[VHFcontesting] [NEWSVHF] 222 Activity night

[David Olean]

Hi VHF fans,

222 Night in Mumbo Jumbo land was not very good. The weather did me in.  
We had 5" of wet snow and then some sort of freezing mist afterward.  
Driving up the steep hill in the snow was not a good idea, so I walked 
up the road to the shack in the dark. I could not see the antenna, but I 
suspect it was coated with snow and some ice. When I turned on the TX, I 
was upset to see that the VSWR was quite high:  500 watts forward and 
125 watts reflected. After about 20 or 30 minutes, I checked it again at 
00:30 UT, and the reflected power was at 300 watts. At this time I was 
trying to hear signals on EME. There was lots of activity but I only 
heard one weak signal from W6TCP.   When I worked WA3NUF I was 20 
degrees off his heading. I peaked him up but saw only a slight change in 
his signal. He was a tad stronger. So what happened to my sharp main 
lobe?  After all this I figured that I was tempting fate with such a 
high VSWR, so I bagged it and stumbled down the hill. The good news is 
that I had tracks that I could follow home!  It is amazing how a bit of 
ice can ruin things with such Hi Q antennas as yagis.

I did work a few stations.  WB2ONA, WA1MBA, KA1OJ, WW1Z, WB2VVV, WA3NUF, 
WA1RKS, K1FSY, AF1T, N1SV,  and WZ1V.  Stations heard were K1PXE, 
WA1NLG, KC1V, K1OR, and W6TCP.  Al, WA1T in the next town also had icing 
problems on his antennas. It was not a good night. I just hope nothing 
broke!

73

Dave K1WHS

On 12/10/2024 9:01 PM, Ron Klimas WZ1V wrote:
> 222 condx and activity pretty good tonight.
> WX was 40 degs cloudy with fog. Logged the following:
> WA3SSG FN20, WA3NUF FN20, WB2VVV FN41, WA1MBA FN51,
> WB2ONA FN20, WW1Z FN42, K1WHS FN43, AF1T FN43,
> N1SV FN42, K1FSY FN31, WA1NLG FN41, KC1V FN31,
> WA1RKS FN32, WA3DRC FM28, KA1OJ FN42, W1AUV FN32,
> K1PXE FN31, KA3FQS FN20, N1YCQ FN41, K1OR FN42,
> K2RMX FN20, K3WHC FN10, K3SK FM07, WA2LTM FN20.
>
> 73 Ron WZ1V
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> NEWSVHF mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/newsvhf
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:NEWSVHF at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html