Hi!

I drove north from Phoenix this morning, and spent some of the afternoon working a pair of AO-27 passes followed by an AO-51 pass from the DM35/DM45 line. I parked on the side of old US-66 north of the I-40 freeway, about 20 miles/32km west of Flagstaff AZ. I have operated from this location many times over the past year or so. Much cooler weather up here in the mountains, compared to Phoenix in the desert. :-)

On AO-27, the first pass I worked at 2000 UTC was the most productive of the afternoon - 12 contacts with stations across the US and Mexico. The next AO-27 pass at 2141 UTC put 8 more QSOs in the log, followed by 9 more QSOs on the 0100 UTC AO-51 pass that covered most of the continental US. A good day, with a total of 29 QSOs in the log.

For tomorrow (Friday, 17 July), I will be on the air from the ARRL Arizona State Convention and Hamfest in Williams AZ. Williams is a small city along old US-66, about 10 miles/16km west of where I operated from today, and the starting point for the Grand Canyon Railway. I am planning to be on the air for the 1300 UTC AO-51 pass, as well as the later AO-51 pass. SO-50 will be going by, and I think I can get on for one of those passes, plus a VO-52 pass just before 1800 UTC (1100 local, the time of my presentation at the hamfest's exhibit hall). I should be able to get on AO-27 passes in the afternoon, as well as the first (eastern, for me) AO-51 pass a little past 0000 UTC. The hamfest site is in grid DM35vg.

Again, there's no need to send me QSLs or SASEs to get QSL cards for any contacts made with WD9EWK over the next week. You don't have to e-mail me with every QSO; one e-mail sent after I return home on 22 July with all QSOs in it would be sufficient. If I find the QSO(s) in the log, I will be happy to send cards for each contact. And, as I've been doing since last year's Arizona/Utah/Nevada road trip, cards will clearly identify each location I operate from along with a picture of my GPS receiver's readout to show the latitude/longitude of the location.

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - Williams, Arizona http://www.wd9ewk.net/