[VHFcontesting] Check your calendar!! It is Tuesday

[David Olean]

Hello 222 phreaques,

I am all excited to be back home and available for an exciting 222 
Activity night. There is only one problem. We had a terrible ice storm 
on Saturday that pretty much wiped out parts of southern Maine. When it 
was melting on Sunday and Monday, I measured one chunk that fell off a 
guy wire at the house and saw 3/4" of ice away from the cable. That is 
close to being a really bad event. As it was, over 185,000 homes lost 
power in Maine, with most of the trouble in the two southern counties. I 
lost power here at about 8 PM on Saturday night. There was no internet 
as well. I have not been to my shack, but can see that the top 7 element 
50 MHz beam suffered a broken brace from all the extra weight. The 222 
array seems to have survived but looks a little worse for wear. The road 
is impassable, so i need to walk up with my trusty Husky 365 and clear 
the way. Only problem is that it is raining again and the temperature is 
29 degrees. We are in another ice event.

The plan is to head up on foot and attempt to get on. Fortunately, power 
was restored here on Monday evening and the internet came back sometime 
about midnight.  Living in the north woods is always exciting. I took a 
trip South to Sunny Florida and Virginia in hopes of missing mud season. 
When I returned we had the worst storm of the winter!!  The woods are a 
mess, with broken trees all over the place.

So don't forget to show up after dinner and look around 222.100 MHz plus 
or minus the QRM this evening. Hopefully, your weather will be better 
than what is in store for Mumbo-Jumbo Land. Freezing rain and rain is 
forecast here all day and evening.  I am hoping that I have an internet 
connection on the hill. Using the ON4KST Chat page will alert others of 
your presence. The 222 ops use the 144/432 Region 2 Chat for liaison.  I 
am not sure who will be QRV, but W2KV in FN20 is working on getting a 
real beam up in the air. Also Phil K3TUF has been on in FN10. W3CMP is 
in FN10 and working on getting a station up and running.  Chris, W3CMP 
has a 500 watt Larcan amp ready to go.

On other news, the last 1500 watt Larcan amp will be heading out to 
South Dakota in the next day or so and W0VB (220MHz  WAS #1) will be 
installing it in Wyoming at a remote station. That project was held up 
for months, but is back on track. I am also converting another 1500 watt 
amp for KF0M in Kansas.  The ice storm and loss of power slowed down 
those projects, but things are getting back to normal.  Finally, I have 
a 1000 Watt Larcan here for N1SV that I picked up in Virginia where 
WA1ZMS added some filtering, relays, and fans to make it ready to go. 
Some QRO amps spread around the country will sure add to the excitement 
and help many others to achieve WAS on 222.

I plan to be on a bit before 23:00 UT looking for contacts on 222.100.  
I hope it all works!!

73

Dave K1WHS