KC9BQA

     The 222 sprint report from earlier tonight is directly below this post. 
    
     Looking forward to the 144 nets tomorrow night.  
    The first one is on 144.250 and I call it from EN63ao, or 40 miles north of Milwaukee.   With this net, I only look SSE, SE, E, NE and then finish by looking N into the U.P. of MI.    I start out looking SSE thru Indiana (and always beyond if prop allows) and then slowly edge the beam counter-clockwise, swinging up thru Ohio and Michigan.   Always looking for VE-land check-ins as well.   This net starts at 2330 utc, and I like to be done by 0015.  

    The second net is on 144.250 and will be called from now on by WB9LYH Mark, who’s EN53cl, right in the middle of WI.   He’s got a better signal than I do, so he’s ideal for working anyone out 100-400 miles.   If WB9LYH is not available, I’ll be happy to take the net.   That net runs from 0015-0130 utc.  
    WB9LYH starts out looking to his south, thru Illinois.   He then swings his beams clockwise, going SW, W, NW, N and then NE, E and SE.   Both Mark and I are always looking to have net check-ins QSY off the net freq. and work other stations directly.   We’re just trying to hold a radio party here, so mingle with the other “guests”.  

     The third net is on 144.250 at 0130 utc.   I call that one, and I start out looking south, where most of our check-ins are (from the Milwaukee/Chicago areas).    I then swing clockwise, going SW, W, NW, N, NE, E and SE.  

     As with any net we run, all are welcome.   The only purpose is to create strong activity on less-used portions of 2 meters.    We would appreciate it if you’d spread the word.   

     We also may have found a good chat to use for better coordinating the activity in various directions, and on various frequencies.    If this idea is warmly received, you’ll hear more about it tonight and in the weeks to come.   The idea with the chat is to eventually get various stations taking charge of working others directly, if they choose to.   Any chat we use would always be optional.   If you don’t care to use it, that’s fine.    It will be a work in progress, so stay tuned.

   Looking toward Chicago right now and cleaning up with WB8BZK/R, K9JK/R and K9GY/R.   They’re dancing around the EN52/62/51/61 corner and putting some extra Q’s in the log.    Just completed with all 3 of them at 9:55, from all 4 of their grids.  

    Grids worked so far tonight… EN35 (2x) EN44, EN71, EN61, EN52, EM89, EN53, EN66, EN62, EM29, EN43, EN33, EN74, EN82, EN91, EN41 and EN51.    Couldn’t quite complete with K0CJ in EN34, who was S1 here, but has local QRN at his QTH, if memory serves.  

    Also hoping for W9SZ/P in EN50 — Zach said he’d be getting to his hill about 9:30pm central.

    EDIT:   Did get W9SZ at 0323 utc.    Think the last 4-5 stragglers are all ones I’ve worked already.   Hearing nobody from E MO or downstate IL tonight.   Too bad — there’s some nice stations on 222 from those areas.   If I missed you tonight, sorry about that.

http://kc9bqa.com/?p=953   is a direct link to the Fall Sprints info. 

     The 222 sprint is TONIGHT — 7-11pm, everyone’s local time.  

     The 144 sprints last Monday were the busiest I’ve seen in 6 years of contesting.   Here’s hoping that 222 will have good activity, too.   We’re going to need a lot of stations on tonight because the prop should be down.   After 3-4 weeks of near-perfect weather, the pattern has changed to cold and windy.  

    I’d really like to see the Tuesday 222 activity take off, also.   Talking about getting on 222 every Tuesday evening, all across a wide area of the USA.   This is what we had on last Tuesday:   http://kc9bqa.com/?p=1003   

   No formal net control with this.   No set schedule or strict policies.   Just grass-roots participation on 222 MHz.   Most guys are going to concentrate on the 0030-0230utc time frame.   Swing your beams around, call CQ and see who’s out there.  

    Please do your part to promote the Tuesday 222 activity.   Maybe you can’t get on every week.   Well, you can let a few of your local 222 buddies know what’s happening.   Spread the word.    I need to take a few hours to go thru my all-time logs for 222 (contests and band openings) and email them.   If hundreds of 222’ers are reminded each week about this activity, we’ll get enough participation to make this worthwhile.

    Randy had 13 check-ins last night, with a wide coverage area.   Talking Dubuque to the west, Kalamazoo and Manistee, MI to the east, Sturgeon Bay, WI to the north and St. Charles, IL to the south.   Randy has a rotatable vertical beam that brings a lot to the FM net.  

    I’d like KC9KPV to be net control more often.  He has better reach, and he loves doing the nets.   I would continue doing the promoting via email, always.   I’d probably be a fairly frequent check-in as well.   If you have any comments or questions about this, feel free to email me.  

