Hi all!
Despite a lot of local QRM on the SO-50 downlink and the absolute wall of stations in the first half of one AO-51 pass (50W could not break through from here!), it was a very nice day in Mexicali. A good day to visit, with nice weather and (mostly) good conditions on several satellite passes. After over 4 years since my last trip to Mexico, this would be my first opportunity to work the satellites from there. Please note that my callsign when in Mexico is XE2/WD9EWK, as the Mexicans follow the CEPT convention (also used by FCC in the US except for visiting Canadian hams) with the prefix/indicator comes before the foreign ham's call. Please keep that in mind, if you are using Logbook of the World and upload satellite contacts to that system - I hope to do the same for my satellite QSOs eventually, including those made from Mexico.
After getting my paperwork at the border (Mexican immigration) and at the communications ministry, I was itching to get on the air. The ISS was passing by just after midday local time (2039 UTC, to be precise), and I was able to work it from a spot in the west end of Mexicali for a few QSOs. I tried SO-50 from there around 2250 UTC, but had lots of QRM from nearby TV transmitters on towers very close to that area. Ouch! After that pass, I went across the city to the "Ciudad Deportiva" (Sports City) complex, near the baseball stadium that is home to a Mexican winter-league club and the recently-concluded Caribbean Series tournament. More open space, and not as close to those pesky TV transmitters.
The AO-51 pass around 0010 UTC was crazy for the first 5 minutes. I could only break through a couple of times, and at one point it was nothing but stations calling for me - and I could not even get through to acknowledge any of them. I apologize for that, as even 50W into my handheld antenna was no good against all that RF to my east. I sincerely hope K5D is not greeted in the same manner if they show up on the FM satellites, especially since they will only have 5W to work with. After K7WIN cleared some space for me to come through the crowd (many thanks, Jeff!), I was able to log contacts. SO-50 right after that pass was a bit easier, with fewer stations and less QRM from those TV transmitters.
There was a really high AO-51 pass to the west around 0147 UTC, and I was on there from a park area in a neighborhood a few miles/km southwest of the baseball stadium. This turned out to also serve as an impromptu demonstration for a local radio club, the "Red Digital Noroeste" (Northwest Digital Network). Four club members were there, and saw me work that western pass. I was closer to the TV transmitters, but they seemed to have less effect on the AO-51 435.300 MHz downlink compared to the SO-50 436.795 MHz downlink (and zero effect on the ISS 145.800 MHz downlink). This was a great pass to show satellite operating to hams who had never seen or tried this part of the hobby. Thanks to all the stations from central Mexico up through the western USA and Canada on the pass! Then a quick get-together with the local hams to talk about radio, satellites, and other stuff hams like to talk about almost anywhere before crossing the border back into the USA and calling it a night.
Quick stats... I worked 5 passes this afternoon/evening. On those passes, I worked 6 stations through the ISS U/V cross-band repeater on one pass, 12 on the 2 SO-50 passes, and 28 on the 2 AO-51 passes. I operated from 3 different locations in Mexicali, two in DM22go and one in DM22gp (the baseball stadium), and all 3 were not too far south of the USA/Mexico border. Alex XE2BSS/N2IX, who was with me during the day, took some pictures and has started uploading them to:
http://www.xe2bss.org/patmxl.html
Alex is still adding pictures to this page, so consider it a "work in progress". Check it again in a couple of days to see additional pictures he posts there, and run the link through Babelfish or some other translation site if you can't read the Spanish-language text on that page.
For Friday afternoon and all day Saturday, I will continue to be in grid DM22. For those two days, I will have an AMSAT table at the Yuma AZ hamfest, and will do satellite demonstrations on FM and SSB satellites as I had originally planned. I don't have firm plans for Sunday yet, but hope to be on satellites once again from somewhere. Monday is still my travel day back to Phoenix, possibly including stops to work passes in other grids on my way home.
Good night, and 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK (now also XE2/WD9EWK) - Calexico, California http://www.wd9ewk.net/