[amsat-bb] Tuesday (22 July) activities from WD9EWK

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Hi!

Tuesday was another busy day, with another 459.6 miles/739.5km 
on the odometer and adding the 10th grid to the list of where
I have operated from during this trip.  Unlike the previous few
days, this was the hottest day - driving through desert instead
of mountains and higher elevations as I had done in the previous
5 days.  

As I was preparing to leave Las Vegas, I worked an SO-50 pass 
from the DM25/DM26 grid boundary.  I only logged 2 QSOs from 
there.  I set out for the Bullhead City AZ/Laughlin NV area
south of Las Vegas, where I got lunch before an 85-degree AO-27
pass.  For that pass, I parked south of Bullhead City on the
Arizona side of the Colorado River, on the DM24qx/DM25qa grid
boundary:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=15092323201430215166,35.000000,-114.593500&q=35+0.00+n+114+35.610+w&doflg=ptm&ie=UTF8&ll=36.022447,-113.7854&spn=3.696106,6.61377&t=h&z=7&iwloc=addr

This was a nice pass, with 15 contacts in 7 minutes.  Lots of
activity, and not too much non-ham QRM except in the first minute
or so of the pass.  Many stations were able to talk over the QRM. 
It was hot outside, at 107F/42C outside, so I parked my truck to 
get as much shade as possible for this pass.  Even with that, I 
was sweating a lot and drinking a lot of water to keep from 
dehydrating.  

I had thought about working later passes on AO-51 from somewhere 
else in DM24, or possibly DM23.  The heat was the main reason why
I didn't bother to make additional stops.  In the summertime, the
area I was driving through (along the Colorado River dividing 
Arizona and California) generally gets the hottest temperatures
in the continental USA - and I wanted to get home.  

I will go back through my logs and notes, and post a better summary
of the trip including the hamfest at the start of the group late 
last week.  I can say that I drove 1603.5 miles (2580km) in 6 days,
operated from 10 grids, and had fun despite the high prices of 
fuel along the way.  

73!



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