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From the OK1KIR group I received this info which is very usefull to all interested in 24 GHz EME

 

EME 24 GHz from z NL since 1995.

IARU Administrative Council, Revised March 1999

The Amateur Services seek to retain their primary allocations in the band 24-24.05 GHz.

http://www.microwaves.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/arch2001.html

 

www.nlrs.org/Aurora-2002/VE4MA/24_Ghz_EME.PPT

 

 

NL9509

SM0PYP has changed QTH and is not QRV. Paul hopes to move his equipment and become operational again in the future. He is particularly interested in trying 10 and 24 GHz EME.

NL9612

WB5LUA is working on 24 GHz. The station consists of a 5 m dish and 4.5 dB NF LNA. He is recieving 0,4 dB of Moon noise and 6 dB of Sun noise.

NL9704

DJ7FJ on 24 GHz we are lacking sufficient power to check echoes. We have tested the receiving system with the 4.5 m dish. The measurements resulted in a sun noise of 14.6 dB and moon noise of 2.1 dB. The C/SG noise was 3.8 dB. The weather was clear with blue sky and 20 deg C at the time of these tests. The moon phase was 3 days after new moon. Recently we made tests with a 1.2 m dish and received 10.3 dB sun noise, 0.6 dB moon noise and 3.5 dB CS/G noise at half moon phase. The receiving system in all tests consisted of a VE4MA type feed and a 1.5 dB preamp made by DB6NT followed by a DB6NT 24 GHz transverter.

OH2AXH testy se 4,5 m a 3 m na:

http://www.kolumbus.fi/michael.fletcher/eme_test.htm

NL9802

CT1DMK I am conducting some tests on 24 GHz, but as you might expect, I have no real TX power ... but searching hard. Any clues?

NL9804

W5LUA This morning I had a nice breakfast chat with Sam, G4DDK for some delightful 24 and 47 GHz conversation. I will be flying back to Dallas Sunday afternoon and will be around all week if there are any takers for 23 cm through 3 cm EME.

NL9805

LX1DB is looking for a waveguide transfer relay for 24 GHz and a coaxial relay for 10 GHz.

NL9809

Paris conference report - WA7CJO on how to make Ku-band TWTAs work at 24 GHz.

NL9810

VE4MA I went back to work last night to borrow test equipment for 24 GHz, but forgot to bring a counter.

NL9907

LX1DB Willie is working on 24 GHz EME and is looking for a feed system for his 0.4 f/d dish. He has waveguide and expects to have a 30 W TWTA soon.

VE4MA, Barry is working on 24 GHz EME gear, and now have 2 24 GHz preamps running.

NL9908

CT1DMK He will be testing on 24 GHz shortly, but says no skeds until his tests are complete. I believe he is trying to use an 18 GHz TWTA on 24 GHz.

VE4MA Barry is working on 24 GHz EME.

NL0001

W5LUA now has a 2.4 dB system NF on 24 GHz.

NL0004

CT1DMK Luis reports on his recent moon activity -- Only minimal progress was made on my 24 GHz EME project. I now have a good waveguide switch with very little loss at 24 GHz. I'm playing with all sorts of TWTs that can give a little bit of power at 24 GHz. Rx is working fine, and I will report on my moon noise experiments very soon.

NL0005

VE4MA now has 16 W on 24 GHz using cascaded TWTs.

NL0010

W5LUA Al is working on 24 GHz and now has a 2.4 dB system NF.

CT1DMK Luis is getting 1.6 dB NF on 24 GHz.

 

NL0102

VE4MA Barry fills us in on his 24 GHz EME status -- I have been playing around with a new 8' x 9' Prodelin offset dish with 0.7 f/d, a good 1.55 dB NF preamp and this weekend a new IMU feedhorn (larger size thanks to W1GHZ calculations). I'm very happy with the results! I get a solid 14.9 dB of Sun noise and 2.1 dB moon noise - a truly amazing dish! My priority now is to get a bigger TWTA working. Power supply mods are required. Presently I do have 11 W. I should be ready to conduct echo test in the next month or so, but I still have station integration work to do.

NL0104

W5LUA Al reports his 1st lunar echoes on 24 GHz -- I was finally able to hear and record my 1st EME echoes on 24,192.1 MHz at 0816 on 7 March. My antenna is a 3 m Andrews prime focus dish. According to Andrews, the dish is rated to 30 GHz with proper back structuring to optimize the dish's surface. The dish really began to perform when I added a back structure that looks like a tic-tac-toe board mounted to the backside of the dish. The eight points of the back structure allowed me to optimize the dish's surface by pushing or pulling on the back of the dish to enhance the accuracy of the dish's surface. The end result was improved sun and moon noise. I presently receive 12.5 dB of sun noise and 1.3 dB of moon noise. My feed is a scalar feed optimized per the "W1GHZ On-Line Antenna Handbook". My dish has an F/D of 0.3. My LNA is a 2 stage W5LUA homebrew design using a pair of Agilent Technologies PHEMT devices, which provide a 2.25 dB system NF. My basic transverter is built around surplus 23 GHz modules, which down-convert to a 2304 MHz IF that is then down-converted to a 144 MHz IF with a Down East Microwave transverter to an ICOM IC-271 transceiver. I was able to achieve about 20 W at 24192 MHz by re-tuning a Varian VTU- 6191 (14.5 GHz) TWTA that I have been using on 10 GHz EME at about 80 W output. Re-tuning consisted of lowering the Helix voltage and doing some tuning in the output waveguide section. I was using Mike Owen's Realtrak Software to track the moon. I was concerned about the accuracy of the Doppler calculation of the various moon tracking programs, which I have used in the past. With an expected Doppler of up to 50 kHz, there is not a lot of margin for error when tuning for echoes. I ran some echo tests on 10368 MHz and came to the conclusion that Mike's software was the most accurate at 10368 MHz. I therefore placed my confidence in his software at 24192 MHz. Based on the Doppler shift of the received echoes, I believe Mike's software predicted the returns within a few hundred Hz. On the evening of 6 March, I had just installed my elevation rotator, which allowed me to remotely operate the dish from the hamshack. Previous attempts at echoes were with all the equipment mounted in a shed near the dish. I had tried for echoes prior to zenith, but only thought I had heard echoes. Some clouds were beginning to cover the moon, so I decided to set my alarm clock for about 2 AM (LST) and give it a shot on the setting moon. The 1st discernable echoes were heard at 0816 with the moon at an azimuth of 268.8 degs and an elevation of 38.8 degs. The Doppler shift at this time was a negative 45.3 kHz. Echoes peaked very well at 0848 where the elevation was down to 31.5 degs and the Doppler shift was a negative 49.1 kHz. At this point, I ran out of azimuth control with my present set-up. My lunar echoes peaked Q5 (M copy) in a 2 kHz bandwidth and were easily identifiable on AF9Y's DSP software. This triumphant event came after several years of optimizing the system and many failed attempts at achieving lunar echoes. I was rather surprised to find that the echoes did not seem to be much broader than my 10 GHz echoes, maybe due to the 0.3 deg beam-width of my dish. More info including the AF9Y .gif files will be posted on the North Texas Microwave Society WEB page at:

NTMWS's WEB Page

NL0105

WA7CJO Jim is still running linear pol, but is considering a change. Jim is also playing around with 24 GHz. He hopes to have a 100 W amp on 24 GHz to replace 12 w one now in use.

NL0106

W5LUA Al has made a little more progress on 24 GHz tropo.

NL0107

VE4MA now has his 24 GHz TWTA running at 40 W. Barry should be testing on 24 GHz in a few days.

W5LUA has been working on his 24 GHz preamps. He is getting about a 2 dB NF and trying for less.

NL0108

VE4MA has been playing with his 24 GHz TWTA and thinks something is wrong with it.

NL0109

The big news this month is the 1st 24 GHz EME QSO! On 18 Aug at 1419 VE4MA and W5LUA QSO'd (M/M) on 24 GHz. Signals were quite good with slightly less than the normal buzz experienced at 10 GHz. Weather at VE4MA was cool and clear, while at W5LUA it was hot, cloudy and humid. The clouds and the moon's proximity to the sun made optical tracking impossible and thus keeping their dishes pointed at the moon was difficult. VE4MA was using 60 W at the feed of an offset fed 8' dish. W5LUA had 80 W at the feed of a 10' dish.

PRESENTACE NA:

www.nlrs.org/Aurora-2002/VE4MA/24_Ghz_EME.PPT

NL0110

VE4MA Barry reports that he and W5LUA are planning a period of 24 GHz EME activity that will permit other stations to listen and hopefully even result in new contacts (WA7CJO & AA6WI?) -- We are planning to use 2.5 minute sequencing for the following skeds: 9 Oct @ 0700 W5LUA-VE4MA 24192.100, 10 Oct @ 0800 W5LUA-VE4MA 24192.100. The choice of these dates was made to avoid the contest weekend and give a good visual moon for tracking. With visual tracking we hope to avoid the usual 10 GHz practice of pausing at the 1 minute point in a sequence for antenna peaking. Al and I are within 5 kHz of agreement on the frequency, but we will keep our echoes close together. The doppler shift can be very high (up to 70 kHz) so please be aware that there are dramatic differences in the calculated Doppler between the various programs. Al and I are both using W9IP's "Realtrack". Please let us both know if you will be listening or if you want to arrange additional skeds.

NL0111

G3WDG Charlie was among those who copied W5LUA and VE4MA on 24 GHz EME during their EME tests this past month –- I would have given both an (O) report. Petra was on the RX, while I was doing the tracking using moon noise. VE4MA's signal was a little louder than W5LUA's and very consistent. We were using our Andrews 10' dish, DB6NT waveguide preamp feeding a HB 24 GHz transverter based on the DB6NT MK2 design. G4DDK004 LO, G3WDG009 2.4 to 12GHz multiplier, WDG wavequide image filter, etc. Sun noise at 19 degs el was 13 dB and moon noise at 33 degs el was 1.8 dB.

RW3BP Serge is hearing EME signals on 24 GHz; here is his report -- Thanks to VE4MA and W5LUA for passing word of their Oct tests and thus enabling me to listen in. Less than a month ago, I had only a dish lying in garage and DB6NT 24 GHz preamplifier. Now this dish is on the roof of 18th floor apartment building. On 6 Oct, I 1st ran tests on 3 cm. Sun noise was 15.5 dB and moon noise 1.6 dB. 7 Oct I ran my 1st test on 24 GHz. Sun noise 13 dB and moon noise 2.1 dB (on 8 Oct at an el of 43 grad). On 9 Oct I tried to find Al and Barry 100 kHz away from right frequency. At 0913 I discovered my mistake and corrected the frequency. At 0914 I copied my 1st signal via the moon on 24 GHz. Callsigns, Ms, Rs and lot of 73s were copied. El was 14 degs and moon noise only 0.8 dB. On 10 Oct I had bad weather with rain and fog. The moon noise was low even at 45 degs el. Anyway I copied both signals with readable level. At a pause in the rain, my moon noise was about 1.2 dB. My antenna is a 2.4 m offset dish with rectangular horn as a feed. The converter and LO is by RA3ACE. The preamp (DB6NT) has a 1.6 dB NF.

Subject:  24GHz EME
Date: Sun, 21 Apr 2002
From: "Sergei RW3BP" <rw3bp@co.ru>

On 18 and 20 April I had my first QSOs on 24 GHz with Al, W5LUA, and Barry, VE4MA.

