Hello!
After 7 days and over 1905 miles/3066km on the road, I'm back home in Phoenix. Today was mainly a travel day, not wanting to make a late drive home tonight before returning to work tomorrow morning. I worked two passes to help some operators get QSOs with certain grids, had lunch in between the two passes, and drove about 400 miles/640km today.
I started the day in Mesquite, Nevada - a small town along the I-15 freeway at the Nevada/Arizona border. Before leaving that area, I worked one SO-50 pass around 1449 UTC from the DM26xt/DM36at line just inside northwestern Arizona. DM26 is on regularly, but not DM36. I figured I'd make one pass from here, handing out more QSOs from there. I was in another part of DM36 in late May, operating from Grand Canyon Village. In 2008, I worked from 3 different spots in DM36 as part of my July 2008 road trip along Arizona's borders with Utah and Nevada. I worked 7 stations across the US and Canada, not a big number but pretty good for a weekday morning.
After the SO-50 pass, I made the hour-long drive down to Las Vegas. I met Jeff WB3JFS, a Las Vegas resident and satellite ham, for lunch. Jeff had told me earlier that he had never worked anyone in his home grid (DM26), but had worked the other grid that covers the southern end of metropolitan Las Vegas (DM25). I said I would try to help him, and planned to work from the DM25jx/DM26ja grid boundary where I stopped last year. Jeff gave me some QSL cards for QSOs we had made earlier in my current road trip, saving the postage for those cards. :-) After lunch, Jeff went home and I went to the south end of the Las Vegas "Strip" for an AO-27 pass around 2029 UTC.
In 7 minutes on AO-27, I worked 15 stations - including WB3JFS - from the DM25/DM26 grid boundary. I realize that these grids would not be the most rare of the grids in the state of Nevada. I was not intending on going to those rare spots on this trip. This stop, and the earlier stop in DM26/DM36, were made to help others specifically looking for at least one of the grids at those stops - and they were not out of my way for today's travels.
After the AO-27 pass, I dismantled my portable station and stowed the gear. It was time to return home and wrap up this trip. Other than s-l-o-w traffic passing over Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, the drive was OK. Some rain near Hoover Dam and near Phoenix, otherwise a quiet drive where I could set the cruise control on my truck. I made a quick stop at Hoover Dam to get some photos of Lake Mead (the water level was much lower than I have ever seen it in person), and held my camera out the window to get pictures of the new bridge being built over the river that will replace Hoover Dam as the way to cross the river at that point on the Arizona/Nevada border.
I will post a longer report covering all of my trip in a few days. So far, I know I made over 250 QSOs throughout the trip, working from 14 grids (DM25, DM26, DM35, DM36, DM37, DM38, DM45, DM46, DM47, DM48, DM49, DM57, DM58, DM59) in 3 states (Arizona, Nevada, Utah). In between the two AO-27 passes from DM58/DM59 in eastern Utah on Monday afternoon, I made a quick road trip to the Utah/Colorado border. I stopped at the state line to take some photos, then went to the first exit on I-70 in Colorado before returning to the DM58/DM59 boundary for the later pass.
If you worked me during the past week - going back to last Thursday, the day before the hamfest in Williams AZ started - and would like QSL cards for those QSOs, please e-mail me with a listing of the QSOs. If you're in the log, you'll get a card (or multiple cards).
Since I operated from so many unique locations, I will need a little bit of time to prepare cards. As I have tried to do in the last year with my QSL cards, all of these cards will have descriptions of the location for each QSO including the grid(s), name of the county I was in during the QSO, and an image of my GPS receiver's display showing the latitude and longitude for that location. I will include the GPS image even for those cards where my location was not on a grid boundary, to keep all of these cards similar in terms of the information I am presenting for my location.
Was this a fun trip for me? Yes! I've never driven beyond the Arizona/Utah border area in Utah, and it was fun to see more of that state. Getting on the air a lot over the past week, whether I was at the hamfest or on the road after the hamfest closed, was great. Generally there was good cooperation on passes, allowing many to get QSOs with me in these different locations. Meeting WB3JFS in Las Vegas today was a nice surprise, and I was happy to help Jeff and a few others get QSOs with new grids throughout this trip.
Time for bed. Good night, and 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - back home in Phoenix, Arizona http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Hi Patrick and all!
It was great to work 6 new grids over the past week, and I could've made a few more if passes would've been a bit more time friendly. :) In any case, I believe your trip was a huge success and many others will no doubtedly agree. It was nice to meet up with you, have lunch and chat for a bit on your final leg of the trip.
Patrick, like I told you about Lake Mead, it is getting low, that's why I made the wisecrack about the water to the waitress. :) Another 19 foot drop and a formal emergency will be declared and the water distribution rights between the states, as well as Mexico, will be re-written.
Sorry about the traffic over the dam, but the view and surroundings of the dam make up for any frustrations of waiting. :)
73,
Jeff WB3JFS Las Vegas, NV DM26
----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)" [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:04 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] WD9EWK's road trip - Wednesday (22 July) report
Hello!
After 7 days and over 1905 miles/3066km on the road, I'm back home in Phoenix. Today was mainly a travel day, not wanting to make a late drive home tonight before returning to work tomorrow morning. I worked two passes to help some operators get QSOs with certain grids, had lunch in between the two passes, and drove about 400 miles/640km today.
I started the day in Mesquite, Nevada - a small town along the I-15 freeway at the Nevada/Arizona border. Before leaving that area, I worked one SO-50 pass around 1449 UTC from the DM26xt/DM36at line just inside northwestern Arizona. DM26 is on regularly, but not DM36. I figured I'd make one pass from here, handing out more QSOs from there. I was in another part of DM36 in late May, operating from Grand Canyon Village. In 2008, I worked from 3 different spots in DM36 as part of my July 2008 road trip along Arizona's borders with Utah and Nevada. I worked 7 stations across the US and Canada, not a big number but pretty good for a weekday morning.
