EME  OK2AQ

JN89eu                                 mirek@kasals.com

    10 GHz
 

Nice spring weather on the weekend 26-27 April, when ARI EME Trophy spring part of the contest was held, promised good participation, which was also confirmed. Both monthly windows were during daylight hours, with no need for overnight stays. However, this resulted in little separation between the Sun and Moon, especially on Sunday. On the lower bands, this certainly bothered, especially stations with smaller antennas. On Sunday the separation was between 5 and 10 deg. The beam width of my 1.8 m antenna at 10 GHz is 1.1 deg, so the separation was sufficient. The multipliers in this contest are Italian stations, so it was a surprise that only IW2FZR appeared on CW on Saturday (he was working remote and digi could not work in this mode). On Sunday, however, the situation changed and Q65 worked another four I stations, while IK0HWJ, who was not on the logger, complied and after a request on a digi contact, switched to CW, where we also made a brilliant QSO. A number of new tags have appeared and the trend of small stations with 1 - 1,2 m antennas and 10 - 20 W power mostly with hand routing continues. It then depends on the skill of the operator and mainly on the “real parameters” of such a station whether the contact will succeed. The day after the contest I made a QSO with SO5AZ {#165} with 1,2 m offset and 10 W, Q65-120E mode and the next day with PA0JOZ {#166} with 1,2 m and 15 W, standard Q65-60D mode. In the contest I made a total of 5 CW and 29 Q65, for a total of 34 QSOs. With initials OE9ERC, SQ9ATC, DL6SH, N1AV, OH3LWP, N6RMJ, NN3Y. CW initials are DL6SH and ON5TA (#40).

One week after the ARRL contest the ARI Autumn EME contest took place. The weather was good, no rain and the moon with only slightly less declination than the week before. However, both lunar windows were characterized by large spreads mostly around 200 Hz. Only just after moonrise and before moonset did the spread drop to 100 Hz. These are very difficult conditions for CW.  So while contest conditions favored CW contacts, there were few. In total I made 24 QSOs of which two were CW - OK1KIR and OZ1LPR. Log

2nd leg of the ARRL EME contest in the 3 cm band was held in good weather with good participation. New stations with small antennas of about 1 m and 20 W power are appearing all the time. If they have good tracking, LNA with waveguide relay and a good feed, a Q65 technique can be used to make contacts. I have made 22 QSOs with initials W2HRO, GI7UGV, IZ0JNY, DG5CST and JA8ERE crossband {#157}. In total I have 50 contest QSOs in both legs. Log

This year's European DUBUS & REF contest was held under new conditions, with 24 GHz on Saturday and 10 GHz on Sunday. As part of the increased pre-contest activity, several new stations appeared on 10 GHz and so I added Q65 mode initials: I6YPK, IW2BNA, EA1IW and W4AF {#148}. The spread of signals was large on both orbits, which made it difficult for especially small stations and their CW counterstations to work. In Sunday's contest I worked CW with OK1KIR, OZ1LPR, SP6JLW, PA3ZDL, G4RFR (#38), DB6NT, DL4DTU and HB2M. Outside the contest, I worked the Q65 mode with CT2GUR, VK7ZBX, JA1WQF (crossband), DL4DTU, VE4MA and OK1DFC.

The contest was held in beautiful "summer" weather, only occasionally with stronger wind. However, as it turned out, the low declination of the Moon caused a very small turnout. Stations were also not attracted by the low signal degradation resulting from the Moon's position in perigee. Among non-European stations defended colours  of SA CX2SC and NA K5DOG only. The 3 cm band was dominated as usual by OZ1LPR with power at least 10 dB higher than the other stations. In total I made 14 Q65 QSOs and 2 CW QSOs. New station was IU4MES {#144} see log.

A.R.I. Trophy Autumn 2023 10 GHz

The 1st weekend of ARRL contest on 3 cm was held in beautiful summer weather on August 12.-13. Participation especially from Europe was very good. I made a total of 33 QSOs, 30 of them valid for the contest and I enjoyed it, even though I don't like these highest orbits. I had some problem with my receiver for 10 450 MHz and therefore missed Mitsuo JA1WQF. After reviewing all the parameter setting, I asked Tonda OK1KIR to whistle on 10450 MHz and he was already there with a very good signal. New initials YO8RHI (#137) {#121}, SA6BUN {#122} and F2CT {#123}, see log. The sun was "shining" (SFU = 150, SN/CS = 12,5 dB, 1,8 m offset dish) see picture.

We've been at the cottage since June 10 and in anticipation of the Market Reef expedition I set up the 3 cm equipment and have been QRV since June 11. The expedition caused excellent EME activity so there was always something to do. Right on June 12, I made a QSO with GW3TKH mode Q65-120E {#134} and DXCC 44. I made a QSO with expedition OJ0EME {#135} DXCC 45 on the first day my turn came up, with excellent reports, see log. I was familiar with the expedition's equipment because Norbert DL4DTU tested it with me in May, before leaving for the reef.

The contest was held in nice spring weather with good, mostly European, participation. I "set up" the 3 cm band already on 13 May and I was lucky that the first contact was with CT2GUR mode Q65. Paulo is my {#132}, working with a 2.3 m diameter dish and 15 W, with a good signal. A series of repeat contacts followed, with a good opportunity to try everything out. On 18 May I made PE1CKK as {#133}. I worked CW in contest with OK1KIR, SP6LW, IW2FZR, HB9BHU, UA5Y, HB9BBD, VE4MA (#36), OZ1LPR, DB6NT, PA0BAT, PA3DZL, OH2DG, F2CT and OK1DFC. The eastern parts of the lunar windows were again with considerable spread - up to 200 Hz. Before the moonset, however, the spread of signals decreased sympathetically to a few tens of Hz and this allowed to make my last CW QSO with Ronn SM7FWZ (#37), who has a 4 m antenna but only 10 W of power. In total I made 15 QSOs in the DUBUS contest. Among CW contacts there were also a number of nice and technically interesting digi QSOs, e.g. with CX2SC (1.8 m & 10 W) and G0OLX (1.2 m offset & 15 W). The only critical comment I would have about some extra strong CW stations is that they should also have a corresponding receiver. It was also interesting that on 20. 5. the solar flux jumped to 170 SFU and this was also reflected by a few tenths of dB on my SN/CS measurement, up to 13 dB, see picture. This time it was great fun around all the stands. Log.

Cold weather with occasional rain, snow showers in the morning and high declination of the Moon, that's how the conditions of the contest in my rural QTH could be characterized. In the 3 cm band, the activity was quite decent, but stations from the USA and Japan were missing. In preparation I did a QSO to Tasmania on Wednesday with VK7ZBX and two crossband CW QSOs with JA4BLC {#129} and JA1WQF on Thursday. In the contest I made 21 QSOs of which 6 were CW, the other connections were Q65-60D/E. The new initials were DK4RC {#130} and SM4DHN {#131}. With a very large spread, it is advantageous to use the Q65-60E, which was confirmed when connecting with John G4BAO. I have a good overall impression of the contest. It's a pity that the QSO with GI7UGV was not successful, but there must be a physical limit somewhere and at least I have something to look forward to next time. You can see the log.

2022 A.R.I. EME TROPHY Autumn

The second part of the MW ARRL EME contest was marked by very bad weather for me. Unusually low temperatures for this time were accompanied by rain with occasional breaks, see photo. Sun noise was up to 2 dB lower compared to clear weather values at comparable solar flux. The participation of stations on the 3 cm band was good, but most had already participated in the 1st part and so we made a number of "dupe" QSOs. The new stations were HB9Q (14DB/13DB) and UR3VKC (16DB/13DB) {#127}. A pleasant surprise would be Richard VK7ZBX from Tasmania (21DB/17DB) who allowed us to do WAC during one contest. CW activity was as low as in Part 1 - only Dominique HB9BBD added to me. In total, I made 38 valid QSOs with 25 multipliers in both MW weekends on the 10 GHz band, which represents 95,000 points. The complete log can be viewed.

2022 ARRL EME Contest 2.3 GHz&up I. Weekend

This year, the ARRL decided to comply with the wishes of the participants and also dedicate two contest weekends to the MW bands. The 1st weekend just took place on the August 27th-28th and the participation was, at least in the 3 cm band, very decent. Around forty stations from five continents participated (only Australia was missing this time). I have been active since August 18th and immediately made two new initials DL7NN {#120}, LZ4OC {#121} and DXCC 41. On August 20th another ON5TA {#122} and DXCC 42 succeeded. I had a total of 17 QSOs in preparation. In own contest on Saturday and Sunday I made a total of 34 QSOs with 23 multipliers. Worked with new initials UR3VKE {#123}, OH1LRY {#124}, BD4SY {#125} DXCC 43 and G0OLX {#126}. In general, Q65-60D traffic prevailed, as CW was relatively difficult with a large spread. I only worked CW with DL0EF and DB6NT. Several QSOs were made under truly boundary conditions. Apart from the mentioned G0OLX, when we made the connection only after switching to Q65-60E, there were QSOs on Saturday with K2UYH and on Sunday with VE6TA, during which I already had the Moon between the trees on the opposite side, just before moonset. The joy was all the greater that it was successful. The complete log can be found at log.

SDR Console v3.2 was enriched with a very nice tool - the continuum mode, which we know from the SpectraVue program. Since I use SDR Console as a second receiver also for communication, it is very convenient that I can measure the noise of the Sun and Moon immediately without jumping to another program. Self-measurement is largely adaptable and convenient.

                               SN/CS         SFU = 100                                       

                               MN/CS

WSJT-X v2.6.0 has greatly improved self-echo measurement. The measured SNR values correspond to signals in communication modes and also to calculations, e.g. by the VK3UM calculator, even in the case of a very high spread. This is due to the fact that the authors of the program managed to set the integration of the signal according to its instantaneous width.

I arrived at EME QTH a week before the contest. The weather was nice from the beginning of the week, only with sporadic showers. But then it got very cold and the rains increased. After studying the current lunar constellation, it was clear that conditions would be poor and CW at high spread - for most windows around 200 Hz, would be very difficult, especially with a small system. I devoted myself to a testing a new program for measuring echo, which works even with a large signal spread. Marek OK2DL visited me on Friday and so we spent a pleasant morning with 3 cm EME and a Q65 QSO with Franta OK1CA. On Saturday I made QSO with an expedition to Corsica TK/HB9CRQ (18DB /21DB), like {# 103} and 40 DXCC. I did not take the contest seriously for the above reason and I made 6 CW QSOs in it. Digi operation was more interesting 12 QSO Q65 with new {# 104} DJ7FJ (17DB /14DB). You can see the log  as usual. Conclusion: good fun in bad EME conditions.

After last year's poor autumn part of A.R.I. EME contest, I was looking forward to this year's spring round, with the vision of great participation and good conditions, as last year. Unfortunately, the exact opposite was true. Looking at the phase of the Moon last year and this year only confirms what I have been saying for a longer time. If the organizers of EME contests choose the dates with the highest declination of the Moon under the impression that as many stations as possible will reach the Moon, then they are wrong at least on 10 GHz. At present, the high declination is associated with the position of the Moon near apogee and thus with the greatest degradation and on microwaves also with a large "spread" throughout the window. This discourages many small stations and stations in the southern hemisphere are also at a disadvantage. When the weather develops with strong gusts of wind and showers, like last weekend, it cannot turn out well. Stations with larger antennas decided to keep them parked. The result is, in my case, six Q65 QSOs and two CW QSOs, see log. The weakest result in many years.

The microwave "2.3 GHz & Up" event of the American EME contest fell on October 23/24 this year, ie relatively late. The date was certainly chosen in view of the high declination, but as we know, it is associated in the present epoch with the Moon in the apogee. Together with libration resulting in a large "spread", the conditions for the MW EME communication were not ideal. The weather was quite good, without rain, but the strong wind made it difficult, especially for stations with large antennas. I started the preparation my 10 GHz gear on October 20. A higher measured value of SN/CS = 12,7 dB alerted me to a higher SFU = 76,7. By connecting with three Italian stations, I also verified other parts of the EME equipment. Due to my maximum elevation limit of 50^o, I started the contest on Saturday morning by connecting with F6BKB (16DB / 11DB) and followed with UA5Y (12DB / 15DB). It was gratifying to see more US stations and also CX2SC (20DB / 15DB), which still works with 10 W. Unfortunately, this time there were no stations from Australia and JA, except perhaps JA1WQF, which I missed. Other initials for me were CW F5JWF (569/559) (# 115) and Q65 G4YTL (22DB / 15DB) (# 116). I made a total of 8 CW QSOs and 18 Q65 QSOs with 18 multipliers in the contest. The final score is then based on 26 x 100 x 18 = 46800 points. The fun was great again. For more details you can see log.

From August 9 to 18, I had a 3 cm EME in operation. The moon was very low at this time and therefore activity was low. I made a total of 9 QSOs with six stations IK6CAK (15DB / 12DB), OK1DFC (14DB / 7DB), F6BKB (14DB / 10DB), F5VKQ (13DB / 12DB), OE4WOG (18DB / 15DB) - Wolfgang wanted to try his QRP EME setup 7 W in the feed and 1.8 m dish. However, I was most happy with the CW QSO with Dominique HB9BBD (579 / M) as a new initial. 

One week after the DUBUS contest at 10 GHz & up, took place  A.R.I. EME - spring part. The weather turned fair a bit, although it was still very cold. The declination was lower and the spread also decreased, although it still reached large values ​​in the highest positions of the Moon. Even in the week between contest, some QSOs were successful, including the init SM7FWZ by mode Q65-60D. I started the contest in the same mode by connecting to VK3NX and we repeated it CW with a small spread as a new CW init. This was followed by the connection of Q65 with ES5PC and with VK7ZBX from Tasmania, which had a 60 cm dish and a power of 30 W. Again, we felt the absence of stations from the US, the exception was briefly WA3RGQ. The new init managed to get more on CW than Q65, for me it was IZ2DJP and SM6PGP. I made a total of 24 QSOs in the ARI contest, of which 10 CW. The result of two weeks of activity in the 3 cm band was 65 connections, some of which were really interesting – log.

Working with the new Q65 mode in many of its variants also brought lessons and great fun. The DL0SHF beacon works very well and its strong signals reached -4 dB on my end can be captured even with a really small aperture. I enclose a picture of its Q65-60E signal with a small spread.

Fortunately, I built the antenna on Saturday, a week before the contest, even in good weather. This was followed by a revival of electronics and calibration of antenna tracking. Already on Tuesday there was a drastic change in the weather, see photos below, and such weather with the alternation of snow and rain lasted for the rest of the week and during the contest. However, the date was not chosen happily, especially in terms of the phase of the Moon. The very high declination involved a large spread of signals, which makes it very difficult to receive weak signals in microwaves, especially CW. Only shortly before moonset did fall the spread below 100 Hz in the 10 GHz band. Otherwise, however, there was good activity even before the contest. On Friday I tested the rig by connecting the Q65-60E cross-band with JA1WQF and followed the new init CX2SC. Immediately after that the new init CW HB9BHU and others, see log. In the contest I made 16 QSOs with a score of 16 x 14, with two new inits YO2BCT and F2CT.

Sun Noise Measurement 13.9.2020   1013 UTC   SFU = 64

a) SpectraVue

Q-Team grid expedition and good EME conditions last veekend in May induced increased EME aktivity. On 28. 5. I worked IW2FZR (15DB/13DB),  29.5. VK7MO (14DB/16dB), OK1KIR (11DB/11DB), JA1WQF (13DB/12DB), F5VKQ (12DB/16DB), UA3TCF (18DB,14DB), 30. 5. HB9CRQ (15DB/19DB) as (#92), PA3DZL (16DB/11DB), S57RA (10DB/15DB) as (#93), PY2BS (10DB/11DB), OK1DFC (11DB/8DB), IW2FZR (16DB/15DB), 31. 5. UN6PD (15DB/13DB), F5VKQ (15DB/17DB), 1. 6. HB9DUK (12DB/19DB), IZ4BFA (22DB/18DB), 2. 6. IW2FZR (16DB/16DB), 3. 6. S57RA (12DB/14DB).

Several stations with a small dish ~ 1 m and outputs of about 10 W worked on the band, which was a challenge. I did the QRA64D mode on 28.4. IW2FZR (23DB/15DB) {# 75}, DL6ABC (12DB/17DB), 29.4. HB9DUK (14DB/16DB) {# 76} and JT4F G4BAO (20DB/15DB) {# 77}. 30.4. wkd QRA64D S57NML (14DB/17DB) {# 78}, IW2FZR (20DB/14DB) and IZ4BFA (22DB/18DB) for initial {# 79}. 1.5. I worked JT4F OK1DFC (14DB/14DB) and QRA64D HB9DUK (14DB/16DB). In the contest 2.5. wkd CW OZ1LPR (579/559), OK1DFC (549/539), OK1KIR (559/549), SA6BUN (559/529), HB9Q (559/539) # 16, OH2DG (559/559), LX1DB (559/559) ), PA0BAT (559/549) # 17, W5LUA (O/O) # 18, OK1CA (O/O). 3.5. CW UR5LX (O/O), PA3DZL (549/529), IK0HWJ (559/519) # 19, 9A5AA (O/O) # 20 and SP2HMR (559/O) # 21 with a total score of 15 x 13. Out of contest I worked 2.5. QRA64D with W5LUA (10DB/16DB) and 3.5. OK1CA (13DB/11DB), KN0WS (22DB/23DB) {# 80}, HB9DUK (15DB/18DB), UR5LX (15DB/14DB), I4TTZ (22DB/19DB) {# 81}, IK6CAK (22DB/17DB) { # 82}, UA3TCF (17DB/14DB), IK0HWJ (10DB/14DB) {# 83}, PA0BAT (10DB/10DB)

One week before the DUBUS Contest 3 cm and up, I installed a long-prepared offset dish with a diameter of 1.8 m. After focusing and positions calibrating, I measured SN / CS = 12 dB at SFU = 69 and MN = 1 dB, which correspond to calculations.

         SN/CS 090520  13:29 UTC SFU = 69                        MN/CS   030520

A successful EME expedition is always a good opportunity to participate. Since the microwave part of the A21EME began on Monday and every day on a higher band, 3 cm was scheduled for Friday, 25 October. I was QRV already on Thursday afternoon and managed the necessary calibration in the Sun. I came to my workplace on Friday at 4:30 am our time. The weather was beautiful, though cold but completely clear sky, calm, Moon only a little boy in the south-east. But what was my surprise when I went out after half an hour to compensate for the spatial offset to Botswana. Fog that could not be seen at ten meters and everything flowed water. A21EME was already doing big guns and after VK7ZBX with 75 cm dish. I did it right after him A21EME (18DB / 21DB) as initial # 83. Because I had Richard's “backlog” I just looked at him and this time we made VK7ZBX (21DB / 22DB) # 84 without a problem.

The rest of the month's pass was also very nice, as there were many active stations on the band, see the log. WAC was not with me, but even five continents in one pass are worth it. And we could still romp on Saturday.

Richard sent me the wav files from our connection and when I played with them I decoded it five times, so the connection was theoretically possible. On Thursday, we "chased" EA8DBM with Zdenek, but Alex hit the Moon only for two periods with a strong echo, but he failed to repeat. The situation was repeated on Friday with OK1KIR.

