Hi!

First of all, many thanks to everyone who worked WD9EWK from the DM23vx/DM24va grid boundary on Saturday. I had not been out there in a couple of years, and was looking for a day-trip somewhere that didn't have snow or ice. Put "34.0 N 114.21533 W" into your favorite mapping Web site or application to see where this is. It was a nice high spot, overlooking a highway junction, which let me work passes in a couple of directions all the way down to the horizon. Between some passes, I was able to drive northwest to Parker - a small town along the Colorado River - to get something to eat and return to the grid boundary in time for more passes.

I left home a couple of hours before sunrise, hoping to make it out there in time for the SO-50 pass around 1545 UTC (0845 local time). I made it with time to spare, a good thing. I planned on working whatever passes were available from that time until a little after sunset, not wanting to stay out there well into the night. The day went well, and made for a nice road trip of about 400 miles/640km in 18 hours. APRS coverage in this part of Arizona is pretty good, with the grid boundary stop covered by 3 different mountaintop digipeaters.

I logged 69 QSOs on 11 passes of the 4 satellites that currently support voice communications: 5 SO-50 passes, and two passes each for the 3 SSB/CW satellites (AO-7, AO-73, and FO-29). I also tried a third AO-73 pass just after noon, a 4-degree pass, where I only heard myself. I tried two NO-44 passes in the afternoon, and saw a station on each pass, but wasn't able to log a QSO. I was able to log 12 QSOs on two of the SO-50 passes, and one SO-50 pass saw 16 QSOs go in the log. FO-29 was also busy, with 8 QSOs logged on one pass that went over the middle of North America. Thanks, as always, to the AMSAT-UK command stations for making AO-73's transponder available day and night on the weekends!

After I wrapped up my operating at DM23vx/DM24va, I made two stops on the drive home to copy the ISS SSTV transmissions. The first stop was at a truck stop in Quartzsite, Arizona, in grid DM23vp. I copied one picture, and part of another picture, from here around 0251-0259 UTC Sunday (Saturday evening, local time). For the next ISS pass, I drove about 75 miles/120km east to another truck stop in Tonopah, Arizona, in grid DM33ml. Again, I received part of one picture and all of another picture during the 0426-0436 UTC pass. The complete picture was not received as cleanly as the picture I received earlier in Quartzsite. I uploaded all of my SSTV pictures to the ARISS SSTV archive from Saturday night on the road, as well as last night's pictures I received at home. They are visible at:

http://www.spaceflightsoftware.com/ARISS_SSTV/index.php

(one from last night is on this page, and the others are on the archive pages)

I uploaded my log from Saturday's activity to Logbook of the World yesterday. If anyone wants to receive a QSL card to confirm a QSO, please e-mail me with the QSO details. There's no need to first send me a QSL card and/or SASE to get my card. This location is well outside my VUCC 200km limit, so I don't look to collect QSL cards for the QSOs I make. Just like I enjoy working new station and grids when I'm at (or near) home, I enjoy giving out the contacts when I am on the road.

Thanks again, and 73!

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