AA5UK/KH6 operation from Hawaii
At 0331 UTC on April 3, AA5UK/KH6 and I made a quick CW contact on FO-29 – from his vacation location in BL02ic and my home in EM84ha. According to the Tiny Locator program from ON6MU (http://users.belgacom.net/hamradio/tinylocator.htm), our contact covered 7,399 kilometers/4,621 miles. Adrian’s commitment to activate Hawaii – during a vacation trip with his significant other – enabled me to put state No. 50 in the satellite log. He did the same for several others – among them Rick, WA4NVM; George, WA5KBH; Alex, KC7MG; Damon, WA4HFN; Matthew, KC7EQO; and Dave, KN4OK. I believe I speak for all of them when I offer my sincere thanks to Adrian for what I suspect he found was a fun – but, ultimately, Herculean – effort. Thanks, too, to Domenico, I8CVS, for his April 2 post to the AMSAT-BB about FO-29 currently being at or very near apogee during passes from north to south. That prompted me to look into whether we might have a chance on this satellite. During the contact, Adrian had about 2 degrees elevation with the satellite rising at his location; I had 1 degree with the satellite descending here in northeast Georgia. We worked the contact like one in a DX pileup on HF – brief and to the point! We tried unsuccessfully on AO-7 during three different Mode B days. The elevations were roughly the same as what we had on FO-29. However, FO-29’s Mode J configuration enabled each of us to use higher power on the 2 meter uplink than we could on AO-7’s Mode B uplink, on 70 centimeters. I suspect that made the difference. Our stations were identical, and included Yaesu FT-857D radios for transmit; Yaesu FT-817ND radios for receive; and the Elk 2M/440L5 log periodic antenna. All four radios were battery-powered. Thanks again to Adrian for making the significant time and effort to activate Hawaii as much as he has on this trip. Thanks to Dale (KL7XJ), Craig (KL4E) and Joe (AL1F) for activating Alaska so often on FM and linear satellites. Thanks to all of the satellite operators in most of the lower 48 who make their states available so often. And thanks to the rovers who have activated lower-48 states that have proved tough (Delaware immediately comes to mind), and for so many rare grid squares. In particular, many of us owe significant debts of gratitude to Patrick, WD9EWK; John, K8YSE; and Jim, ND9M. Finally, thanks to everyone else who takes the time and makes the effort to activate so many places. 73, Tim – N3TL Athens, Ga. – EM84ha
Hi Tim!
At 0331 UTC on April 3, AA5UK/KH6 and I made a quick CW contact on FO-29 – from his vacation location in BL02ic and my home in EM84ha. According to the Tiny Locator program from ON6MU, our contact covered 7,399 kilometers/4,621 miles.
Congratulations!
I know you had been working on getting Adrian in your log for some time, and Adrian's receive issues on AO-7 initially didn't help your cause. It may not be a "world record" for distance covered, but you two certainly stretched that footprint for all you could.
Adrian’s commitment to activate Hawaii – during a vacation trip with his significant other – enabled me to put state No. 50 in the satellite log. He did the same for several others – among them Rick, WA4NVM; George, WA5KBH; Alex, KC7MG; Damon, WA4HFN; Matthew, KC7EQO; and Dave, KN4OK.
It's great to see those calls, most of them being east of the Rockies and generally unable to work Hawaii on the FM birds. I know a few of the XE satellite operators also put AA5UK/KH6 in their logs. Alvaro XE2AT had already worked Hawaii in the past, but was looking for Adrian's grid on Kauai. I think Omar XE1AO and Bernardo XE2HWB also worked Adrian out there. These two may still need other states for satellite WAS, but at least they can focus on the other states using other birds. There may be other XEs that I'm not aware of, but I know Adrian chatted with several of them via e-mail trying to make those QSOs happen.
Thanks again to Adrian for making the significant time and effort to activate Hawaii as much as he has on this trip.
Yes, Adrian has tried to be on a lot of passes for the benefit of satellite operators. He had been working on this trip for months, and changing his plans so he would have more time on the satellites and still enjoy the non-radio parts of the trip (i.e., no HF activity, something he had planned to do out there originally). I hope Adrian takes time to elaborate on the trip here on the -BB or in an article for the AMSAT Journal, as that would be an interesting read.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
participants (2)
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Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)
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Tim - N3TL