Hi!

The Central Arizona DX Association's commemoration of the Arizona Statehood Centennial is underway. Thanks to Bob K7BHM, the CADXA's organizer of this week-long event and the K7UGA QSL manager, I was able to get on the air this evening as the UTC clock passed the midnight hour earlier today, starting with an AO-7 pass. K7UGA logged a total 16 QSOs on 5 different passes, using 3 different satellites (AO-7, SO-50, VO-52). Thanks for the QSOs!

K7UGA will also be on the HF bands from stations around Arizona, with some of the HF operations already in progress. More will be on the HF bands after 1500 UTC today, through next Sunday (19th). To read more about the CADXA's commemoration, which received the OK from the Arizona Centennial Commission as an official event connected with the state centennial celebrations, please visit http://cadxa.org/

For Monday evening (early Tuesday on the UTC clock), I am planning to work the following passes:

VO-52 at 0218-0230 UTC (passes to the east of Arizona) SO-50 at 0351-0404 UTC (passes from the north of Arizona to the southeast)

I know there is a second VO-52 pass I could work at the same time as the SO-50 pass, but I would like to work both SSB and FM where possible. The 0218 UTC VO-52 pass practically covers from coast to coast, and those on the west coast can get an early jump on the 0351 UTC SO-50 pass before that footprint stretches too far east.

Tuesday, 14 February, is Statehood Day here in Arizona. Along with the planned operations on HF from the 3 cities that served as capitals in Arizona's pre-statehood territorial days (Phoenix, Tucson, and Prescott) and my planned activity tomorrow night (which will be the 14th on the UTC clock), I am hoping to be able to work one or two passes around the 1930-2030 UTC timeframe from here in the Phoenix area. This will allow satellite operators a chance to do the same thing as those working HF. I see an SO-50 pass at 1943-1958 UTC on Tuesday, followed by an AO-27 pass where the repeater should switch on around 2019 UTC. I would like to work both passes if possible, but will try for at least one of the two.

I will take a closer look at the Tuesday evening (early Wednesday, UTC time) passes tomorrow. I expect there should be VO-52 and SO-50 passes that K7UGA can be on, and I will post more about that later.

73!

Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK (K7UGA on the satellites this week) http://www.wd9ewk.net/