23rd September 2006

Hyperlinks in reports below are to Real Audio files... you can download the latest version of Real Audio Player for free at  www.real.com ... more clips to add later 

All contacts are on CW unless otherwise stated.

7th September
1946 SM5LE RO/O and -15/-17dB on JT65c, 2230 Sked with PY2MJ - Nil.

8th September
1924 SM5LE RO/O and -19/-21dB on JT65c, 2002 LA8AV 569/569... Vy nice signal Egil with your new dish and 2104 LA9NEA 559/559.
2300 to 0100 Sked with PY2MJ  on JT65c- this time I copied Guilherme -26 to -29dB, after tuning to find him, unfortunately he didn't find me.

9th September - ARI XIII Italian EME Contest
I started late, due to my sked with PY2MJ. Activity was low on the first pass, so I don't think I missed much.
I worked: IW2FZR, LA9NEA, IK2MMB, F2TU, K5PJR, VA7MM, VK4AFL, DLØSHF, IK3COJ, ES5PC, G4RGK for initial CW# 232, Dave has a 3.8 m stressed dish and 80 watts... many thanks Dave, LA8AV, JA6AHB, DL1YMK, SM5LE, G4DZU, OZ6OL, SP6JLW, RW1AW and G3LTF.

10th September - ARI XIII Italian EME Contest
Continued, and added: N2UO, K5JL, K2UYH, W6IFE (OVRO 30m dish and 60W), VA7MM (Dupe), W6IFE on ssb (Dupe), SM5LE (Dupe), IK3COJ (Dupe) and G3LQR.

 

9th September
0117 to 0131 Sked with PY2MJ - this time we made it, and exchanged RO/O on JT65c and Guilherme was -26 best with his 2m dish, linear horizontal feed and only 20 Watts. This was my Initial DIG# 10, and Guilherme's first ever 23cm EME QSO
.

 

PY2MJ - Guilherme's system is a 2m dish and 20Watts. Moon  tracking is done manually and alignment visually.

 

   


10th September
1950 to 2004 Established contact with VK7MO on JT65c, -15/R-14dB best.
2004 to 2016 VK7MO, I reduced my TX power to 20 Watts, -13/R-23 best.
2016 to 2024 VK7MO, We both reduced power to 5 Watts. -27/R-29 best, but not complete because signal levels suddenly reduced due to obstructions in Rex's window.

11th September
2002 to 2030 Established contact with VK7MO on JT65c,  -18/R-14 best.
2034 to 2040 VK7MO, 5 Watts test, didn't complete, exchanged -27/R-29, but I forgot to send RRR so not complete.
2058 to 2143 Continued transmitting to VK7MO with 400W. Rex was able to decode my signal even after the Moon had disappeared behind his metal roof, and finally lost me at 3.8 deg.

More detail in the Report - Receiving EME Signals Below the Visual Horizon by VK7MO and G4CCH

    VK7MO - Rex's 2.3m dish and Super VE4MA feed on his balcony


12th September
2054 to 2058 Established contact VK7MO on JT65c, -20/R-22 best, both were transmitting with 100 Watts.

2108 to 2128 5 Watt QRP QSO with VK7MO -27/R-30 completed... Rex has a 2.3m dish and both stations were transmitting with only 5 Watts.

  VK7MO - 5W QRP QSO
 

2152 to 2204 Continued at full power VK7MO -20/R-22, broke off to work PAØBAT
 

2208 PAØBAT RO/O and -19dB best on JT65c for Initial DIG# 11... This was Gerard's first 23cm EME QSO.

  PAØBAT - Gerard's system is a 3m dish with a Septum Polariser, and a YD1336 PA.
 


2233 G4RGK RO/O and -21/-18dB on JT65c... Dave's first JT65c QSO on 23cm, we already worked on CW, 3.8m dish and 80 Watts
2241 G4HUP RO/O and -16dB best on JT65c... Dave copied me -14dB best
2306 ES5PC RO/O and -7/O(-5dB) on JT65c... Viljo has a 4.5m dish and 300 Watts, and his station is remotely operated from Sweden.

14th September
0730 QRP test with G4DDK -21/R-28dB on JT65c. We were both transmitting with 30 Watts and completed easily in a few minutes.

0800 to 0900 Test with UA3MBJ. Nik copied me -24 again with his 39 el yagi, but unfortunately his 30 Watts was not enough for me to copy. We will try again next month at perigee with minimum degradation.

2226 to 2232 VK7MO -25/R-23 on JT65c
2238 to 2354 Continued for another window limit check -17/R-16 best. Lowest elevation 3.2 deg and almost total obstruction.

16th September
0945 SM5LE R-15/-16dB on JT65c, 1022 to 1025 OH3MCK -17/RO(-22dB) on JT65c, 1124 K7XQ O(449)/559, 1302 heard SM5LE calling CQ on CW, signals were too weak to make a QSO.

1302 to 1353 SM5LE, in a test to explore the limits of Sven's window, -19/R-21dB best, and we continued in QSO until the Moon disappeared below pine trees 200m away at 11.7deg elevation. During the test the Moon was obstructed by apple trees and we exchanged full reports and had a brief chat in "text mode"
 

 


SM5LE
- Sven's 2.2m dish had a 20 x 20mm square mesh reflector. He has now overlaid this with 1.5 x 1.5mm insect mesh, and gained an additional 1dB in performance. The improvement was predicted in VK3UM's software and proved by echo test measurements using WSJT 4.

Here's Sven fixing the new mesh using a hot melt glue gun...

 


Here's a screen shot of our "chat" with Sven's dish pointing at the Moon through his apple trees

 

 


17th September
0818 to 0840 Test with UA3MBJ on JT65c, Nik decoded my signals -24dB again, but no trace of him.
0902 to 0911 SM5LE on JT65c R-16/-17dB on JT65c.
1052 LA9NEA 559/569, 1108 LA8LF 569/569 and LA8AV 569/579... Good signals from Egil with his 5.4m dish and 500 Watts.

1240 to 1300 I tried to detect the SETI Beacon on 1296.0000 MHz. The absence of a "birdy" which normally hovers close to 1296.0000 MHz allowed me to easily detect the beacon in a bandwidth of 2.5 KHz using specJT. The beacon transmits every 5 minutes for a period of 2 minutes with 350 Watts to 2 x Quad Helix Arrays (24dBi)

  SETI Beacon - The beacon is clearly visible in specJT's waterfall display. I will check the beacon again next month with the Moon at perigee and use Spectran to try and make some signal level measurements.
 


23rd September
1207 LA9NEA 569/569, 1254 LA8AV 569/569, 1301 RW3BP 559/559... Sergey was using his 2.4m dish and linear polarisation, 1440 to 1540 Testing with RW3BP down to his Moon set on  JT65c, -12dB best, and copied me down to -0.87deg elevation... more details later.

 

Back to News of my latest EME Activity

Back to homepage