[amsat-bb] Re: Weekend on the Birds

[Bob- W7LRD]

DITTO! 

73 Bob W7LRD 

Seattle 



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Papay" <john at papays.com> 
To: amsat-bb at amsat.org 
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 7:19:46 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: [amsat-bb]  Weekend on the Birds 

This past weekend on the birds was second to 
none that I've experienced in the past two 
years.  We had grid dxpeditions on the east and 
west coast, two hamfest demonstrations, the Boy 
Scout Jamboree stations and an Alaska Statehood 
special event station operating. 

Patrick, WD9EWK, was at the Old Pueblo Radio Club 
Hamfest in Tucson and made a big detour to continue 
down I-10 to the Arizona/New Mexico state line where he 
operated from in the afternoon.  Doug, KD8CAO, was at 
the Holland Michigan Lakeshore Super Swap Hamfest and 
put on a demonstration there. 

Mark WA8SME operated on one AO-27 pass from the DN00/DN01 
grid boundary, two very rare Nevada grids.  John W6ZKH 
operated from DM07 but had some trouble with his equipment 
on this particular pass.  He said he will go back some day. 
Mark also said he might be able to operate from DM07 in the 
near future. 

Then we had the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air with quite a 
few different stations operating on all of the FM birds including 
K2BSA/5, W0S, K5B etc. 

The most prominent grid dxpedition this weekend was by Richard, 
N2SPI.  He had originally planned to operate from FN53, FN56, 
FN57, FN66 and FN67 but he found a way to also operate from FN55 
and FN65 as well.  He worked on the FM birds as well as VO-52. 
This operation began Saturday morning and finished up Sunday afternoon, 
about 30 hours from the first qso until the last on AO-27 at 1853z. 
Richard operated at least one pass in each of seven grids and never 
operated on a grid boundary.  This was quite a trip!  Richard 
returned back to Massachusetts late Sunday night. 

The weekend rounded out with an announcement to look for KL5O, an 
Alaska Special Event Station, on the birds.  The AO-7 pass Sunday 
evening at 0043Z had at least 14 different stations operating 
including WV9E, KE5GFJ, WA4NVM, AA4FL, AA5PK, K6CDW, KE2CKO, K0OU, 
K3SZH, AJ9K, KD8CAO, W7LRD, K8YSE and KL5O!  KL5O was down around 
937 late in the pass.  So if you think that there is no one on AO-7, 
this should put that thought to rest. Many of them were talking about 
KL5O.  A special event does draw people to the birds just like it 
does on the HF bands.  Of course working Alaska is a special treat 
under any situation. I believe KL7XJ was the operator. 

Activity is on the rise on the SSB  birds in general.  Many that have 
been active on the FM birds are getting equipment set up for the 
SSB/CW birds. It's nice to be able to have a qso that involves more 
than a callsign and grid exchange.  We hope to have FO-29 back soon 
but VO-52 and AO-7 are there for us every day. 

A big thanks to all of the grid dxpeditioners who spent a lot of time 
and money operating from places away from their homes.  They have given 
us many new grids.  I hope this encourages others to try their hand 
at operating from other grids.  It's a lot of work but you will have 
a lot of fun and satisfaction doing it. 

73, 
John K8YSE 


John Papay 
john at papays.com 

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