[SADXA] Fwd: W1AW/7 AZ planning kickoff - 26 July

[Gail N7BXX]

One more bit of info.  Gail

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Ned Stearns" <aa7a at cox.net>
To: "KC7V" <mike at kc7v.com>, "Bud Semon N7CW" <n7cw at CABLEONE.NET>, "ke7dx" <ke7dx at marketemporium.com>, kf7ez at cox.net, "N7GDP-Walt" <n7gdp at cox.net>, "Tom Kramer" <tkramer at azci.net>, "Tom Lang" <tlang1080 at gmail.com>, "Gail Peterson" <n7bxx at q.com>, "Richard Solomon" <dickw1ksz at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, July 26, 2014 9:05:16 AM
Subject: W1AW/7 AZ planning kickoff - 26 July

Hello all...AA7A, again.

It is time to get to work planning for our 2nd week up to bat on the 
incredibly interesting W1AW/X experience. I am fully recovered from the 
last round and ready for round 2. I hope you all are as well. I met with 
Gary, KE7DX, and Bob, KF7E, up at the Williams hamfest and they seem 
ready to go. I have also heard from Walt, N7GDP, and I am assuming SADXA 
and GVRC and also ready to go as well.

There are going to be a few changes for this second round. Let me list them:

1. AA7A will be doing all scheduling. Bud, N7CW, has other pressing 
matters and will likely provide moral/technical support but does not 
have the time at this moment to support this effort. I know everyone 
appreciated his "no problemo" approach. I will try to meet his high 
marks on availability and responsiveness.

2. Propagation is deteriorating in this solar cycle peak. Between 
drooping sunspot numbers and summertime propagation found in late 
August, there is likely less time slots to address in our planning. As a 
result, I am not initially planning ANY operation on 12 or 10 meters and 
I am not planning anything but CW on 160 (sure hope Milt is up to the 
task...W8AEF and AA7A's 160 antennas are down). If conditions surprise 
us and improve, we will adapt.

3. I am still exploring a real-time web planning tool. If I score on 
that, I will convert all our schedules over to that and let everyone 
know. The current plan is to post the Excel spreadsheet plan to the web 
and offer daily updates. The web location will likely change since it 
will need to be a site to which I have ready access. I am still working 
for a living, so the update rate or time will need to fit in my 
available time slots. I cannot do any web work while at work since the 
IT police block nearly everything on the web while accessing the 
Internet from my work computer. (Company management recently wanted all 
employees to "Like" their latest company Facebook page...IT blocks 
Facebook on work Internet access, of course. Go figure.)

Here are the POC's for the AZ Groups:

AOCC: KC7V
CADXA: NQ7R (alternate), AA7A (primary)
GVRC: K7VOA
NADXA: KF7E
PCOECM: KE7DX
SADXA: N7BXX (primary), W1KSZ (alternate)
TBARC, N7GDP
Non-club: AA7A (from direct emails)

So, once again, I am distributing the allocation time blocks for each AZ 
group. I got a few comments last time that one club or another got less 
access to one band or another. But, in the end, there was plenty of time 
blocks for all. This is the first cut and I simply want each group to 
have a shot at offering time slots that seem to match the capabilities 
of the members of each group. So, please reconnect with all previous 
operators and enlist their interest in participating again in our 
upcoming week starting 27 August (Zulu...that starts on Tuesday evening 
local on 26 August). When you have a list of ops with their initial 
blocks of time to operate in hand, please contact me with the 
information. I will build the planning spreadsheet with this initial 
data and we will go from there.

Please have your initial plans for members of your group by 11 August. 
We will publish the initial plan and then I will ask for all updates to 
go directly to me. I will be on travel on/off until 11 August but expect 
to be home after that. Expect ticklers from me as we get close to the 11 
August date. I want to minimize the panic at the end if I can.

73 and thanks for helping out.

73,
Ned
AA7A