Hi!

It has been fun over the past few days here in Dayton for the Symposium. Since my post about the passes I worked on Wednesday to start this trip, I have worked other passes over the past few days:

Thursday (15 October) - from the Indiana/Michigan/Ohio border tripoint in grid EN71oq for a few SO-50 and FO-29 passes, followed by two AO-85 passes from different spots in grid EN70 on my way to Dayton.

Friday (16 October) - an AO-85 pass from the parking garage next to the Crowne Plaza Dayton hotel in downtown Dayton, followed by a western AO-85 pass at the Indiana/Ohio state line near the I-70/US-40 interchange west of Dayton.

Sunday (18 October) - Paul N8HM and I worked an AO-73 pass just after noon/1900 UTC from the parking garage next to the Symposium hotel, and we both listened to the 2130 UTC AO-85 pass with SDR receivers from the same location.

The AO-73 pass was part of an unofficial SDR Q&A session for a few hams who were still at the hotel today. We compared HDSDR settings, and for one ham I was able to verify his HDSDR setup was ready to use an SDRplay receiver by plugging my SDRplay into his laptop. Paul and I used a midday AO-73 pass as a demonstration - Paul with two FT-817s and an Arrow Yagi; I had my FT-817/SDRplay combination with an Elk log periodic.

For the midday AO-73 pass, and we had a small audience on the garage for the AO-73 pass. Red KC4LE also had his FT-817/SDR setup out at the garage. We could hear - and, using HDSDR, see - Red's CW signals through the AO-73 transponder, but it was too bright for Red to see his laptop's screen up on the garage. It was tough for me to see my 8-inch tablet's screen, but I was able to get lined up for 3 QSOs on AO-73. Paul worked 4 stations on the same pass. Nick K5QXJ and Doug K9DLP were out with us on the garage.

At the tripoint, I either used a Kenwood TH-D72A to work the SO-50 passes, or my two FT-817s hanging around my neck to work FO-29. I could not park my car on the tripoint, which was in the middle of a narrow county road, so I went with completely portable options for working FM and SSB out there. For the other passes I have worked after the stop at the tripoint, I used my IC-2820H and SDRplay SDR receiver for the AO-85 passes, and the FT-817ND/SDRplay combination for today's AO-73 pass.

As I have worked AO-85 passes, I used HDSDR to write RF recordings from those passes. I then played those recordings from HDSDR into the FoxTelem software, so the telemetry I received on these passes would get to AMSAT. If you look on the http://amsat.org/tlm page, you can see my call sign with a grid locator after a hyphen, indicating where I was for the number of data frames I received and uploaded for those AO-85 passes. I worked only one AO-85 pass from EN71 in Indiana Wednesday (14 October) evening, 3 AO-85 passes from EN70 (one in Indiana Wednesday evening, two on Thursday evening from Ohio), and 3 AO-85 passes from EM79 (two at the parking garage next to the Symposium hotel, one on the Indiana/Ohio state line west of Dayton).

I have uploaded the RF recordings for the AO-85 and AO-73 passes I have worked over the past few days, along with audio recordings and other files for those passes, on my Dropbox space. These are accessible at:

http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/

Hit F5 to refresh your browser, if the file/folder listing does not appear in your window.

All of the QSOs I have made up through today on this trip are in Logbook of the World. QSL cards are available on request, if you are in my log. Just e-mail me the QSO details, as I don't normally collect QSL cards for my satellite work away from central Arizona.

As I posted a little earlier, I will set out on what may be a 1000-mile road trip tomorrow afternoon. My rental car already has about 600 miles on it from the past 4 days, so it is getting a workout. I may not work every single pass during the trip, but will try to work from the spots I have planned - and maybe a couple of other spots, if time and weather allow for that.

73!

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