follow that qar!

SumbandilaSat launched September 17 and the control team has been stepping the South African satellite through its commissioning activities. Only in the past few days has the amateur radio transponder been activated over the United States, and this morning was the first apparent opportunity for east coast stations to be in the footprint of an active OSCAR 67. I unexpectedly heard nothing at the appointed hour, but when I cast my callsign skyward the downlink was clear and then I had a call from K8YSE. Success on SO-67! John kindly shared a recording of the entire pass, and ZR1JAK mapped stations heard during this and the subsequent pass (which was out of range for me) based on John's captured audio. Let's hope for a long life for the latest easy sat.

No family portrait in year 1, but it was still obviously fun.

I haven't tracked and recorded the ANDE-2 experimental satellites yet, to say nothing of decoding and submitting any data. Best intentions...

...or PA`A ... still keeping an eye on it...

One hundred three at SeaTac today? That's more than uncomfortable, it's "excessive heat." Hard to think that I have nothing to complain about when suffering under temps in the eighties, dew points well past seventy, and sticky everything. Seattle's all-time record high. Wonder when -- in this extreme-weather-event century -- that'll be broken. Meanwhile, sorry to all the wilters out there. And be sure to get that heat cleared out well before the twelfth so my visit isn't stifled!

Frustratingly unclear image for a 70-degree pass, which I am attributing at least partially to the Arrow antenna, though perhaps unfairly. It's identifiable, though, and audio reception was decent.