Thank you Patrick for passing that advice to the group.

I would like to add it is best to look for me by tuning up and down about 10Khz from center frequency on most satellites, instead of blindly calling me and hoping I will find you. I am running SatPC and will be fixed "running" vs. "search and pouncing". Most passes if I have a visible horizon I can start calling and almost immediately hear myself. In some cases I do have some trees and minor blockage.

If you follow this advice you will have a better chance of working me.

Currently we are experience very high winds( winds up to 30mph with gusts to 50mph) that have not been seen on the Islands in 20 years. What is happening the salt water is getting kicked up and getting blown inland. From my current QTH one can see a salt fog hanging in the air. Unfortunately I having to direct my signal through this fog. It is causing S9 QRN on 2m reception. I have tried swapping radios but even the DSP filtering is barely making a dent. I believe this is reason I have been struggling on AO7 and VU52 where I have had trouble hearing my downlink for the past several days. Winds are expected to continue until Sunday. I have had no trouble with FO-29 as the downlink is on 70cm. Hopefully I can try HO-68 tomorrow on SSB.

We will keep trying but please note I have no control over the weather and the atmospheric issues that are being created by the wind.

I'll send out an short schedule via separate email. Thanks all for your patience and kind emails.

Aloha! 73, Adrian AA5UK/KH6

________________________________ From: Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Wed, March 31, 2010 8:02:18 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Thanks to AA5UK/KH6 for the FO-29 QSO tonight!

Hi!

Thanks to Adrian AA5UK/KH6 for the FO-29 QSO this evening! It was nice to work another station from Hawaii. I have worked Hawaii a few times, and I worked the grid Adrian has been working from (BL02) a few times last fall when Ron W6ZQ went out there. This was my first non-FM satellite QSO with Hawaii, and it was fun despite being out in my normal "home QTH" (Phoenix city park on the DM33xp/DM43ap grid boundary) well after local sunset.

On that FO-29 pass, I heard a few stations blindly calling for Adrian even though he was somewhere else on the downlink. Even if he is trying to work around a particular spot on the downlink, be ready to tune around to find him. For much of that FO-29 pass, he was about 10 kHz below the center of the downlink. Adrian is the rare DX on these passes, and there is more to a transponder's downlink than just the 5 to 10 kHz around the center of the downlink.

Adrian will be out there for a few more days before heading home, so if you have a shot to try working him - go for it!

73!

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

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