On May 30, 2008, at 7:46 PM, Piyumi Perera wrote:

Hi to the BB,

My name is Piyumi Perera and I am a 10 year old YL living in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Today I was so excited because I made my first satellite contact on AO-51 at 00:52 UTC. It was an even more special contact for me as the station was from Alaska, KL7XJ.

Congratulations on your first satellite contact!

I used an Icom IC-W32A handheld at 5 watts with an Arrow antenna.

I began working the satellites starting last year, after hearing AO-51 broadcasting a message celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Sputnik. Since then, I've had fun working people all over the U.S., Canada and Mexico, From Toronto to Hawaii, from Alaska to the Socoros Islands using my TH-D7A handheld into an Arrow antenna. It's a blast. Here's hoping that the big dogs move aside some time in the future and allow us poor QRP satelliters to have a QSO.

I thank KL7XJ for making my first satellite contact possible. It was a lot of fun, and hope to make more satellite contacts in the future.

Checking my own blog, I found out that I worked KL7XJ back in January, along VA7VW. Here's a link to my mp3 of the pass.

http://brainwagon.org/2008/01/20/evening-western-pass-for-ao-51/

73,

Mark KF6KYI CM87

73,

Piyumi Perera VE4WPL - EN19 _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb