During my holiday in Northern Spain I had the opportunity to visit my radio friend Toni, EA1IW, and his family in Vargas. We had interesting technical talks and a good time together. Thank you Toni and see you soon over the moon!
A few days ago, the ARRL published the results of the “ARRL International EME Contest 2021”. Although I only took part in a total of 10.2 hours, I finished 20th out of a total of 50 participants in the “Single Operator, All Mode, 1.2 GHz” category.
This is a gratifying result for me as I only have a small 1.75m dish and a limited moon window. A total of 60 contacts were logged, 12 of them in CW. Highlights beside many others are the CW contacts with DU3T and KL6M, two new DXCC on 23cm.
Detailed results are available here https://contests.arrl.org/scores.php
Another milestone in my 48 years of Ham Radio: After WAC 432 MHz (1983) and WAC 144 MHz (2018), the WAC 1296 MHz arrived today. Of all these it was the fastest and all Continents were in the log after just 2 months of activity.
The next step in my moonbounce activities has been reached: 23cm!
Many years ago I got this beautiful 1.8m full-size dish and it was lying around uselessly. Hey, 1.8m diameter is a bit small for EME, but why not give it a try? 1296 MHz would be nice and at least the big guns should be heard. To make the long story short: After a few setbacks, measurements and optimizations, the time had finally come and on May 26, 2020, the first contact with UA3PTW was complete. Now, after a week there are 32 different stations in the log, 5 continents have been reached and even two nice QSO’s in CW. My expectations were more than exceeded and now it is time to optimize further details.
See you off the moon!
After several tries at low moon and high degradation Alex, 5B0EME (KM64tv), was worked today on 2m via Moonbounce. Alex is working with 2 x 10 Element Hpol Yagis. Report received -29 dB, sent -26 dB. Cyprus is DXCC # 94 on 144 MHz.
During my trip across Western Australia this January – February 2020 I had the pleasure to meet some Ham-Radio friends I knew from Hf contacts and from the EME Group.
Stuart, VK6MK, and his wife Jennifer live in Australind, a beautiful small town south of Perth. I met Stuart several times on Hf and we spent some nice hours in his beautiful home. Thanks for your kind hospitality folks!
Alex, VK6KCC, is one of the 2m EME gang, living north of Perth. He is member of the NCRG, Northern Corridor Radio Group from Western Australia. This Group is located within Whiteman Park and is home of the Neil Penfold State Amateur Radio Centre (NPSARC) and antenna farm. VK6ANC, one of the club callsigns, is very active on the bands. VK6NC, the other callsign, now appears in most of the big contests. The Group is very well equipped and active from 1.8 MHz to 10 GHz. Thank you Alex for the nice discussions and explaining us your Clubstation!
After a longer absence Carsten HS0ZIL (OK16bq) showed up on 2m EME with a big signal. He runs 4 x 8 El. Yagi and was worked easily for a new DXCC # 93 on 2m on January 11. Hopefully a good start for 2020.
It was a little cold that did not let me sleep. When I took a look at LiveCQ in the middle of the night I saw VP8EME (GD18bh) just calling CQ on 2m EME. The station was switched on quickly and the antenna turned to the moon. After 5 minutes the QSO was in the book. Thanks Mario for DXCC # 91 on 2m!
Just three days later on December 13, Kari OH2BC showed up on 2m from Madeira Island (IM12mm) using the callsign CR3EME. He uses 2x 9 Element Yagi and was received here with -28 dB in the peak. Kari was fighten against the noise produced by thousands of Christmas Lights but luckily he fished out my signal. DXCC # 92 on 144 for me could be celebrated.
The beautiful Zanzibar Island in Tanzania (AF-032 / KI93rv) was the destinationof Alex K2BB, Pavel UU0JR, Serg RT5D, Sasha UT7UV and Oleg US7UX. Under the call sign 5H3UN they were active on the Hf-bands, also using 5H3EME for 6m and 2m Moonbounce.
For 2m EME they had two 10 element cross-yagi antennas with elevation, a Javornik II 144-28 transverter with dual channel RX – LNA, Odyssey II SDR transceiver and finally a 1kW solid state amplifier.
After along night waiting for a signal at 01:10 UT 5H3EME came out of the noise and after two calls the QSO was in the log – DXCC # 90 on 2m. The goal is approaching …
