222 Up Weekend Summary Rover AA2SD/R - KE5NJ and KC3BVL

FM28W- I worked solo in Cape May FM28MU during Saturday for a total of 2 hours. I deployed (2) small
ELK beams for 222MHz and 70Ccm. During this period I was able to work a total of (15) QSO.s  (9)
QSO’s on 70 CM and the balance on 222 MHZ. Thanks to Tom K3GM for coming by to visit my location.
It was also fun to work Dave W2KV/P2 from his shore location on 25 watts.  My best grids in distance
included Jeff K1TEO FN31JH 188 miles in and W1XR 147 miles. My quick set up was a simple push up
mast with the smaller ELK antennas for speed.

FM29FU - We worked from Delaware- During Sunday we worked for 4 hours from Delaware at 400 Feet
elevations with Jim KC3BVL and Chris KE5NJ. My best grids for distance included Al W9KXI  FN12NE 175
miles, Dave K1RZ FN19JH 96 Miles and Alex KR1ST FN21FK at 109 Miles. I also booked (15) QSO’s
during this time period, KC3BVL and KE5NJ had separate submissions. We were threatened with rain and
thunderstorms the entire day, but we successfully got three Pack Rat stations on the air at the same
time on each band,  in the comfort of Chris’s well outfitted Rover Bus with minimal issues. During
the contest Jim set up dual 1296 loopers and was able to make QSO’s.  Chris used a multi element
Yagi for 440 and a 12 element for 222Mhz. I also tested a pair of 222Mhz stacked Yagis from Freq
Tester which proved to be very effective. I was having issues with my 222 transverter and switched
over to a backup unit from Chris.

Thanks all that worked us, and we look forward to the Sept VHF Contest

I had to shut down due to lightening storms.  Conditions generally poor on the higher bands.  I
missed a contact with WA2LTM on 2304 MHz because the Contest ended.  Over all it was a good time.

The 222 MHz and Up Distance Challenge is one of my favorite contests because the scoring is based on
DX distance.  I have been fascinated by radio DX, whatever its definition, since my Novice days in
1965.  For the same reason I am drawn to the Stew Perry TBDC.  

For this contest I ran two separate stations for 222 and 432, each with a dedicated PC.  Running
N1MM+ with my ancient IC-375A on 222 MHz was awkward since N1MM+ does not support that rig, but
thankfully QSOs logged in a standalone WSJT-X instance dedicated to 222 were picked up by N1MM+,
evidently via the UDP broadcasts from WSJT-X.

As expected, it was slow going on the air with long gaps between QSOs.  As a result N1MM+ only
reported about 2.5 hours of "ON" time, but I spent many more hours than that in front of my rigs.

My score was helped considerably by two long distance 222 MHz QSOs with W5EME (Q65, 755km) and N4SVC
(FT8, 803km).  All of the rest of the contacts were on FT8.  Overall conditions seemed about average
with all contacts made via troposcatter.

As always there is a long list of planned station upgrades in the works.  I hope I can find time to
get to some of them.

222 MHz: IC-375A (30w) and 15el M2 Yagi at 30'
432 MHz: IC-9700 (75w) and 21el M2 Yagi at 28'

Contest: ARRL-222
 Band   Mode  QSOs     Pts  Pt/Q
   222  FT8     15   11206   747.1
   222  Q65      1    1510  1510.0
   420  FT8     15    4824   321.6
 Total  Both    31   17540   565.8
Score: 17,540

I really love this contest, as it provides a little help to people who live rather far away from
areas of high activity.  I only have 222 and 432 MHz running, so I had plenty of free time to try a
few skeds. I found East-West meteors were not so great. In 15 or 20 minutes I could not complete, so
we quit.  I never tried and NE-SW paths via meteors.  Condx seemed flat and I had a few good
contacts over 600 km. VA3IKE was worked on 432 at 964 km. VE3ZV on 222 & 432 at 752 km. I was
opearting at my relatively remote VHF shack and needed to run a diesel genset to make power. All the
gear worked OK, so that was a plus! The negative was the weather, as I had to QRT often as storms
came through the area. There was lots of rain static and lightning crashes.

Tried working 70cm SSB with no result for 6 hours.  Then the rain bands ahead of hurricane Debby
arrived, so i moved the antenna indoors, hanging it from the ceiling fan was able to work 1 station
on FT8 that way. since this is the first time for me to try this contest, i guess that makes this a
personal best LOL.

not enough activity

Saturday afternoon temperature
was 87 deg F and bright sun.
Propagation was good but not
many stations on. Keep on anyway !

This contest used to be fun back in the UHF contest days, at least from Chicagoland.  I'm probably
in the minority but I'd love to see a switch back to that.  This format does nothing to promote
fresh blood getting active.  How many hams know their 6 digit grid?  How many active hams know their
6 digit grid?

Sorry - but this contest is a mess...

Saturday afternoon temperature
was 87 deg F and bright sun.
Propagation was good but not
many stations on. Had to run the Air Conditionig in truck all day !

Some tropo Sunday morning to Illinois. K2DRH and AA9MY very loud on
432 MHz. I ran 10 watts and a single 8 el N6NB Quagi antenna portable.

I was on 222 and 432 SSB only. I operated from a new to me location in FN31, but there was not a
good siteline from ground level. Too many trees in all directions. Activity seemed down from 2 years
ago when I last operated during this event. I moved the the location that I operated from 2 years
ago, and made a few more contacts.  Best DX was with K1WHS at 231km on 222, followed by a pair of
contacts with AFiT at 188km on both bands. It was a very tedious 2.25 hours. I Intended on going out
Sunday, but after the poor condx on Saturday, I didn't operate. Best description of condx on 222 and
432= "el sucko!"

Thanks to the stations that I worked for the QSOs.
73,
-Paul N1SFE

contest region 11 (MI-OH-VE3-NNY-WNY-WPA)

Just can't get excited about this contest since the ARRL killed
the original back in 2016.  Tried to spend most of my time in
NAQP but that was a bust as well.  Analog only.  Why the
confusing "region" system for scores

ERROR CORRECTION: The contacts with K7MDL and KD7UO were FT8 and so should be listed as DG rather
than SSB.  Not sure why WEB submission turned FT8 to SSB. Can't seem to edit log.

Glad to provide a lot of contacts to W1RGA/R.

Unfortunately I didn't get to spend as much time as I would have liked working the contest.  Tropo
signals weren't showing up and I spent all Sunday working on my new 10GHz station.  Happy to put my
friends in the log, though.  Looking foward to the next one!

John, N2NC and I want to thank you for the QSOs and to the ARRL for sponsoring the 222 and up
contest. We had fun.

 Both of us observed interesting effects of signal reflection from a mountain roughly 10 miles
towards the south, which was the only reliable way to work distant stations with ease towards the
northwest due to a blockage by a local mountain range. 

There was some tropospheric enhancement at the start, but an unstable weather pattern eventually
wiped it out for the duration. Also, strong thunderstorms throughout the northeast put a damper on
the activity level.

John kept us well fed by using his superb culinary skills in the kitchen and out on the grill.
 
73,
Peter and John