Hello fellow bird men,

Here is the announcement the grid chasers have been waiting for: VE8 is near! My leave has just been approved and I plan to depart for Yellowknife, NT on Jan 20 returning to Oklahoma City by Feb 5.

I will start by hitting some of the rare US grids in DN land on the way for our Grid Masters. After that I will enter Canada somewhere in Alberta and head north towards Yellowknife. The fantastic thing about the winter in the Northwest Territories is the transportation infrastructure. Most towns in the NT are accessible only by air on ludicrously expensive flights, however in winter 2,000km of ice roads are built. I will be doing my best to utilize these ice roads to activate grids that have never before been heard on satellite. I plan to activate numerous grids in the CO, DO, CP, and DP areas. Where and how far I go will depend on time and conditions.

With AO-7 eclipsing and FO-29 getting higher, this should be an ideal time for this trip. I will upload to LoTW as cell coverage allows. Outside of normal cell service, I will forward my logs to Paul N8HM, Dave KG5CCI, and Fernando NP4JV via Iridium SBD service for uploading. Due to the harsh conditions, my SBD device will usually stay in the car and may take time to acquire a solid link to an Iridium satellite (although in the polar region, there should be many satellites in view at any given time).

Tracking will be available as usual on APRS as NJ7H-9 (as cell service allows) and on Iridium at share.delorme.com/gz. I may also be contacted via the Iridium portal if need be. Please use first name and callsign and include a reply email address in the portal, and use this service sparingly. I have unlimited messaging, but I only plan to use this for important communications and check it periodically. I have the capability to post to twitter (@NJ7H_Radio) via Iridium and will do so as much as practical, although please note that I will be unable to see any replies when using Iridium.

All logging will be done using the appropriate Canadian suffix. On any packet satellites, I will use as the callsign NJ7HVE8 or NJ7H-7 and will have the correct callsign NJ7H/VE8 in the position comment or message itself.

On the way home I may make a trip down the Pacific Coast through California and through the desert back.

One final request: pleas do not work me repeatedly in the same grid or try to with with the DX in a pileup. This has become an apparent issue and has prevented some from working rare grids. As an example, if the XW train is flying over and I'm not moving grids, there is absolutely no reason to work me on 2B and 5 minutes later on 2C in the same grid. The exception to this is if I move grids rapidly, which has happened. Use your ears. Situational awareness is key. Also the same goes to geographic situational awareness, if you're in the northern US and have another 8 minutes of footprint and a QRP op in Florida is calling with a minute of footprint left, let them go first. I am good with callsigns and hearing, if I call you back you will be in the log, no need for insurance. If there is any doubt (as in you don't have a LoTW confirmation within a few days or know others have QSLs for the same pass), send an email and I will fix it. I would rather you send an email than ruin someone else's shot at a virgin grid. Please don't tie up the frequency with non-essential information. I wall call you back, tell you my grid, and say 73 and wait for the next call. If you don't catch the grid the first time, please just wait and listen to the next QSO, I guarantee I'll tell them too. If you still don't catch the grid you still have a few better options that asking me over and over on frequency: 1. wait for your LoTW confirmation, it will be there, 2. ask someone else, 3. send an email. Just use common sense please.

This also applies to FM birds, if you are linear capable and know you can work the grid on a linear bird, let the FM bro's have their shot, it may be their only. There may be grids that I only operate FM. Just as always, use situational awareness, good judgement, and courtesy.

I hope to give you all many new grids and look forward to the trip!

73!

Gabe NJ7H