eme activity

G4FRE AL07A (JO01PX)

The beginning of solo EME operation, spurred on by DL9KR convincing me at the September 1985 Weinheim VHF convention that I had all the necessary equipment to work him on 432MHz EME. So I rushed back to England and was QRV 10 days later. The only other operation was during the REF 1986 EME contest, but the going was very tough with such a small system, so EME gave way to tropo grid chasing and dxpeditioning.

DATE	TIME	CALL	SENT	RECEIVED	STATE	GRID	INIT#
3/10/1985	05:00	DL9KR	O	O		JO40	1
22/3/1986	00:52	OH2DG	T	T		KP30	2
23/3/1986	21:00	DF3RU	T	M		JN59	3
23/3/1986	22:20	N4GJV	M	M	NC	EM95	4
23/3/1986	23:21	F1ELL	M	M		JN59?	5

I came to the USA for the first 2.5 year asssignment in 1990. Unfortunately the company leased a house which did not even have a sky window let alone a moon window, due to dense overhanging trees, so EME was impossible and HF was a struggle with the new WG3I call.

Not to be caught again, on my second arrival in the USA in 1995, great pains were taken to choose a house with a moon window. As the recruiting company paid Transatlantic shipping expenses 5 F9FT 21 element yagis and a 2600V @ 2A PSU came with me. The QTH chosen in Wyckoff, NJ had a back deck on which I could put an IIX roof mount on which to put the yagis. The spur to do something with them was being offered an N7ART "Audrey II" amplifier with 2x3CX800A7 by N2LIV who was upgrading to a K1FO version. With the help of G3SEK, open wire all the yagis were converted to 200 ohm open wire feeder. While performance was helped by the open wire feed it was also very fragile and before every activity session the Ronson blowtorch was needed to make "adjustments" (this is also how I gave myself 2nd degree burns to my nose!).

TX: TS850S+SSB Electronics xverter + MML432/100 "predriver"+N7ART "AUDREY II" amplifier (2 x 3CX800A7, 1200W)

There as no EME operation from this location on the North side of San Antonio as it was impossible to mount the antennas far enough from the house to get a moon window without them falling down a 70' ravine.

When the equipment was originally packed in the container in February 2004, It was intended to be used for 432MHz uplink/2401MHz downlink for AO40. However with the demise of AO40 it was decided to reconfigure the equipment for 432MHz eme on arrival at 3b9c. A GS31B amplifier was taken as checked baggage on the plane, along with a 4 way splitter. Arriving on site at 1800 (local) the 1st sked was with HB9Q at 1630 the following day, so after much needed rest, assembling the equipment was started early the following morning. The work was completed at 1600. Due to the demise of the feedback pot in the elevation rotator, a camera was put on the array and the moon tracked by eye, using a small TV hand carried on the plane by G0MRF.

Picture: (L) The EME array at Dusk (R) Dave, G4FRE (left) and David G0MRF, during the HB9Q QSO

At 1630, they were interrupted for a team photograph. Wishing to announce there presence to HB9Q they left the keyer calling him on cw while the pictures were taken. Coming back 25 minutes later and going to receive signals from HB9Q were immediately copied and the QSO completed easily. Over the next few days the following stations were also worked.

Date	Call	Mode
31 Mar 04	HB9Q	CW
2 Apr 04	PA3CSG	JT65
2 Apr 04	DL9KR	CW
3 Apr 04	SM2CEW	CW
4 Apr 04	OZ4MM	CW
4 Apr 04	UA3TPW	CW

The lack of North American stations is explained by the large mountain blocking the path at moonset and the extremely short windows available; The longest window to Texas during the whole stay was 8 minutes!