[amsat-bb] ND9M/MM Op Sked: 22 March

[Clary, James T, Civilian]

We had another favorable break at midday today when the ship's speed was
slowed by a convergence current for a few hours that caused us to still
be in EJ78 long enough to get that grid into a few logs on AO27. 

 

Later this afternoon, my FT897D failed unexpectedly, but I was
eventually able to bring it back to life for the most part with a
firmware reset. A few of the menu options are still gone - they're not
disabled; they're actually missing from the menu! - so I'll be on the
horn with Yaesu tomorrow to see what they suggest. Hopefully the rig
will remain functional at least until I get to Florida next week.

 

There were two planned passes while I was up on the flight deck trying
to get the 897 back on line. One was AO51 at 21/2247Z, and the second
was AO7 at 22/0003Z; both for EJ77. I'd just gotten the 897 back up in
time for the AO51 pass and made a few contacts before the rig died
again. More resets later, it came back up and stayed mostly operational
for AO7's pass. 

 

Unfortunately, several ops didn't hear me answering their calls, but for
some reason they kept calling anyway. (HF DXers do the same thing, but I
still don't know why!) After a few minutes of making just a couple SSB
contacts, I gave up on that mode and switched to CW on the same freq.
This move got a few ops into the log who otherwise would have lost out
on the grid because of the non-stop calling QRM. CW comes through again!

 

We'll be arriving at the Panama Canal Wednesday morning, but we haven't
heard yet from the canal authorities what time we'll begin our transit.
We're expecting to have to sit for a short time, but we'll likely get
into the canal sometime during the morning daylight hours.

 

In case you're interested, the Canal Authority has a website with a pair
of web cams set up to watch ships passing through at each set of locks.
'll leave my step ladder satellite station set up on the side of the
flight deck nearest the cameras. Let me know if you get any screen
captures of the station and the bald guy next to it!

 

The web site is:

 

www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

 

Near the top of the screen, you'll see a list of links in a horizontal
line. Look for "Miraflores Locks" and "Gatun Locks". We'll be coming in
from the Pacific side of course, so the Miraflores Locks web cam will be
the first one we pass by. I'll post a note to the BB when I've got a
better idea of when we'll be hitting the Miraflores Locks.

 

By the way, the images are stills rather than streaming video, but
depending on your connection speed, they'll update every few seconds.

 

Here's the list of passes for tonight and most of tomorrow. Since we'll
be waiting for arrival instructions from the Canal Authority, I won't
make an extensive list of passes, but the following info will take us
into FJ07 with FJ08 and FJ09 being tomorrow night and Wednesday.

 

FO29 - 22/0907Z - EJ87

AO51 - 22/0933Z - EJ87

AO7 - 22/1225Z - EJ87 or EJ97

AO51 - 22/2207Z - EJ97 or probably FJ07

FO29 - 22/2223Z - EJ97 or probably FJ07

AO7 - 22/2302Z - if still in Mode B; probably FJ07

VO52 - 23/0149Z - FJ07

FO29 - 23/0813Z - FJ08 or FJ09

AO51 - 23/0853Z - FJ08 or FJ09

 

Probably, not sure but will try

VO52 - 22/1337Z - EJ97

AO51 - 22/2030Z - EJ97

FO29 - 22/2037Z - EJ97

 

73,

 

Jim, ND9M / VQ9JC