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 go down to as low at 1 db in gusts, mostly because the dish shape changes.

Because of this, stations that I can marginally connect with in good conditions are very difficult.  My 23cm station is RX limited therefore when it is windy, stations may hear me because I can run 500W (like today) but I can't hear them.  I was not able to complete with a few stations today after the wind came up.

Wind forecast is better for tomorrow and overall weather conditions more settled so we will see.

In the next two days I believe it may be possible for 5 additional operators to complete 23cm WAS.  That would make 8 new 23cm WAS on this trip.  If I complete the trip successfully I believe there are at least 4 other stations that could complete.

Unlike today, I know I will have a good internet connection tomorrow.

Plan is:
  • Friday April 28 - Idaho DN22 1930UTC - 2200 UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time
  • Friday April 28 - Nevada DN21 2230UTC - 0100UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time
  • Saturday April 29 - Washington DN06 - 2042UTC - 2300UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time
  • Saturday April 29 - Oregon DN05 - 2300UTC 0200UTC 23cm and 70cm at the same time
73 Peter

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