Hey Everyone,

From 22:48 UTC to 22:54 UTC later today (16 October), AO-16 and AO-51 will be "up together" again. AO-51, during that period, will cover much of the eastern U.S. and Canada, according to Orbitron. AO-16 will cover all of the western U.S. during that same period.

Stations in the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest, please note - it appears as though Alaska stations may hear folks working the 145.920 uplink on AO-51 if they're working AO-16 after both kick me out of their respective footprints - in the 22:55-56 UTC area.

I am going to work AO-16 that pass. That is, I will be transmitting 5 wats from my HT into an omni antenna at 145.920, and tracking AO-16 for receive using my Elk log periodic, handheld, at an FT-817ND to receive on UHF sideband.

AA1PL banged into AO-16 from Rhode Island this morning, mobile. Anyone running an omni antenna could have their signals reach both satellites, and those stations pointing beams to reach AO-51 to the northeast have a chance to reach AO-16 from the back side. That's what happened during both of the cross-satellite contacts I've made so far, with WB9L and WA4NVM.

I find passes like these to be great opportunities for a very unique kind of contact, so I'm going to see how things go tonight beginning at 22:48 UTC.

73 to all,

Tim - N3TL AMSAT Member No. 36820 Athens, Ga. - EM84ha