Hi all!

Friday was a good day out here. The Yuma hamfest in Arizona started at midday (1900 UTC), and there was a small crowd that came through the exhibit hall where I had an AMSAT table. Since this was a normal workday for most, tomorrow's crowd should be much better. The weather was nice, but some of the Harrier pilots from the Marine Corps airfield south of the hamfest site made it very hard at times when the planes were taking off. Flying low over the hamfest before gaining altitude, those Harriers are LOUD! Even when sitting inside the hall.

Since this was only a half-day, I only had two passes that I did demonstrations on - an ISS pass around 1930 UTC, and an SO-50 pass later in the afternoon. Thanks to all who showed up on those passes, and helping show off this corner of amateur radio. Even long-time operators like Allen N5AFV and Rick WA4NVM, good satellite operators who have thousands of QSOs in their logs and a fair number of QSOs with me already, drop in and say "hello" to me and the hamfest audience. Thanks!

After the hamfest ended at 0000 UTC, I saw I had some time before another SO-50 pass and an AO-51 pass that followed immediately after that. I decided to drive east from Yuma to a spot I visited several weeks ago, on the DM22/DM32 grid boundary. I worked those two passes, and made a total of 17 contacts (14 of those on a busy AO-51 pass!). I said I would be on from "DM22-land" for a few days, and kept to that - but also added DM32 to the list. After that pass, I drove back to where I am staying while here for the hamfest in Calexico CA.

Just before reaching Calexico, there was one more AO-51 pass just before 0300 UTC to the west. I made 8 more QSOs there, including real long-distance contacts :-) with Alex N2IX (my host while in Calexico, a few miles/km west of where I stopped) and N6RNN north of me in the next grid (DM23).

Tomorrow will be a full day at the Yuma hamfest. I'll have a couple of helpers for the AMSAT table with me (Alex XE2BSS/N2IX, David XE2DAK), which should let me do many demonstrations: on the FM birds, the ISS (including hearing the ISS side of a scheduled contact in the late morning), and a couple of SSB birds (VO-52, FO-29). There is a barbecue in the evening after the hamfest officially closes, and then I will have a chance to figure out what I'll do on Sunday before I head back home on Monday.

73!

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