Thanks to Angelo N5UXT for posting the news and to all of you who sent emails and posts.

Working grids on the birds is akin to working DX on the HF bands. The hunt is always on and you never know what might pop up when you least expect it.

The big jump in my totals is primarily due to two dedicated satellite grid expeditioners, namely Jim ND9M & ND9M/MM and Yuri UT1FG/MM. Water grids are hard to come by, especially in the quantities that these two operators have activated. Their operations have given new life to the birds and although there has been QRM, that's part of the hobby. We are not talking on cellphones here.

There are countless other operators that have activated grids away from their home in that total. After the excitement we sometimes forget about the sacrifices they made to give us new grids to work. I won't mention callsigns lest I leave some out, but thanks to all of you that travel around. Even if you just go to one grid away from home, you'll likely give someone a new one. It's great fun and you will have just as much excitement doing it as the operators have who work you.

It is good to see all of the activity on the birds, both FM and Linear. It's just one of the many facets of ham radio. Thanks again to all of you that helped me get to 900!

73, John K8YSE