Hi!

I made it to the EN40/EN41 boundary north of Galesburg IL, but not in time to work the eastern USA on an FM satellite. One very shallow AO51 pass out west, then two higher passes on AO7 and FO29, as the sun set this evening. I will go back to the same spot tomorrow morning for the AO51 passes at 1023 and 1202 UTC. I will look at other passes after these, but will probably start heading back toward Chicago after these passes. I may make a mid-morning detour to Davenport in Iowa (EN41) for a couple of passes, before hitting I-88 back to Chicago. Maybe on SO50, and/or an SSB bird.

APRS is spotty in much of the Illinois flatlands, but I will run my VX-8GR with my position for that drive as WD9EWK-7 . You may see me at http://aprs.fi/wd9ewk-7 online.

Thanks for all the QSOs today on all 3 FM birds, along with AO7 and FO29. I started my drive at EN51/EN52/EN61/EN62 after I left the Symposium, then an SO50 pass at the Illinois/Wisconsin state line north of Chicago (EN62), and other passes in that grid as well as EN51 and EN41 before reaching the EN40/EN41 boundary. And did I mention I was enjoying all of this? The rental car has over 350 miles (563km) on it so far since arriving in Chicago Thursday, and it will see at least 150 more miles (241km) for the drive back to Chicago.

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - Galesburg, Illinois http://www.wd9ewk.net/