    So here’ s the net report from last night:
    KB9VSA    Jeff    Cedar Grove     EN63
    KA9AAB   Bob    Kewaskum        EN53
    KM4G      Marv  Germantown      EN53
    KC9NZR   Rich    West Bend        EN53
    K9OA      Clark    Madison           EN53
    W0FAY    Bill      Dubuque          EN42
    WD9IDC   Dave   St. Charles, IL  EN51
    WB9WHO Tom    Milwaukee       EN53
    NK8X        Art      Portage, MI     EN72
    KS8B         Ken     Manistee, MI   EN64
    KC9PQF    Tom     West Allis        EN53
    K9KJM      Ken     Sturgeon Bay   EN64
    KC9BQA   Todd    Adell               EN63     late check in

      Subject line says it all.    Randy’s about 15 miles NW of Milwaukee and has a nice station.  He can also operate with either a ground plane or vertical beam, so perhaps he’ll be able to peak up better on the weak ones.  

      Thanks to Randy for occasionally pinch-hitting with the nets.   Helps me out, big-time.

    The three nets tonight gathered a combined 49 check-ins.   I wrote about the IN/OH/MI net on 144.250 at 7:15pm eastern time just below.     At the bottom of that post, I also gave real-time updates as I followed WB9LYH’s progress with the 144.240 net that starts at 7:15pm central.    To save space, I will give a quick rundown right here of both Mark’s check-ins and mine to the Badger net.  

     WB9LYH 144.240 net — looks south from EN54cl at 7:15pm/0015 utc and goes clockwise around the compass.  It is Mark’s intention to do a full 360 sweep.   He probably won’t have time to look east or southeast until about 0100-0115 utc.   He gets a lot of business to his S, SW, W, and NW.    If WB9LYH cannot make it on a given Wed., then I will take the 144.240 net.  
    Mark is very proactive about coordinating contacts between net check-ins off the main net freq.   Be ready to slide down to 144.230, 235, whatever.   Please avoid 144.250 because I need that freq. at 8:30pm or 0130 utc.  

    Mark had:    W0FAY EN42; WB0YWW EN22; W9HQ EN43; N0IRS EM29; N9KOR EN44; KC9FQD EN54; KA0OKM EN42; KA0PQW EN33; W9RWS EN52; WV9E EN43; K9MU EN44; K0JRD EM38; W0DDC EM29; K0AJL EN34; WB0DBQ EN46; AB8GL EN62; K8VFV EN82; K9XV EM69; KB9RDS EM69.  

    I had 20 check-ins to the 144.250 Badger net at 8:30pm or 0130 utc.   I start out looking south, and then sweep clockwise a full 360.    
    NT9E  EN52; WB9MXX EN62; AB8GL EN62; W9GA EN53; N9JBW EN61; KC9KPV EN53; WA9KPZ EN52; KA9AAB EN53; WB9TFH EN53; KA0OKM EN42; W9HQ EN43; WV9E EN43; K9JCZ EN53; WB9LYH EN54; W0ANH EN47; N9JKX EN64; W8LON EN64; N8WNA EN82; K9VS EN53; K9KHW EN63. 

    I’ll make a short post tomorrow but I’m taking the night off from the 146.43 FM net tomorrow night.   Randy KC9KPV will call it, at 8:30pm, like we do every Thursday.   Randy’s in EN53, about 15 minutes NW of Milwaukee and he’s got good antennas.   Hope you give Randy lots of business. 

    222 sprint is next Tuesday, the 29th, from 7-11pm your local time.   Should be a good one.

   Here’s tonight’s 10 check-ins to the early 144.250 net for IN/OH/MI (and beyond if prop allows)
   KC9LCW     Roger    EN61  LaPorte, IN           S7
   KC9CSA      Bob       EN61   Portage, IN          S7
   N8CML       Ron        EN72   Kalamazoo           S2
  KB8U         Russ       EN71   Ann Arbor           S9   why do I always think Ann Arbor is farther N? 
   N8WNA     John      EN82   Royal Oak, MI       S2
   N8FQ        Joe         EN62   Grand Haven, MI  S3
   N8IEZ       Paul        EN82   Warren, MI          S7
   K8VFV      Robert    EN82   Davisburg, MI       S1 w QSB
   KC8ZJL     Dennis    EN71   Cecil, OH              S3
   KS8B        Ken        EN64   Manistee, MI        30 over — lake enhancement?  

   10 check-ins is a new high for this net, after about 2-3 months.   Appreciate everyone getting on. 

    Like I said in the headline, WB9LYH Mark is calling the 144.240 net from EN54cl, middle of WI and he’s plenty loud in most directions.  He’s had 6 check-ins in the first 15 minutes.   Conditions seem good, but not fantastic.   More to follow…  (this is fun being able to listen in for a change!)