My station:
ANT - 2.4m (8 feet) offset dish with rectangular horn as a feed (see photo right). I can set speed of Az and El motion to provide autotracking with better then  0.1 degree accuracy in 30min period.

TX - 50W TWT placed at the feed point on water cooled aluminium plate.PS (13kV/5.6kV) is homemade and placed at home.

Rx - DB6NT LNA with 1.65dB NF. Converter and LO by RA3ACE. I use separate feeds for TX And RX. TX/RX change-over provided by moving TWT - LNA block up and down for 40mm. It takes 0.25 s to move it down to RX position. So it is possible to get own echo very well.In TX position RX feed is shielded by lossy rubber. It is also good reference for noise measurements.

73 Sergei RW3BP

 

On 22-Jan-2002 RW3BP wrote:
I use offset dish since 1997. It is 1.65m dish (section of 3.3m 0.25 f/D). So it's equivalent f/D is less then 0.7. Had my first EME QSO in 1997 on 3cm band. Then scanned all allowed here five bands from 3cm to 70cm. Last was 70cm in June 2000 (DL9KR, PA3CSG, SM2CEW). Never heard my own echo but hope to get it on 24GHz hi. For 3 and 6cm I used rectangular horn; for 13and 23cm IMU horn; for 70cm 2x4el Yagi.

In my opinion it is no big difference between offset and normal dish but anyway I like it. In 1999 I purchased bigger one. It is 2.4m one piece solid offset dish with equivalent f/D abt 0.7. I installed it only few month ago and now use it for 24GHz rx tests. Best result for this moment is 2.4 dB of moon noise and 14dB of sun. Sometimes copied Al and Barry with RST level.

VE4MA Barry reports on his 24 GHz EME tests with W5LUA -- It was a very successful test in Oct with 24 GHz EME signals being heard at G3WDG, RW3BP and VE7CLD. I completed QSO 2 on 24 GHz EME with W5LUA in about 20 minutes on 9 Oct. Al's signal was very readable, easy to find, but as time progressed over 2 1/2 hours, signals became more like 10 GHz with a very pronounced Aurora like BUZZ. Murphy's Law made an appearance at both QTHs. For the 0700 test period my PLL TX LO was unlocked with a crystal that did not start. I readjusted for best crystal activity, which moved my TX converter about 550 KHz away! After recalibrating all was OK for the 0900 test period. Al had trouble with one erratic readout, which because of no visual moon meant he could not track during 1 sequence. Al and I would like to schedule another round of tests for 4/5 Nov as follows: 4 Nov 4 W5LUA - VE4MA 24192.100 0400-0430 & 0600-0630, 5 Nov W5LUA - VE4MA 24192.100 0500-0530 & 0700-0730. We have tried to schedule times with local elevations of 30 degs minimum for Sergei and the West Coast of North America. W5LUA is not available for Saturday and Sunday and the following weekend is the EME contest again, thus the Monday and Tuesday time slots.

VE7CLD Gunter's report of reception of 24 GHz EME signals -- I heard VE4MA's answer WB5LUA's signals on 9 Oct at around 0902 for about half an hour, as well as on the 10 Oct at 1031. I copied the callsigns as well as many Rs, Ms and 73s. It was hard for me to copy because I was busy keeping the dish on the moon. I also believe I heard a signal on 9 Oct at 0820. The frequency on my receiver indicated 24,196.133 MHz drifting to 24,196.115 MHz. Moon noise on both days was approximately 1.5 dB. The weather was cloudy on the 2nd day. I recorded most of the contacts on audiotape. It was very exciting.

NL0112

VE4MA is trying to determine the availability of 24 GHz TWT's. If you have or know of some, please drop Barry a note.

W5LUA has worked VE4MA (O/O) again on 24 GHz and is beginning testing with RW3BP on 24 GHz.

NL0201

VE4MA has new PA on 24 GHz with 100 W+ out!

