[HIham] Possibly the last chance to contact Bill McArthur, KC5ACR on NA1SS

[Ron Hashiro]

Fellow hams,

There is an 81 degree ascending pass (Southwest to Northeast) of the ISS
Saturday morning starting approximately 6:33 am.  This might very well 
be the
last good pass to work Bill McArthur, KC5ACR on the space station.

Bill leaves the space station next week, after being up there about
six months.  He usually gets on the air only on weekends.  The
usual hours are between 10:00 pm Friday to 11:30 am Saturday,
and 10:00 pm Saturday to 11:30 am Sunday.  As the week gets
busier with his departure, he'll probably won't be able to get on the air.

This is the only decent pass this last weekend.  The others are
not so good. (16 degrees elevation or less, which means a
range of at least 800 nautical miles.)

There's no guarentee at all that Bill will be there.  It all depends
on his work and exercise schedule.  (Unfortunately for us,
he works on Saturday.)  If he is there, I'd
would like to send him out with a bang and give him a quality
Hawaii-ISS QSO party.  (Give him as many, quick contacts
as he can absorb.  Give your callsign only phonetically using
ITU phonetics (don't say "King Henry Six", say "Kilo
Hotel Six" -- don't fool around with your phonetics),
followed by "59", and wait for your callsign back with the "59")

Those of you who've been fortunate enough to work Bill, help
your fellow hams score a contact on this one and the QSL
card.  Help them configure their transceivers for 144.49 TX
and 145.80 RX.

The pass starts at 6:33:38 am at the horizon at bearing 217
(for Oahu stations).  Bill will fly right up the middle of the
Molokai Channel between Oahu and Molokai.  He'll be there
at 6:37:45 am. He'll slip over the horizon at bearing 40 degrees
(for Oahu stations) at 6:41:51 am.  (These calculations are
pretty accurate, however, allow a little
plus or minus in the times.)  Nine minutes later, he'll be over
Portland, Oregon.

Cross your fingers, and good luck!

Ron Hashiro, AH6RH

P.s.  David, please pass this along to tonight's NCS -- I have a meeting
at net time.