[amsat-bb] Report of NPOTA activation at Blue Ridge Pkwy on July 16th 1546 UTC SO-50 pass

[Matt Kafer]

That's great John!

Glad you got all your contacts in and I look forward to the video.  Your
YouTube channel was one that I watched when I was learning about satellites
before I built my antenna.

73,

Matt - KM4ULB

On Sat, Jul 16, 2016 at 5:49 PM, John Brier <johnbrier at gmail.com> wrote:

> My first National Parks on The Air activation from Blue Ridge Parkway
> PK01 EM85 at Craggy Gardens in North Carolina was a big success and
> very fun. On the July 16th 1546 UTC SO-50 pass I made fourteen
> contacts with the following stations, in order of contact:
>
> 01) K8YSE
> 02) N8HM
> 03) K4FEG
> 04) KM4ULB
> 05) W2JV
> 06) KI4RO
> 07) WI9I
> 08) WA5KBH
> 09) W4DTA
> 10) N4UFO
> 11) AA5PK
> 12) WU2M
> 13) K5ND
> 14) W1PA
>
> Thank you to all the above stations. To those I couldn’t get back to,
> like NP4JV, we’ll have to do it next time. I really enjoyed the spot I
> found, it had a very wide open view to the west and was mostly clear
> in the other directions except for some small brush in the immediate
> vicinity. It was also out of the way from most of the park attendees,
> so I didn’t have to annoy anyone expecting a tranquil nature hike.
>
> After the pass I wasn’t sure I made the ten contacts I needed to get
> credit to be an activator, so I made several more contacts on 146.520
> simplex, talking to stations in South Carolina, Charlotte, Hickory,
> Hendersonville, and a few more nearby towns.
>
> Even cooler, I connected with one of the Golden Packet [1] stations in
> Roan Mountain and communicated with him over the UHF coordination
> frequency. He helped me configure my Kenwood TH-D72a to communicate on
> their APRS network and we shared several packets. I wasn’t digipeated
> along the whole length of the Appalachian Trail, nor did I stick
> around for the golden packet attempt, but I did communicate directly
> with one of the stations using the official frequency, and that was
> very cool. I may have to take part more seriously next year. Thanks to
> Bob, WB4APR, for responding to my NPOTA activation announcement email
> to let me know about the event.
>
> You can see a picture of the video of the beautiful view where I
> recorded the SO-50 pass on my Twitter profile [2]. I plan to make a
> video of the pass for my “Space Comms” YouTube channel [3], where I
> release new videos every Wednesday. This coming Wednesday, July 20th,
> won’t be a video of this NPOTA activation as I’ve already started work
> on an ISS SSTV video, but look for the NPOTA video in two weeks.
>
> Thanks again for all the contacts! This was more than I’ve ever made
> on a single pass! The pass just flew by.
>
> 73, John Brier KG4AKV
>
> 1) http://aprs.org/at-golden-packet.html
> 2) https://twitter.com/johnbrier/status/754349709104480256
> 3) https://www.youtube.com/c/Spacecomms1
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