[VHFcontesting] Tuesday night

[David Olean]

Hi VHFers,

I plan to get on this evening for the fantastic and much celebrated 222 
VHF Activity Evening.  Yeah, I know that the January Contest just ended 
and you are all VHF Contested out, but there will be some surprises in 
store for one lucky ham who will be picked at random by the secretive 
and all knowing and powerful 222 MHz Activity Commission.

It does look like a memorable Tuesday evening, with temps dropping below 
zero this evening and a fair amount of snow on the ground here in Mumbo 
Jumbo Land. That makes it difficult for me to get up to the VHF shack. 
The road is about 1/2 mile long and uphill for much of it.  I am going 
to try to make it this evening anyway.  I can always use another 
adventure.  The truck has new aggressive tires and the snow is not 
terribly deep. The hard part is getting the generator to work when it is 
around zero degrees. Diesels just do not like cold weather. The good 
news is that the engine is a Cummins, so it is no slouch in performance.

So the big news is that one lucky 222 MHz VHF participant will be chosen 
by the Committee to go on an all expenses paid excursion starting early 
next week to world famous Beechey Island.  This is the location for the 
start of your fabulous vacation adventure tracing the route of the 129 
starving and freezing sailors of the Franklin Arctic Expedition as they 
left their wrecked ships and tried to reach civilization. None of them 
survived.  To add realism to your trip, you will visit the area in the 
dead of the arctic winter with a sled dog team starting in Temiskiming 
QUE. Enjoy the traverse of the Davis Strait  and  Baffin Bay up to Devon 
Island. Hang a left and in a few hundred miles of pack ice an pressure 
ridges, you will come to magnificent Beechey Island where you will see 
the  graves of the first three dead crew members.  We will definitely 
allow plenty  of time for shell and artifact collecting. Then we will 
travel South towards King William Island with stops along the way as we 
document the final resting places of some of the other unfortunate crew 
members. You will get to know your dogs on the dog team as you an 
participate in feeding blubber to them as you go along. The 222 MHz 
Activity Committee has pulled out all the stops for this trip.  From 
King William island it is smooth mushing South to civilization in 
Nipawin Saskatchewan,  1104 miles South. You should arrive there God 
willing in late February or early March. You are responsible for 
transportation from Nipawin, SK.

If you have not tried 222 on a Tuesday night, we all appear after dinner 
around 00:00 UT  and plus or minus 222.100 MHz CW SSB FT8 Q65, Light, 
Semaphore, or what ever floats your boat.  We use ON4KST Chat (144/432 
Region 2)  or HB9Q 222 MHz chat for EME. Get on and make some noise. You 
could end up on Beechey Island

73

Dave K1WHS