Hello fellow people of the birds,
I have returned to the motherland from a glorious trip abroad, spending two weeks in continuous daylight. I think I forgot what night was, and as such was awake 24/7 working satellite passes! It was great to make so many contacts from Iceland, Faroe Islands, and Greenland!
Probably the most exciting thing is that OX/NJ7H achieved VUCC! At the moment, we are at 111 grids confirmed in LoTW and estimated 149 grids worked, all in four days (with plenty of touristy stuff fit in as well)! It appears that this is the first VUCC of any type completed in Greenland! I could not have done it without all the dedicated rovers on both sides of the world that supported me in this crazy idea!
Special thanks to: AK4WQ (8) KG5CCI (6) AI6GS (4) F4DXV (4) WD9EWK (3) WN9Q (3) MI6GTY (3) N6UA (3) N9EAT (3) N7AGF (2) W5PFG (2) EB1AO (2) WC7V (2) W4FS (2) K0FFY (2) NP4JV (2) CG7CEW (2) KL7CN (2) KK4FEM (2)
Some more statistics from OX (based on LoTW): 278 QSOs 149 grids worked, 111 confirmed 26 DXCCs worked, 17 confirmed 34 states worked, 30 confirmed
I think not so bad for a single operator QRP in four days while doing other stuff as well! Location, location, location...
It was very cool being able to work so much on individual passes, even with lower birds like SO-50. Being so high on the earth, many of the satellites would pass over me and allow most of North America and Europe to be worked on a single pass. It was very cool! Although it could be eerie being alone for much of the pass as the satellites traversed the oceans with no one else in the footprint... It was fun to play around in this time experimenting with things like 50mW on SO-50. Made contacts through out North and Central America, the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia!
Dave KG5CCI and I were also able to break the distance record on XW-2D, which is now the furthest contact on any of the XW-2 satellites! The operating locations in OX and TF were awesome and usually allowed me to operate to the horizon and often below in the direction of North America. It was great to activate ten grids throughout the trip, including some ultra rare ones (and unheard before). HP74 had only a sliver of land and the grid corner of HP93/94/IP03/04 were fun grid adventures. In the Faroe Islands I had a much more difficult horizon, only allowing me to operate to as low as 3°-7° depending on the direction. The trade off was that I was able to walk to and operate from the IP61/62 line for nearly every pass!
I am now back in the US (New York City to be exact). Tomorrow I head to Florida for a few days. Friday night and Saturday I will be driving from North Florida to Miami. I am hoping to score some new /r grids along the way, so give me a shout if you need EL95-EM90. EL95-97 will be new /r grids for me, so those are my focus. I'll be on Twitter like usual, @NJ7H_Radio, so that's the best way to get in touch with me. I'll be spending more time in EM90 and EL99, as opposed to the other ones that I'm just passing through.
On the 25th I head back to Oklahoma City to begin my training to be an air traffic controller! With that, I see very little opportunity for me to do much roving until around late October when I complete that initial training (I'll still get on on weekends and do some local roving). Which comes to NJ7H/retired... I am volunteering for Alaska, and I am told that if I volunteer for Alaska, the FAA will likely gladly place me there (my buddy just got assigned to West Virginia and he was expecting Wisconsin, so who knows). Assuming I pass the academy (which I sure hope and will be doing my damnedest to), I will be finished on October 23rd. If I get Alaska, I am hoping to make a little detour on the way to attend the AMSAT-NA Symposium in Reno! The time seems to work just about perfectly for that (assuming I pass and I get assigned to Alaska). If I do indeed get Alaska, this trip will have been the last use of NJ7H while abroad as I'll get an Alaskan call upon crossing the border into Canada on the drive (NJ7H/7 will be around until the cross into Canada, then VE6NJH until Alaska).
73 and mind your ERP,
Gabe NJ7H/retired