     EDIT  8:00pm   —  WB9LYH is a busy guy and doing a good job of moving guys down to .230 or .235 to work each other.   He already has 15 check-ins.   Funny how I’m hearing a lot of them off the side.   Now WB0DBQ is checking in from EN46 and he’s loud here.   S3 when I peaked up on him.   Don’t think I’ve heard from WB0DBQ before. 
     Go figure — LOL — finally good conditions to the NW.   No worries, it’s all good.   Glad Mark’s racking them up.    Wonder if he’ll get into southern VE-land, if the band is indeed up.
     EDIT 10:05pm —  Just got finished with Badger net and 20 check-ins all across the compass.  
     To finish up the WB9LYH net on 144.240, he ended up with 19 check-ins by my count.   I might have missed one or two, but I think I had copy on him the whole time.   Mark did have time to look NE, E and SE, and he got AB8GL EN62, K8VFV EN82, K9XV and KB9RDS both EM69 Indianapolis in the log.   Mark’s 120 miles NW of me and he was hearing the Indy stations 2-3 S units louder than I was.   Mercy!

    Have an exciting announcement about the Wed. nets — get to that in a second. 

     First, all 3 nets are *ON* tomorrow night.  
     144.250 is at 7:30pm eastern/2330 utc for IN/OH/MI and beyond if prop allows.  I only look SSE, SE, E, NE and N with this net, from my SE WI QTH.   I end this net by looking into the U.P. of MI about 8:10-8:15pm eastern.   Please spread the word.     
 
    The late 144.250 Badger Contesters net is also on at 8:30pm central/0130 utc.  With this net, I start out looking south toward Milwaukee and Chicago, where most of our check-ins are.   I then swing a full 360, going clockwise, looking SW, W, NW, N, NE, E and finally SE.   

   The exciting announcement is that WB9LYH Mark in EN54cl  (middle of WI) will be taking over most of the net control duties for the 144.240 net at 7:15pm central/0015 utc.   He’s a far better choice for this net, which targets outstate WI and ILL, plus all of MO/KS/IA/NE/Dakotas/MN and U.P. of MI   He’s a better choice because he’s louder, and closer to the target audience.   I’ve been hearing Mark’s signal this summer and he hears things to the SW, W and NW much easier than I do.  
   Mark and I talked last week, and we’re both excited about this.    He wants to push the propagation limits, and work as many as he can.   With good propagation, he should have reach into most of MO, some of KS and NE, plus the eastern Dakotas, all of MN and the U.P. of MI, plus perhaps some southern VE stations.   If anyone in those regions is reading this post, you need to start spreading the word about a great net on Wed., 144.240 MHz, starting at 7:15pm central.  

    I will continue to promote the nets via email and the website.   I will continue to run the other nets.  I’m not going anywhere.   It’s been great to see activity increase the past year or so, and we’re all going to keep making things better on the VHF bands in 2010.  
   There may be some Weds. where WB9LYH is not available so I’ll pick up the 144.240 net on those nights.   You will always get email and website notification.   If you aren’t receiving email reminders, send a request to me at sprinkies@excel.net and I’ll get you on board, no problem.   

     With any net I run, I encourage guys sliding off the net frequency and working each other.   Far better to have multiple QSO’s across the band than to have 10-15 of us on one freq.   This improves activity levels and draws others in.   Consider using this webpage http://dxworld.com/vhfqso.html to coordinate.  

    Any questions or comments, just email.  
   73, Todd

   It’s 9:15pm or 0215 utc and I have 10 in the log tonight so far.   Most of us are putting the 222 prop logger at dxworld.com to good use.   
   K9MU   EN44     K0SIX EN35    N0IRS   EM29    WO9S EN61    VE3TFU EN92   N8WNA  EN82   KC8QAE  EN91   K9CT  EN50    N8IEZ  EN82   W9RPM  EN43.  
   Signals aren’t very strong — band seems flat.   This is just good participation doing what it’s supposed to do.

   Nice participation and good conditions, especially to the east and south.  
   It’s usually pretty busy at the start, hopefully some of these guys will stay on past 9-10pm and we’ll keep getting new stations in the log.

   EDIT — 9pm 0200 and up to 47 Q’s in a bunch of grids — paper logging tonight.   Chicago rovers are loud, EN56 and EN66 are loud with N8LIQ and N8PUM in there.  I think this is going to end up being my busiest fall or spring sprint on 2m, after 6 years of getting on for contests.   I’ll need to concentrate SE and E this hour because I haven’t looked that way and the sprint ends for them at 11pm eastern, or 10pm their time.   I hope the guys out to the west and south stay on past 10pm, nudge/nudge.

   Attaboys to K9JK/R and N8LIQ making the path — and now N8PUM as well.   Very nice!

   EDIT — 11:15pm 0415 utc    Ended up with 64Q’s and 22 grids.   Has to be the busiest 144 sprint by a fair margin.   Great job everyone.