Hi!

After watching the weather reports for the past few days, it appears that Hurricane Jimena - or its remnants - will make a western turn out to the Pacific instead of continuing on its northern march toward Arizona. With this in mind, and the fact that the upcoming weekend is a holiday weekend here in the US, I'm going to make a road trip to grid DM31 in southern Arizona for Saturday (5 September) afternoon and evening. This is the only grid that covers Arizona that I have yet to operate from via satellite.

If I have to go to the office in the morning, I should still be on the AO-51 passes in the late afternoon and early evening passes to the east and west. If I don't have to work, I'll be on for AO-27 passes earlier in the afternoon. If I can leave Phoenix early enough, there are SO-50 passes in the late morning and around midday I could work from there. As I do with my other road trips and hamfest demonstrations from various parts of Arizona, I can get on VO-52 if I am in a good stopping place during those late-morning passes. I will not stick around for the VO-52 passes in the evening, as that area is not a friendly place to be after dark.

John K8YSE was out here last fall, putting this grid into the logs of many satellite operators (including my log - thanks!). For those who missed him then, here's another chance to get this rare grid logged. Most of the grid stretches into northern Mexico, with the Arizona portion covering parts of Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (where I will operate from, a few miles/km north of the USA/Mexico border) and a wildlife refuge. This does not leave many choices for stopping and operate from down there. I'll stay on the Arizona side of the border fence, and hope to work as many as I can for those passes.

As with many of my trips, anyone working WD9EWK from DM31 who is interested in a QSL card only needs to e-mail me with the details of the QSO(s) made with me. If you're in the log, I will send you a card - even if you are in Canada, Mexico, or somewhere else that falls in any of those footprints.

73!

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