[amsat-bb] ] Re: The USA Lower 48 Worked all 488 Grids non-Award

Fri Aug 23 11:01:53 PDT 2013

John, congratulations! Don't let this wonderful achievement slow down your hamsat contacts and activity!
73
George
WA5KBH 

-----Original Message-----
From: "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)" <amsat-bb at wd9ewk.net>
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 11:01
To: "John Papay" <FL at papays.com>, amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: The USA Lower 48 Worked all 488 Grids non-Award

John,

Congratulations on working all 488 grids! I'm glad I was able to be
a part of that total.

73!

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

On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 11:08 PM, John Papay <FL at papays.com> wrote:

> Some of the active grid chasers on the birds are aware
> that KA6SIP just gave me my last USA grid when he operated
> from CN72 in Oregon. And I thought it might be interesting
> to look at the stats and how one manages to work and confirm
> all 488 USA lower 48 States grids.
>
> Satellite operators come and go and grids come and go with them.
> A grid might have a very active operator in it and then it is
> off the air when that person goes away for whatever reason.
> Interestingly, about half of the 488 grids that were worked were
> from those operating portable, not in the sense of using a radio
> with batteries, but in the traditional sense of operating away from
> their home station location. Once you have experienced being on the
> other end of a small pileup, you will want to do it again. Just ask
> W7LRD who tried it recently and is planning another trip. Here is
> a list of operators who exited the comfort of their home station and
> put a grid on the air. The callsign is followed by the number of new
> grids they gave me towards the goal of working all 488. Others may have
> been worked but these totals represent the first time a new grid was
> confirmed.
>
> ND9M 54
> WD9EWK 27
> WC7V 19
> KD4ZGW 16
> KB0RZD 10
> KC0YBM 9
> AA5CK 8
> KA6SIP 8
> KD8COQ 8
> N5ZNL 7
> W6GMT 7
> N0JE 6
> N2SPI 6
> WA4NVM 5
> KB5WIA 4
> KB9BIT 4
> KC0ZHF 4
> KK0SD 4
> AA5PK 3
> K7CWQ 3
> UT1FG 3
> W6ZKH 3
> WA6ARA 3
> WA7HQD 3
> WA8SME 3
> AC0ZA 2
> AJ9K 2
> K0BAM 2
> K7DRA 2
> K7TRK 2
> KA0RID 2
> KC2LRC 2
> KE7DOV 2
> N3TL 2
> N5AFV 2
>
> Jim, ND9M, is a seasoned grid expeditioner. Along with working
> satellites he is also active on the county hunters nets. Most of
> his activity was between 2009 and 2011. He was also active from a
> cargo ship and gave out the very rare DM02. Jim would travel for
> months at a time and worked from a few hundred grids. Most of that
> operating was done on FM birds rather than linear ones. It was
> great to have many daily fm passes when AO-27 and AO-51 were active.
> HO-68 and SO-67 were in the mix for a while too. 54 new grids came
> from Jim and he tops the list.
>
> Most everyone knows Patrick WD9EWK. He has done a lot of traveling
> both in the US and Canada and he gave me 27 new grids. He was very
> active on the birds until recently. He was an alternate on the AMSAT
> Board of Directors and was recently appointed to oversee the AMSAT
> Area Coordinator program. He virtually has no home station and most
> all local contacts were made from a park near his apartment in Phoenix.
> He knows how to do it and he is a meticulous planner.
>
> Next on the list is Kerry WC7V. He lives in sparsely populated Montana
> and travels around by car and in his light aircraft. He went to many
> grids at my request and made a lot of us very happy by operating from
> many rare locations. He is in slot number 3 with 19 grids.
>
> Next on the list is Rob KD4ZGW/m. Rob drove an 18 wheeler and we all
> heard him on a satellite one day. He didn't know his grid square but
> he knew his milepost on the interstate. From there we had the grid
> square. Rob went on to improve his mobile station and activated over
> 100 grid squares. He is no longer driving on long hauls and has not
> been active for some time. He is fourth on the list with 16 grids.
>
> The next three are very special because they all became new operators
> during the quest to work all 488. Gail KB0RZD is very active today,
> usually operating with a handie-talkie. He went to 10 grids around him
> and sent some photo qsl cards that were just outstanding. KC0YBM operated
> from his home location for a long time before I realized he was very
> close to other grids. Chris didn't have portable equipment so I suggested
> he look into an AC inverter for the car. He did just that and soon he
> was operating portable from some new grids. This speaks to the ham radio
> culture that you find a way to operate with what you have. Chris continues
> to be active and hands out grids in the US and Canada. And then there
> is Ted, AA5CK. He has operated in grids around his home qth as well as
> some rare ones in New Mexico. He lives in EM04, not far from EM05 where
> I made my first grid expedition contact with KD8CAO from EM05 in front of
> the White Dog Ranch on old Route 66. I remember Ted's first sat contact.
>
> There are a few very special operators that can't be left out. My son,
> KD8CAO, provided 8 new grids for his dad. He knows how to operate
> portable and gives out the grids when he travels. Then there was
> Richard N2SPI. I asked him about some grids in Maine that hadn't been
> on and he took the challenge and drove to all of them, getting back to
> his dad's place during the first snow of the season. Dave KB5WIA made
> quite the trip by backpacking into CM79. It took two trips to transport
> the equipment into the grid. He has a video of it on youtube.
>
> I started with satellites in June 2006 and only had 47 USA grids by August
> 2008. From August 2008 till Jan 2009 I worked another 109. In 2009 199
> were worked. 2010 was 76 and 2011 was 44. Only 4 new grids were worked
> in 2012 and 9 were snagged in 2013. Eight of those final 9 grids were
> handed out by Tom KA6SIP. He heard about the need and decided to make a
> grid expedition to put them on the air. He did 7 of them in one trip.
> Then Bob W7LRD went to the beach in CN77, operating away from home for
> the first time. That left CN72. Tom just got back from Hawaii and quickly
> made plans to camp out in CN72 and gave me the final grid on AO-7B, 20
> August
> 2013 at 2332z. Then he put CN71 on the air on 22-23August, also a very
> rare grid square but one that I already had. Many others worked him there.
>
> There is no award for working all 488 grids on satellites as there is
> for six meters (FFMA). The ARRL awards committee has looked at it and will
> implement it if someone on the Board of Directors brings it up for a vote
> and it passes. Hopefully that will happen soon. Having that type of award
> gives everyone something to work for. It promotes grid expeditions and
> interest in working through the satellites. If we all contact our
> ARRL Director, it might just happen.
>
> There may be others who have already worked all 488 grids on satellites.
> K6YK might be one of them. I know there are several others who are
> getting close. It is not any easy thing to accomplish even if you operate
> every day. It is something you can work towards over the years.
>
> I want to thank everyone that made satellite contacts with me that
> ultimately
> led to working all 488. Many went out of their way to put on a grid. Over
> half of the grids worked were from grid expeditions! If you haven't
> experienced
> operating away from home, please consider it. With new operators showing
> up
> on the birds every day, there is always a need for an uncommon grid. And
> you
> will have a lot of fun doing it! Just ask anyone on my list.
>
> 73,
> John K8YSE
>
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