[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Wrap up for June 13, 2023
David Olean
k1whs at metrocast.net
Wed Jun 14 10:20:35 EDT 2023
Hello tired VHFers,
(After the June Contest most VHFers are exhausted) I took a look at the
weather map and saw a pair of swirling storms in the northeast and
midwest. The midwest one looked closer wound, and I was hoping that the
one over Maine and NB had lost enough steam to not affect the upper
atmosphere for tropo scatter. Of course I was wrong. Conditions in
northern New England were horrible with wide swings in QSB. People were
seeing 15-20 dB swings. I am not sure, but I think the farther away you
were from the middle of the storm the better it was.
I was up at the shack at 22:30 UT and the hill was in a cloud bank with
drizzle. Every so often huge raindrops would start falling and make a
racket on the metal roof. At least there was no rain static. A good
dose of rain static can kill everything.
While the QSO count was high, there were still many stations missing. I
think the June Contest had a lot to do with some missing calls last
night. All the Packrats in the Philly area must be totally burned out
after a weekend on Camelback Mountain swatting mosquitoes and making
contacts. WA3NUF and many other "Rats" were absent. think something
similar was going on in the Toronto area. There was a big multi op
effort there as well.
For me I was well rested as I skipped Sunday and spent the day fishing.
I had a relaxing weekend and the worst thing that happened was that I
busted my Simms wading staff while negotiating boulders in the trout
stream. So here is a listing of my efforts on 222 Night:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND
MODE PRO. REMARKS QRB
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
06/13/2023 22:52 WA1RKS FN32IN 57 599 220
MHzCW TR 131
06/13/2023 22:57 W1XR FM19HX 57 56 220 MHzSSB
TR 406
06/13/2023 23:02 WA2VNV FN30KV 57 59 220
MHzSSB TR 205
06/13/2023 23:06 WW1Z FN42ET 57 59 220
MHzSSB TR 52
06/13/2023 23:13 WB2VVV FN41CR 59 59 220
MHzSSB TR 123
06/13/2023 23:15 VE2XX FN25WK 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 210
06/13/2023 23:24 K2AEP FN32OW 58 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 98
06/13/2023 23:35 W9KXI FN12 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 309+-
06/13/2023 23:36 WA1MBA FN51AS 59 59 220
MHzSSB TR 123
06/13/2023 23:40 WA1LNG FN41XS 59 59 220 MHzSSB TR 122
06/13/2023 23:44 KB2YCC FN12NF 55 57 220
MHzSSB TR 310
06/13/2023 23:48 K1ZK FN34JJ 55 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 132
06/13/2023 23:51 K1TEO FN20JQ 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 287
06/13/2023 23:52 K1FSY FN31LN 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 165
06/13/2023 23:55 KA1OJ FN42FG 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR Great that KA1OJ is BACK!! 83
06/14/2023 00:14 WA3EOQ FM09JO 429 429 220
MHzCW TR very poor sigs this evening 500
06/14/2023 00:20 K1PXE FN31KE 59 220 MHzCW
TR 188
06/14/2023 00:22 W1AUV FN32II 559 559 220 MHzCW
TR lots if QSB 138
06/14/2023 00:26 W1AIM FN34UJ 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 96
06/14/2023 00:31 K1MAP FN32SB 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 119
06/14/2023 00:47 K1FSY FN31LN +12 -6 220 MHzFT8
TR Peaked loud at +12 165
06/14/2023 01:13 W2TMA FN30HV 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 212
06/14/2023 02:04 K9MRI EN70IU fn43 en70 220 MHzMSK144
MS sked 754
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 23
First in the log was WA1RKS who is behind Mt Greylock for me. He started
out at 579 and then dropped to the noise level before bouncing back.
That is a huge swing, and very common last night. (W1AUV is also behind
Greylock.) W1XR at 406 miles was my next QSO and he called on SSB.
There were times when the Q level dropped from the 5 area to 3 or 4.
