Hi John!
The EM97 grid operation on 24 October came off as planned. The operating location proved to be quite good. The lowest western AO-27 pass was only 8 degrees and I was able to hear the entire 7 minutes of it. The last pass of AO-51 at 2338z was the most difficult because of the many competing signals. Many are not full duplex and cannot hear the buzz and continue to transmit. Even so, 21 different callsigns were heard and nine of them were worked. It was very hard to transmit into the bird but very easy to hear it.
Thanks for making the trip down there! I missed you on the earlier AO-27 pass (work got in the way), but was very happy to get you on that AO-51 pass.
In addition to your trip, I was able to log KC0ZHF in EN04 and N0JE in EN06 (I missed his Sunday effort from a grid boundary), during that AO-51 pass Saturday afternoon. It is nice to hear so many different grids on the birds lately. It's even better to be close to home and have a chance to work others going out to unusual or rare places. :-)
For those who have worked me on many of my trips in the last couple of years, don't worry - I'm not stopping. I have to be a little more creative, since I've operated from so many different places out here as well as on my trips to Dayton and Baltimore this year.
John - maybe we can get you to take a drive through Ontario, away from the heavily-populated FN03 grid to some of the other places up there. How about a Canadian road trip around the lakes ending up in northern Minnesota? :-)
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/