222 MHz Spring Sprint - 2023
Call: N0URW
Operator(s): N0URW
Station: N0URW
Class: Single Op HP
QTH: EN41 Iowa
Operating Time (hrs): 4
Summary:
Total: QSOs = 19 Mults = 16 Total Score = 304
Club:
Comments:
Almost didn't make it on for this one. No antennas on the towers.
Mother nature kept the winds blowing for the past 5 days 25 to 40+ MPH here.
Only Tuesday, the day of this test, the winds dropped to 5 to 15 MPH so I could
put up antennas.
Just finished up mounting antennas and making all the connections 10 minutes
before the start.
Started out on SSB for the first hour. The band seemed in good shape.
Contacts to a few running 25 watts or less were going in my log. and they were
over 200 miles away.
But it seems a lot are too busy to get on for this one.
If they do get on it is just for a few minutes.
Having no one with in my line of site to make a contact with.
All my contacts were well beyond the line of sight.
After an hour of calling on FM and SSB I Switched to FT8.
I had just installed a new Icom 7300 and some of the settings were wrong.
It would key up but no output power or audio out. A quick check of the menu and
after a few changes were made , all is good now.
As the night progressed, the band conditions got worse. No rovers were heard.
Where are they ?
My computer was still decoding signals that I could not hear in the head phones,
plus nothing was showing on the waterfall.
I was still making a few contacts here and there on FM and SSB so keep going.
The last hour produced no new contacts.
I live out in the country. My neighbor the farmer was doing something with his
two tractors and a big truck.
The noise on my radio when I pointed towards his direction was 20 over S9. This
was the direction I get most of my contacts, So this was not good.
By 9 PM he stopped doing what ever it was he was doing as I heard his tractors
stop and the truck left. By then a lot had already pulled the plug for the
night. I remember a few years back when it was snowing on the day of this 222
sprint. This year it was 65 and sunshine.
My setup:
Icom 7300 radio
DownEast Microwave High power 28 MHz in 222 MHz out transverter.
W6PQL 1 Kw amplifier
15 element yagi for SSB and 4 element yagi for FM.
Until we meet again, 73
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