The contest itself started with JT65C mode with OK1KIR (10DB / 13DB) and immediately followed a beautiful crossband QSO with JA1WQF (14DB / 13DB). Mitsuo sent me his screen as I played there:

Other managed QSOs, according to mode: QRA64D with UN6PD (19DB / 17DB), UR5LX (17DB / 15DB), SM6CKU (17DB / 16DB), UA3TCF (# 75) (17DB / 18DB) and DL6ABC (15DB / 20DB). JT4F mode: F5VKQ (13DB / 13DB), W3SZ (16DB / 15DB), F6BKB (# 76), DL4DTU (# 80) (15DB / 19DB), G3RFR (15DB / 17DB) and M0EYT (# 81) (15DB/17DB). Also CW succeeded: IW2FZR (# 74) (O / O), OH2DG    (# 77) (O / O), OK1KIR (O / O), G4NNS (# 78) (O / O), DB6NT (# 79) ) (O / O) and LX1DB (559/559). Total 19 QSO.

I completed the microwave part of the ARRL EME contest at 10 GHz as usual from my cottage in the JN89eu square. Although I managed to complete the mechanics for an offset mirror with an aperture of 1.8 m, I did not find two “strong assistants" to help me put on the mirror. So we put the proven 1.2 m offset on the mast with my wife as usual. Calibration on Friday was OK at SFU = 60 and SN / CS = 9.5 dB, MN / CS = 0.6 dB. I have a new LO synthesis in the transverter so I wanted to test it in operation. Before the contest we managed to test QSO with Zdenek OK1DFC. The contest itself started somewhat awkwardly, so after joining the OZ1LPR, I lay down for a while also because the moon was soon too high and I am limited by a maximum elevation of 50^o. It was in connection with the high declination of the Moon that there was a large spread (mostly> 100 Hz) on both days, only before the moonset the signals narrowed. I made new initials RA3EME and W3SZ and JT4F DL0EF. Overall I made 11 QSOs QRA64D, 1 QSO JT4F and 2 CW.

MW activity weekend fell on 24.8. - 3 cm and 25.8. - 6 cm. However, participation was very low. Even some other active stations were only on the logger. This corresponds to my result, although I replaced the original tripod by mast, which had me made Zdeněk OK1DFC (tnx). I worked with OH2DG (-14 / -14), OK1KIR (-13 / -17) and F5VKQ (-19 / -19) {# 69} QRA64D mode and on Sunday CW SP6JLW (RO / O) . All the more time was for experiments to measure the frequency accuracy, SN / CS, MN / CS, and own echo. After QSO with OK1KIR, Vlada OK1DAK and me stated that our frequency does not differ by more than 15 Hz in absolute terms, including the Doppler offset compensation of ~ -11 kHz and the signal’s spread by the Moon's librations 115 Hz (on 10368,200 MHz), see Figure:

It was also interesting to measure own echo. For most of the time in both lunar windows, the spread was large, around 100 Hz or more. My own echo was hardly perceptible:

However, on Sunday before sunset, the spread fell below 10 Hz for a short time and the echo was excellent. This is the time when is possible to work also CW with small antennas (if they were any stations on the second end).

SV9/HB9CRQ with 1,5 m dish

MW ARRL EME Contest is a good opportunity for EME experiments because activity on microwaves is higher. I wanted to test a new system for Doppler shift compensation. On 3 cm band at very weak signals which are not only below hearing levels but also very difficult to notice on the waterfall immediately, it is a fundamental thing. Next needed merit is an ability to operate on a precise frequency in order of tens Hz. For that reason I have built a transverter 148/18 MHz with DDS synchronized by rubidium frequency standard as well as microwave transverter. Control program allows to compensate Doppler shift for Rx as well as Tx in all cases which can occur.

July 25, worked random OK1KIR (JT4F -12/-15 dB)

July 21, 2nd QSO with VK3NX

VK3NX JT4F signals

July 20, worked VK3NX (JT4F -14/-14 dB), OK1KIR (CW 569/O),

                            OK1KIR (JT4F -13/-13 dB), LX1DB (CW 559/O)

July 14, MN/CS ratio:

Own Echo:  Az/El = 127/16, Dopp. = 13613 Hz (compensated), Lib. = 38 Hz, Degr. = 0.13 dB

May 24, 2014    DL0SHF 10 GHz  EME Beacon

Speaker copy: DL0SHF_250514.wav

The WSJT level should be likely better than -10 dB(?)

OK1KIR JT4F precise -12 dB