Hi!

Saturday was a busy day. Starting with the White Mountain Hamfest in Show Low, Arizona, just after 0500 local time (1200 UTC), to working several passes from along I-40 and old US-66 at the DM54/DM55 grid boundary in the afternoon, to the driving up to the hamfest Friday evening and back home Saturday evening, it was another fun trip.

The Kachina Amateur Radio Club has held its White Mountain Hamfest for many years in early June in Show Low, and this club has graciously provided AMSAT space at the hamfest. I had my table, complete with AMSAT banner and merchandise, ready for the official start of the hamfest at 0700 local time. I also had my station ready to go for an FO-29 pass an hour earlier, which was a demonstration for a few people who were already wandering around the hamfest site (parking lot for Show Low City Hall). I worked passes on FO-29, VO-52, AO-73, and SO-50 during the morning from here, and many thanks to the operators across North America for calling WD9EWK and being a part of the on-air demonstrations. It didn't hurt that the hamfest is in a grid locator not heard often on the satellites, DM44.

The hamfest was wrapping up by noon, and I took advantage of that to get lunch before making an hour-long drive northeast from Show Low to a point along old US-66 and the I-40 freeway that straddles 35 degrees North latitude - the line between grids DM54 and DM55, two more grid locators rarely heard on the satellites. This spot is about 50 miles/80km west of the New Mexico state line, not far from the town of Holbrook and the Petrified Forest National Park. I have been to this spot in the past, a parking lot for a (now) former souvenir shop east of a freeway exit. After setting up my gear and taking the obligatory (for VUCC purposes) photos of my station with a GPS receiver, I also took pictures of some wandering visitors - cattle - around the property. Then it was off to working passes on AO-7, FO-29, VO-52, and LO-78 (it was still LituanicaSAT-1 when I was up there). I also took advantage of an ISS pass to use my TH-D72A HT to show my location via APRS - something I did as part of the demonstrations at Dayton a few weeks ago. Even on the high desert at almost 5300 feet/1615m elevation, it was still warm in the afternoon (around 96F/36C at one point).

Once I wrapped up the DM54/DM55 operating, I packed my gear, drove west on I-40 to find some dinner, and make the 4-hour drive from up there back home. Not much to see at night driving through a couple of national forests, other than some elk near the road - and one crossing in front of me. Almost 500 miles/800km in about 29 hours, and going from the 96F heat at DM54/DM55 to around 50F/10C in the forest on the drive home.

For anyone who worked WD9EWK on Saturday and would like to receive a QSL card, please e-mail me directly with the QSO details. If you are in the log, I will gladly send you a card. No SASE needed. Other than the QSOs on LO-78/LituanicaSAT-1, I have uploaded yesterday's QSOs to Logbook of the World. The LO-78 QSOs should be uploaded shortly, now that ARRL can enable this satellite in LOTW using LO-78 instead of LituanicaSAT-1.

73!

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