[VHFcontesting] 222 Night summary

[David Olean]

I wrote this up once and somehow it never got sent but went into some 
bit bucket and left no trace.

W3CMP stopped by to catch what a 222 MHz Activity Night sounded like in 
Maine.  He has been up in the area for the VHF Conference and some dog 
training in NH. (Actually Chris wasn't the subject of the dog training, 
it was one of his wife's little pooches)   We drove up the hill and 
turned on the station to find that the rotator indicated 160 degrees but 
the array was pointing at about 305 degrees. Chris wondered if the array 
had gotten spun around in the wind, but we have had no serious winds 
like that lately.   We found the W3CCX beacon and noted the new heading. 
Instead of 222 degrees we were seeing about 60 degrees. So we had to add 
162 to whatever the beam indicator said.  I tried calling N2SLO. I heard 
Dave working GB Ron, WZ1V and tried to peak him up but never heard him 
again. We went  back to find the CCX beacon and now it was at a 
different spot! Not only was the beam indicator off, but it was showing 
gibberish that had nothing to do with any beam headings. I suspect the 
week and a half of rain managed to get in the precision pot on the 
rotator and wreck it. That made finding people almost impossible. 
Somehow I did connect with about 16 stations in spite of that.  Finding 
people with the misbehaving rotator was no fun. My sanity was in grave 
danger with all that transpired.


    DATE     TIME CALLSIGN        LOCATOR TX       RX       BAND MODE 
PRO.REMARKS      QRB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
05/13/2025 23:05 W1XIV               FN34            55               
220 MHzSSB  TR               440+-
05/13/2025 23:05 WA3NUF          FN20KE         55              220 
MHzSSB  TR               308
05/13/2025 23:07 WZ1V            FN31RH  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               165
05/13/2025 23:16 WB2VVV          FN41    55       55       220 MHzSSB  
TR               130+-
05/13/2025 23:32 WA2LTM        FN20        55    55        220nMHz SSB TR
05/13/2025 23:33 WW1Z            FN42ET  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR                52
05/13/2025 23:33 W1XR                    55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               406+-
05/13/2025 23:33 WB2ONA                  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               269+-
05/13/2025 23:42 W9KXI           FN12NE  55       55       220 MHzSSB  
TR               311
05/13/2025 23:48 K1PXE           FN31    55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               165+-
05/13/2025 23:50 W1TR                    55                220 MHzCW   
TR               119+-
05/14/2025 00:03 K1BX            FN43EB  55                220 MHzCW   
TR                41
05/14/2025 00:52 K2AEP           FN31VW  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               119
05/14/2025 00:52 N1LHP           FN42KM  55                220 MHzSSB  
TR                61
05/14/2025 00:52 K1FMS            FN32       55                220 
MHzSSB  TR               125+-
05/14/2025 00:52 W1AIM           FN34    55                220 MHzSSB  
TR               126+-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


By 00:30 both Chris and I were ready for something else, so we bagged it 
and went down the hill for a schnapps before he headed home to his 
sainted wife who sort of allowed him to play ham radio on a "sort of" 
vacation.  I was pretty close to losing whatever was left of my mind. 
The last time something like this happened, I woke up in a cheap hotel 
in Pittsburgh with empty pizza boxes and Papst Blue Ribbon bottles 
laying all around.  I am sorry that I missed a try with WA3EOQ. He gets 
home at about 01:30 UT. Also PJ4MM was possibly going to appear around 
02:00 UT for his Moon rise. It is worth listening for him as he has QRO 
and a big dual yagi array on 222. I knew that i could not even try EME 
with the rotator misbehaving. Sorry folks, but I had an excuse.

73

Dave K1WHS