Weather permitting I will be operating on the EM88/EM98 grid boundary in West Virginia on Sunday, September 20th. The current forecast is a 50% chance of rain so it might not work out for all passes. I'll try to operate on the following passes:
---------------------------------------------------------- Day Object AOS (U) LOS Period maxEl AZ ---------------------------------------------------------- 20.09.2009 AO-27 18:41 18:48 15 44 148 - 354 20.09.2009 AO-27 20:22 20:29 13 20 204 - 332 20.09.2009 AO-51 21:14 21:26 12 13 113 - 008 20.09.2009 SO-50 21:38 21:51 13 49 333 - 136 20.09.2009 AO-51 22:51 23:06 15 74 168 - 347 20.09.2009 SO-50 23:19 23:31 12 16 309 - 189
West Virginia is hilly and the hills are covered with trees. Although Google Earth etc. can give you some idea of what to expect, you just don't know until you get there and see for yourself. For those in the West, AO-27 at 2022Z and SO-50 at 2319Z will offer the best chances to work me. It will be sunset around the end of the last SO-50 pass. Operations on AO-51 will be on the non-QRP pair, 435.300/145.92. If the grid boundary doesn't work out, I'll focus on finding a spot in EM88 first. If conditions permit, I might then operate from EM98. Hopefully the grid boundary will work out.
My progress enroute can be monitored on aprs.fi or findu.com using k8yse-8. There are no digi's near the grid boundary location but you never know until you get there. I plan to have another radio on 145.825 and could be digi'd through the ISS during the 1911Z, 2047Z, 2224Z and 0000z passes. The ISS radio will use k8yse-9. It's about a 4 hour trip each way.
There is no need to send or request a qsl card. I will send a card to everyone that I have in my log. EM88 is fairly rare so this should be a good one for grid chasers, especially for those in the western states. Thanks to all of you who have operated from grids away from your home QTH. Hopefully you will benefit from this operation as I did from many of yours. EM97 may be a possibility in October if you need that one.
73, John K8YSE