Together with PE1RDP we made this "one event" antenna system of 8x 21el tonna. This was the first time I could hear my own echoes from the moon. It made me very happy. :-)
On 15/16 november 2003 I called stations in the EME Contest.N2IQ, DL9KR, responded with QRZ? Need some more ERP. HB9Q responded to my call and we made a CW QSO. HB9Q have send me a nice QSL-Card.
20031108 22:00UTC The Signal of Jan, DL9KR (mp3) in our first attempt.
20031109 02:00UTC My first CW qso with KU4F. Here the OOOOOOO's (mp3)and the RRRRRR's (mp3).
First EME QSO
October 16, 2003: made my first EME 432Mhz JT44 qso with K2UYH. Just before the sked we could hear each other echo's test in the speaker. A CW QSO would be possible at the time and that with 150Watts output!!!!
JT44 AUDIO signals of K2UYH.
Echo testing with WSJT
When the transmitter was working I did some experiments to receive my echo's from the moon. It worked. On october 11, 2003 I received my echo's from the moon!!!!!!. TX power 150 Watts. Pictures below show some days of testing. On october 15, 2003 the echo signals are becoming stronger in JT44 echomode. Think groundgain was involved here.
Receiver testing
Me and the antenna "array"
The most important part
Closeup of preamp and coax relay
Swapped the antenna twice over the sun to measure the sunnoise
Audio recordings:
OE9ERC. On 20030727 I received my first eme signal from OE9ERC on 432Mhz with a random test of my antenna system.
On 20030803 I heard on 432.090Mhz HB9JAW in qso with ES8X.
The antennas I use are build in 1985. Here's a picture of the system at my parents house. At the time I was active with tropo dx'ing. The antenna's where cleaned and restored after 12 years rest on the garage roof. Remembering the performance from experience I wanted to now the performance in theory. Also showing two pictures from 4NEC2 calculations of the horizontal and vertical pattern. It was nice to see that the two big side lobbes I knew from experience also showed up in the calculations.
432Mhz Antenna 1988
Splitter
Horizontal Plane
Vertical Plane
Click on the pictures to enlarge
Website created by PE1ITR on 23 aug 2003; last update 14 apr 2010.
