July 2010

During July of 2010, we traveled to Oregon where my daughter was starting a new, four month job. Since for all intents and purposes, she was moving to the Portland Area, this was a two vehicle road trip, with my SUV fully packed with her belongings, and her Toyota, which would be her source of day to day transportation. Needless to say, I could devote an entire web page to our over the road adventures, but will try to keep this focused on Amateur Radio Satellite Communications.

After the vehicles were fully packed, I convinced my wife that we had more than enough room to pack my Arrow antenna, and other portable radio equipment and accessories. My original plan was to work satellites from each of our major stops along the way. These included Cheyenne, Wyoming, Boise, Idaho, and Beaverton, Oregon. Due to various issues, such as timing of the satellite passes, minor equipment issues, and being just plain road weary, I did not make any satellites contacts from Cheyenne or Boise. Once we did arrive in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland, Oregon, (Grid Square CN85,) and were settled in, I found time on July 6, 2010 to work AO-27 and AO-51.

While working AO-27, I logged contact with Harold Kinchelow, KB7RSI of Las Vegas, Nevada, Jason Snyder, WV3V of North Las Vegas, Nevada, and Patrick Stoddard working as VA7EWK from the west end of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada. (Patrick is also licensed as WD9WK from Scottsdale, Arizona and is frequently heard working the amateur radio satellites.)

Before and during the trip, I had been in contact with my very good friend, Eddy Paul KD0HZW of Lenexa, Kansas. Eddy and I have been friends for years, and have both been very active in working Amateur Radio Satellites. We’d been coordinating over several days by e-mail and telephone that we would make contact with each other during a satellite pass while I was in Oregon. We finally resolved that the target would be AO-51 during the afternoon of July 6th as it traveled north along the Continental Divide over North America. This would be in a position more or less at equal elevation between Eddy near Kansas City to the east, and me near Portland in the west.

The AO-51 pass started for me at about 3:45 PM PDT, and about 5:42 CDT for Eddy; give or take. Since this was prime time, everyone and their cat and dog was on working the satellite, competing for air time with Eddy and I, who were using 5 watt HTs at our respective locations. The pass was nearly complete without success, when suddenly through the traffic, I hear “KD0HKD this is KD0HZW!”

The recording below says it all, including my excitement at making contact with Eddy! To allow for shorter time and less bulk, the recording has been edited down to include the traffic between Eddy and I.

I must also give a tip of the hat and say thanks to Patrick VA7EWK for yielding the air to allow Eddy and I to complete our traffic.