[VHFcontesting] 222 Night Summary K1WHS

[David Olean]

222 MHz activity summary. The big 10 GHz weekend was quite an event with 
the hurricane coming up the East Coast. All the folks who made it to the 
islands off southern New New England had quite the time with the surf 
and cancelled ferry service, not to mention all the energy expended by 
many as they traipsed across all of the local high spots around the 
northeast.  That and very poor conditions kept the QSO totals low in 
this part of the world.  I was up at the shack around 4:30 PM and noted 
that the W3CCX beacon was way down in signal strength. I got dumped on 
by some winds and a rain squall then, and I figured that the evening 
would be difficult.  The atmosphere was really unstable.

What a difference from the beginning of the month when everyone was 
enjoying great conditions. For the first time in a long time, I did not 
try any long haul skeds.  Signals seemed way down.  I was using the 
solid state amplifier that was scheduled to go to W0VB in Wyoming. It 
was running off a big 48 VDC server PS and the fan was about as noisy as 
a P-51 or maybe a P-47 .  The amp itself was nice and quiet and stayed 
nice and cool even after some FT8 extended episodes. I called CQ on FT8 
quite a bit to see how the amplifier handled the digi modes. It was fine 
and the heatsink stayed pretty cool.

I was curious to see how the Tuesday night try with WA3EOQ would go. The 
signals down that way were quite weak on average, but I heard Howard 
right away as I got on frequency.  After my 30 second calling period, he 
came right back sending grids and we completed pretty fast for such a 
poor night.  At no time did signals come up to Q4 or Q5 but it was good 
enough for a QSO.  VE3DS in Toronto was pretty good at 559, but was 
weaker than in the recent past I believe.  Dana thinks he is getting TV 
station overload from a local TV station.  Join the club Dana. That is a 
very common problem now.

Here is the log for the evening.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    DATE     TIME CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX       RX       MODE 
PRO.REMARKS      QRB
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

09/19/2023 22:59 N1JEZ           FN44AR  59       59       SSB 
TR                               168
09/19/2023 23:04 VE3KG           FN24AV  559      559      CW 
TR                           432
09/19/2023 23:07 N1SV            FN42EP  559      59       CW 
TR                                99
09/19/2023 23:10 WZ1V            FN31RH  59       59       SSB 
TR                               266
09/19/2023 23:12 K1NKR           FN42FI  59       59       SSB 
TR                               125
09/19/2023 23:21 WA3EOQ          FM09JO       429      429 CW   TR     
              806
09/19/2023 23:28 K1DY            FN54JQ  59       59       SSB 
TR                               200
09/19/2023 23:44 W9KXI           FN12NE  59                SSB 
TR                               501
09/19/2023 23:47 KC3BVL          FM29JW  55                SSB 
TR                           522
09/19/2023 23:48 KA3FQS          FN2ØJF  55       55       SSB 
TR                           498
09/19/2023 23:57 N2JQR           FN13CE  55                SSB 
TR                               553
09/20/2023 00:02 N1DPM           FN32QB  59       59       SSB 
TR                           201
09/20/2023 00:04 WA3NUF          FN2ØKE  55       56       SSB 
TR                           496
09/20/2023 00:07 K1FSY               FN31MR  55       55 SSB  
TR                       247
09/20/2023 00:26 W1AIM           FN34UJ  55       55       SSB 
TR                           154
09/20/2023 00:30 WB2SIH          FN31DD  569      569      CW 
TR                       337
09/20/2023 00:34 W1JR                FN42EV  59       59 SSB  
TR                        78
09/20/2023 00:43 WA1NLG          FN41XS  59       59       FT8 
TR                           196
09/20/2023 01:10 VE3DS               FNØ3FQ  559      559 CW   
TR                       692

I am not sure how, but the distances changed to kilometers rather than 
miles. So the QRB column is km.

I worked a total of 19 stations and 20 QSOs as I also worked W9KXI on 
FT8 in addition to SSB. He called while I was beating up the amplifier 
on FT8!! The QSB was a wild as I have ever seen. At one point, I called 
a CQ and got a strapping answer from WB2SIH on CW with S9 signals. I 
said Hi and sent my grid to Buff, and when he returned, he was weak and 
watery sounding. He dropped down to S3 or S4. The QSB was that severe! I 
quit about 01:20 UT and headed home. I was pretty tired as I had been 
mowing my field that day with a walk behind brush cutter. With all the 
rain, all the grass and brambles in the field were quite overgrown.

Next week is the 222 Sprint. I hope we have some good participation and 
the weather is good. I'll be there and I hope to work as many stations 
as I can.  I looked at the Moon position for the sprint, and it is 
really great. At 23:00 UT when the sprint starts, the Moon will have 
just risen here and will be at 12 degrees or so. Just right for a rising 
Moon try with the midwest! Degradation will be very low, so signals will 
be booming if the Faraday lines up. ( Always a bugaboo). Anyway, I will 
be monitoring the HB9Q Chat page as well as the ON4KST page and looking 
for EME contacts during the sprint. Usually that last hour of the sprint 
is slow, so it would be quite cool if a bunch of the EME gang made an 
appearance to add some excitement to the evening.  At 0300 UT my Moon 
elevation will be at 31 degrees and just past the highest point due 
South.  That is not good for Alaska and Hawaii, but at 0300 UT the Moon 
will be at 20 degrees in California, so most of the continental USA can 
get in on the fun.  Dust off your EME arrays and maybe we can make a few 
contacts via the Moon route next week!!

73

Dave K1WHS