[VHFcontesting] It is 222 Night folks!

[David Olean]

Hi VHF ops,

It is Tuesday and I am planning to be on this evening starting at about 
23:00 UT on 222.100 for an exciting 222 Activity Night. I had problems 
last week on Tuesday, with a very high VSWR on the 4 X 22 El yagi 
antenna.  It acted like there was water in a feedline somewhere. All 
this was caused by a horrendous ice storm and my hilltop shack was 
apparently Ground Zero  for the storm.  The icing happened on the 
previous Saturday night and we lost power for several days. When I got 
up to the shack on Tuesday, I found chunks of ice that were still 1" 
thick laying on the ground. Ice amounts at my house were less, at about 
3/4" thick.  I also discovered the reason for the high VSWR as soon as I 
got close to the array.  The very high winds kept me off the tower until 
April 1. I climbed the 100 ft Rohn 45 expecting to find water damage. On 
the way up, I started to notice much ice damage to the bottom two yagis. 
Large ice chunks fell off the top yagis and damaged the two lower ones. 
I counted eight elements that were bent about 60 degrees from 
horizontal. This is surely messing up the VSWR. In addition, the front 
brace on one of the yagis is broken and hanging in mid air.  To make 
matters worse, I have a couple of sprained fingers on my left hand. That 
makes tower climbing difficult and a bit unsafe for me. I wanted to get 
started with repairs, but the bum left hand stopped me. Another 7-11 
inches of heavy wet snow and 50 mile winds are predicted for Wednesday 
and Thursday. I am worried that I may lose one of the damaged yagis as a 
result. Needless to say I am a bit less than in an optimistic state of 
mind.  Truth be known, I was thinking of slitting my wrists, drinking 
Drain-O,  and then jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge.

I did take the main flexible feedline off the 1 5/8" main feedline at 
the 100 ft level, and looked at the antenna VSWR. It was not great, but 
did not show any signs of water entry. All of the high VSWR is probably 
due to damaged elements on two of the yagis. So I will, get on for 
activity night and then pray that things hold together until I can 
recover enough to repair the array after the next bad storm. Sheesh!

So I hope to work a few stations tonight. Please make an attempt to get 
on and exercise your 222 gear.  You can monitor ON4KST 144/432 Region 2 
Chat and set up skeds and see who might be active. And please report 
your results. I will be looking for W2KV and others. I hear that Dave 
W2KV is setting up a new 222 yagi.  I will use my damaged antenna and 
hope that it still has some gain. From what I am seeing, it has lost a 
bit of performance as compared to my fixed yagis on 222, but it still 
sort of works.

CU this evening!

Dave K1WHS