W5LUA on 24 GHz worked VE4MA again and was heard by AA6IW and RW3BP. 24 GHz moon noise was at an all time high of 1.9 dB.

NL0203

NU7Z is working on 24 GHz and 47 GHz equip .

W5LUA has been playing with 47 GHz NF measurements. He made a couple of filters for 47 GHz. Al is now up to his 10th QSO on 24 GHz.

VE7CLD heard W5LUA on 24 GHz in Jan.

RW3BP has received TWT and will be working on a power supply for 24 GHz.

NL0205

There is so much news this month it is nearly incredible! The big new should be the 2nd leg of the DUBUS/REF Contest, but 24 GHz is steeling the headline. RW3BP has extended 24 GHz EME to Eur by working both W5LUA and VE4MA. Later Sergei worked AA6IW for his initial #3 and a new 24 GHz distance record. VE4MA is now up to initial #4 on 24 GHz after completing with VE7CLD and AA6IW.

RW3BP Sergei has joined the very elite club of those completing EME QSOs on 24 GHz - On 18 and 20 of April I had my 1st QSOs on 24 GHz with W5LUA and VE4MA. I also heard AA6IW when he tested before his sked with VE4MA. On Sunday April 21 I worked AA6IW for initial #3, and a 1st 24 GHz EME QSO for Lars. What is remarkable about this QSO is that the moon was only at about 7.5 deg el at the end. The atmosphere normally absorbs RF at low angles on 24 GHZ and adds Rx noise from the temperature of the atmosphere. [This is certainly a new 24 GHz distance record (KO85ws to CN87vi).] My station is a 2.4 m offset dish with rectangular horn as a feed. I can set speed of Az and El motion to provide autotracking with better then 0.1 deg accuracy in a 30 min period. The TX is a 50 W TWT placed at the feed point on a water-cooled Al plate. The PS (13 kV/5.6 kV) is homemade and placed at home. The RX uses a DB6NT LNA with 1.65 dB NF, and a converter and LO by RA3ACE. I use separate feeds for TX And RX. TX/RX change-over is provided by moving the TWT - LNA block up and down by 40 mm. It takes 0.25 s to move it down to the RX position. So it is possible to get own echo very well. In the TX position, the RX feed is shielded by lossy rubber. It is also good reference for noise measurements.

VE4MA Barry writes - I had a very nice and easy (M/O) QSO with RW3BP on 24 GHz. His signal was very solid (almost "O"). This is initial #2 for both of us. Lars AA6IW and I had a sked, but I did not hear him, however RW3BP heard both of us in spite of his low elevation angles. Three days later VE7CLD and I completed an (M/M) QSO #3, a new country (3) and a 1st 24 GHz EME QSO for Gunter. After I also had an (M/M) QSO with AA6IW #4. Signals were very smeared (except for Sergei who was heard with Lars). Interestingly Lars observed a very much narrower spreading on RW3BP than myself. Unfortunately W5LUA missed all the activity as he was in New Orleans. Next month is sure to bring much activity and many new QSOs. All stations are running high power TWTAs (>75 Watts) most through the assistance of Paul, W2PED.

W5LUA reports that he worked RW3BP (M/M) on 24 GHz EME on 18 April about 7 days before Perigee - It was tough conditions with high temp and high humidity in Texas. This was my 2nd initial. My station is a 3 m dish and 55 watts at the feed.

NL0206

IQ4DF - I4ZAU (ex I6ZAU). We plan to be QRV again for the June SW, and on 24 GHz next year.

NL0207

W5LUA Al worked in June during the pre SW on 24 GHz RW3BP (O/O) but did not complete with AA6IW and VE7BLD, He is trying to resurrect 24 GHz TWTs.

