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1st eme sigs recieved
This
page will be devoted to all of my EME activities
May 18, 2007
My 1st Reception of EME Signals from St.-Petersburg Russia
Description of events below photo

Click
here to play .wav of RU1AA Calling me (or right click and save)
Click Here to see the RU1AA
Station
On
Friday 18, 2007 having the day off work I decided that after a few
chores around the house I would make it a radio day. In the early AM I
had atempted a few M.S. fsk441 q's on two meters that had produced no
results. After turning off the wsjt program I fired up the satPC32
software and looked to see what kind of satellite passes we had for the
day. That too looked rather dismal as far decent passes go. I did work
the morning AO-51 crowd, N1EXD, AA4FL,N2SPI/P,WA2AQH & KG4ODX.
After this pass it was to be aother few hrs until another good pass on
one of the LEO's.
I then decided that I would look & see if the moon was in view just
for the heck of it. Starting back up my WSJT program I was glad to see
the moon was not only in view but almost @ 80 deg. elevation as
well! Never hearing a digital sig off the moon before soon became
my afternoons hunt of sorts.
I then proceded to log into the JT65 EME page to see
what sort of activitiy was going on. I was shocked that all the people
and then quite a few more were on this page rather than the MS page..
not realizing that the moon was in GREAT view to most of the USA and
Northern Asia/Europe.
I had never tried to RX Digital EME sigs before so I watched the page
intently waiting for someone to announce their calling frequency &
after a short time many did.
I would go to the frequency and listen for a while.. pondering if my 2
meter 5 element yagi was properly pointed, questioning my rotor
acuracy, then realizing.. Im trying to do the next to impossible which
is recieve a EME signal with minimalist equipment and no pre-amp.
I however continued on, when posted on the EME page RU1AA announced
that he was cq'ing in 144.144 . In almost no time.. I saw a line
dropping down my screen, my 1st inclination was oh great a birdie..
I'll never hear him. I then clicked the 'zap' and 'nb' boxxes in the
software which help in reducing QRM/N.
The typical 55 seconds go buy and the software goes into the decode
mode and BAM I get this
across my screen " 201400
2 -20 2.2 307 4 *
CQ RU1AA
KO48
1 0 "
I was amazed... in awe and my heart racing. Wait I think.. did I
accedently play a .wav file and the software decoded the .wav? Then " 201600 4 -17 2.2
304 3 * QRZ RU1AA
KO48
1 0 "
At this time I realize the next to impossible is happening.. Im
actually recieving a JT65B EME signal from St.-Petersburg Russia !
I ponder to myself... should I post this on the sked page.. sure why
not.. and I do indeed post it. Alex thanked me.. and after seeing this
" 202800 4 -19
2.2 291 1 # W1FKF RU1AA
KO48 OOO 1 0
" asked if I wanted to try and work, I said yes and made mention of my
low power and I awaited his call from St.-Petersburg
Six minutes pass and then " 203400
4 -18 2.0 283 4 *
N2JDQ RU1AA KO48
1 0 "
I could hardly believe my screen.. I was even actually audibly
hearing small traces of him with my headphones on ! !
I of course replied, yet my
whopping 570 watts of ERP (joke of course), was not enough to make
the 500,000 mile round trip to lunar surface and back to
civilization. However the fact that I could actually hear this station
for over 1 hour was infact probabally one of the hi-lites of my close
to 20 years on the Amateur bands.
I have worked EME on cw before, however not from my QTH.. this time..
it was all me.
I now am thinking about what I can do to complete even just 1 EME QSO.
Noting to myself that RU1AA was the ONLY station I could hear, while
attempting to hear probabally 25 stations.. I came up with a list of
needed improvments as listed below.
1. Improve RX System by adding a Band Pass filter to reduce out of band
signals at the antenna feed, then adding a High gain low N.F
preamplifier.
2. Add some sort of TX Improvment and in the long run QRO ability.
Starting with the 50w driver, I will most likely get a 160w brick amp,
that could inturn be used to be a driver amp for QRO amp such as a
3cx800a7 or 8877.
After step one.. I will begin a large ammount of RX testing to see if
the recieve ability of the station has indeed improved. In theroy.. it
will make a world of difference, If not.. it may be a project for a
different location as I cannot add a larger yagi. I can however stack a
2nd yagi, with not too much dificulty.. which will add roughly 2.4dBi .
=======================================================================================
Aug 29, 2007
My 1st EME QSO
with Dave Blaschke - W5UN
Description
of events below photo

After
RX'ing for moon sigs for about 45 minutes I noticed that the moon was
quite high and in awsome view to my antenna(s).
I had been logged into the Ping Jockey site as I usually am when
running digital modes, and trying to copy any station that listed a
calling frequency.
I remember reading somewhere that Dave (W5UN) has had worked many
contacts with stations running low power and small antennas.
I decided to see if he was interested in trying and he kindly did.
After begening the sequence, I instantly saw his signal all be it very
weak (5 Elel Yagi on RX), and I inturn kept calling him in proper
sequence.
The entire qso took about 26 minutes untill I recieved RRR's from him.
Not shown on the screen capture is his best signal with me that night
if memory serves me right which was about -24 dB. Unlike my 1st
reception of a signal off the moon, I was unable to ever hear him well
with my ears unlike my prior reception of RU1AA.
The station was unchanged, and still using a Directive Systems 144-5LVA
End mount yagi with just under 10.0 dBI Forward gain, and stock RF
power from the Icom 820-H @ 50 watts into the Bird. ( close to 47 at
the feed ) No recieve preamps were used durring this QSO and I was
shocked that it actually happened at all.
On a comical note, my new to me Mirage B1016 amp arrived the next day,
Just intime for the Sep. VHF contest & in time for more JT65B EME
Attempts!
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