Thursday 29 December 2005

Morning all

I'm very pleased to send you a small attachment, showing my second 2m eme
qso, which took place a short while ago. The "other end" has confirmed on
the cluster that all is complete - I'm still amazed at how easy it can be
and a bit distrustful of the software Hi. There was no signal on the speaker
here. Angelo runs 1.5kW to 4 x 16 ele, so he's a good station but there are
many like him who I should be able to qso with.

My equipment is 400w to a pair of 12 ele yagis, without elevation.






G1OGY de GB7MBC 29-Dec-2005 0747Z dxspider >
DX de I6BQI:    144142.0  G4ZTR        tnx EME qso b-25 HNY           0749Z JN72
DX de IV3BBR:   144351.0  IV3AZZ/P     Op.MARCO loc.JN66CW 73/DX.     0750Z
G1OGY de GB7MBC 29-Dec-2005 0754Z dxspider >



My home set-up is no more complex or better than what we use for contesting
regularly, so it makes me think that if we took this sort of gear to any
rare square, there is plenty of potential. Mind you, some elevation would be
rather useful !

John

Monday 02 January 2006

Well

No doubt you're getting fed up with my little pictures by now. Not a
problem, because the end of this little holiday will no doubt be the end of
my eme exploits for a while. It's just luck that these last few days have
been co-incident with low moon elevation in directions where I can make good
use.

Two eme qso's this morning, both with four yagi stations running about 800w
(them, not me!). UA9SL gives me a new grid. I2RV (not pictured) does not.
That was a long a difficult qso with too many lines to fit the screen. By
the way, the green trace on the screen, looking like a large toothed saw
blade, represents a local electric fence which clicks every couple of
seconds.




My point in all this is not to boast, but to indicate what can be achieved
with a modest station by a newcomer to eme. Hopefully this could encourage
other who "only" have legal power and two half-decent yagis. Maybe now I'm
through the tough part of the learning curve I'll be better placed to help
others who are thinking of eme in the future.

CUL

John

Thursday 05 January 2006

Wednesday 18 February 2006

All

Just worked Bob this evening. He had no prior warning that I would call,
it's more fun that way. He runs 4 x 12 ele and 500w. Gave me a report on the
logger of -17dB, which is a really good signal.

Worked all Continents, followed by Worked all States .... ???

Sunday 26 February 2006

All

Firstly, many thanks to Robin for the loan of a 12 ele MSquared, to allow me
to put a pair up since before Christmas. They seem pretty good. They are
both now down, waiting to be used in the March 2/70 contest.

For the moment, I have a single 16 ele JXX up.

Today, under very noisy conditions I worked F6FHP off the moon. We tried
near moonrise this morning, unsuccessfully, but completed quite easily prior
to my moonset this afternoon. I found detail elsewhere for F6FHP as "20 ele
and 5kW" (wow), so it may be my first experience of single to single yagi
qso. While I was trying for the qso this morning I had a nice report from a
VK. That's a qso to look forward to later.

I have sourced a G-550 elevation rotator, second hand but in good nick.
Pleased to see the spec for torque and braking is much enhanced since the
500 series. But it still only takes a 1.5 inch pole for the cross boom. I
have four 7 ele Wimos here, waiting to be built. I have no ali for the H
frame yet.

HB9Q was scouting around for takers on 70cms. He reckons that anyone with
50w to a 21 ele could make the qso because of his large dish.

#   CALL    DATE        LOCATOR DX EQUIPMENT    MY EQUIPMENT    COMMENTS    QSL

14  F6FHP   26.2.06     IN94    1x20/QRO        16el
13  RU1AA   16.2.06     KP40    4x15/---        2 x 12el    QSL via DK3WG
12  EA6VQ   28.1.06     JM19    8x17/2kW        2 x 12el
11  ZL3TY   18.1.06     RE57    4x12/500W       2 x 12el
10  N5KDA   17.1.06     EM41    4x17/700W       2 x 12el
9   K9MRI   15.1.06     EN70    8x5L/1kW        2 x 12el                   Y
8   JH0MHE  8.1.06      PM96    4x18/500W       2 x 12el
7   RA3AQ   5.1.06      KO85    6x36/1kW        2 x 12el
6   I2RV    2.1.06      JN45    4x16/800W       2 x 12el                   Y
5   UA9SL   2.1.06      LO71    4x17/800W       2 x 12el    QSL via DK3WG
4   S52LM   1.1.06      JN65    4x17/1.5kW      2 x 12el
3   HB9Q    30.12.05    JN47    8x19/1kW        2 x 12el                   Y
2   I6BQI   29.12.05    JN72    4x16/1.5kW      2 x 12el
1   W5UN    23.10.05    EM23    32x17/1.5kW     12el        My first EME

Monday 27 March 2006

Evening all

Not much mail from you four lately.

Pleased to say that my progress towards a modest 2m eme station is
continuing. I could actually be qrv by the end of next weekend, but the
aerials and H frame are still rather shiny and eye-catching !

The H frame is made of 1.5 inch heavy wall tube, with Barenco clamps. The
material was available in 5m lengths as standard, and so the cut-offs which
I now have would make a nice H frame for four 21 ele Tonnas on 70cms.
Something there for another day I guess.

