Clint,
Seeing that I did not send a message out with that subject line (without the "Re:", of course), I was amused to see that it was pretty much another report of your ISS contact on Saturday, and didn't really match up with the subject line. :-) But since you put it there, I'll elaborate on it...
I suppose there are many of us who could have made the ISS QSO with two watts (or possibly less), if we had the same combination of that ISS pass and your location relative to that pass. You know this already. Here in Arizona, I figured I would have had a chance if I was able to get in early, before the footprint covered much of North America. When I ran SatPC32 yesterday to wind the clock back to Saturday morning, I was shocked to see that the ISS footprint was all the way out to the Mississippi River around the time of my brief QSO. The elevation was up to 48 degrees toward the northwest, around the time the ISS was approaching northwestern Arizona, when I got through - probably the best chance for me to make the QSO. I put a screenshot from SatPC32 in my slideshow video from the first ISS pass showing this, about midway through the video. Location, location, location...
I had a couple of radios I could have used for more than 5 watts transmit power on 2m (the IC-2820H will go up to 50W, and I could have transmitted at up to 20W on the internal batteries of my FT-897D), if I wanted to do that. I stick with QRP power when I do my own Field Day efforts - something I have done in most years since I bought my first FT-817 in 2001 - for the challenge, even when trying to crack the pileup for NA1SS. I have made 3 of my previous 6 ISS QSOs with only 5 watts, and one of those using a long telescoping whip on an HT instead of a directional antenna, so I know anything is possible.
I e-mailed Christy KB6LTY, who lives near Victorville, to see if she was part of that group that you said may have made the QSO before you. She's involved with Scouts there, and is occasionally on the satellites, so it would have been a real treat if that was the case. I heard something around 1814-1815 UTC, but the audio was not readable at my station.
Congratulations to ALL who were successful in making a QSO with the ISS during Field Day. 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 1:02 AM, Clint Bradford [email protected] wrote:
WD9EWK>> ... used my IC-2820H, Elk log periodic, with the power cranked down to 5W ...
What? FIVE WATTS?!?! You power hog ... (grin)
<snip>
I believe a Boy Scout from Victorville got in there at the beginning, too ... THEN the pile-up began! What a marvelous achievement - courtesy of ARISS and NASA.