After the SO-50 pass, I made the hour-long drive down to Las Vegas. I met Jeff WB3JFS, a Las Vegas resident and satellite ham, for lunch. Jeff had told me earlier that he had never worked anyone in his home grid (DM26), but had worked the other grid that covers the southern end of metropolitan Las Vegas (DM25). I said I would try to help him, and planned to work from the DM25jx/DM26ja grid boundary where I stopped last year. Jeff gave me some QSL cards for QSOs we had made earlier in my current road trip, saving the postage for those cards. :-) After lunch, Jeff went home and I went to the south end of the Las Vegas "Strip" for an AO-27 pass around 2029 UTC.
In 7 minutes on AO-27, I worked 15 stations - including WB3JFS - from the DM25/DM26 grid boundary. I realize that these grids would not be the most rare of the grids in the state of Nevada. I was not intending on going to those rare spots on this trip. This stop, and the earlier stop in DM26/DM36, were made to help others specifically looking for at least one of the grids at those stops - and they were not out of my way for today's travels.
After the AO-27 pass, I dismantled my portable station and stowed the gear. It was time to return home and wrap up this trip. Other than s-l-o-w traffic passing over Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, the drive was OK. Some rain near Hoover Dam and near Phoenix, otherwise a quiet drive where I could set the cruise control on my truck. I made a quick stop at Hoover Dam to get some photos of Lake Mead (the water level was much lower than I have ever seen it in person), and held my camera out the window to get pictures of the new bridge being built over the river that will replace Hoover Dam as the way to cross the river at that point on the Arizona/Nevada border.
I will post a longer report covering all of my trip in a few days. So far, I know I made over 250 QSOs throughout the trip, working from 14 grids (DM25, DM26, DM35, DM36, DM37, DM38, DM45, DM46, DM47, DM48, DM49, DM57, DM58, DM59) in 3 states (Arizona, Nevada, Utah). In between the two AO-27 passes from DM58/DM59 in eastern Utah on Monday afternoon, I made a quick road trip to the Utah/Colorado border. I stopped at the state line to take some photos, then went to the first exit on I-70 in Colorado before returning to the DM58/DM59 boundary for the later pass.
If you worked me during the past week - going back to last Thursday, the day before the hamfest in Williams AZ started - and would like QSL cards for those QSOs, please e-mail me with a listing of the QSOs. If you're in the log, you'll get a card (or multiple cards).
Since I operated from so many unique locations, I will need a little bit of time to prepare cards. As I have tried to do in the last year with my QSL cards, all of these cards will have descriptions of the location for each QSO including the grid(s), name of the county I was in during the QSO, and an image of my GPS receiver's display showing the latitude and longitude for that location. I will include the GPS image even for those cards where my location was not on a grid boundary, to keep all of these cards similar in terms of the information I am presenting for my location.
Was this a fun trip for me? Yes! I've never driven beyond the Arizona/Utah border area in Utah, and it was fun to see more of that state. Getting on the air a lot over the past week, whether I was at the hamfest or on the road after the hamfest closed, was great. Generally there was good cooperation on passes, allowing many to get QSOs with me in these different locations. Meeting WB3JFS in Las Vegas today was a nice surprise, and I was happy to help Jeff and a few others get QSOs with new grids throughout this trip.
Time for bed. Good night, and 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - back home in Phoenix, Arizona http://www.wd9ewk.net/
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Hi Jeff!
It was great to work 6 new grids over the past week, and I could've made a few more if passes would've been a bit more time friendly. :) In any case, I believe your trip was a huge success and many others will no doubtedly agree. It was nice to meet up with you, have lunch and chat for a bit on your final leg of the trip.
I've received a few e-mail requests for QSLs, and have had good comments about my trip. If I didn't have fun, there's no logical reason to drive to some of these spots. I like traveling around, playing radio, and - when possible - meeting up with some of the hams I have heard on the birds.
I hadn't realized how many different grids I operated from until last night. I thought I might exceed the 10 I worked from on my trip last July. Working from 14 was a complete surprise - until I looked at a grid map and saw all those grids. Six of the 8 Utah grids were new ones where I worked from (I worked from DM47 and DM57 last year), and now I think I have worked from 36 or 37 different grids in 6 states, one Canadian province, and one Mexican state since 2006. My satellite log for WD9EWK has crossed the 6000-QSO mark, not counting QSOs made from Canada or Mexico.
Sorry about the traffic over the dam, but the view and surroundings of the dam make up for any frustrations of waiting. :)
I knew it would be busy, but still a shorter travel time than the alternatives like driving from Las Vegas through Laughlin/Bullhead City to get to Kingman and then down to Phoenix. I was able to sit in traffic and get pictures of the new bridge, the low water levels in Lake Mead, and Hoover Dam without having to pull off the road near the dam.
I still have to make a fuller writeup of the past week, the hamfest last weekend as well as the road trip. I know that the group working on the AMSAT Journal might want to put some of this in print, the narrative as well as photos. I have a few hundred photos on my camera, and not just of my GPS receiver and radio gear at each stop where I operated from. :-)
With the summer heat here, I really should take some time to get my two FT-817 radios working with SatPC32, as well as printing QSL cards from this trip. Again, I had fun, and I hope others had fun working me while I was on the road. Now I can start thinking of my next long trip, which doesn't necessarily have to be a "road trip".
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
participants (2)
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Jeff Yanko -
Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)