In the meantime I've continued with occasional qsos on my single 16 ele,
including my first single yagi partner (F6FHP). That has made me decide that
next weekends work is likely to be installation of the elevation rotator,
and put the 16 ele on it for a few weeks. Beaming across the village
(south-west) gives me a 6dB rise in noise, so I'm keen to run some elevation
and minimise the crud. This bearing is often needed for Stateside contacts.
I'm up to 17 qso's now, so WAS is a fair way off ......

The installation of my four small yagis on the Versatower will mean there's
no room for anything else substantial, and makes 6m a non-starter. So it's
crossed my mind to mount the eme array somewhere else in the garden on 10ft
of alli tower, or perhaps on a pole on the corner of the garage. I shall
need a good look at the geometry. Leaving the main mast free for 4m and 6m
is a pleasant thought, especially now there are some new things to work on
4m in the Es season.

The new amplifier works fine, but hasn't been pressed at all hard yet. All
my qsos have been made with legal power, or very close indeed. And contrary
to what I'd been assured, the TS2000 works fine with WSJT. Others say it's
audio response is all wrong, but I've had no trouble at all. Amplifier and
pre-amp control is achieved with the DCW 15 sequencer.

In order to fully test the amplifier, I need another Bird element, for
2.5kW. I haven't found one yet, and it seems a bit of a giveaway to ask for
one on the reflectors.

Squeak to you soon

John

Saturday 1 April 2006

I now have elevation.

Monday 3 April 2006

Well, what an interesting weekend !

I got the 16 ele onto an elevation rotator early on Saturday (some of you
have a picture). Getting things tight enough so that it didn't elevate under
it's own steam was quite awkward. Even though there was apparently an eme
contest running I couldn't find much at all to listen to (actually, to
"see", on the WSJT screen). It occurred to me that the ground gain I have
lost when not beaming at the horizon could be more loss than I expected, but
it's always noisy at most azimuth on the horizon so it's swings and
roundabouts.

Around lunchtime I worked EB5EEO and then DK3EE. Even though I was not
beaming at Germany, and had lots of elevation, the qso with DK3EE was most
likely tropo. Bit disappointing, went for a long walk, and listened during
the evening.

Sunday was a revelation. Nothing at moonrise or for a while after. Maybe Mr
Faraday was lurking. Washed the car. Then I worked EI4DQ, followed by PA0JMV
(a 2 yagi station). In a quick series of emails Joop explained how to tell
tropo from eme, and showed how both paths were present on our qso, with the
eme one being louder.

Then I "spotted myself" on the JT65 logger. Pile-up! Was called in
succession and completed with: YU150CF, RU1AA, I2RV, RD3BD and IK2DDR. In
the evening I worked S52LM and K7MAC. Nice to give points away in a
contest - I may even put an entry in because there wasn't much G activity at
all.

This evening I've had qso's with KE7NR/P and W7IUV. Total of 29 different
stations to date - and still learning. Funny thing too, all this moonbounce,
and no unsociable hours at all.

CU

John

Sunday 28 January 2007

In March 2006, I mentioned that I had four short yagis and was making up an
H frame to suit. This didn't take long, but I waited until the summer was
over, and some of the shine had been lost from the aluminium, before I put
the array up in October. The match is quite adequate, with about 2watts
returned from 400w forward. Visual sighting of the moon indicates an error
in azimuth of almost 5 degrees, but I'll live with that until there's more
reason to take the array down. I managed to strip the thread on one of the
elevation rotator clamps - for the moment a second nut is holding it
together. The power combiner is a 4 port, half wave, home made device using
the traditional 1 inch square aluminium tube. All cables are Ecoflex 15.
Antenna spacing is compromised by my site, it's about 2.8m horizontal and 3m
vertical.

The qso rate has increased compared to the single yagi, not surprisingly,
and the ARRL contest in October and November provided a good opportunity for
qsos, both initials and old friends.

 Good show! [Ed]

    Single Operator Assisted
    ------------------------
    RA3AQ  190 64 1,216,000 B
    W5UN   128 55 704,000 B
    EA3DXU 110 55 605,000 BD
    OK1DFC  89 51 453,900 DE
    G4CCH   90 39 351,000 E
    SM2CEW  60 45 270,000 BDE
    W5LUA   62 41 254,200 BEFHI
>>  G4ZTR   48 29 139,200 B   <<
    RA6AX   47 28 131,600 B
    7M2PDT  30 24  72,000 D
    JR6EXN   6  5   3,000 A


In late December and in January 2007 we had a number of storms, with high
winds and driving rain. I came home from work one evening, expecting to see
the worst. It was dark and had, just for a while, stopped raining. The array
was moving around quite a lot, but it looked as though it was pointing in
exactly the same direction as I had left it. As I moved around the outside
of the house, looking up, I realised that I was walking on broken material
lying on the patio. This turned out to be part of the garage roof, which was
now a selection of broken tiles beneath my feet. These are no light-weights,
there're "pantiles", old clay tiles 10 x 14 inches that had blown off the
roof.

One of my best recent qso's has been with VE7TIL. We succeeded on the second
try. Scott was my first VE qso on 2m, and I'm pleased to have been his first
G contact. He has a modest station, running 400w to a pair of 7 element
yagis. I think we can both be happy with the performance of our stations on
that occasion, and of course reflect on the excellent work of Joe K1JT.
After the qso, exchanging notes on the JT65 logger with Scott, he told me
his rig was just an FT857. "What, no preamp?" I asked. "No, none at all"!




The current tally here is 125 initials. Still haven't had qso's with South
America or Australia, although I have had a couple of reports from VK's.

CU

John