Hi!

I'm a little tardy in posting this report, but better late than never...

Back on 11 June, I had an AMSAT booth at the Prescott Hamfest, on the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Prescott. There have been hamfests in and around Prescott over the years, but this was the first time attending a hamfest at Embry-Riddle. In fact, I had never been on the campus until this morning. The university's Eagle Amateur Radio Club was the co-sponsor of the event, along with the Yavapai Amateur Radio Club. The hamfest actually started the day before at noon, but I was not able to make it up there for that day. The Saturday portion of the hamfest was scheduled to run from 8am (1500 UTC) until 5pm (0000 UTC). Most had packed up and left before 5pm, but it was still a good day.

The university's Student Union building was the site of the AMSAT booth. Nice, air-conditioned, and with electricity to power one of my tablets. I alternated between running SatPC32, HDSDR with my SDRplay receiver for general listening, and ADS-B software with the SDRplay to watch the planes flying around northern Arizona. SDR has been a popular topic whenever I have one of my receivers on display, or when I use an SDR receiver during a demonstration. This was no exception. It was too bright, and a little too warm, to run the SDR receiver and tablet outside for my demonstrations. Having that set up at my booth was more than sufficient to start conversations about that and extending into satellite operating. Having copies of the new 2016 edition of the AMSAT "Getting Started with Amateur Satellites" book on hand was big. In the past, I'd still have copies of the previous edition of this book for hamfests I visited in June. Thanks to Steve Belter N9IP, I received a couple of boxes with these new books, and they were popular at the hamfest.

During the day, I had demonstrations on 5 different passes. In the morning, I worked an AO-85 and an FO-29 pass from outside the building. The AO-85 pass was a nice cross-country pass, with stations heard from coast to coast. I used my Icom IC-2730A mobile radio and Elk log periodic to make a few contacts. Some Embry-Riddle students were watching me work this pass, which was a nice bonus. In the late morning and mid-afternoon, a couple of FO-29 passes came by. I used one of my FT-817s with the Elk, working half-duplex, to show that it really doesn't take a lot to get on this SSB satellite. I made a few contacts on each of those passes. And there were a pair of ISS passes that led to a couple of contacts, including one with XE3ISS in Cancun at a distance of just over 2900km - a personal best for an ISS QSO, packet or voice. I used only my Kenwood TH-D72A HT and Elk log periodic to make the ISS packet QSOs via APRS messages. No computer or tablet was needed, and I have relearned the fine art of quickly tapping messages out on a DTMF keypad, as was done in the past with the non-smart mobile phones. :-)

At the end of the hamfest, the organizers said they felt it was a success, and are hoping the 2017 Prescott Hamfest could be held at Embry-Riddle. AMSAT thanks both the Eagle Amateur Radio Club at Embry-Riddle and the Yavapai Amateur Radio Club for providing a booth and helping promote the satellite demonstrations throughout the day.

73!

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