KA6U Update - November 30, 2022 - 1800UTC No activations planned in the next 3 weeks. I may do some activations in late December. Please check here around December 18th 73 Peter KA6U
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KA6U Update - November 21, 2022 - 1430UTC 70cm Activation in VA is complete Logs are uploaded for MD activation yesterday and VA activation this morning. There are no additional activations planned between now and November 28th. Temperature this morning was -7C clear and no wind. Thanks everyone who called on this late fall trip. Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 20, 2022 - 1500UTC 70cm Activation in VA Monday Thank-you everyone who called on 70cm this morning. I had a problem early with the new 70cm relays. I resolved the issue and the station worked well after that. When I started the 23cm operation the wind came up and at sunrise the wind started blowing about 30kmh. It was difficult to close the dish and put it away before it blew away. No damage. Temp was -2C and with the wind it was cold! I plan to operate 70cm only from VA tomorrow morning. I plan to start at about 1000UTC. FM18 VA - Monday Nov 21 - 1000UTC - 1400UTC 70cm Air duct delivers 60 Deg F air to cool exciter to it can output full power. Other vents in car deliver 80 Deg F air to warm the operator so he can operate at some level. Outside temperature -2 C with 30km winds Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 19, 2022 - 2000UTC 70cm and 23cm Activations in MD and VA I plan to operate from MD and VA on 70cm and 23cm Sunday morning and Monday morning. This is the plan MD - FM18 - November 20 - 0830UTC - 1330UTC - Start with 70cm then 23cm VA - FM18 - November 21 - 0930UTC - 1430UTC - Start with 70cm then 23cm The 70cm station is fixed and re-installed in car. Hopefully it will keep working tomorrow. Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 17, 2022 - 1400UTC Delaware 23m Activation Complete Possible 70cm EME Activations in next 10 days Thank-you everyone who called this morning. 25 23cm EME QSOs uploaded to LoTW for FM29 in Delaware. As a result of roving operations by KB7Q, AC0RA, N1AV, NC1I, and K8ZR in Ohio and my recent operations I believe there are another 6-8 ops with 48 or 49 states on 23cm now. That is in addition to the 8 (I believe but not all issued yet) ops who have completed 23cm WAS this Summer. The most tiring activations are the ones that start in the middle of the night and end at sunrise. BUT the sunrises can be amazing. This is the sunrise view this morning as I was packing up the 23cm station at 1120UTC in FM29fm. Temperature was 0 deg C with 20kmh wind. The dish was happy. It was solidly staked to the firm ground. I was cold while packing up the station :-) Good news is packing station took less than 10 minutes this morning. I will be in the Washington, DC area from
KA6U Update - November 16, 2022 - 2200UTC Delaware 23cm Activation Tonight I will activate 23cm EME tonight from Delaware. I have visited the site and it looks very good. Sky will be clear, light wind 0 - 2 degrees C. I will be starting several hours after Moonrise. Delaware FM29fn - November 17 0800UTC - 1100UTC I will be in the Washington, DC area from November 17 - November 27 then returning to Florida. I may be able to do activations in states including MD, VA, NC during this time or on the way back to Florida. If you need these states, please send me an email. Thanks Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 15, 2022 - 2200UTC OHIO Activation Canceled Freezing rain now in Ohio location. It will rain all night so I am unable to activate Ohio on this trip. Tomorrow I will drive to Delaware. The weather forecast is good. I am returning to a location I have activated before. Ohio - Cancelled Delaware - November 17 0800UTC - 1100UTC I will be in the Washington, DC area from November 17 - November 27 then returning to Florida. I may be able to do activations in states including MD, VA, NC during this time or on the way back to Florida. If you need these states, please send me an email. Thanks Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 