Hi!
Saturday (8 January) morning at the Thunderbird Hamfest in Glendale, Arizona, was a great time. This is the only indoor hamfest in the Phoenix area, and there was a good turnout. At different times in the late morning, I had some help at the AMSAT table from Israel AD7ND (I still need to get him on the satellites) and Rick K7TEJ. Both are in the radio club that organized the hamfest, and worked at the hamfest during the morning. Since I didn't have anyone else to help with the table, I had no opportunities to go outside and do any demonstrations until an HO-68 pass around 1722 UTC that morning. Or so I thought...
This HO-68 pass would have been the best pass to demonstrate SSB operating. It was a pass with maximum elevation of 89 degrees at the hamfest site in grid DM33vo, and I had my portable SSB satellite station ready - Yaesu FT-817ND as my transmitter, Kenwood TH-F6A as my receiver, and Elk Antennas 2m/70cm log periodic as my antenna. I set my radios where I normally would to start out on an SSB pass for HO-68, and sent some dits toward the satellite. I heard nothing. As I am doing this, I'm talking with the crowd who followed me outside, and we still heard nothing for several minutes. I kept with the CW for a few more minutes, until after the midpoint for the pass, before I stopped. I hoped there were no problems with my gear, and ended up taking the rest of the pass time to answer questions about satellite operating in general and SSB satellite operating specifically. Then we all went back inside the hall, and I was able to relieve Rick at the AMSAT table.
Thanks to KD5QGR's web site, I saw a few others had already posted they didn't hear HO-68 on that pass. I was relieved to know that I wasn't the only one who heard nothing from the satellite, and added my report on that site. It would have been a really nice pass for a demonstration, seeing some of the calls listed for HO-68 around that time. Oh well...
Despite not having any successful demonstrations for the morning, it was a good day for spreading the word about satellite operating. The ThunderBird Amateur Radio Club, the hamfest organizer, was helpful as usual in making room for AMSAT at their event. This was the 4th straight year I've had an AMSAT table at their January hamfest, the last 3 being indoors on the Thunderbird School of Global Management campus.
My next hamfest where I will bring an AMSAT table will be the two- day Yuma Hamfest and Emergency Preparedness Show in Yuma AZ on 18-19 February. Thanks to those who were hoping to hear WD9EWK on passes Saturday morning, and my apologies for not being on the air anywhere during the hamfest.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/