Hi!
Saturday was another fun day. A long day, starting out early at the hamfest in Prescott, Arizona, and ending up at home just after midnight (0700 UTC) after driving approximately 400 miles (644km), but a good day.
Prescott Hamfest in Prescott, Arizona (grid DM34sn):
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=...
I started out at the hamfest. Officially, it did not open until 0800 local, but I was there when the site was opened for those setting up in one of the spaces two hours earlier. This let me get on the air for an AO-51 pass around 1320 UTC. This pass was more to hand out contacts with the grid for the hamfest (DM34sn) than a demonstration, but a couple of people stopped by to listen in while they were setting up their spaces. Thanks for the 16 contacts with stations from across the USA, Canada, and Mexico. The later AO-51 pass, just after 1500 UTC, added 5 more contacts with a slightly larger audience - the hamfest officially opened at the start of this pass.
After a couple of hours where the crowds started building, VO-52 passed by around 1710 UTC. As I've seen at other hamfests, the VO-52 demonstrations seem to attract the largest crowds. It might be the later pass time, or that SSB via satellite is more of a curiosity than FM, but there was a nice crowd. For this pass, Ray W1OTH - a ham from the Prescott area and AMSAT member - took care of the antenna while I worked the radio. I forgot to mention in my e-mail last week where I would camp out on the downlink, but I started around 145.910 MHz where I made two quick contacts. After not hearing anyone else after those contacts, I tuned around and went down a few kHz to work two other stations near the end of the pass. Four contacts on a VO-52 pass, where I'm not actively tuning through the passband looking for every possible QSO, is not a bad thing. The crowd liked it.
Not long after that VO-52 pass, the skies darkened and it started to rain. I felt, and then saw, hail falling. This did not last for long, but the hamfest emptied out not long after this quick burst of bad weather. Even with the storm, this was a good morning. Lots of people stopped by, and there appeared to be more people at the hamfest this year compared to last year. Thanks again to Ray W1OTH for sticking around the AMSAT table for a little while and helping with the VO-52 pass.
After the hamfest, the Saturday road trip started. I was off to the first of my two stops for the radio after the hamfest....
near Drake, Arizona, east of AZ-89 at the DM34tx/DM35ta grid boundary:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=...
I stopped at this spot a couple of times in 2008, as a way to operate from these two grids and not be parked along the nearby state highway. This is just inside the Prescott National Forest north of the city of Prescott, and about 15 miles/25km south of the I-40 freeway and old US-66. Unlike in 2008, AO-27 and SO-50 had overlapping passes in the mid-afternoon from this location. I decided to work AO-27 when it was on, not using the PL tone needed for SO-50. After AO-27 shut off at the end of its repeater time, I would work SO-50 for whatever time was left on each pass.
The first AO-27/SO-50 passes came around 2037 UTC. As usual, there were many stations out for the pass. In 7 minutes, I logged 15 QSOs before switching to SO-50. In the last few minutes of the SO-50 pass, 4 more QSOs went in the log. Not a bad effort, other than dealing with the overlapping footprints for the two satellites.
A little later, the two satellites were passing by to the west of my location. Again, starting with AO-27 while it was on, I worked 7 stations from central Mexico to western Canada. My time on SO-50 after AO-27's scheduled shutdown was limited by an impending thunderstorm and a quick visit by a Forest Service ranger. The ranger asked if I was looking for a missing dog, and I explained that I was not tracking animals with my setup. I had a chance to acknowledge 2 stations I heard on SO-50 after that, before I heard some thunder near me. That was my cue to pack up and move on to my last stop of the day.
Grand Canyon Village, Arizona - south of the lodges along the South Rim in Grand Canyon National Park (grid DM36wb):
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=...
I drove through a hard rain to get from DM34tx/DM35ta up to the Grand Canyon, but it stopped raining about 20 miles/32km before I reached the national park entrance. The DM35/DM36 grid boundary was right at the entrance, but that was not a good place to set up. No places to park, and the line was right at the booths for the park rangers to collect the admission fees. I planned to go into the park and find the best spot I could, which would be somewhere firmly in grid DM36.
Grand Canyon Village is a small town inside the national park, along the South Rim. Most of the lodges (hotels) on this side of the park are here. I took some pictures as I drove from the park entrance to the parking lot I decided to work from (Parking Lot "E", south of the lodges at the South Rim), and waited for the first AO-51 pass around 0028 UTC.
I knew there were some hills that ringed Grand Canyon Village, and those hills meant I had to wait almost 2 minutes after the predicted AOS time before I could clearly hear the AO-51 downlink. Once I heard it, I announced my location. Then the fun began - lots of QSOs for stations across North America. In the span of 11 minutes, 22 contacts were logged. No Canadians, but many from all over the continental US and a couple of XE stations went in the log. I guess DM36 was a rare grid for many on the satellites. :-)
Between that pass and the later AO-51 pass to the west, I did some sightseeing around the village and along the South Rim. A weird (at first) sight was seeing some deer grazing in the rail yard at the Grand Canyon train depot. This is still a working depot, for the Grand Canyon Railway that runs daily between the Grand Canyon and the city of Williams about 60 miles/100km to the south, a favorite for tourists who do not want to drive into the park. Lots of people were taking pictures as the deer ate some grass and wandered around the railroad tracks.
I went back to the parking lot after taking lots of photos, and was ready for the western AO-51 pass that started around 0208 UTC. I worked 8 stations on this pass - 1 in Alaska (thanks KL7XJ!), the rest in the continental USA. I made another sightseeing stop at another point along the South Rim as I left the national park, to start my almost 4-hour drive back home.
For any contacts made with WD9EWK on Saturday - at the hamfest, or after the hamfest - I will be happy to send out QSL cards. I have cards ready for QSOs made at the hamfest, and will have cards for the other two locations in the next day or two. No need to send me QSLs or SASEs for Saturday - just e-mail me directly with QSO details. If you are in my log, you'll get a card (or cards) for the contact(s). I will also send out cards from my trip to Dayton two weeks ago with these cards, all going out in the same envelopes.
I was asked on the air if I was using my new Alinco DJ-G7T on any of the Saturday FM satellite passes. I was not - I was using my Icom IC-2720H 2m/70cm FM mobile radio. Since I'm still tweaking that radio, I will leave that to other passes where I am not trying to demonstrate satellite operation or when I'm parked in unusual locations.
Including my drive up to Prescott on Friday (29 May) evening, I drove just under 500 miles/800km for this trip. The hamfest was fun, the two stops after the hamfest - putting some rare Arizona grids on the satellites for a few passes - went well. Thanks to everyone who worked WD9EWK during the hamfest demonstrations, as those contacts help show off the capabilities of our current satellites and how it doesn't take lots of fancy (and expensive) gear to enjoy this part of our hobby.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/