Hi!

As I just posted in another -BB message, I operated as K7UGA on one AO-27 pass this afternoon from the Yuma hamfest. This brought my QSO count as K7UGA on the satellites this week to 111.

Over the past day or so, you may have heard another voice on the FM satellites and VO-52 as K7UGA. You would have been hearing Tom NQ7R. Tom used to work satellites many years ago, and is starting to try them again. Tom was operating from his home in central Arizona, in grid DM42.

I will work one more pass from here in Yuma to wrap up my K7UGA activity. I will be on the VO-52 pass at 1536-1549 UTC (an eastern pass with maximum elevation of 71 degrees). After this pass, I am planning to have lunch with a bunch of friends in this area, before driving home in the mid-afternoon.

It's been fun to operate using the former call of a famous ham this week, trying to extend the Central Arizona DX Association's Arizona statehood centennial commemoration to the satellites. In the brief QSOs on the FM birds, and some of the longer chats on the SSB birds, I've heard some comments from people who worked Barry Goldwater on HF - amateur bands, or the MARS frequencies - in the past. I never had the chance to work Barry on the radio, but it has been fun to hear them.

If you wish to receive a K7UGA QSL card, please send your QSL request with an SASE to the K7UGA QSL manager, Bob K7BHM. You can see the K7UGA card at: http://www.qrz.com/db/k7uga

73!

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