NL0208

TECHNICAL 1

TECHNICAL I: With successful moonbounce on 24 GHz, interest is now moving to 47 GHz. VE4MA sends the following notes on his 47 GHz sun noise results in which he tries to compare the performance of different antenna types. I have been busy performing 47 GHz Sun Noise Tests in recent weeks and comparing notes with Al W5LUA, Gary AD6FP and Will W0EOM. There is a real shortage of large antennas rated for this frequency. The measurements were taken using 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 and 10 ft dishes and all receivers are believed to have a NF of about 4.5 dB. Cold sky to ground measurements are about 1.3 dB using the feedhorns alone. Here are the Sun Noise results: W5LUA 15" prime focus 39 GHz Dish = 1.4 dB, VE4MA 30" offset metal dish = 2.4 dB, W5LUA 24" prime focus 39 GHz dish = 2.5 dB, VE4MA 4' offset plastic dish = 3.6 dB, W0EOM 2'dish = 4.1 dB, VE4MA 6' offset Fiberglass dish = 5.0 dB, AD6FP 3' Precision (95 GHz) dish = 5.2 dB, W5LUA 10' (24 GHZ EME dish) 5.7 dB (0.4 dB moon noise), VE4MA same 4' offset plastic dish with Aluminum foil on surface = 6.4 dB, and VE4MA 8' (24 GHz EME dish) = 6.9 dB. The remarkable thing is the 3.3 dB gain improvement in the 4 ft offset dish performance with the addition of aluminum foil. The plastic/fiberglass offset dishes seem to be reasonably accurate, but the reflecting material imbedded in the surface is not very effective at this frequency (designed for 14 GHz). The 30" metal offset dish does not seem to be efficient, nor are the 39 GHz dishes. The 4' dish I was using was part of a General Instrument 12 GHz receiving system and has 8 large 5/16 bolt heads sitting on the surface. After I replaced the hex headed bolts with round headed 5/16" bolts, took a few bubbles out of the surface mounted aluminum foil, I measured sun noise at 7.1 dB or an increase of 0.7 dB. The foil was attached with wallpaper cement (temporary) and subsequently painted with white latex paint to reduce the heating of the feedhorn! A good 4 ft dish is expected to be the minimum required for 47 GHz EME. It appears that it is now possible to get one. It looks like I should do a similar foil job to the 6' (borrowed) and my 8' 24 GHz dish. I will have to look for some really good weatherproof adhesive.

W5LUA Al has a TWTA for G3WDG producing 80 W on 24 GHz. Al has picked up a new 2.4 m offset fed dish for 47 GHz.

NL0212

W5LUA Al reports having a good time in Nov - Al needs to arrange transportation of TWT and P/S for 24 GHz to G3WDG. If anyone going over that way can carry it, please get in touch with Al.

PA0EHG Hans pa0ehg@amsat.org writes about IRAU action on a 24 GHz EME freq -- I just found out that during the IARU region 1 conference last Nov a decision was made to move narrowband activity on 24 GHz from 24,192 to 24,048 MHz. I would like to know what the worldwide EME frequency will be after this decision. If the EME frequency stays on 24,192 MHz, than I don't want to move to 24,048 MHz, even for the normal tropo work. I don't know if IARU region 1 has taken any steps to coordinate this decision to become a worldwide EME frequency. I am very interested in learning how other 24 GHz EMEers feel about this action?

NL0301

W5LUA Al reports that a HV assembly was shipped to VE7CLD for a 24 GHz TWT and that G3WDG will be visiting and able to pick up his 24 GHz gear.

LX1DB is looking forward to the arrival of a new 3 m dish for 24 GHz EME. Willie still needs a bigger TWTA. He is now limited to 5 W. He has a new email address lx1db@lx1db.com and web page at www.lx2db.com.

NL0308

LX1DB: Willi WILLI.BAUER@airport.etat.lu writes -- Here is some news from LX. I am still alive. I modified the south part on my house. I was very busy with this project and my EME activity consequently was low. I will replace in Aug my small dish (3.9 m) for 5.6 and 10 GHz with a 3 m Andrew solid dish that is specified up to 24 GHz. I also expect to have at least a 16 W transistor

amplifier for 24 GHz on by the end of the year. I have a 4 W transistor PA working already.

