[VHFcontesting] VHF Contest and the 222 MHz Sprint.

[David Olean]

The lunar conditions are coming together late this weekend and early 
next week.  I was hoping to take advantage of the great condx on 222 mhz 
but my tower mounted antenna preamp system is hosed. I was up on the 
tower several times trying to find the problem. I made a little 
progress, but still am unsure of what is wrong. This evening I took up a 
DEMI preamp and swapped it out with the cavity preamp. Testing is almost 
impossible with just one person. The DEMI preamp did not work either. I 
am suspecting that the coax relay is not switching, but it originally 
tested OK in the shop and it is getting 28 VDC.  I ran out of daylight 
today, but I will remove the whole box in the morning and give it a 
thorough work over in the morning. It was working great when my newly 
repaired cavity preamp was in line. Then the preamp got squirrely and 
now nothing works.  I really need a good helper to speed up the trouble 
shooting, but it is what it is.

I am planning to be very active on 222 mHz EME during the Sept Contest 
on Sunday.  I can also do 432 EME.   My real great idea is to try some 
222 MHz EME activity during the 222 Sprint. As luck has it, the Moon 
rises for me at exactly 23;00 uT at the start of the sprint. It will be 
up quite well at 03;00 UT when the sprint ends. I figure the last hour 
might be good for eme. Degradation will be minimal.  Moonrise at KM0T in 
Iowa is at about 00:30, so many people can try a rising Moon sked during 
the Sprint.  Lets try to get some activity going then and generate some 
interest.. If anyone has a few hundred watts and a single yagi, it is 
worth a try.  Let me know if you are interested.  Contact me direct off 
this list.

73

Dave K1WHS

k1whs at metrocast.net