[VHFcontesting] It is the 4th of July and 222 Night!

[David Olean]

I am going to celebrate the founding of our country by blowing up a 
string of lady finger firecrackers right there in the ham shack. Part of 
this is to celebrate the county's founding, but part of it is to make me 
feel at home and simulate a big arc over in the HV supply. The smoke 
will be a nice touch.

Here in the NE it has been raining for weeks. Yesterday there was a 
fishable river running down where my shack road is located and we are 
having excessive rain now that promises to add to the misery.  Still, I 
will be on 222 with a certified flotation device starting just before 
2300 UT and hoping to make some contacts with other patriotic hams who 
want to celebrate the 4th with a few 222 contacts.

I have chopped up my 280 ft run of 144 MHz feedline. It was made of 1 
5/8" extruded aluminum outer conductor about 1/16"  thick. The center 
conductor is a copper tube about 1/2" diameter with about a 1/16" wall 
as well. The old cable came out of Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ. We always 
joked that it was last used by Carl Jansky in the 1930's when he was 
investigating cosmic noise! The cable was incredibly stiff and hard to 
deploy. We kinked it in two spots just trying to unroll the coil.  I had 
to splice it where it crimped. Anyway, the final return loss was about 
20 dB on 144 and loss was about 1.0 dB. It was used on my 144 MHz 
antennas for many years with no problems.  I did not relish any attempt 
at trying to re use the cable. It was impossible to roll up!  I ended up 
chopping it into 2-3 ft lengths and I recovered the scrap metal. 
(Sigh!)  The thick polyethylene jacket was trimmed off using a table 
saw. The styrene plastic dielectric had to be pulled out of each 
section. I have a truckload of styrene plastic strip now.

All this is in preparation to re install a 144 MHz station here. All the 
parts are here and I just need some warm bodies to put the tower back 
up. The new coax run is 1 5/8" heliax. It will have much better return 
loss and insertion loss will be well under 1 dB. The antenna is a 
smaller one that is easier to maintain. No more H frame.

So I am concentrating on 222 MHz while trying to get many other bands 
running. The 222 Activity Night is a good way to build activity on a 
fantastic, if under used band.  Please make an attempt to get on and 
make some contacts. It is also a great idea to write a report to Jon 
Jones and QST "World Above" column.  Let others know what you are 
working on 222! We are in Sporadic E season and 222 is at the cutting 
edge for Es propagation.  Aurora and Es are worthy modes to be looking 
for now.

CU This evening

Dave K1WHS