[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Night Summary K1WHS

[Dave Olean]

It was a rather interesting evening as things unfolded. The tropo 
foreast was for some local enhancement along the south shore of New 
England, CT, RI, and Massachusetts. I was monitoring  just before 22:30 
UT and watched the W3CCX beacon hovering at about -120 to -110 dBm here. 
As it got closer to 23:00 UT, I saw the peaks improve to about -105 dBm. 
I was thinking maybe we might get some enhancement going later on.  
  Signals were pretty good but not out of the ordinary with some QSB 
evident on signals. K1DY was on and sounded good from his perch in FN54. 
I kept my antenna SW for our contact. KA3FQS called and had a strapping 
signal here at S7, which is great. Five minutes later I worked WA3NUF 
and Phil seemed weaker than normal. We must have caught the bottom of 
the QSB cycle. I turned the beam on W9KXI in FN12, but we had about the 
weakest signals that I can remember. His ssb was just abov e the noise. 
So I figured that condx to the West were not good. Then I tried my 
normal sked with Howard WA3EOQ.  I tuned to the frequency and there he 
was pumping the S meter up to S5. I was in shock. I don't think I ever 
heard him that loud. His next sequence had dropped to about 529, but he 
was still great copy. Often times, I get fragments of his transmissions 
and need several sequences before I \copy anything. Tonight was the 
opposite. He was loud and I heard him work the CT folks. He peaked up 
again while he worked K1PXE and was a true 559 up here then. I wondered 
if something was going on there. WA3EOQ is at 242 degrees from me. A few 
minutes later I tried FT8 and was very surprised to decode K3SK calling 
CQ with a -8 dB signal.  Dave K3SK is at 225 degrees from me. There was 
obvious enhancement in that direction. I tried listening for N1GC, but 
heard nil on CW.   I kept copying K3SK off and on all evening, but any 
tries out West were fruitless. I could not make it to VA3IKE on FT8. I 
believe that Ike did copy K1TEO and WZ1V. He never heard me, nor I, 
him.   Here is my log for the evening. QRB distances are in miles.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    DATE     TIME CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX       RX       BAND  MODE 
PRO.REMARKS      QRB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
08/19/2025 22:54 WA1RKS          FN32IN  559      599      220 MHzCW  
  TR               131
08/19/2025 22:56 W1AUV           FN32II  559               220 MHzCW  
  TR               138
08/19/2025 22:57 K1DY            FN54JQ  559      599      220 MHzCW  
  TR               125
08/19/2025 23:02 KA2ENE          FN13FE  -02      +09      220 MHzFSK  
TR               331
08/19/2025 23:11 WW1Z            FN42ET  -02               220 MHzSSB  
TR                52
08/19/2025 23:14 K1PXE           FN31    57       58       220 MHzSSB  
TR               165+-
08/19/2025 23:15 KA3FQS          FN20JF  57                220 MHzSSB  
TR               309
08/19/2025 23:17 W2KV            FN20    57                220 MHzSSB  
TR               286+-  10 watts SSB
08/19/2025 23:18 KC2KAE          FN20XX  57                220 MHzSSB  
TR               230
08/19/2025 23:20 WB2VV           FN41       57                220 
MHzSSB  TR               150?
08/19/2025 23:20 WA3NUF          FN20KE  57       57       220 MHzSSB  
TR               308
08/19/2025 23:22 WA1LWC          FN42EE  57       57       220 MHzSSB  
TR  10 watts      90
08/19/2025 23:30 K1KG            FN42ID  59       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR                88
08/19/2025 23:33 W9KXI           FN12NE  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               311
08/19/2025 23:36 W2BYP           FN13IB  55       57       220 MHzSSB  
TR               320
08/19/2025 23:43 WA3EOQ          FM09JO  55       559      220 MHzCW  
  TR               502
08/19/2025 23:52 K3SK            FM07TJ  fn43     fm07     220 MHzFT8  
TR               569
08/19/2025 23:59 W1AIM           FN34    599      599      220 MHzCW  
  TR               126+-
08/20/2025 00:00 K2RMX           FN20XP  599               220 MHzSSB  
TR               247
08/20/2025 00:03 W1XIV           FN34JJ  599               220 MHzFT8  
TR               132
08/20/2025 00:04 K1TEO           FN31JH  19                220 MHzSSB  
TR               184
08/20/2025 00:07 N1SV            FN42BL  +11      +11      220 MHzFT8  
TR                78
08/20/2025 00:11 W9KXI           FN12NE  +12      +04      220 MHzFT8  
TR               311
08/20/2025 00:13 KA1OJ           FN42EH  +12               220 MHzFT8  
TR                82
08/20/2025 00:14 KB2KIR          FN22EN  +02      -05      220 MHzFT8  
TR               243
08/20/2025 00:17 NZ3M            FN10PD  +10      -02      220 MHzFSK  
TR               372
08/20/2025 00:22 WZ1V            FN31RH  +10               220 MHzFT8  
TR               165
08/20/2025 00:40 N3ITT           FN20KL  +00      +09      220 MHzFSK  
TR               294
08/20/2025 00:44 K3WHC           FN10PA  +00      -11      220 MHzFSK  
TR               377
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 29  (W9KXI worked 2X on SSB and FT8)


Thanks to all who made it on 222 this evening

73

Dave K1WHS