[VHFcontesting] 222 Night Summary Halloween K1WHS
David Olean
k1whs at metrocast.net
Wed Nov 1 10:48:18 EDT 2023
wow! What a night on 222 MHz. To say it was exciting is an
understatement. With the Tropo Map showing zippo for conditions, I
figured that things would be slow. I started off by swapping out my
defunct circuit breaker, a Cutler Hammer 30 amp 230 volt unit. That was
accomplished in the afternoon. I did not test things under power, but
was sure that I had found the problem. The old breaker was definitely
"hosed". I fired things up at 22:45 UT and K1FSY was my first QSO. I was
immediately aware that my LVA and the 222 MHz liaison antenna were not
working. I could not hear anything when they were selected, but the
tower mtd preamp on the four rotating yagis was working, so I spent the
evening using just the four rotating yagis. There is an indoor preamp
that gets bypassed when the tower preamp is activated. I figured that
with the HV power supply dropping out during transmit, all the coax
relay cycling caused the indoor preamp to bite the dust. I monitored the
circuit breaker all evening and it stayed cool and never hic cupped.
Initially, I thought that conditions were not that good. QSB was evident
on K1PXE and VE2XX among others. I did not hear anyone in the Philly
area and was wondering what might happen if I tried working WA3EOQ in
FM09jo. As winter conditions take over, contacts with Howard get a bit
more difficult with many repeats required. Last winter, we never missed
a contact, but we had to try twice a few times. So last evening, I
called WA3EOQ and heard him come right back sending his grid. Then W2TMA
came on the same frequency calling N1JEZ. That was rather unfortunate
that we both chose 222.130 for a sked attempt at the same time. I sent
my grid and got a response right away from WA3EOQ as soon as W2TMA
stopped xmitting. That was fortunate as I did not want to mess up
another sked. So the really long haul attenuation on a 500 mile path
was not that different from a day when the tropo map shows local
enhancements, and local signals are loud. Sometimes that is difficult
for me to grapple with, but it is true. A short time later, I worked
George KC1V in CT and signed with him and heard N1LHP calling me along
with another station. I had the sharp antenna aimed at 216 degrees, a
good heading for Milford CT and Pete K1PXE. It also allows me to hear
stations west of Boston in FN42. So I stood by for the other SSB station
who was under N1LHP, and it was Cornell KO4YC in VA, a bit north of
Richmond! He was a good S3 and I peaked the antenna on him and he was a
very nice 5X4 or so on SSB. We never missed a word, which is FB for a
510 mile path. That convinced me to try an FT8 attemptv with K3SK in
FM07 and 570 miles away. Nothing heard though. The northern contingent
in VT were active and N1JEZ, W1GHZ, W1AIM, and VE2XX were all doing
well. No activity in Philadelphia and the VE3s were not visible here.
Too bad, because the activity level was pretty good and I ended up with
27 different contacts. I managed to talk to Stu VE2XX twice!
