Hi!
Thanks to Adrian AA5UK/KH6 for the FO-29 QSO this evening! It was nice to work another station from Hawaii. I have worked Hawaii a few times, and I worked the grid Adrian has been working from (BL02) a few times last fall when Ron W6ZQ went out there. This was my first non-FM satellite QSO with Hawaii, and it was fun despite being out in my normal "home QTH" (Phoenix city park on the DM33xp/DM43ap grid boundary) well after local sunset.
On that FO-29 pass, I heard a few stations blindly calling for Adrian even though he was somewhere else on the downlink. Even if he is trying to work around a particular spot on the downlink, be ready to tune around to find him. For much of that FO-29 pass, he was about 10 kHz below the center of the downlink. Adrian is the rare DX on these passes, and there is more to a transponder's downlink than just the 5 to 10 kHz around the center of the downlink.
Adrian will be out there for a few more days before heading home, so if you have a shot to try working him - go for it!
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/