NL0310

CONDITIONS: This Sept included some important firsts. OK1UWA provided the first 24 GHz QSO with central Europe and joined the exclusive ranks of successful 24 GHz EMEers by contacting W5LUA.

OK1UWA: Josef sveceny@ges.cz has joined the elite ranks of successful 24 GHz EMEers -- I successfully QSO’d W5LUA on the 24GHz band. We worked on 24 Sept (M/O) and repeated the next day with same reports. This was the first 24 GHz EME QSO between central Europe and the USA. My station consists of a 3 m dish (f/d 0.35) designed for 18 GHz only, a TWTA with 30 W output and DB6NT LNA (NF 1.35 dB). Both the LNA and TWT (with 14 kV power supply) are mounted at the antenna focal point for minimal lose. I receive 1.35 dB of Moon noise. I'm using a HB transverter (OK1UWA design) with an YAESU FT -1000MP IF with the large IF SSB filter. The narrow CW 500 Hz or 250Hz filters are unusable. See my webpage www.ok1uwa.com for more details and audio wav files of the QSO. [Dish is at end of NL]

NL0401

G4NNS: Brian brian-coleman@tiscali.co.uk is QRV on 3 cm and writes that when possible he makes digital recordings of EME signals. Recordings are mostly on 10 GHz, but he also recorded W5LUA/OK1UWA on 24 GHz during their EME tests. He has posted some of these recordings as MP3 files on his web

page at <http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/g4nns>.

NL0410

DB6NT 24 GHz EME Tests: I missed reminding everyone of this test in last months NL. 24/25/26 Sept DB6NT Kuhne.db6nt@t -online.de will activate on 24 GHz with the 20 m dish in Bochum. Michael will have 15 W on T X. He is also not sure of the signal level since the dish was designed for operation around 1,6GHz and has a radome that possibly is not optimum for 24 GHz. Unfortunately the moon is a t a low declination that will limit participations in areas far from Eur.

NL0411

DL0EF: Manfred Manfred.Lugert@inter.nl.net will be again on 10 GHz in EME Contests and also for initial 24 GHz tests -- On the weekend of 25/26 Sept the Föderverein Astropeiler Stockert radio club, DL0EF, met to re-activat e after a 1 year break their 10 m dish for the up-coming EME contests on 10 GHz. The transverter system, which has been refurbished and up-graded was re-installed and the 200 W TWT was re-activated. Moon noise was observed with 4.5 dB with a cloudy and rainy sky and sun noise was around 18-19 dB. Our echoes were great and readable even in FM. A random QSO with DL0SB, the group in Bochum using a 20 m dish with 200 W confirmed that everything was working fine. We are looking forward to contacts during the ARRL EME weekends. Further more, initial receive tests on 24 GHz have been done with the 10 m dish

using a small circular horn inserted into the 10 GHz circular waveguide. Results were encouraging with sun noise of 4 dB on a simple receiver with around a 5 dB NF. The antenna appears to perform well and further activities are now planned. More details can be found on our webpage www.astropeiler.de.

DK3UC: Ulli and DC4OD, Hinko Hinko.Ptak@t-online.de in JO52AJ have set up for RX on 24 GHz EME with 6’ dish. They are receiving about 0.8 dB of moon noise and 8.5 dB from the sun. I believe they listen for the DB6NT tests reported in the last NL, but reference the call DK0SB and report hearing nil. [VE4MA who forwarded this report also knew nothing of DK0SB 24 GHz EME tests. I have not received any reports of copy of the DB6NT signals].

NL0509

G4NNS: Brian brian-coleman@tiscali.co.uk is now QRV on 3.4 GHz – Until recently I have only used my 3.7 m cassegrain antenna for 10 GHz TX/RX and 24 GHz RX. I do not have sufficient power to TX on 24 GHz EME yet!

