Hi folks,
I'm going on a little road trip up the east coast to visit friends and family and I'll be taking my satellite gear, including my IC-9700, with me. Originally I was planning on leaving on Thursday from Raleigh, NC and spending all Thursday and much of Friday activating various grids like FM15/FM16/FM26/FM27/FM28 and Delaware, before I went to see friends in Fredericksburg, VA, Baltimore, MD, and Philadelphia, PA before coming back to Raleigh, NC around the 20th.
I still planning on seeing all my friends and family but the trip will almost certainly start later.
Earlier this week some stuff came up and it is pushing my preparation back so I am now targeting to leave on Friday. Also, I found out many people need FM25, including Christy KB6LTY who needs it for #488, and since it seems overall more rare than the others, combined with the fact I have less time I am focusing on just activating FM25 on Friday June 11th. If there is time along the way I may activate other grids like FM15 or FM16, but I don't know how likely that is.
One of the things that is affecting my departure date is that part of my preparations include building a mount for my IC-9700 to sit atop a tripod PA speaker stand.
Speaker stand: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Proline/LST2BK-Speaker-Stand-Black-127422807688...
Basically, I'm trying to build something out of wood that sits on the speaker stand's post that can securely hold/support the IC-9700. This way I will be semi-portable and not anchored to my car. I was planning on starting the build of this on Monday/Tuesday but like I said, something came up. I didn't start working on it until Tuesday afternoon. Additionally, I found out the way I was planning on building this thing isn't going to work exactly like I thought, so I am spending extra time to adapt.
There are other things I need to do to prepare for my trip like setting up an old laptop to run DXKeeper and LoTW as well as prepare for the overall trip, so I think at best I will be able to leave by Friday. If somehow I can leave on Thursday, I will reply to this email. Other than that, check my Twitter page for updates and passes.
I don't know what passes I will be on but definitely most linear/FM sats that are decent for NA coverage while I'm in FM25.
You can view my Twitter page here:
https://twitter.com/SpaceComms1
73, John Brier KG4AKV