...

I don't know what's happened to all the eastern stations

recently. When I was trying to work grids for VUCC, I had a lot more in the east than in the west. There were lots of W1, 2, 3, 4, etc. on the birds.

Because it was more fun pointing east and working Europeans at 3 deg with no one else in the footprint. :-)

Seriously, having tried to work Merv on several occasions, a MA-CA QSO on a LEO requires a central US pass with the entire continent in the footprint, and a 3 or 5 degree look for him and I. It requires a good set-up, a low horizon, and the bulk of the US satellite ops to pause long enough to allow us to make the QSO (which, in my mind, is exchanging grids both ways). And the AO-27 timer kicks in way too early (and for that reason, btw, is non-usable for NE to Europe... I miss AO-51)

Case in point: my "almost" QSO with San Diego from metro Boston hand-held (listen to the last 10 secs): http://www.papays.com/sat/AO-27_14Jul2011_191720z.mp3

Bill W1PA