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/g4nns/G4NNSEME24G.html

Hello Vico

I am sorry I was not able to be QRV on 10GHz EME this weekend. My antenna is rigged for 24GHz at present. Please let me know if you are QRV on 24GHz.

I have modified a Siemens RW1127 tube and RWN322P PSU and with 1W of drive I have 25W o/p at 24GHz. My tube came from Ulli DK3UC.

So far I have had #3 QSOs on 24GHz EME. LX1DB, W5LUA and DF1OI.

Some other G stations are very interested to buy RW1127 and RWN322P to use for 24GHz Tropo. They are not available in the UK.

Do you know of a source for them ???

73 Brian G4NNS

 

 

 

NL0607

LX1DB: Willie wbauer@pt.lu made his first EME tests on 24 GHz in June with 20 W at the feed. He worked G4NNS, W5LUA and DF1IO.

VE4MA: Barry ve4ma@shaw.ca is setting back up for 24 GHz EME and is moving his operating freq to 24,048. He also needs to refocus his TWT back from 47 GHz.

OK1KIR is also coming on 24 GHz.

NL0701

LX1DB: Willie wbauer@pt.lu was active during the Dec AW . My present project is a 24 GHz 42 W solid state amplifier. I hope to have it finished after Christmas.

Moon-net 070418

Hello Friends

Yesterday has called to me by phone my friend Per DK7LJ and QSP the good news:

On April, 18 DK7LJ for the first time has accepted good ECHO on 24 GHz band .

DK7LJ's 24GHz RIG:

3.7m solid dish, 25w in Vp feed, DB6NT design LNA

SUN NOISE test: 13.5dB, MOON NOISE test 1.75dB

DK7LJ It is ready to the first QSOs on 24GHz band and open for any skeds

e-mail DK7LJ : Per Dudek <dudek at iqsh.de>

NL0705

LX1DB He plans to be active in May and June on 24 GHz.

Moon-net 071030

Hi,my name is Per (DK7LJ) and I am QRV on 24048MHz since 3 month now using a 3,7m dish and 30w at the feed. Sun noise is between 13 to 14.5db, Moon Noise 1.6 to2.4.db.

So far I only was able to make one EME QSO because I cant find more stations . Perhaps anyone can help me.Sunday I had good SSB echos, nearly no spreading at all. A screenshot is at

http://www.appello.de/DL0SHF_24GHz.jpg

VY 73

Per, DK7LJ

NL0712

LX1DB: Willie wbauer@pt.lu worked DK7LJ on 3 Nov for an initial. The QSO took 10 minutes. The Doppler was 48 kHz and the signal was 300 Hz wide.

W5LUA: Al w5luu@swbell.net reports that he is still working on his 24 GHz stuff in hopes of getting on soon.

NL0802

VE4MA and W5LUA are getting ready to resume 24 GHz EME activity.

LX1DB is retiring in Jan. Also, he is set up for 24 GHz EME.

NL08021

IQ4DF: Vico lodzauli@tin.it reports that his group is currently targeting 24 GHz EME operation. They were hoping to be QRV for activity near the end of Jan and were setting up to measure moon noise. They have a 7 m dish, but do not know its efficiency on 24 GHz.We have 11dB Sun.noise & 1 dB Moon-noise, poor results, but we are working....

W5LUA: Al w5lua@swbell.net is set up again for 24 GHz and worked DK7LJ in Jan for the first DL - W 24 GHz contact. This was Al’s country # 7. He will try to get some stations together for 24 GHz activity on the NA moonrise on 16 Feb. Al notes that there will be a Lunar eclipse on 21 Feb.

VE4MA expects to be ready for 24 GHz EME operation for next moon cycle.

 

http://www.nr6ca.org/microwavetechnicalresources.html