[VHFcontesting] 222 MHz Activity Night Summary K1WHS

[David Olean]

I got started really early at 21:45 UT and called CQ via the Moon as it 
was setting on the East Coast. That activity netted nothing. W7JW copied 
me out in Michigan, but the moon was already below the trees and the 
foliage cut down on the signals on his end. I heard nothing here, but 
Jeff was copying me pretty well. He got the chow call and I quit about 
22:46 UT. The moon was at about 2 degrees then. I started looking for 
terrestrial contacts. At about 23:00 everybody came out of the 
woodwork.  It got busy in a hurry. KA2ENE was on from the Rochester NY 
area with 50 watts. We worked on FT8.  I saw that W8ZN was on from FM09 
along with K1TEO. Getting near the calling frequency pulled in many 
stations from N1JEZ and W1AIM up north in VT, to WA3NUF, WZ1V, K1PXE and 
a bunch of other callers. I thought activity was strong. SIgnals were 
not all that good.  W8ZN had some flutter problem with my FT8 signal 
which made decoding difficult. Later in the evening I tried with WA3EOQ 
and was surprised to work him easily despite the rather poor condx. 
VE2XX  showed up and called off the back of my beam. He peaked up well 
after I swung the antenna, but there was some significant QSB. He went 
between 5X8 or 9 down to S2 or 3 a time or two. I tried with VA3IKE in 
EN82 but this week was a no go. The path is about 600 miles. Nothing 
heard besides a few meteors. We used Q65B.

I tried with KC2SGV in FM29. Joe has only 7 watts and it was a struggle. 
We barely exchanged reports. He then went up the band with N3RG and then 
peaked up nicely so we had a much better Q5 QSO via SSB then. The 
distance is over 325 miles I think, so that is a haul for 7 watts. I 
don't have a copy of the log , so am going from memory, but I added up 
30 QSOs with different stations. I had duplicate Qs with WC2k and K1RZ 
for a total of 32 qsos.  K1RZ peaked up after 0100 UT on FT8 at +21 
dB!!  I think condx wer getting better as cool air was sinking down as 
the land cooled. I managed to decode two transmissions from K8TQK in 
EM89. That must be 715 miles away. I do not think he heard me, but he 
peaked here at -16. I quit about 01:15  It is not every night that I can 
make 30 QSOs. I think that is my first time in 2025 for a Tuesday night 
on 222.

I noted that there was some stiff competition in working all the calls 
with a "2" in it. I wonder who came out on top? I think I worked 8 
stations with a two in the call. I need to look at the log in the 
morning for an accurate tally.

73

Dave K1WHS