[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Summary

[David Olean]

I suspected that something might happen last evening after a quick look 
at the hepburn map (https://www.dxinfocentre.com/tropo.html)  It showed 
a slight enhancement over most of New England but with some unsettled 
areas near the southern coast of New England. These unsettled areas have 
disturbances that can wreck any air layering process. Those are 
thunderstorms. What got my attention was that there was some strong 
layering over the two eastern Great Lakes, specifically Lake Erie. I was 
hoping that such a condition would enhance some East_West paths from 
Northern New England. The slight enhancement in New England would help 
that along.  That was my thinking.

I checked 222 MHZ in the afternoon and found that the few beacons I 
could hear were weaker than a normal night time level. I figured that 
things might improve. I was heading out the door at 22:30 UT to get on 
222, when the phone rang. It was a towing service and they said they 
were calling for my brother.  Well, I knew this didn't sound good. They 
wanted me to drive there and bring him back to his house. They were 
towing the car in the opposite direction. Turns out he had an accident. 
It was all caused by having his hula dancer that was mounted on his 
dashboard suddenly let go and fall off. Naturally, you cannot drive 
properly without a bobbing hula dancer, so he leaned down to retrieve 
the driving aid, and managed to cross over the road and hit a stone 
wall. Not good. He is OK and i believe that the hula dancer survived as 
well.  The car...not so much. I was a bit late for 222 night as a 
result, but I did get on at about 23:30 UT.

Some highlights of the evening included a huge meteor with doppler from 
K3SK. He was on FT8 and I heard a tone way out of the passband and it 
built up and drifted down into the passband and went out the other side! 
It was loud. I was hearing lots of pings all evening, but never ran an 
MS try.  There were many long distance QSOs: W8ZN FM09 at 776 km, KA2ENE 
FN13 (50w) 533 km, WA3EOQ FM09 805 km, K3WHC FN10 607 km,  K3SK  FM07 
915 km, and VA3IKE EN82 963 km, and VE3DS FN03  692 km. The VA3IKE 
contact was very gratifying as it bolstered my opinion on Great Lake 
prop from Northern New England. Any big enhancement on the lakes can 
assist in working stations beyond your normal range.  Looking at the 
Hepburn map convinced me to try and, holy smokes, VA3IKE came through 
very loud. I sent a -8 on Q65B, but he peaked at -5 and his signal had 
red highlights on it looking at the waterfall. I tried to get him to go 
on SSB, but he ran off for another Q65 sked. I think Ike was very 
successful last night. He only runs 25 watts so his signal here was 
nuts! I could not believe it.  So I tried a tropo sked wit K9MRI in 
EN70, two grids to the South and we had no luck. The enhancement was 
definitely Lake Erie related!!   Here is my log for the evening.


    DATE     TIME CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX       RX       BAND  MODE 
PRO.REMARKS      QRB (km)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07/15/2025 23:22 WB2VVV          FN41  -12               220 MHzQ65  TR  
                  208
07/15/2025 23:24 WW1Z            FN42ET  59       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR                84
07/15/2025 23:26 WB2SIH          FN31DD  59                220 MHzSSB  
TR               337
07/15/2025 23:30 W8ZN            FMØ9TE  549      549      220 MHzCW  
  TR               776
07/15/2025 23:32 W1AUV           FN32II  59       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR               223
07/15/2025 23:35 K1PXE           FN31    fn43     fn31     220 MHzSSB  
TR               265+-
07/15/2025 23:38 WZ1V            FN31RH  fn43              220 MHzSSB  
TR               266
07/15/2025 23:39 WA3NUF          FN2ØKE  55       55       220 MHzSSB  
TR               496
07/15/2025 23:44 KA2ENE          FN13FE  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               533
07/15/2025 23:50 W1GHZ           FN34    55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               203+-
07/15/2025 23:53 K2AEP           FN32OW  57       59       220 MHzSSB  
TR               157
07/15/2025 23:59 W1AIM           FN34    59       59       220 MHzCW  
  TR               203+-
07/16/2025 00:02 WA3EOQ          FMØ9JO  449      449      220 MHzCW  
  TR               805
07/16/2025 00:02 W1AIM           FN34    57      59     220 MHzCW  TR    
            203+-
07/16/2025 00:12 W9KXI           FN12NE  55       55       220 MHzSSB  
TR               501
07/16/2025 00:25 K3WHC           FN1ØPA  +9       -02      220 MHzFT8  
TR               607
07/16/2025 00:28 K3SK            FMØ7TJ  -25      -26      220 MHz Q65  
TR               915
07/16/2025 00:31 KB2KIR          FN22EN  57       57       220 MHzSSB  
TR               391
07/16/2025 00:40 KC2KAE          FN2ØXX  57                220 MHzSSB  
TR               370
07/16/2025 00:41 KA3FQS          FN2ØJF  57       57       220 MHzSSB  
TR               498
07/16/2025 00:48 W1XIV           FN34JJ  57                220 MHzFT8  
TR               212
07/16/2025 00:52 VA3IKE          EN82QB  -8       -8       220 MHz Q65B  
TR               963
07/16/2025 01:19 VE3DS           FNØ3FQ  559      559      220 MHzCW  
  TR               692
07/16/2025 01:33 K3WHC           FN1ØPA  55       57       220 MHzSSB  
TR               607
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of QSO listed: 24

73

Dave k1whs