KA6U EME Expeditions

  KA6U Update - May 16, 2023 -  0100UTC Spring 2023 Roving trip is complete. No more activations on this trip. Thank-you everyone for calling. Here are some statistics: 500+ QSOs 10 operators completed 23cm WAS 3 operators completed 70cm WAS Many operators are now within a few states of completing 23cm or 70cm WAS Several operators are now very close to 222 WAS Total trip calendar duration: 22 days (feels longer) States activated: 22 Miles traveled: ~9000 (~15000km) Total miles on roving vehicle since July 2022 - 30,000 Longest travel day: 16 hours - 1000 miles (3 times) 3000+ meter mountain passes crossed: 3 Temperatures ranged from 15F to 90F (-10C to 32C) Activations in snow: 1 Many visits by general public and a few Hams Consensus view of what I was doing: "Trying to talk to aliens" Nights with normal sleep pattern: 0  (average hours sleep per day, maybe 5) Equipment issues, all repaired in the field: 3 Favorite stop: Open range cattle ranch on OR/WA border Average gasoli

  KA6U Update - May 14, 2023 -  2000UTC May 15 activation will be in Delaware only The locations I was hoping to use near the DE/PA border are not suitable for use. Therefore tomorrow morning I will activate Delaware only on 23cm and 70cm. I will activate PA again on my next trip to the Northeast. Current plan: Delaware FM28gw - Monday May 15 - 0900UTC - 1200UTC - 23cm and 70cm at same time I will be on the HB9Q blogger pages with excellent Internet connectivity. This will be the last activation for this trip. Thanks Peter KA6U

  KA6U Update - May 11, 2023 -  1600UTC Change in Plans - DE/PA on Monday I have repaired LoTW and uploaded QSOs. I had many problems with LoTW.  If there are any QSOs missing, please send me an email with the complete details of the QSO that is missing. I am planning one additional activation trip.  I believe there are several ops who need DE and PA on 70cm and/or 23cm.  This is the only planned additional activation for the next 30 days: Monday May 15 - FM29   PA and DE 23cm and 70cm run at same time - starting at 0900UTC I plan to operate from DE first and then move to PA.  PA operation will be shorter duration In the next two weeks I will post a summary of this activation trip. At this time it looks like there will be 10 new 23cm WAS holders and 3 or 4 new 70cm WAS holders completed during this trip.  I think this will be 25+ new 23cm WAS awards in the last year (I believe the WAS count on 23cm 12 months ago was 3).  It's been a great adventure! There are also now a number of

  KA6U Update - May 6, 2023 -  2330UTC My LotW has stopped working over the last few days. I will not try to get it working again until at least Wednesday May 10th. I am saving all log entries. Peter KA6U

  KA6U Update - May 5, 2023 -  1600UTC I will be on the East Coast of the US from May 11 to about May 17. I plan to be in NY, CT, RI, DE, MD and Virginia to do 23cm and 70cm activations. I will not be able to run 70cm from RI due to power restrictions. NC1I and W1QA are considering a 70cm RI activation this summer with 1KW power (special license). Please look here for updates starting May 9th. If anyone is close to WAS on 23cm or 70cm, please send me an email with an updated list of the states you need. Thanks Peter, KA6U

  KA6U Update - May 3, 2023 -  0300UTC Today I drove from the Rocky Mountains above Denver CO to Iowa east of Nebraska City, NE.  700 miles 11 hours. It was very windy and I almost did not try to set up 23cm dish.  The wind calmed down, I set up the dish but the PTT isolation box from the radio broke so no 23cm from Iowa.  AC0RA has a station identical to mine and he lives in Iowa for 23cm. 15 difficult 70cm QSOs today with many polarity changes.  Focus for today was to help UT6UG get to 49 states on 70cm and W2HRO to 46 states.  That was successful.  Hopefully both will complete WAS on 70cm before I return to Florida in 3 weeks. LoTW certificate issue I will figure out tomorrow. Operation plan for this week subject to change: Kansas/Nebraska - May 4 (UTC) - 0100-0300UTC - EM19, EN10 - I visited this location last week and activated on 23cm and 70cm.  I will do a short operation on 222 first starting at 0130UTC.  I will not do 70cm.  I plan to also operate 23cm.  The site is a 1 hour d

  KA6U Update - May 1, 2023 -  2200UTC UPDATE adding Iowa see below  Additional Operations Planned this Week Thank-you everyone who called me yesterday when I was in New Mexico. I started the day with an 11 hour drive from Twin Falls, Idaho to the Four Corners Monument in the northwest corner of New Mexico. My primary goal for this trip was to help operators complete WAS. After yesterday I believe the WAS count for this trip is 8 new WAS on 23cm and 1 new WAS on 70cm . Over 400 QSO's in the log for the week.  There are also a number of operators now with 3 or fewer states remaining on these bands. Since last Sunday I have traveled 3700 miles or about 6000km. When I arrived in New Mexico it was windy and I delayed opening the dish and starting operations until the wind settled down. 23cm operations at the start were challenging because of the wind blowing constantly offsetting the dish.  I recalibrated the dish and operations proceeded normally. 70cm operations were challenging with