I really have very little to write about since I spent a lot of time living up to the observation that there's nothing quite like staying BIC to get the best out of time in front of the radio.
I spent most of Saturday and today BIC and striving to get "new" things on 6m. My final total was
- New grids contacted for FFMA credit: 4
- New countries contacted for 6m DXCC credit: 2
While I don't qualify for either, I'm far closer to DXCC than the FFMA.
The band conditions (propagation) were better from Saturday morning through about 0000 UTC or Saturday evening around 7:30 PM local time, when I came out here to write the "It's Field Day" article. Sunday morning meant continuing with our search for a new church, but the conditions from lunch through most of the day were pretty poor compared to yesterday.
Even sitting here now and looking at it, it looks like a lot of BIC time for those amounts of increase, but, there are plenty of times when I spend days in the chair and only get one or two new credits, or nothing new at all.
Since I've been watching for this, I should update that the SWIFT rescue launch to on the "last" Pegasus rocket has been delayed until Tuesday at 6:23 AM EDT, but it's not from here or Vandenberg. It's from the Marshall Islands.
Northrop Grumman's Pegasus launch vehicle on the belly of their Stargazer heavy lift airplane. Image Credit: Northrop Grumman
Were they banned from launching in the US after their "faux pas" from their Wallops error???
ReplyDeleteGood question, but I've never seen an explanation. Weren't they launching from that airport in New Mexico?
DeleteAccording to https://llis.nasa.gov/lesson/1090:
Delete"During the launch of the Pegasus/SCD 1 on February 9, 1993, an incident occurred in the final minute of the countdown where an abort was initiated by the Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) Range Safety Officer (RSO); however, the operation continued with the launch of the Pegasus vehicle."