14, 2022 - 0000UTC I drove 11 hours from Texas to Tennessee today. Tomorrow, Monday I will drive to Zanesville, Ohio, EM89xw to activate Ohio on 23cm EME. Weather forecast is ok. Clear sky 0 to -2 degrees C. Note that the activation date is now tomorrow November 15 UTC, not November 18: Ohio - November 15, 2022 0400UTC - 0800UTC 23cm EME only, 1296.080 2nd CFOM 1500hz. I expect Internet access, however this is a rural area I will be in the Washington, DC area from November 17 - November 27 then returning to Florida. I may be able to do activations in states including MD, VA, DE, NC during this time or on the way back to Florida. If you need these states, please send me an email. Thanks Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 11, 2022 - 1400UTC 40 callers in log from EM31 in Louisiana early this morning. 36 23cm QSOs and 4 222 EME QSOs in the log. Congratulations to DG5CST and ON4AOI who completed 23cm WAS. Multiple additional operators now have 47, 48, 49 states for 23cm. Thanks AC0RA Wyatt for being in IL last night! I will be operating the ARRL EME contest at the K5QE station this weekend. If you did not work K5QE on 23cm, 70cm and 2M during the first contest weekend, please look for us this weekend. Next possible operation (not confirmed yet): Ohio - November 18, 2022 0900UTC - 1200UTC 23cm only I will be in the Washington, DC area from November 19 - November 27 then returning to Florida. I may be able to do activations in states including MD, VA, DE, NC during this time or on the way back to Florida. If you need these states, please send me an email. Thanks Peter KA6U
KA6U Update - November 9, 2022 - 1500UTC 23cm Station Worked Great in AR and MO last night First stations worked when Moon was a .5 degrees elevation. RX performance was as good as I have seen in the last year. Very quiet operating location. I operated near a road that was on the border between AR and MO. When I finished in AR I moved the station to the other side of the road in MO. Updated Plan : Operate in Kentucky tonight, Wednesday night local time EM56JM72 - Kentucky - 2345 - 0400UTC starting Nov 9 finishing Nov 10 early morning UTC - 23cm EM32DK98 - Louisianna - 0100 - 0600UTC Nov 11UTC - 23cm and 222 I am planning 23cm only activation on Wed night in KY. I plan to operate 23cm and 222 EME from LA on Thursday night (local time) Friday morning UTC.
KA6U Update - November 8, 2022 - 1730UTC 23cm Station Tested and Ready to Run Later Today Station is tested and recalibrated off the Sun with normal/expected performance. I will continue AR operations at 2300UTC then move 20 feet across the border into MO. I have found a location on the AR/MO border in EM56DA10 on a levee above the Mississippi River. I will go to that location and set up on the AR side of the border first. I will run on AR and then move the dish and my car across the border into MO. That will take about 5 minutes. I am not planning 222 operations tonight The weather will be clear tonight with no wind. Updated Plan : Operate Arkansas and Missouri tonight, Tuesday night local time EM56 - Arkansas - 2300 - 0200UTC Nov 8 -23cm EM56 - Missouri - 0200 - 0400UTC Nov 9- 23cm EM56 - Kentucky - 2345 - 0400UTC starting Nov 9 finishing Nov 10 early morning UTC - 23cm I am planning 23cm only activation on Wed night in KY. I have hour drive back to hotel then 7 hour driv
KA6U Update - November 8, 2022 - 0330UTC Bad weather today. Rained all day. Dish blown over. I believe no significant damage. Set up station in AR. After about 10 QSOs wind blew dish over. After an hour I believe I had everything back together. However there was heavy overcast and wind and I was not able to see the Moon. The digital compass in the iPhone is inaccurate and unreliable. I could not find my high quality military compass in the dark. So I stopped, dug out of the mud and left for the night. I will attempt to recalibrate the dish and pointing tomorrow with Sun noise. If everything works I will proceed with the activation in MO tomorrow. I will update here the results of my testing tomorrow morning. The weather tomorrow night will be clear, light wind good operating conditions. The weather forecasts for MO, KY and LA are very good at this time. I plan to be back to AR in the future. Updated Plan : I will add Kentucky because of requests and excellent weather. This will
