Hi!

The 2014 Yuma Hamfest has wrapped up, and day two was a good day out here in southwestern Arizona. A full day of activity, followed by a barbecue in the evening. Just like yesterday afternoon, there were lots of people visiting the hamfest, and activity at the AMSAT booth in the main hall as well as outside the hall during demonstrations.

Visitors... Larry WA6DIR and Endaf KG6FIY, two satellite operators from southern California, stopped by the hamfest and visited the booth. I posted a picture of Larry on my Twitter feed @WD9EWK (http://twitter.com/WD9EWK for those not on Twitter), and Endaf posted a photo of him and me to his Twitter feed @endaf_99 (http://twitter.com/endaf_99 ). Others that stopped by included Alex XE2BSS/N2IX, Larry KI6YAA, and Neil W6FOG - with his parrot. Other people would stop by and ask questions about satellites and AMSAT, along with questions on all sorts of topics.

Satellites... thanks to the 8 stations across the continental USA and Mexico that worked WD9EWK during the SO-50 pass around 1444 UTC this morning. This was just before the official start of the hamfest at 1500 UTC, but there was a crowd milling around the main hall entrance where I was set up. A nice demonstration. That was followed by an FO-29 pass just over an hour later. Although I only talked with two stations (thanks to AC0RA and N5UXT for the calls!), Wyatt AC0RA was kind enough to chat with me for several minutes during the pass. That helped pass the time during the pass, instead of the crowd hearing several minutes of CQ calls until Angelo called me late in the pass. Alex XE2BSS/N2IX recorded videos of me working these two passes, and those should be up on YouTube in a few days, after I get back home.

Along with these two passes, I made use of an AO-73 pass just after noon (1900 UTC) to copy some telemetry and feed it to the FUNcube data warehouse server from outside the main hall where I had done my earlier demonstrations. Using a FUNcube Dongle Pro+, Elk Antennas 2m/70cm log periodic, and the FUNcube Dashboard software on my laptop, I was able to successfully copy and upload 47 data frames during this pass. There were 45 other frames that I didn't copy completely, which I attribute to not pointing my antenna at the satellite well enough during parts of the pass. Alex XE2BSS/N2IX was back outside again with the camera recording another video, and Frank N7ZEV - he helped me with the AO-7 demonstration yesterday - was outside helping answer questions as the data was being received. It was nice to show the crowd the FUNcube data warehouse web page during the pass, where they could see WD9EWK-DM22 pop up on the web page along with the other stations feeding data to that server. I defined a new configuration for my Dashboard program just for the hamfest with its latitude and longitude, as opposed to WD9EWK-DM43 I normally use in the program at home.

Thanks, once again, to the Yuma Amateur Radio Hamfest Organization for providing AMSAT a booth and allowing us to be a part of another successful weekend. This was the 6th consecutive year AMSAT has been a part of the Yuma Hamfest. Thanks to all of those who helped with the demonstrations, along with Ron W6ZQ and the other ARRL card checkers, as well as Francisco N6CRX (a ham from nearby Calexico CA), for keeping an eye on the AMSAT booth while we were outside with the demonstrations. And thanks to everyone who called and worked WD9EWK during the satellite demonstrations.

Time for bed, then the drive home tomorrow (plus a stop somewhere in grid DM32 for some passes in the morning). 73!

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