[amsat-bb] Re: WD9EWK's road trip - Wednesday (22 July) report

Thu Jul 23 00:55:36 PDT 2009

Hi Patrick and all!

It was great to work 6 new grids over the past week, and I could've made a 
few more if passes would've been a bit more time friendly. :)  In any case, 
I believe your trip was a huge success and many others will no doubtedly 
agree.  It was nice to meet up with you, have lunch and chat for a bit on 
your final leg of the trip.

Patrick, like I told you about Lake Mead, it is getting low, that's why I 
made the wisecrack about the water to the waitress. :)  Another 19 foot drop 
and a formal emergency will be declared and the water distribution rights 
between the states, as well as Mexico, will be re-written.

Sorry about the traffic over the dam, but the view and surroundings of the 
dam make up for any frustrations of waiting. :)

73,

Jeff  WB3JFS
Las Vegas, NV
DM26

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)" <amsat-bb at wd9ewk.net>
To: <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 11:04 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] WD9EWK's road trip - Wednesday (22 July) report

> Hello!
>
> After 7 days and over 1905 miles/3066km on the road, I'm back home
> in Phoenix.  Today was mainly a travel day, not wanting to make a
> late drive home tonight before returning to work tomorrow morning.
> I worked two passes to help some operators get QSOs with certain
> grids, had lunch in between the two passes, and drove about 400
> miles/640km today.
>
> I started the day in Mesquite, Nevada - a small town along the I-15
> freeway at the Nevada/Arizona border.  Before leaving that area, I
> worked one SO-50 pass around 1449 UTC from the DM26xt/DM36at line
> just inside northwestern Arizona.  DM26 is on regularly, but not
> DM36.  I figured I'd make one pass from here, handing out more QSOs
> from there.  I was in another part of DM36 in late May, operating
> from Grand Canyon Village.  In 2008, I worked from 3 different
> spots in DM36 as part of my July 2008 road trip along Arizona's
> borders with Utah and Nevada.  I worked 7 stations across the US
> and Canada, not a big number but pretty good for a weekday morning.
>
> After the SO-50 pass, I made the hour-long drive down to Las Vegas.
> I met Jeff WB3JFS, a Las Vegas resident and satellite ham, for lunch.
> Jeff had told me earlier that he had never worked anyone in his
> home grid (DM26), but had worked the other grid that covers the
> southern end of metropolitan Las Vegas (DM25).  I said I would try
> to help him, and planned to work from the DM25jx/DM26ja grid
> boundary where I stopped last year.  Jeff gave me some QSL cards
> for QSOs we had made earlier in my current road trip, saving the
> postage for those cards.  :-)  After lunch, Jeff went home and I
> went to the south end of the Las Vegas "Strip" for an AO-27 pass
> around 2029 UTC.
>
> In 7 minutes on AO-27, I worked 15 stations - including WB3JFS -
> from the DM25/DM26 grid boundary.  I realize that these grids
> would not be the most rare of the grids in the state of Nevada.
> I was not intending on going to those rare spots on this trip.
> This stop, and the earlier stop in DM26/DM36, were made to help
> others specifically looking for at least one of the grids at
> those stops - and they were not out of my way for today's travels.
>
> After the AO-27 pass, I dismantled my portable station and stowed
> the gear.   It was time to return home and wrap up this trip.
> Other than s-l-o-w traffic passing over Hoover Dam on the Colorado
> River, the drive was OK.  Some rain near Hoover Dam and near
> Phoenix, otherwise a quiet drive where I could set the cruise
> control on my truck.  I made a quick stop at Hoover Dam to get
> some photos of Lake Mead (the water level was much lower than I
> have ever seen it in person), and held my camera out the window
> to get pictures of the new bridge being built over the river that
> will replace Hoover Dam as the way to cross the river at that
> point on the Arizona/Nevada border.
>
> I will post a longer report covering all of my trip in a few days.
> So far, I know I made over 250 QSOs throughout the trip, working
> from 14 grids (DM25, DM26, DM35, DM36, DM37, DM38, DM45, DM46,
> DM47, DM48, DM49, DM57, DM58, DM59) in 3 states (Arizona, Nevada,
> Utah).  In between the two AO-27 passes from DM58/DM59 in eastern
> Utah on Monday afternoon, I made a quick road trip to the
> Utah/Colorado border.  I stopped at the state line to take some
> photos, then went to the first exit on I-70 in Colorado before
> returning to the DM58/DM59 boundary for the later pass.
>
> If you worked me during the past week - going back to last Thursday,
> the day before the hamfest in Williams AZ started - and would like
> QSL cards for those QSOs, please e-mail me with a listing of the QSOs.
> If you're in the log, you'll get a card (or multiple cards).
>
> Since I operated from so many unique locations, I will need a little
> bit of time to prepare cards.  As I have tried to do in the last year
> with my QSL cards, all of these cards will have descriptions of the
> location for each QSO including the grid(s), name of the county I
> was in during the QSO, and an image of my GPS receiver's display
> showing the latitude and longitude for that location.  I will
> include the GPS image even for those cards where my location was not
> on a grid boundary, to keep all of these cards similar in terms of
> the information I am presenting for my location.
>
> Was this a fun trip for me?  Yes!  I've never driven beyond the
> Arizona/Utah border area in Utah, and it was fun to see more of that
> state.  Getting on the air a lot over the past week, whether I was
> at the hamfest or on the road after the hamfest closed, was great.
> Generally there was good cooperation on passes, allowing many to get
> QSOs with me in these different locations.  Meeting WB3JFS in Las
> Vegas today was a nice surprise, and I was happy to help Jeff and a
> few others get QSOs with new grids throughout this trip.
>
> Time for bed.  Good night, and 73!
>
>
>
>
> Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK - back home in Phoenix, Arizona
> http://www.wd9ewk.net/
>
>
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