[VHFcontesting] EME on 222 MHz last night (Tuesday nite)

[Dave Olean]

I had good intentions of spending much of the evening on EME, especially 
after the terrestrial activity fades out around 9 o'clock here in the 
east.  i  knew EME condx would be great and I wrote up a neat e mail 
with a schedule so single yagi stations could listen in as the moon 
rose.  we were having very high winds and unfortunately the power went 
out along with internet, and I could not send my message out.. We were 
without power all day. power came back around sunset, but the internet 
was still out. There was no way I could operate EME as i had no internet 
connection on the hill shack location. I run a 5 gHz link up there from 
the house. It is under 1/2 mile and works well, but with no internet, i 
was dead in the water.   so I got on and made a few contacts on cw and 
SSB. In talking to WA2LTM, I recounted the loss of the correct time, so 
he counted down to the top of the minute, and I saw that my little 
computer was still within a second.  I tried FT8 and wored a few 
stations, so i took a chance and pointed at the moon to see if I might 
find someone to work. With no internet, I went to a few typical 
frequencies and looked for any decode. that took awhile, but i did find 
w6tCP calling cQ and answered him. W7JW was also on freq calling so I 
worked Jeff W7JW after he finished with W6TCP.  I looked around a bit 
but saw no others CQing on a few popular freqs, so I went and looked for 
terrestrial contacts again on the horizon.  The band was empty, so I 
figured it was time to pack it in.  i jumped in the truck and bounced 
down the hill only to find that the internet had just come on a few 
minutes after I turned off the rig. aaarrggghhh!

I am hoping to be on tonight as the moon rises over the US, but more 
high winds are predicted for later tonight.  My Moon rise is at 21:30 
UT.  MR in Chicago is about 22:35 UT.  I am not sure how long i can 
continue if we lose power again.  I am also hoping to be on this weekend 
for the EME contest.  I'll be on the HB9Q 222 MHz Chat.

73

Dave K1WHS