Here is my log from last night.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE
PRO.REMARKS QRB
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10/31/2023 22:52 K1FSY FN31MR 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 154
10/31/2023 22:54 N1JEZ FN44AR 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 105
10/31/2023 23:01 WA1PBU FN42EK 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 74
10/31/2023 23:16 K1FMS FN32 59 59 220 MHzSSB TR
118+-
10/31/2023 23:21 WA1RKS FN32IN 559 559 220 MHzCW
TR 131
10/31/2023 23:22 K1ZK FN34JJ 579 220 MHzCW
TR 132
10/31/2023 23:29 W2BYP FN13IB 579 579 220 MHzCW
TR 320
10/31/2023 23:32 K1PXE FN31ke 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 186
10/31/2023 23:35 WA1MBA FN51AS 57 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 123
10/31/2023 23:40 W9KXI FN12NE 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 311
10/31/2023 23:42 N1GLT FN42IW 57 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 36
10/31/2023 23:43 K1NKR FN42FI 57 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 78
10/31/2023 23:45 WA3EOQ FM09JO 429 220MHzCW
TR 502
10/31/2023 23:51 W2TMA FN30HV 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 212
10/31/2023 23:54 KC1V FN31 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 165+-
10/31/2023 23:55 N1LHP FN42KM 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 61
10/31/2023 23:56 KO4YC FM17GV 57 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 510
10/31/2023 23:59 N1LHP FN42KM 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 61
11/01/2023 00:06 WA1NLG FN41XS 57 220 MHzFT8
TR 122
11/01/2023 00:09 NZ3M FN10PD -7 -2 220 MHzFT8
TR 372
11/01/2023 00:16 VE2XX FN25WK 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 210
11/01/2023 00:29 W1GHZ FN34 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 126+-
11/01/2023 00:29 VE2XX FN25WK 55 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 210
11/01/2023 00:34 W1AIM FN34 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 126+-
11/01/2023 02:14 KM0T EN13VC -16 -24 220 MHzQ65
EME 1266
11/01/2023 02:15 K3SK FM07TH -21 -22 220 MHzQ65
EME 573
11/01/2023 03:17 W2BYP FN13IB -24 -20 220 MHzQ65 EME
Lost his HV supply so ran 90 watts from his driver 320
11/01/2023 03:21 N1AV DM43FF -17 -18 220 MHzQ65
EME 2284
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When the terrestrial activity died down, I figured that I would try some
EME. I immediately heard K3SK calling CQ around 01:00 UT. I called a
number of times, but I was not making it. I watched his signal fade over
about 15 minutes and then I was not hearing Dave, so I quit. I was
waiting for N1AV in Arizona to show up and had over an hour to wait
before the Moon rose out in AZ. I decided to look at my defunct indoor
preamp. I took off the cover of the 222 MHz coax relay and filter box
and traced the wiring. I was quite surprised to see that the 12 volt
preamp wire had been knocked off the connector on the back. I re
attached it and lo and behold, the preamp was operating again! I
called a CQ and had an immediate caller. I figured it was K3SK, but it
was KM0T in Iowa and very loud while running his Larcan at 750 watts
output. That was my first contact with Mike KM0T on EME. Right after
that contact, I was called by K3SK who was at -21 dB. All this time,
W2BYP was getting ready to call on EME. John has a big 28 ft dish but
has to wait until the Moon clears the tree foliage at about 30 degrees.
He was hearing me, but as soon as he started calling he heard a loud
crack from the HV supply and lost his HV. He was off the air so
announced that he was an SWL only. AFter a while I started CQing again
and then heard W2BYP calling me with great signals at -21 or -20 dB on
Q65. I figured he had fixed his HV supply, but after the QSO he
announced that he had connected up his exciter to the antenna and was
running just 90 watts. 90 watts? That is crazy. He was actually
rather loud and was using less RF than needed to power a 100 watt light
bulb. Raising power to 1500 watts is a 12+ dB improvement. That means
that his -20 signal would have been at -8 dB which is insanely strong.
The 28 ft dish is really playing on 222. He will be a beacon on the band.
Right after the W2BYP contact, I started calling N1AV as the Moon was
now just starting to clear the metal barn out in Arizona. I was greeted
by a very large signal as soon as Jay started transmitting. He peaked at
-16 or so, which is very audible in headphones with a 2.8 kHz
bandwidth. That made for four EME contacts and the EMEdegradation was
fairly high last night. It was getting late, but I heard KM0T work
N1AV, and I also heard W2BYP calling N1AV. After a few sequences, W2BYP
and N1AV also worked with John's 90 watts of exciter power. So people,
take notice of this. 222 EME is not hard. All it takes is to pay
attention to how well you set up the gear. No matter what your feedline
loss is, you will need a good selective preamp up at the antenna. The
way noise works, is that a loss of 0.5 dB can result in a much greater
loss in S/N ratio. This is due to the low sky temperatures encountered
on 222 MHz. I can compare my indoor preamp with the tower mtd preamp. I
have 0.4 dB of feedline loss (160 ft LDF-7) and I see several dB of
improvement. Coax is not ur friend on the higher frequencies. I have
worked several contacts with horizon only EME stations at powers down to
200 watts at the antenna. It seems that the bottleneck for most is that
they have hearing troubles. Put that preamp as close to the antenna as
possible.
CU next week on 222 Night!
Dave K1WHS
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