Hi!

IF all goes well tomorrow afternoon, I will leave Phoenix for southern Arizona, but with a detour to the rarely-heard grid DM53. If things go really well, I hope to park on the DM52/DM53 line along US-70, about 20 miles northwest of Safford AZ, for the two AO-85 passes starting around 0045 UTC. I may also be able to work other passes. Since US-70 passes through a lot of my home grid (DM43), and much of that on the San Carlos Indian Reservation, I won't make any stops until I reach DM53. US-70 cuts through the southwest corner of DM53 only for a couple of miles, connecting the southeast corner of DM43 with the northwest corner of DM52.

Saturday morning will be the Cochise Amateur Radio Association's annual spring hamfest in Sierra Vista AZ, in grid DM41. I'll be on the air working various satellite passes for demonstrations. After the hamfest, my target is the DM52/DM62 grid boundary along I-10 west of Deming NM. Among other passes I'd like to work from the DM52/DM62 boundary would be the Saturday evening AO-85 passes, and other satellites that pass by around that time. I will not be able to stay out there for late night passes or anything on Sunday, as I need to return home sometime late Saturday evening - or maybe very early on Sunday morning, but don't tell my dog. :-)

All QSOs from anywhere I operate will end up in Logbook of the World. QSL cards will also be available on request - please e-mail me with the QSO details. I will squawk WD9EWK-9 to the terrestrial APRS network as I drive around Arizona and New Mexico, and this should appear on sites like aprs.fi:

http://aprs.fi/WD9EWK-9

When I work the digipeaters on either the ISS or NO-84, I will use WD9EWK without the "-9" as my call sign.

Updates over the next couple of days will be available on my @WD9EWK Twitter account. You don't need to be a Twitter user to see those updates; just visit this link:

http://twitter.com/WD9EWK

Thanks, and 73!

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