed up last night, but I never worked Phil!! 
I know he was on as I heard him working another station at one point, 
but his beam was not aimed my way and he was barely audible. We never 
hooked up.    With so many stations making contacts and chasing other 
stations, it is easy to miss a few.  I never connected with Ellis, 
WA1RKS. Things were just too busy, and by the time I got 
re-combobulated, Ellis had left the building!!

Here is a summary of the action as heard from Mumbo Jumbo Land.

23:56    N1YCQ    FN41LP    122 miles
23:58    N3RG    FM29KI    354 miles
00:00    WA1MBA    FN51AS    123 miles
00:03    WZ1V    FN31RH    166 miles  Good Buddy Ron.
00:13    W1JHR FN42FL    73 miles
00:20    WA3EOQ    FM09JO   502 miles    Very poor condx. QSO took many 
repeats.  A squeaker!!
00:24    K1TEO    FN31JH    186 miles
00:30    KB8VAO    EN91PB      524 miles An FT8 attempt   Nothing heard. 
No QSO.
00:34   KC0IYT    FN42KJ    70 miles
00:37    K2AEP    FN32OW    98 miles
00:42    KE1LI    FN41AU    119 miles
00:45    WA1PBU    FN42EK    75 miles
00:50    K1PXE    FN31KE    190 miles    The Voice of Milford
00:51    K1UU    FN31RX    127 miles
00:52    N2SLO    FN30JU    211 miles
00:53    W2SJ    FM29JR    336 miles
00:56    KA3FQS    FN20JF    276 miles
00:58    N3EXA    FN20IJ    306    miles
00:59    W0RSJ    FN20JQ    289 miles
01:01    W1FKF    FN43GI    25 miles  We resorted to FT8 for a 25 mile 
path. I dropped power as low as I could go. Don was at +37!!
01:07    VE3FN    FN25DK    275 miles
01:08    W1GHZ    FN34UJ    95 miles   A very rough path for us. 95 
miles of granite!
01:10    W1AIM    FN34UJ    95 miles
01:12    W1JR    FN42EV    49 miles        Joe has his 222 setup all 
fixed and working as it should.
01:20    VE2XX    FN25WK    212 miles
01:22    WA1MBA    FN51AS   123 miles 2nd contact helping him work VE2XX 
and W1AIM.
01:33    W0RSJ    FN20JQ    289 miles  2nd QSO with antennas aimed properly.
01:46    K9MRI    EN70IU    759 miles        FT8 attempt I heard one 
ping. Joe heard two pings.......A moral victory, if not a QSO.

If you look at the mileages of the stations worked, there were 8 local 
stations within 100 miles of my QTH. That is pretty good local activity. 
There are 7 stations between 100 and 200 miles. That covers New England. 
Over 200 miles is beyond New England for me and there were 7  stations 
that were over 200 miles away.

I actually drove the truck up the hill last night. There was only 3 or 4 
inches of snow in the woods, so it was worth a try. Coming back down was 
a bit tense as I slid sideways at one point. I went slowly and had no 
problems other than that.   A bonus was that the room was at 38 degrees 
when I got there and it wormed up rapidly with the electric baseboard 
heat and my little foot warmer heater running.  I brought a small laptop 
with me for logging and digital modes. The goos news was that it all 
worked with no issues. The COM ports behaved and I even had a good 
internet connection.   As for the internet, I use a 5 GHz link running 
at about 100 mw and 23 dB dishes at each end. Signal level is about -42 
dBm (Loud) It used to be -37, but the trees keep growing. Anyway, when I 
run my 160 meter station at 1500 watts output, all that energy is in the 
near field and sometimes the 5 GHz link resets itself to factory 
defaults and the link goes down. Lately I am unplugging the downhill end 
of the link and that seems to avoid the reset action. I am crossing my 
fingers.

The next 222 Activity Night is on January 24th and there is movement 
afoot to have some EME activity at the same time or earlier that 
evening.  Lunar conditions should be great with the Moon close to 
perigee. Elevation will be low. as the Moon is at a southerly 
declination. It might be a good time to see if you can decode some EME 
signals on 222 MHz. The Moon will be setting on the East Coast at 0130 
UT for me here in Maine and later as you move westward across the 
country. NH6Y promises to be on 222 and looking for some contacts. 
Having Hawaii show up will guarantee that there will be activity 
galore.  I am hoping that the storms keep away and that I can 
participate next Tuesday.  I could make it an "event" and start early at 
maybe 21:00 UT or 5 PM local time. The first two hours would be EME only 
and then some terrestrial contacts starting at 00:00 UT. My Moonset 
would be close to 9 PM local time.  With significant EME activity as the 
Moon sets across the country, it will be a good time to evaluate how 
well your receiving setup is on 222 MHz.   I can give you a hint.....It 
is probably not good. Remember that sky noise is very low on 222 MHz. 
There is still noise on the horizon as the ground and all those trees 
that your antenna sees are at about 290 degrees Kelvin. Still the low 
noise makes 222 a great EME band. All you have to do is make sure that 
you are not getting digital TV signals overloading your front end. 
(highly likely) or having a green neighbor move in and put up a solar 
farm!  Anyway, listening for some EME stations is a good first step in 
quantifying how well your stuff is working.

More news on the 24th as things progress.

73

Dave K1WHS






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