The fading was not as severe as with cloeser stations, but it was
definitely of notice. My weekly attempt with WA3EOQ was successful, but
it took awhile before I could even find Howard, and then what I could
hear was very marginal to say the least. I would add that signals were
so weak that I was glad that we were using 30 second calling sequences.
Without that trick our efforts would have been in vain. On the
WA3EOQ-K1WHS circuit, which is 500 miles, I have about a 12 dB
advantage in power level. When I was not detecting Howard at first,
WA3EOQ was noting later on that my signal was dropping into the noise
and not copyable at times. I think I called for three or four sequences
before I detected him. There must have been a good 10 dB of fading on
that 500 mile path. So think about that a bit when you are trying to
extend your range. Trading time can get you another 10 dB if you wait
for the QSB peak. Even at his best, WA3EOQ was a whisper in the noise.
It is always exciting and exhilarating to pull such a rabbit out of the
hat! Lately, I have been setting the passband at about 800-900 Hz to
locate his signal. Then I use my ears to find him. I also use my
panadaptor and crank it down to the minimum bandwidth and I can
sometimes see his signal appear there in the passband. That also helps
me find the proper frequency for my ears to pick him up. As I get
older, I find that I like a lower sidetone note for good copy. I think I
do best between 400 and 500 Hz. Good buddy AL, WA1T likes a much
higher note and I can't copy anything when he hears great, so the trick
is to experiment and see where your ears are most effective.
I made a few calls on FT8 and saw almost no activity. Sometimes KR1ST is
there on FT8, but this time, things were slow until K1FSY called. He was
very loud and I must have caught a QSB peak as his +12 max level was
really moving the S meter. As 9 PM local time rolled around, things here
in the East slowed way down. I set up an MSK144 sked with Joe, K9MRI in
Indiana. The distance is about 750 miles. It took awhile, but after I
managed to set things correctly we finished a good MS QSO to end the
evening. I was not checking for shorthand signals and missed two
fantastic meteor bursts and about five smaller ones that did not decode.
When I corrected that, I was getting decodes on bursts that were
inaudible. Joe was having terrible rain static, but it moderated enough
and he was hearing things quite well. When I finally got his RR, he
copied my 73 in just about the next sequence for an exciting finish That
was my best distance of the night.
K9MRI 754 miles
WA3EOQ 502 miles
W1XR 406 miles
KB2YCC 310 miles
W9KXI 309 miles
KB2YCC was a neat QSO as I heard him call and I copied KB2??? while he
was under another caller, so I started swinging the sharp yagi toward
typical hotspots but heard nothing. I then tried the LVA....Nothing.
Then back to the big antenna and aimed at 275 degrees for northern NY
state. In the meantime, W9KXI was telling Rob KB2YCC to throw in his
six digit grid so I could peak him up if I heard it. (Having a sharp
array can be good and bad!) Al W9KXI then mentioned on ON4KST that
KB2YCC was calling I saw that and immediately turned the beam to the
proper heading and BOOM there he was with a good 5X5 SSB signal. I also
found out that KB2YCC was using the two 16 element yagis from my old
contest array. When I replaced it with the bigger yagis, I gave two of
the 16s to Ken KA2LIM for use at his WNY multi op station. After Ken
passed away, the yagis ended up at Rob's place. I believe Rob is running
a transverter barefoot but it puts out almost 100 watts. That is a nice
SSB contact for 100 watts.
Why do I mention all of this stuff? I am sure it is boring to many, but
I do believe that the 222 band is a fantastic resource for VHF and is
under utilized. It has the range of 144 but without all the birdies and
RFI from numerous routers and wallwarts. Tropo openings can be great.
Aurora works as does meteor scatter. What is there not to like? I am
off to mow the field that used to be my lawn. With all the rain, I am
thinking of using a bailer and selling the lawn clippings to a needy
horse farm.
73
Dave K1WHS
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