Friends and Colleagues,
This Sunday (March 6th, 2016) I'll be in Eastern Oklahoma operating from the top of 'Cavanal Hill' in grid EM25pb. The primary goal of this trip is to activate the state of Oklahoma on the AO-7(B) pass at my AOS of 17:58:26UTC for any interested European stations chasing their Oscar Century award. One of the most common requests I get from operators on the other side of the Atlantic is to go /P from Oklahoma, as it seems to be a rarely heard state on domestic Satellite passes, let alone passes with large DX footprints. The other big reason Oklahoma is rarely heard is that the distances involved make most of the state out of range to all but the highest passes of FO29 and AO7. With this in mind, the AO7 pass on Sunday provides a rare mutual footprint between Northeast OK and most of western Europe. The weather appears to be good, and I've got a spot I've operated successfully from before, so I'm going to try and return the favor to my DX friends, and get something on their list checked off.
As a request to the community, can I ask that high power stations, or stations operating CW on AO7 please refrain from hitting the transponder from 1758 UTC until 1803 UTC on Sunday unless you're specifically chasing something. I do not run much power when operating /P, and AO7 is a finicky bird as it is, so I'd like to maximize the number of stations I can work in the 5 minute window I'll have. I plan on operating on top of the 'high spot' in the passband around 145.940, and I will be staying put and calling CQ to maximize the number of works who can work me. This location in Oklahoma is well outside my 200km range for awards, so I've got nothing to gain here except helping folks out. That said, I think everyone knows what I can do with an arrow on a mountain, and I would be really jazzed to hand out a rare Oscar Century Contact to a bunch of folks a long ways away. Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request :)
For everyone else not 7000km away, I'll be active on all birds from both EM24 and EM25 in both Arkansas and Oklahoma most of the weekend. If there's a specific grid or state you're after, feel free to shoot me an email or tweet me @KG5CCI.
Thanks, Good Luck, and 73!
-Dave, KG5CCI