26th October 2008
Hyperlinks in reports below are MP3 Files now...
Quick Update
Activity Weekend 18th & 19th October
I will try to be QRV on 23cm for a few hours this weekend, but I’m having some difficulty working up any enthusiasm for the contest after the fiasco with my entry last year.
The weather forecast is for wind on Sunday
morning, so that might stop me from releasing the dish.
Also, had an operation on my foot two days ago, and am supposed to be resting…
I’m in quite a lot of pain at the moment, so this will limit what I can do
anyway.
So if you hear me on and need some points, or an initial, or just a QSO… then
please give me a call.
I will be looking for new callsigns on the band both on CW and JT65
Best 73 & GL to all
Well I did manage to get on over the weekend, and despite the pain from the
operation on my foot earlier in the week, managed to get on for a few hours and
take advantage of the increased activity during the contest. I didn’t stop up
through the night and missed about 12 hours of operating time to sleep… after
all I was supposed to be resting, hi. Also missed the last session due to gusty
wind, and didn’t want to risk any damage to the dish… and I was too tired to
operate anyway.
As others have reported, I found plenty of activity and some very strong signals
at times. Quite a few stations that I didn’t work were only heard in QSO with
someone else and then disappeared, never calling CQ and rarely answering my CQ’s…
shame at least 3 initials got away this time.
I operated mainly on CW, but did make a few QSO’s on JT65c two of which were
initials – HB9EHJ/P Bodo from JN36, announced activity period by email no skeds,
random. Also K6JEY random. On CW I added initials from HB9HAL, DF1SR, DL6SH and
OK3RM.
On both days I worked right through to the end of my window, and was hearing
good CW and SSB echoes down to 3 deg elevation shooting between my house and my
neighbours. I also worked JA8ERE the “opposite way” to normal, and heard him
again on the second pass both at Moonrise and Moonset.
Like last month, for a few hours streamed some audio and video of my EME
activity through the BATC website -
http://www.batc.tv/ch_live.php?ch=5&id=94 At times there were up to 13
viewers, I hope they found it interesting.
If any of you noticed, I WAS on HB9Q’s 23cm logger and ON4KST EME chat for much
of the weekend, this is NOT WHAT I NORMALLY DO IN A CONTEST, but as I have no
interest in entering this time, then it makes no difference. Actually, despite
there being 20 to 30 stations logged in, there were very few postings and it
appears that very little if any advantage was gained by anyone. I suspect that
there were a few guys with small systems hoping for a big gun to announce they
would be on and maybe make their first EME steps, but it didn’t happen…
Here’s the stations who appear in my log… in alphabetical order
17th October - pre contest period
CW/SSB = 3
RU3ACE, HB9HAL #, JA4BLC
18th October
CW/SSB = 38
AL7RT, DF1SR #, DF1SR dupe, DF3RU, DL0SHF, DL4DTU, DL4MEA, DL6SH # , ES5PC,
F2TU, F5FEN, F5VHX, G3LTF, HB9DGK (same as HB9HAL etc?), HB9Q, JA6AHB, JA8ERE,
K1JT, K2DH, K4QI,
LA2Z, LA9NEA, LX1DB, NA4N, NY2Z, OK1CA, OK3RM #, ON7UN, PI9CAM, RA3AQ, SD3F, SP6JLW,
SP7DCS, SV3AAF, UR5LX, VA7MM, VK4AFL, W9IIX, WA5WCP
JT65c = 3
VK2JDS
HB9EHJ/P #
PY2BS
19th October
SSB/CW = 10
DL1YMK, IK2MMB, IK3COJ, K1JT dupe SSB, K1RQG, K1RQG dupe SSB, K7XQ, N2UO,
OE9ERC, OH2DG, PA3CSG, WW2R
JT65c = 4
K6JEY #
K7XQ
PA3FXB
RW6AG
Heard / copied but not worked:
CW = 10
HB9SV, I5MPK, IW2FZR, JA4BLC, JA4HZN, JA4LJB, JA6CZD, RU3ACE (RD3DA),
SM4DHN and VE6TA
JT65c = 4
DJ9YW, G4DZU, IK5WJD and W7UPF
Thanks very much to all for the fun and the QSO’s, and I will try to be around
during the next session in November.
23cm
12th October
1733 JT65c RD3DA R-10/-08
1818 JT65c SM0FOB RO(-22)/O(R-16) for Intial... this was Kjell's first EME QSO
with only a 1.8m dish, mesh septum feed and 75W
1833 CW G4RGK 559/559... nice sigs Dave
2045 CW I5MPK 569/569c
2113 CW OK1DFC 599/589
2119 CW UT5JCW 569/579
22nd October
1028 to 1048 JT65c PY2BS -19/-14
| Here's some screenshots from our QSO which was set up on HB9Q's logger. As you can see, all QSO information was passed over the air and the logger was purely used to set up the sked in real time. Bruce has a 2.7m dish Septum Feed and 50W, that's only 30KW EIRP as Bruce points out in his message. | ||||
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Here's some of the improvements that Bruce refers to during our QSO...
| PY2BS - 2.7m dish and Septum Feed, current setup | Improvements... new LMR1700 Low Loss Cable | RA3AQ Septum Feed | ||||
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26th October
1107 JT65c RW3BP R-11/-07
1112 JT65c SV1OE -16/R-11
1210 JT65c RD3DA R-14/-16
You can find more details of my Initials and standings here