[amsat-bb] Satellite operation from the Queen Mary - 15 December 2018

[Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)]

Hi!

I will be part of a day of satellite operating from a deck on the RMS
Queen Mary, docked at Long Beach in southern California, on Saturday 15
December 2018. Operations will be portable, almost like a Field Day, and
should include FM, SSB, and possibly packet. All operations from the
Queen Mary will be as W6RO, the call sign for the wireless room on the
ship operated by the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach. Depending
on staffing in the W6RO wireless room, there may also be HF activity
during the satellite operation.

Amateur radio has a long history on the Queen Mary, including a special-
event station GB5QM that operated as the ship made its final voyage from
England to Long Beach in 1967, and in almost 4 decades with the W6RO
operations from Long Beach. More about the history of amateur radio on
the Queen Mary is available at:

https://queenmary.com/history/amateur-radio/
http://aralb.org/club-station-w6ro/

I had the pleasure of working AO-7 from W6RO in March 2016. An article
covering this quick operation appeared in the AMSAT Journal, and is
available from the "Articles" folder in my Dropbox space:

http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/

as well as an AMSAT-BB posting after that activation:

http://amsat.org/pipermail/amsat-bb/2016-March/057636.html

QSLing for the W6RO satellite activation will be handled per the procedure
on W6RO's QRZ page:

http://www.qrz.com/db/W6RO

with one exception: no QSO numbers will be given during the satellite
operation. Satellite QSOs from W6RO will be done in the normal manner, with
an exchange of call signs and grid locators. W6RO is located in grid DM03.
W6RO does not use Logbook of the World, so all QSL requests will need to be
mailed directly to the W6RO address in QRZ.

Thanks to Endaf Buckley N6UTC, the Associated Radio Amateurs of Long Beach
and the ARALB's W6RO Wireless Room Manager (David Akins N6HHR), and the
Queen Mary management for their work in arranging this event. I look
forward to another opportunity to work satellites from the Queen Mary.

73!




Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/
Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK