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!