My 3 or 4 week grid expedition around Lake Superior is about to start. The planned date is August 2nd, however, a jury duty summons may interfere with the departure date. Hopefully we will leave on time or a few days late.

The grids planned are: EN28-29-36-37-38-39- 46-47-48-49-56-57-58-59-63-64-65-66-67-68-69-73-74-75-76- 77-78-79-83-84-86-87 and EO30 in both the US and Canada.

There will be FM and SSB activity, probably little CW if any. This is a sightseeing trip around Lake Superior but I will do my best to operate on the birds as much as possible. We will be camping in a tent most of the time. Moving most every day will make it interesting.

My XYL, W8ZJB, will be on the air only to work me if I have remote access on the internet or cellphone. She agreed to do this but please don't call her for a contact. She won't likely respond except maybe to our son, KD8CAO.

Doug will be the point of contact for anyone wishing to get a message to me during the trip. I don't anticipate much cellphone coverage while we are in Canada. The planned route is on my website: http://www.papays.com/sat

If you have specific requests, please email them to me and I'll make a list and will be sure to look for you when I am in the grids you need.

The station is a TS2000, dual band Alinco for SO-50 and AO-27 receive only, G5400b, LVB tracker, SatPC32, Arrow 7x7 UHF with relay switching between horizontal and vertical and a 5 el Mosley, vertically polarized for 2 meters. I have a Mirage UHF preamp to help cut down on the coax loses. All of this is in a F150 pickup. Other than orienting the antennas north, everything is computer controlled and operating in the rain is not a problem. Backup is my Kenwood V7A mobile with a neck strap, a 7ah UPS battery, the Arrow II antenna, digital voice recorder etc. We may do a backpack to Isle Royale with this setup if time permits.

As always, I plan to qsl everyone I work on this trip. If you do send an SASE, please wait until the end of the trip and include all of your qso's on a card or sheet of paper. I anticipate that all passes will be recorded.

I look forward to giving out a lot of needed grids. Hopefully the equipment will work well throughout the trip.

73, John K8YSE