[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity night wrap up

[David Olean]

It was great to see all the activity in the midwest. When I quit at 
02:30 local time, it was still going strong with folks setting up skeds 
on the ON4KST Chat page.  By then, everything had ceased on 222 on the 
East Coast as the tropo was winding up and all the action moved to 144 
MHz. I saw K1TEO working KO4MA in Florida on 144, so my prediction of 
conditions was right on in that all the happy campers would be on the 
Connecticut shoreline and looking down the coast.  For my part, I called 
some CQs on both CW and FT8 but only heard crickets in response. The 
northern contingent was once again shut out.

I had noted that conditions were slightly elevated down to at least the 
Philadelphia area about 350 miles away. The W3CCX beacon was about 10 dB 
louder than normal and conditions seemed rather good to me. I started 
off working K1ZK in northern Vermont and WA1RKS in western Massachusetts 
(who is behind Mt Greylock for me)   I worked most of the same folks 
that Good Buddy Ron WZ1V worked.  I saw a note on the ON4KST Chat page 
from WA3EOQ  saying he was on 222.095. I tuned down to .095 in ssb mode 
and instantly heard Howard calling me on CW. He was Q5 copy in a 2.8 kHz 
passband. I replied after switching to CW and we completed very quickly. 
So there were good conditions down well past Philadelphia and inland as 
well to western Maryland.  I looked for K3SK on CW and FT8  but heard 
and saw nothing.  K3SK is about 575 miles away from me in FN43 mumbo 
jumbo land.

I noted that I could not detect WA3NUF on FT8 and it was a timing issue. 
I could see that Phil was starting just a tad fast but it was probably 
less than 1 second. He was very loud on FT8 but no decode. Is there any 
way I can alter the settings in FT8 to minimize timing issues? In older 
platforms (before FT8) you could adjust timings. Last week I had the 
same issue with W2BYP while others were able to contact him. I must be 
doing something wrong.

I missed contacts with a few: I went looking on EME and missed K1OR  and 
Doug WA2LTM in NJ.   While on EME, I switched to my fixed array and 
worked WA1PBU then went back to EME while still using the fixed LVA 
antenna aimed down the coast line.  No one heard me and I heard no one. 
Everyone was checking their preamps and coax connections. Then I 
discovered my mistake. Switching bac o the EME antenna made everything 
better!!  I heard KM0T in Iowa very well and Mike peaked at -12 dB on 
Q65. He was using his shiny new Larcan amplifier and his signal was 
crushing rocks here. Before I could call him, his septic tan alarm went 
off and he had to QRT. So I was basically beat out by a septic tank 
alarm!  Mike is having hearing problems from a digital TV station in his 
area. That seems to affect almost everyone these days. Other stations 
worked via the EME route include K3SK FM07, W5EME EM32, and W4ZST EM84.  
After working W4ZST, I went back to tropo mode but 222 was pretty dead 
on the East coast. The mid west was still busy, but any activity had 
switched to 144 MHz to take advantage of the tropo path from southern 
New England down the coast to Florida.  I quit at 02:30 UT and drove 
home over my new 2 x 12" culvert on the woods road. It was a smooth ride!

73

Dave K1WHS