[VHFcontesting] It is 222 Night already

[David Olean]

Dust off the VHF gear as today is 222 Night and you can make some 
contacts on 222 this evening.  I also checked the EME conditions and 
found that degradation is very low for this evening. In fact we are 
blessed with actual positive conditions as the Moon is being influenced 
by the gravity of Pluto and the Coriolis Effect due to upwelling of warm 
water in the eastern Pacific.  This has resulted in a huge reduction of 
the traditional path loss from the Moon and this evening only, you can 
hear EME signals using a very small antenna and RG-58 feedline connected 
to your Gonset Sidewinder.    Well actually I lied about the low path 
loss, but the conditions will be quite good. I also lied about the 
Gonset Sidewinder business.  The problem is that the Moon will be 
already be up on the West Coast by 2200 UT today, so you will need to 
elevate your antenna unless you live in Hawaii. Oh, and i also fibbed a 
bit about the coax, and you should not use any RG-58 for your feedline 
unless you want another heater in your shack.

I will be looking for contacts starting a bit before 00:00 UT which is 7 
PM East Coast time.  I will monitor the ON4KST and HB9Q chat pages.  
Look around 222.100 the calling frequency and then move off as you make 
contacts.   Many folks watch 222.174 MHz FT8 as well.  Hepburn shows 
nothing but that only means that you will not work any exotic DX unless 
you work for it.  Meteors will work on 222.  You can even try Q65 skeds 
beyond your typical max range.  If you do work something special, be 
sure to let us all know. Don't forget to keep an eye on Solar 
conditions. An aurora can occur now that the cycle has ramped up.  222 
aurora can be quite good.

CU this evening!


Dave K1WHS

I scored a very neat 115 vac winch that I am going to use as a tower 
work winch. Most winches are small and can hold only 40 ft or so of 
cable. There are no low cost choices for any winch that can hold 300 ft 
of decent sized cable. Pricing starts at about $1500 for such winches.  
I found a winch locally with a big drum and 1/4" wire rope. It is used 
in gymnasiums for raising and lowering basketball backboards.  It is 
rated for over 1000 lbs carrying weight. I made a few mods to disable 
limit switches, but it looks great for tower work. I priced a new one 
and it is about $1400. I paid $100 and it works great!! It has a 3/4 
horse motor and a decent sized oil filled gear box that drives the drum. 
Speed is 9 ft per minute or so. I am now working to convert it for tower 
work so it will bolt to Rohn 25/45/55.