KA6U Update - November 7, 2022 - 1300UTC Trip plan update adding Kentucky. I will add Kentucky to the activation list. KY is 60km from where I am staying. This will delay LA one day. See updates below NOTE: I will not be able to go to South Dakota again on this trip. Weather forecast is -10 to -14C during operating times. That is too cold. Thank-you to the 42 callers last night in TN that are in the log. Very full waterfall when I turned the station on... after plugging in preamp power. The drive that day started near Hilton Head in South Carolina and finished on the Mississippi River in western Tennessee. The 10 hour drive took 12 hours because of road construction and bad crashes on the road. Result is I arrived hour later than planned. Thank-you also to everyone who has contributed to the roving costs. It costs about $150 per day to do these activations. Here is a nightime photo from TN last night Updated Plan : I will add Kentucky because of requests and excellent wea
KA6U Update - November 5, 2022 - 1200UTC Trip plans are changed. I will take advantage of a good weather forecast and move TN, MO, and AR activations one week earlier. This will delay LA until 0030UTC on November 10(UTC). This will allow me to add several additional states between Nov 14 and 21 Thank-you to the 39 callers last night in GA that are in the log. I updated LoTW last night. If there are any errors please send an email. Conditions were very good early with 19 QSOs in the first hour. Conditions not as good later when I had an increase in noise. If anyone who needs GA missed me last night, I will be able to go back in December. This was the operating location in Kingsland GA EM90es. You can see the Moon above the back of the vehicle. I arrived 20 minutes before Moonrise and was able to setup the station in 15 minutes. Updated Plan : EM92 - South Carolina - 2130UTC Nov 5 - 0300UTC Nov 5 - Plan to operate 23cm and 222 Mhz North of Savanna Georgia near Saint Marys,
KA6U Update - November 3, 2022 - 2300UTC Trip plans are unchanged. Activation tomorrow November 4th: EM90 - Georgia - 2100UTC Nov 4 - 0300UTC Nov 4 - Plan to operate on 23cm. I will try to be QRV as soon after 2100UTC as possible. At this time I am not planning to activate on 222. WA4NJP Ray and W4ZST Bob are loud on 222. Weather will be cool and clear with moderate wind. Vehicle is loaded ready to leave for a 30 day trip. Texas first for the 2nd EME contest weekend. Several stops on the way to look at the Moon :-) Next head up through the Midwest for a week activating a number of states arriving in VA on November 21st. I plan to activate several additional states in the DELMARVA area and on the way back to Florida will stop in NC also. Hope to see several additional Ops complete 23cm WAS in the next two weeks. Estimated trip distance 2300 miles,/3700 km. I expect to have the 70cm station running by November 15th. If things go well I will run on 23cm and 70cm simultaneously
KA6U Update - November 1, 2022 - 1830UTC CHANGE IN PLAN I am adding South Carolina on 23cm and 222Mhz to this trip. Note below that Georgia is moved up one day to Friday, November 4th Revised plan for November activations for better Moon windows and schedule change requests. Note that Georgia activation data has changed EM90 - Georgia - 2200UTC Nov 4 - 0300UTC Nov 4 - Plan to operate on 23cm and 222 Mhz North of Jacksonville Florida EM92 - South Carolina - 2200UTC Nov 5 - 0300UTC Nov 5 - Plan to operate 23cm and 222 Mhz North of Savanna Georgia near Saint Marys, South Carolina EM42 - Louisiana - 2300UTC Nov 6 - 0400 Nov 7 - Plan to operate on 23cm and 222 near the LA/MS border West of Vicksburg EM46 - Arkansas - 0400 - 0700UTC Nov 15 - 23cm, 70cm may be available, 222 by request EM46 - Missouri - 0500 - 1000UTC Nov 16 - 23cm, 70cm may be available, 222 by request EM56 - Tennessee - 0600 - 1100UTC Nov 17 - 23cm, 70cm may be available, 222 by request EM99 - Ohio - 0900 -