Wonder if the VUCC rules will allow 4 grids to be put on 1 card ? Might be a tough sell to a card checker !

TK, K7TRK

-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of David Palmer KB5WIA Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2011 12:43 PM To: AMSAT BB Subject: [amsat-bb] KB5WIA California Lost Coast Expedition (CM79/CM89/CN70/CN80) August 7-8, 2011

Hi Everyone,

Just a reminder (and before the flood of ARISSat emails in the list tomorrow!), this weekend I'll be heading out to the California Lost Coast to work the satellites from that rare grid CM79. CM79 has no roads, no power, no houses, nothing but lots and lots of ocean and a small triangle of mountainous forest. Plans are to operate right from the northeast tip of CM79 so if all goes well I'll be providing four grids at once: CM79, CM89, CN70, and CN80.

Weather looks reasonable (cloudy mornings, sunny afternoons) for portable solar-powered operation. I'll operate on Sunday August 7th and Monday August 8th, and I've posted a list of potential passes on my blog. Operation will be during local daylight only, due to the remoteness of the area I don't want to be hiking down off that mountain after dark!

I'll aim to work all available satellites -- AO-51 (if it keeps going strong like it has been), SO-50, and AO-27 for FM. VO-52, FO-29, and AO-07 (primarily mode B) for SSB. If ARISSat is up and running I'll try to get on that too, depending on congestion and satellite performance.

I'll have my SPOT Locator beacon with me, so my exact location should be available from the link on my QRZ web page. If the current beacon position shows that I'm right at the intersection of -124 and 40 degrees, likely I'll be available on the sats as they go by.

More details on my website at http://kb5wia.blogspot.com

73! de Dave KB5WIA _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

Hi Ted!

Wonder if the VUCC rules will allow 4 grids to be put on 1 card ? Might be a tough sell to a card checker !

It should not be a tough sell to the card checker. They are to examine the card, and the checker can disallow the card if it has been altered. ARRL can call into question the card and what grids are being shown on it when they receive the application, and it is ARRL - *not* the VUCC card checker - that can request the station that issued the card provide the documentation as outlined in the VUCC rules (photos of the GPS receiver's display and the GPS receiver with the station, or a video clip). I've had many exchanges with the ARRL on this, especially when the VUCC rules were updated a couple of years ago, to make sure my grid-boundary operating would be acceptable under the new rules.

When ARRL updated the VUCC rules a couple of years ago, they clearly laid out what they will consider satisfactory documentation of a station on a grid boundary or intersection - at least two photos showing a GPS receiver (one close-up of the receiver's display, the other of the receiver in the station setup), or a video clip that shows the close-up of the GPS display with a wider view showing the receiver in the station. Previously, the VUCC rules mentioned that stations needed to be able to document their location, but did not go into detail on what would be considered satisfactory documentation. The advent of the Fred Fish Memorial Award, a VUCC-like award for 6m operators confirming QSOs with all 488 grids in the continental USA, brought about the VUCC rule update regarding grid boundaries and documentation.

Sometimes the card checkers confuse VHF/UHF contesting with the VUCC award. Where the VUCC award rules clearly define how to place your station on a grid boundary or intersection, most VHF/UHF contests only deal with exchanges of a single grid locator - even if you are in 2 or 4 grids simultaneously. Reminding the card checker that the VUCC rules explain how stations are to be placed on these locations and how to document them can get past this potential issue. Another way stations who operate from these grid boundaries and intersections help ease the minds of the card checkers is to include a picture of the GPS receiver display (or of the whole GPS receiver) showing the readout at that boundary or intersection. You've seen the GPS receiver's displays on my cards, and I know others do this as well. It is *not* mandatory for stations to put the GPS display on the QSL cards under VUCC rules, nor is it mandatory for stations to even show the latitude/longitude for a location on the QSL cards, but it is helpful when the cards are being checked.

Looking forward to hearing Dave on from that intersection in a few days....

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/