Hi!
First of all, thanks to everyone who worked WD9EWK during last Saturday's Thunderbird Hamfest in Phoenix. Having other stations calling and mentioning some details about their location - beyond the grid locator - helps the crowd better understand the coverage of our satellites.
Due to the passes that morning, I was only able to work an early FO-29 pass and a couple of AO-73 passes later in the morning. WD9EWK was also on an early ISS pass, trying to make packet QSOs from the hamfest site, and two NO-44 passes. Unfortunately, no packet QSOs were logged, but I did copy KC9ELU in Indiana and N8HM in Washington DC during the NO-44 passes.
After the 1345-1355 UTC ISS pass, I received an e-mail from EMike KC8YLD. EMike was in Portland OR, and happened to have his Yaesu VX-8R monitoring that pass. EMike saw my call and location appear on the radio's display. We did not make a QSO through the ISS packet digipeater, but EMike did send me photos of his radio's display showing my call sign and location. My first SWL report for packet transmissions. I owe him a QSL card to confirm that report. :-)
The hamfest had a great turnout, both for sellers and those walking around the site - a church parking lot. The weather helped as well, with no rain and temperatures at the start of the event around 50F/10C. A couple of years ago, the temperatures were around 24F/-4C at the start of the event, and didn't reach 32F/0c until late that morning. During the morning, I was using my @WD9EWK Twitter feed to post updates and some photos from the hamfest. Those photos are still available to view, even if you do not use Twitter, by scrolling back through my tweets at http://twitter.com/WD9EWK in a web browser. The demonstrations, especially the two AO-73 demonstrations later in the morning, had great crowds watching and listening.
Thanks to the Thunderbird Amateur Radio Club (W7TBC), and in particular Israel AD7ND and Rick K7TEJ (both AMSAT members), for once again providing AMSAT space for a table and operating location at the hamfest!
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/