144.240 and 144.250 net reports — 37 total check-ins
Thursday, December 31st, 2009 Got done with my 144.250 net at 0345 and figured I’d get this report out tonight.
WB9LYH was busy again tonight. I don’t think conditions were very good, but 500w and a pair of 17B2’s sure gets through. Mark worked:
K9KBZ and W9GA EN53; N9YK and WD9DSN EN71; N8WNA EN82; KB9WZJ and W9YZU EM69; N9GH and WA9DX EN51; W0ANH EN47; W1WJS EN50; WA9BNZ EN40; K0KP EN36; KC9HDT EN54; K9RZZ EN62 was heard but didn’t stick around; KA0OKM and N0RWR EN42; WB0ISK EN41; N0IRS EM29; KA0JW EN34; WV9E EN43; KG0SJ and WB0YWW EN22; N9CIQ, N9KOR and K9MU EN44; KC9BQA EN63. 8 of these calls are new to the nets, so the word continues to spread. We’re easily over 400 unique calls in 18 months of running the various nets. Probably closer to 500, when you add in what WB9LYH has done.
I’m hopeful that in time, more and more guys will QSY down to work the variety of stations. 20-40 guys on one freq. is nice, but 20-40 guys spread out, calling CQ in different directions, on different frequencies is the way to go. Maybe it’s happening already. Sure hope it is. The 144 Prop Logger was down tonight, so no way to tell what all happened. For whatever reason, few guys checked into www.on4kst.com 144/432 MHz chat tonight. It’s such a great tool, but the main thing is that there’s lots of RF on the bands.
Even if a net isn’t your idea of fun, I think everyone can get interested knowing several dozen hams in different grids and states are on. The activity is there, so enjoy it down on 144.230 or lower. No reason Wed. night can’t become a general activity night for the USA on 144.
On 144.250, I had a nice SE WI group, plus a few others when I turned the beams and started calling CQ, going clockwise, or SW, W, NW, N, NE, E and finally SE.
W9GA, KC9NZR, WB9TFH and W9IPR EN53; K9KHW EN63; N9NDP EN62; NT9E EN52; K0SIX EN35, WV9E EN43 and N8WNA EN82. Signals beyond SE WI were very light. If I missed anyone who was DX, I apologize.
The 146.43 FM net is *OFF* for New Year’s Eve. We’ll be back on FM simplex at 8pm or 0200Z, on Thur. Jan 7, 2010.
Oh yes, did want to add a few items of interest. W9GA was working some nice moonbounce tonight using the JT65 mode. While I don’t do moonbounce, I have some info for anyone who is curious. This is all from W9GA. He mentioned that he worked a new DX entity tonight — S52 Slovenia. He also said that this is about the best week of the year for moonbounce, and multiple Midwest guys were on tonight, enjoying the good conditions.
The JT65 modes operate down between 144.100-144.150, and almost everyone uses the N0UK Propgation or Moonbounce logger. I’m sure Googling that term would get you to where you want to go.
NT9E Dave is in McHenry, IL, NW of Chicago. Dave said the band was up last night (N8WNA said as much with 222 Tuesday, too) and he was able to work into the Kalamazoo, MI area. NT9E had good copy on the Kalamazoo 144.222 MHz SSB net, which starts at 7:15pm eastern, 0115Z. He also said they run 6m AM activity on 50.300 and/or 50.400 on Tuesday nights.
If you go to qrz.com and look up K8BKB’s callsign, the information is right there. Good to know some 144 and 50 MHz activity is happening from SW Lower MI on Tuesday nights.