[amsat-bb] KG5CCI/P EM25 in Oklahoma for AO-7(B) March 6th, 2016

[Dave Swanson]

Friends and Colleagues,

This Sunday (March 6th, 2016) I'll be in Eastern Oklahoma operating from 
the top of 'Cavanal Hill' in grid EM25pb. The primary goal of this trip 
is to activate the state of Oklahoma on the AO-7(B) pass at my AOS of 
17:58:26UTC for any interested European stations chasing their Oscar 
Century award. One of the most common requests I get from operators on 
the other side of the Atlantic is to go /P from Oklahoma, as it seems to 
be a rarely heard state on domestic Satellite passes, let alone passes 
with large DX footprints. The other big reason Oklahoma is rarely heard 
is that the distances involved make most of the state out of range to 
all but the highest passes of FO29 and AO7. With this in mind, the AO7 
pass on Sunday provides a rare mutual footprint between Northeast OK and 
most of western Europe. The weather appears to be good, and I've got a 
spot I've operated successfully from before, so I'm going to try and 
return the favor to my DX friends, and get something on their list 
checked off.

As a request to the community, can I ask that high power stations, or 
stations operating CW on AO7 please refrain from hitting the transponder 
from 1758 UTC until 1803 UTC on Sunday unless you're specifically 
chasing something. I do not run much power when operating /P, and AO7 is 
a finicky bird as it is, so I'd like to maximize the number of stations 
I can work in the 5 minute window I'll have. I plan on operating on top 
of the 'high spot' in the passband around 145.940, and I will be staying 
put and calling CQ to maximize the number of works who can work me.  
This location in Oklahoma is well outside my 200km range for awards, so 
I've got nothing to gain here except helping folks out. That said, I 
think everyone knows what I can do with an arrow on a mountain, and I 
would be really jazzed to hand out a rare Oscar Century Contact to a 
bunch of folks a long ways away. Thank you in advance for your 
consideration of this request :)

For everyone else not 7000km away, I'll be active on all birds from both 
EM24 and EM25 in both Arkansas and Oklahoma most of the weekend. If 
there's a specific grid or state you're after, feel free to shoot me an 
email or tweet me @KG5CCI.

Thanks, Good Luck, and 73!

-Dave, KG5CCI