Hey everyone,

I love it when a plan comes together!

As I pointed the Elk through the wall toward the northeast this morning - 11:13 UTC - I heard my call in CW, coming from Pedro, EA8AVI. We had a couple of exchanges, and I added Africa via the Canary Islands to the log here.

Pedro is one of several hams on the islands who appear on the all-time "roster" of AO-7 users that is part of the Web site for our Grand Old Girl. After finding his call on the roster, I looked him up on QRZ.com and emailed to ask whether he was still active and would be willing to try for a schedule. In typical ham fashion, he not only agreed - but he enlisted another operator on the islands, Cecilio, EB8BRX.

The three of us exchanged emails and tried a couple weeks ago, but a computer glitch on this end messed that up. I noticed on Thursday that this early pass this morning and the early one this evening had a good footprint for Georgia and west Africa, so I emailed them again. They responded just as quickly and enthusiastically as they did to my earlier emails, and Pedro was waiting on me this morning.

My thanks to them for their cooperation and friendship. Thanks, too, to Joe - K3SZH - who mentioned some calls of African stations he'd heard on AO-7 and pointed me in the direction of the all-time roster on the Web page. Thanks, too, to Patrick, WD9EWK, who suggested Africa as my next target after a couple of European countries made it into my log.

What a great way to start the day!

73 to all,

Tim - N3TL Athens, Ga. - EM84ha