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{ "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/WEEMUO32ZOPFEDCJ7ZXR7T6S7VOJL4UR/?format=api", "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api", "message_id": "[email protected]", "message_id_hash": "WEEMUO32ZOPFEDCJ7ZXR7T6S7VOJL4UR", "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/WEEMUO32ZOPFEDCJ7ZXR7T6S7VOJL4UR/?format=api", "sender": { "address": "amsat-bb (a) wd9ewk.net", "mailman_id": "21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768", "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768/emails/?format=api" }, "sender_name": "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)", "subject": "[amsat-bb] Symposium, WD9EWK activity in/around Baltimore", "date": "2009-10-13T05:59:45Z", "parent": null, "children": [], "votes": { "likes": 0, "dislikes": 0, "status": "neutral" }, "content": "Hi!\n\nAs others have already said, thanks to Frank KA3HDO and his \ngroup for putting on a great Symposium over the weekend. A\ngood show, and good news from AMSAT for the upcoming year or\ntwo - and beyond. Before and after the Symposium activities \neach day (except for Saturday), and on one lunch break, I \nworked several passes from outside the hotel. I also took \nquick drives north to Delaware and south to Washington DC, to\nput those places on the air for some passes. As always, \nworking the satellites from somewhere else is a learning \nexperience, and fun. \n\nExcept for two passes on Sunday, I didn't post any advance \nnotice of my intentions to work satellite passes. I went to\nBaltimore to attend the Symposium and the AMSAT Board of\nDirectors meeting before the official start of the Symposium, \nand any radio activity would be a bonus as part of this trip\nacross the USA. Some stations were not fully aware of the \nlocation I announced on the air, knowing I am normally operating\nfrom DMxx grids in and around Arizona. It pays to listen, of\ncourse, regardless of whether or not there was an e-mail that\nannounced the plans in advance. \n\nFirst stop, Baltimore. The hotel, on the BWI Airport grounds\nin grid FM19pe, was where I did most of my operating. The \nlarge parking garage next to the hotel made low eastern passes\ninteresting. Otherwise, the only issues at the site were the\ntrees. I worked one pass Wednesday (7 October) evening after\narriving in Baltimore, three passes on Thursday (8 October - \nearly morning and evening on AO-51, lunchtime on SO-50), two\nAO-51 passes on Friday (9 October), then a pass each on Sunday\n(11 October) and Monday (12 October) morning on AO-51. From \nall these passes, I logged 70 QSOs with stations all over the \nUSA, Canada, and the Dominican Republic during those 8 passes. \n\nAlong with my FM19 activity, I know that N2SPI also worked from \noutside the hotel over the weekend. There may have been someone \nelse on from there, in addition to Richard and me. Many chances\nfor stations to work someone at the Symposium, even without an \n\"official\" station. \n\nNext, Washington...\n\nWashington DC is about 30 miles/50km southwest of BWI Airport.\nIn my almost 4 years of working the satellites, I have never\nheard anyone on the air from the District of Columbia. There\nis a station that identifies his location as outside of \nWashington DC, but never one actually on the air in the city. \nThe grid, FM18, is not rare - there are stations on from both \nMaryland and Virginia. I operated from River Terrace Park, a \nnice park along the Anacostia River in the northeast quadrant \nof the US capital, east of RFK Stadium (grid FM18mv). \n\nI drove down for two AO-51 passes, one on Thursday evening and\none on Monday morning. The Thursday evening pass was a high \npass for me, yet the footprint covered all the way to the Pacific\ncoast. KG4ZLB in Florida was the first station I worked, and \nK7YDL in Oregon was the last of the 21 QSOs. I was surprised \nat that number, when I played back the recording to log my contacts.\nOn Monday morning, I worked a pass to the west and logged 13 more\nQSOs with stations spanning across the USA, Canada, and Puerto \nRico - even at that early hour for those out west. \n\nI am apparently not the only one who had never worked anyone from\nWashington DC. For the most part, a contact with the District of\nColumbia doesn't amount to much on its own. For many state-based\nawards like the WAS awards from ARRL, DC counts as Maryland - the\nstate that it was carved out of. I already mentioned that the grid\ncovering Washington (FM18) also covers parts of Maryland and \nVirginia, and there are stations that get on from both of those\nstates (I worked one of those stations, NL7VX, who is in the \nVirginia part of FM18). Several operators thanked me for putting\nDC on the air. Maybe this would be something a local ham might look\nto do, operate from Washington from time to time. I still haven't \nworked DC myself. :-) \n\nThen, there's Delaware. Whether on HF, VHF, or satellites, this is\nnormally one of the most rare states to get a contact with - and that\nall-important confirmation of the contact. I drove north on the \nI-95 freeway Sunday afternoon just over an hour to reach the \nMaryland/Delaware state line, contributing $11 in tolls on I-95 and\nthe Baltimore Harbor Tunnel to get there (tolls are not something I\nnormally deal with in Arizona), and then drove a few more miles/km \nto the city of Bear in northern Delaware (grid FM29ep). I parked in\na restaurant parking lot near the DE-1/US-40 interchange, and saw I \nhad 5 minutes before the start of an AO-27 pass to the west at 2024 \nUTC. In the 7-minute pass, I made 14 QSOs (2 XE stations, and the \nrest sprinkled across the USA). Shortly after AO-27 went away, the \nfirst of three AO-51 passes came up from the southeast. I only \nlogged 3 stations on that pass, and heard a VE3 station as I lost the \ndownlink. \n\nAfter those two passes, I updated my logbook and quickly scribbled \nan e-mail to the -BB announcing I would be on the next two AO-51 \npasses from this location in Delaware. When the next pass came \nup at approximately 2216 UTC, I started working stations in the \ncentral and eastern parts of the USA. Seventeen stations went in\nthe log, and I waited near my rental car for the third - and final -\nAO-51 pass of the evening from there starting just before 0000 UTC.\nOnly 8 stations went in the log on that pass, but two of the 8 \nwere from Mexico. Most of the QSOs were with stations in the west,\nwhat I had hoped for, before I went into the restaurant for dinner\nfollowed by the (cheaper - only $7 in tolls from Delaware back to\nthe hotel) drive back to Baltimore for the night. \n\n**********\n\nWith this trip, I now have operated from 42 different grids in \nNorth America, along with a total of 8 different US states plus\nWashington DC. I already have FM19 cards for QSOs made from the\nSymposium, but I will need to print more of them. I will make\nand print cards for the other two locations in the next few days.\nIn the next week or two, I will be ready to mail out cards - which\nwill also let me mail cards from the upcoming hamfest I will attend\nin Tucson AZ on Saturday (17 October) along with the cards from my\nBaltimore/Washington/Delaware trip. If you would like to receive \ncards for QSOs made with WD9EWK on this trip, please e-mail me the \nQSO details. No need to send me a card or SASE. If you're in the \nlog, you will get the QSL card(s) from me. \n\nThis was a fun weekend, with the news from AMSAT along with a chance\nto work the satellites from the opposite side of the USA from where\nI live. Thanks to AMSAT and KA3HDO's group for a great Symposium,\nand to all the stations that worked WD9EWK from these locations over\nthe past few days. \n\n73!\n\n\n\n\nPatrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK (back home in Arizona now)\nhttp://www.wd9ewk.net/\n\n", "attachments": [] }