Hello All,
Looking back, the "Road Trip to FN56, FN57, FN66, FN67, etc." was eminently successful. In the course of two days, I drove 1,119 miles from my Dad's home in Massachusetts to Maine and back: 429 miles up, 261 miles around the back woods of northern Maine searching for better-than-average operating locations, and 429 miles back.
In the process, I activated every grid square north of Bangor, with the exception of FN45, plus I activated FN53 in southern Maine as well. Put another way, I worked 11 satellite passes to activate 7 rare grid squares in two days. In that time, I would estimate that I made over a hundred satellite contacts.
My appreciation goes out to all who participated.
If you're interested in the actual locations I worked from, it's summarized in the chart below in the order that I worked from them. The latitudes and longitudes were recorded on site from a Garmin "GPS 12XL", except as noted.
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Actual Locations for Saturday, October 17th:
# Lat Lon Grid Nearest Town -- ------- ------- ---- ----------------
1 43.979N 69.978W FN53 Topsham, ME
2 45.596N 68.535W FN55 Medway, ME
3 46.791N 68.040W FN56 Caribou, ME
4 47.006N 68.180W FN57 Stockholm, ME
5 46.854N 67.988W FN66 Caribou, ME
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Actual Locations for Sunday, October 18th:
# Lat Lon Grid Nearest Town -- ------- ------- ---- ----------------
6 47.132N 67.954W FN67 Van Buren, ME
7 47.132N 67.954W FN67 Van Buren, ME
8 47.006N 68.180W FN57 Stockholm, ME
9 46.854N 67.989W FN66 Caribou, ME
10 46.692N* 68.015W* FN56 Presque Isle, ME
11 45.988N 67.862W FN65 North Amity, ME
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* At the time, I was so busy driving from one operating location to another that I didn't have time to record the latitude and longitude from the "GPS 12XL". So, it was determined later from topographic maps.
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You probably won't hear me on the satellites for a while. Instead, I'll be focused on completing several antenna related projects before winter sets in. Among other things, I need to get my outdoor satellite antennas back in operation.
But in the mean time, send me your list of other rare grid squares you need in the northeast USA. I'll consider traveling to and activating any grid square in NY, PA, CT, RI, MA, VT, NH, and ME.
With winter approaching, this probably won't happen any time soon. But when the weather breaks next spring, the opportunity for doing this may come again. The most requested grid squares will be the ones I consider going to first.
So, email me your grid square "wish list". And please put the phrase "grid square" somewhere on your email "subject line".
73, Richard, N2SPI [email protected]