Hey Patrick, You've sold yourself and Robert a few hundred miles short with that estimate of 2,900 miles. That, of course, is the "shortest distance between Point A and Point B" straight-line distance. But each of you had to make it up to AO-51.
At the risk of initiating a major debate here, I believe your QSO actually covered more than 3,240 miles - at the minimum. As you did, I used BL11cg and, in Orbitron, tracked the range to AO-51 from that grid square during the 02:31 UTC pass last night. The CLOSEST that AO-51 was to BL11cg during that pass (again, according to Orbitron) was at 02:34:21, when the range to the satellite from there was 3,166.273 km (1,967.431 miles). At that same point in the pass, the range to AO-51 from your location (I used the exact coordinates you provided in this email) was 2,053.028 km (1275.692 miles). To log a successful QSO, then, the two of you actually covered a total distance of 5,219.301 km, or 3,243.123 miles. And again, that is the best-case scenario as it applies to Robert's location. Those numbers are based on Orbitron's calculation of the exact second during the pass when AO-51 was closest to Robert. Congratulations to you both - again. That is outstanding! 73 to all, Tim - N3TL -------------- Original message from "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)" <[email protected]>: -------------- > Hi! > > > Robert - you sounded great here in DM13-land (Riverside, CA). > > Patrick is further east than I am ... how far did you > > communniate??? > > I don't know exactly where Robert was in Honolulu. I was > in my favorite Phoenix city park on the DM33xp/DM43ap > grid boundary - 33 degrees 38.903 minutes North, 112 > degrees West exactly - where I operate from whenever I > say I am in DM33 and DM43: > http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=33+38.903+N+112+0.00+w&ie=UTF8&; > > ll=33.811102,-112.000122&spn=2.040058,3.872681&t=h&z=8&iwloc=addr&om=0 > > I held my antenna as high as I could hold it and pointed > it westward, since there is a freeway wall not far from > that spot. I had a maximum of 15 degrees elevation for > the pass, and Robert mentioned in an e-mail earlier this > afternoon he was only going to have a maximum of 4 > degrees elevation on that pass. He was most likely > working hard for every bit of the satellite he could hear. > Thanks for picking me up, Robert! > > Based on estimates for Honolulu (grid BL11cg) and using > my location as mapped in the link above, it appears we > covered a path of just over 2900 miles (almost 4700km) > with that brief contact. My only other satellite QSO with > the Hawaiian islands was with WH6FC on the "big island" > of Hawaii (grid BK29) back in December 2005. That QSO > spanned about 2850 miles/4500km from Phoenix, and > Honolulu will be further away from me than anywhere on > the island of Hawaii. > > 73! > > > > > Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK > http://www.wd9ewk.net/ > _______________________________________________ > Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
