KA6U Update - April 30, 2023 - 0400UTC Update: Thank-you for the 75 QSOs from WA/OR today. Congratulations to PA3DZL, W5GLD, W5AFY and ES3RF who completed 23cm WAS today. I have arrived in Southern Idaho. Ten hour drive to New Mexico in the morning. Leaving in 6 hours. Targeted start time is 2120UTC. If I am late I will ask someone to post updates to the HB9Q pages. I will arrive in NM on Sunday afternoon and will activate from DM56lu when I arrive. I will have a 10 hour drive to the location before the activation. I plan to start operations at about 2120UTC and will run 23cm and 70cm at the same time. I do not know if I will have Internet access. I will call on 432.080 and 1296.080 Peter, KA6U
Posts
KA6U Update - April 29, 2023 - 0230UTC Thank-you everyone who called today for Nevada and Idaho. Congratulations to UA3PTW Dmitrij who completed 70cm WAS today. Dmitrij was my first ever EME contact in November of 2019. I was running 200W to a single 17 element 2M yagi... On the way to Jackpot Nevada I visited one of my favorite places, the Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory Utah. This is where the US Transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. Here are photos of exact replicas of the very fancy engines used at the ceremony when the railroad was completed. The engines even have gold-leaf paint... Starting May 1st the two engines run every day re-enacting the meeting of the lines. They were nice enough to allow me to explore the engine shed while they worked on the engines. So far this week over 300 QSOs. I have fixed the 2nd generator so tomorrow I will run both 23cm and 70cm at the same time. I have also replaced the VPOL phasing lines for 70cm so I can run
KA6U Update - April 28, 2023 - 0400UTC I have arrived in Jackpot Nevada at the Idaho/Nevada border. Weather forecast for tomorrow is very good. Logs for UT and WY uploaded to LoTW. I believe log corrections should also be there. Please send me emails for anything missing. Today started with excellent conditions on 23cm and 70cm. The wind forecast was good however in the mountains in the Spring forecasts are only guesses by the weatherman. The wind came up and twice caused the legs of the dish to dig into the ground causing the dish to be 10 degress off the moon. In both cases I had to fold the dish, move it a few feet, re-level the base, drive the large stakes into the ground to tie down the dish. I level the dish to within +- 1/2 degree in X and Y axis. The wind distorts the shape of the dish and can blow the dish several degrees off direction. Today I had sun noise of 7db (good) before the wind came up. After the wind came up I watched a graph of the sun noise and it will
KA6U Update - April 27, 2023 - 0400UTC The plan starting tomorrow Thursday is my current plan. Weather forecasts are excellent. Thanks for emails on log corrections. I will make the corrections in the morning. Today I drove 12 hours from South Dakota to Evanston, WY near the WY/UT border. I arrived at 2230 UTC (as planned) too late for a normal activation. I set up the 23cm station in Utah and was able to complete with KB2SA so Bill could complete WAS on 23cm. Congratulations Bill. The wind became very strong and I had to take the dish down immediately. It looks like there are opportunities for several more Ops to complete 23cm WAS this week. The wind forecasts for the next 5 days in the Pacific Northwest are excellent. Plan is: Thursday April 27 - Wyoming DN41 1815UTC - 2030UTC 23cm and 70cm at same time. Thursday April 27 - Utah DN41 2030 - 2300UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time. Friday April 28 - Idaho DN22 1930UTC - 2200 UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time Friday April 28 - N
KA6U Update - April 27, 2023 - 0430UTC Thanks for the 100 QSOs today from SD, ND, and MN I believe two operators completed 23cm WAS and now several are 1 - 3 states remaining and hopefully at least 3 more will complete by the end of this week. Logs are uploaded to LoTW. Please send me an email if anything is missing. Apparently my blog did not get published yesterday. Because of a good weather window I have accelerated my trip. Tomorrow, Wednesday I will drive to Evanston, Wyoming on the Wyoming, Utah border. On Thursday I plan to activate Utah and Wyoming on 23cm and 70cm. Plan is: Thursday April 27 - Wyoming DN41 1815UTC - 2030UTC 23cm and 70cm at same time. Thursday April 27 - Utah DN41 2030 - 2300UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time. Friday April 28 - Idaho DN22 1930UTC - 2200 UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time Friday April 28 - Wyoming DN22 2230UTC - 0100UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time Saturday April 29 - Washington DN06 - 2042UTC - 2300UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time S
KA6U Update - April 14, 2023 - 0130UTC Change in plans for this week. Today I drove up to the border of NE/KS. I will visit OK/MO at another time. There is a good weather window now with morning temperatures of 5-9C (which I like) and light winds. Here is the updated plan: April 24 - KS EM29 starting at 1430UTC followed by NE EN20. I believe I have an excellent operating location which is right on the border of KS and NE with no power lines, no cell towers. only flat farmland to the horizon. I will start with 23cm and 70cm at Moonrise from KS. I will be QRV from KS until at least 1700 on those bands until California Moonrise. I will then stop for 15 minutes and install 222 antennas and run until about 1800UTC. After I complete with callers on 222 I will move the station 3 meters into Nebraska EN20 and will run 23cm and 222 first, then I will switch to 23cm and 70cm. I can run as long as needed on 23cm and 70cm to complete with all callers. After I complete operations I have
KA6U Update - April 16, 2023 - 1800UTC I am currently in Texas and will do Dubus EME contest on April 22/23 with Marshall K5QE Updated plan: April 24 - KS/OK/MO from EM26QX 1500UTC - 2300UTC - Operations from park where 3 states meet. Start with 23/70cm at same time, KS, OK, MO in that order. 222 operations follow. Location allows dragging equipment into 3 different states in minutes- Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri 3 state border April 25 - NE/SD from EN12MS 1530 - 2300UTC - SD first then NE. 23/70 cm first followed by 222 April 26 - ND/MN from EN15RW - 1630 - 2200 UTC ND first then MN. 23/70cm first followed by 222 April 27 - MT/WY from DN74TX - 1730 - 2300UTC WY first then MT. 23/70 first followed by 222 Weather for these first 4 dates looks ok. There may be another winter storm coming in that may delay going further west for a few days. Peter, KA6U
KA6U Update - April 7, 2023 - 1900UTC Western US Roving trip on schedule starting April 24. The trip described in the previous posting is still planned. All equipment is in car ready to go. Thanks to everyone over the past two weeks who have helped me on 23cm from EL87 while I tested replacement cabling, backup preamps, backup 23cm PA, etc. I will visit K5QE in TX for the 23cm CW EME contest on April 22/23. I will leave the next day on the trip. Thanks to everyone who contacted us on 23cm and 70cm during the ARRL EME test. Marshall's station scored #2 in the world using only bands 23cm and lower. On this trip I want to try CW operations also. I have setup and tested my station for CW on 23cm. I could hear but not copy some stations during testing at my home location. I have at least 4-6 db RX degradation here due to 17 broadcast towers in Moon direction. Hopefully I will be able to hear much better in remote locations. (normally MUCH better) If I do CW operations the orde