[VHFcontesting] 222 Night Summary

[David Olean]

Hello VHF types!

I was happy with the good activity on Tuesday night.  Condx seemed just 
so-so, but there were no T storms or heavy rain with rain static, so 
that was a plus.  I worked 23 stations and did spend some time trying 
with K3SK with no luck. Dave is too far for tropo scatter for me and too 
close for meteors.  I won't even mention the fact that Good Buddy Ron, 
WZ1V has cast a spell on us so that we cannot hear each other. Our best 
means of communicating now is via EME where we have worked about four 
times. Distance is about 570miles.   I did try some meteor scatter with 
K9MRI and we had great success and made the contact in just a few 
minutes with MSK144 digi mode.  That distance is about 750 miles. After 
our sked, N1BUG tried with K9MRI as well, and Paul had good success too 
at over about 880 miles for possibly the best contact of the evening 
distance-wise. I tried a few minutes with WQ0P but he had to QRT after 
about 5 minutes. That path is 1330 miles. I heard nothing in the first 
few minutes.

I did try with WA3EOQ in FM09, and had to wait a few sequences for 
signals to peak up out of the noise. After about three calls, I heard 
him coming back at about Q3 to Q4. The first few times it was all I 
could do to tune Howard in and get him centered in my passband. In other 
words, it was another "squeaker" of a contact, but those tend to be  a 
lot of fun. I missed a few stations like WA1NLG, W1FKF, and WA2LTM. I 
think  I was busy with meteor scatter when Doug 'LTM was on.

The most interesting development was an attempt to work VE3FN who is in 
the Ottawa area. Normally Ray is pretty good copy so I was surprised 
when he was buried in noise. I was not looking at the S-meter at first, 
so it took me awhile to notice that the noise level was way up. One look 
at the panadaptor and the noise was riding at about -115 dBm instead of 
the typical -142 dBm. It sounded very smooth and unlike typical power 
line noise. I started hyper ventilating thinking that another digital TV 
station had come on the air and was overloading my receiver. I could see 
energy in four or five sidelobes. It was a huge signal. Then I realized 
that the Sun was setting and I was aimed directly at the Sun when aimed 
at Ottawa! NO wonder Ray was weak!!!  When the Sun set, the noise 
dropped but it was still 10 db loud after it had dropped out of sight at 
-1.0 degrees!!

It seems there is a new sunspot that is cranking out M class flares and 
I was hearing one of them at 23:45 UT on 7/11/23. Keep tuned in case an 
X class flare develops. It could cause more aurora action on 222 MHz.

Next week I am probably going to miss Tuesday night. I will be in 
Kentucky helping to remove a 1.2 MW Caterpillar genset from an 
industrial building. I am not sure how I get roped into these capers, 
but it will help finance my remote operating system for my hilltop 
shack. I have my eyes set on a high powered 12 VDC powered computer.

I should also add that the Pacific Northwest lost a very active VHFer 
this past week as KE7SW, Tom Crelling in CM87 has passed away. He was 
very active on 144, 222, and 432. VE7HR, the President of the PNWVHFS, 
noted that  Tom was a formidable force in the Society and he will be 
missed. I am sure many of us have Tom in our logs.

73

Dave K1WHS