[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Summary K1WHS
David Olean
k1whs at metrocast.net
Wed May 8 07:19:09 EDT 2024
Hello 222 MHz aficionados,
Another night with loads of fun and games on 222 MHz. It looks like a
number of individuals were driven off the air by bad weather in the form
of T-storms. N1GC reported hail in his area and went QRT fast! A front
was moving Eastward through Ohio and points South at the beginning of
the activity period. There was no trouble to the East, but a few
midwesterners were absent as a result. Hopefully next week will be
better, and no one suffered from any ill effects of the bad weather!
I was making noise on 222 at about 22:45 UT and my first impression was
that it was going to be a slow night, but a steady stream of stations
started to appear as the night wore on, and I ended up working about 25
stations. 25 is a great number from anyplace on 222.
I did note that conditions locally were not all that good. The W3CCX
beacon was weaker than normal, and I observed that signal levels were
down on most of the stations that went into the log as well. One bright
spot was NG3W who was operating portable on some hilltop near his home
in FN01. There were problems at the remote site, but eventually, I think
he ironed them out and was able to make some contacts. I tried working
him after 00:00 UT and heard him, but it looked like he was not copying
me. My calls went unanswered. Signals heard here were quite weak. WZ1V
tried and I could hear GB Ron working him right afterward. They appeared
to be having trouble as well. Howard, WA3EOQ showed up later in the
evening and we tried our usual sked and I heard him before I even called
him. His signal was much better than last week. These long haul contacts
on 222 always amaze me in that local conditions do not seem to apply to
really long haul tropo scatter. Howard is 805 km away from Maine.
WA3DRC at 663 km was also quite good copy on SSB no less.
After my near miss with NG3W, I tried again later, and I noted that
there was a bit of aiming error on my part in that I had copied his six
digit grid incorrectly. (Please don't tell the 222 MHz Activity
Committee!!!) I was only a few degrees off, but the correct heading did
the trick and I was greeted by good signals from Chris and we had a
great CW contact at just over 600 km. I am not sure about his location,
but he is running 25 watts with a HB quagi antenna. I now that he also
worked W9KXI and WA3EOQ. Both remarked that they did not recall ever
working FN01 before on 222 MHz. Chris should be in high demand and
congrats on getting a station up and running! I tried running with
Dave K3SK on Q65. He had already worked WZ1V with good signals on FT8.
He is so darn far away at over 900 km that I cannot hear anything on
FT8, so we tried on Q65 and he was decoding me, but all I was getting
were lots of meteor pings. After about ten or so minutes we stopped and
vowed to try later on meteors. (Because we were both hearing lots of
pings on our Q65 sked.) We tried again after 01:00 UT and I copied K3SK
OK with just one meteor return, but Dave never heard a peep from me.
Funny how that always seems to work. We should have continued earlier
when the meteors were more plentiful. There is never a dull moment on
222 MHz, especially when you try crazy things. I was switching between
my fixed antenna at 225 degrees, with its wide beamwidth, and my sharp
rotatable yagis. I even tried adding some elevation! Nothing helped
getting a signal down to FM17. We quit and I went home at about 01:30
UT. All in all it was a great night. I hope the terrible weather in the
midwest and South stayed away from our hamster buddies in those affected
areas areas. We are in for a few days of yukky weather as the storms
head East!
73
Dave K1WHS
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DATE TIME CALLSIGN LOCATOR TX RX BAND MODE
PRO.REMARKS QRB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/07/2024 22:55 WA1NLG FN41XS 57 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 196
05/07/2024 22:56 WZ1V FN31RH fn43 fn31 220 MHzSSB
TR 266
05/07/2024 23:01 WB2VVV FN41CR fn43 220 MHzSSB
TR 197
05/07/2024 23:05 K1MAP FN32SB fn43 220 MHzSSB
TR 192
05/07/2024 23:12 WA3NUF FN2ØKE fn43 220 MHzCW
TR 496
05/07/2024 23:13 K1PXE FN31KE fn43 220 MHzSSB
TR 303
05/07/2024 23:14 K1FSY FN31LN fn43 220 MHzSSB
TR 266
05/07/2024 23:16 N2SLO FN3ØJU fn43 220 MHzSSB
TR 338
05/07/2024 23:21 W9KXI FN12NE 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 501
05/07/2024 23:24 AF1T FN43BD 59 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 79
05/07/2024 23:24 K2AEP FN32OW 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 157
05/07/2024 23:35 W1AUV FN32II 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 223
05/07/2024 23:37 AA2SD FN2ØXX 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 370
05/07/2024 23:43 WA1PBU FN42EK 59 220 MHzSSB
TR 120
05/07/2024 23:54 N2JMH FN12BW 579 579 220 MHzSSB
TR 563
05/07/2024 23:56 WA3GFZ FM29GV 55 55 220 MHzSSB
TR 539
05/07/2024 23:57 W1AIM FN34UJ 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 154
05/07/2024 23:59 WB2RVX FM29MT 57 220 MHzSSB
TR 519
05/08/2024 00:04 WA3DRC FM28AS 57 57 220 MHzFSK
TR 663
05/08/2024 00:15 VE3KG FN24AV 559 579 220 MHzCW
TR 432
05/08/2024 00:36 N1ROZ FN32TF 559 220 MHzCW
TR 174
05/08/2024 00:40 KC3BVL FM29JW 559 220 MHzCW
TR 522
05/08/2024 00:47 WA3EOQ FMØ9JO 559 220 MHzCW
TR 805
05/08/2024 00:49 WA1RKS FN32IN 559 579 220 MHzCW
TR 211
05/08/2024 00:58 NG3W FNØ1VX 559 220 MHzCW
TR 613
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 25
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