The rig on the first weekend of the contest was as follows: A TS790A Transceiver, GS15b Amplifier with a dual 7289 amp on standby. We also had a 7-foot dish on a mount that was hand pointed. The mount was a remade Hercules tripod. The feed is a septum feed with a HB9BBD preamp at .16db NF. On the first weekend Rein, John and I ran on CW and JT mode and did pretty well.

For the second weekend, we put together a 10-foot dish with the same feed, etc. It was quite a project but proved very much worth the effort giving much better reports and superior received signals over the 7-footer. We also added the VR 5000 receiver and worked on an SDR radio for the wideband 10.7 MHz output. We had everything ready except the SDR radio. We hope to have it ready for next time.

Murphy hit us pretty hard though. First, the TS 790A came out of lock on 1296 MHz for hours the first night. . We knew of another radio nearby and borrowed it. In the meantime we used an LT 230S hooked to the TS 790A 2 meter port. We worked several stations with that. By the next night, the original radio had mysteriously recovered and ran without problem the whole night. Next Murphy struck at about 2 AM. The GS15b amp went up in smoke- literally. The transformer had developed an internal short. We had been running it at 400ma in JT mode CCS as we did in CW. The specs are 270ma. We will run a lot less power next time. I have since found a spare transformer and we should be back on the air with improved cooling for the Dec. AW.

Here is a listing of the stations we worked during the 2 weekends:

( No Internet connection in shack! Time synchronizing via GPS reciever. )

Call	Mode	Report	RX/TX	Weekend
HB9Q	JT65C	-12 dB	TX	1st
DJ9YW	JT65C	-14 dB	TX	1st
DL0SHF	CW	OOO	TX	1st
K1JT	JT65C	-13 dB	TX	1st
K1RQG	CW	OOO	TX	1st
ES5PC	JT65C	-14 dB	TX	1st
K7XQ	JT65C	-25 dB	TX	1st
G4CCH	JT65C	-12 dB	TX	1st
W7UPF	JT65C	---	RX	1st
SM4DHN	JT65C	---	RX	1st
G4DZU	JT65C	---	RX	1st
OZ4MM	JT65C	---	RX	1st
OK1DFC	CW	OOO	TX	2d
PA3FXB	JT65C	-17 dB	TX	2d
K1JT	JT65C	- 10 dB	RX	2d
OK1CA	CW	OOO	TX	2d
K5JL	CW	OOO	TX	2d
LA9NEA	CW	OOO	TX	2d
G3LTF	CW	OOO	TX	2d
OZ4MM	CW	OOO	TX	2d
HB9Q	JT65C	-10 dB	TX	2d

Doug and Rein are mounting the dish. It takes about 15 minutes from start to finish. Rein built this great wooden mount. We put a glove and red duct tape on the counterweight support rod for obvious reasons. We have extensive markings on the dish and mount to make setup and takedown easier. Even the wrenches are marked as to what they are for.

Doug, K6JEY Chief Operator, on the controls!

Dish set up and ready, Bill made up the cables and did most of the dish pointing.

The operating position in the garage/lab. GS15b amp on top and TS790A, DSP box on bottom and antenna in the street. The septum feed was made by Mike, KL6M. For more on this feed, the tuning process and construction details, see KL6M's Septum Feed
Thank you very much Mike, for supplying us with this feed.

As we have to install the feed every time we setup the antenna, an alignment adjustment for quick feed centering is used.

Back of the dish with the variable weight counterweight arrangement.The blue tube on the left is the lunar sight tube.
It is very smooth, Stable and easy to move around for the best view.

Rein looking for JT65C mode sync. traces. The VR5000 is part of an SDR setup that is in process. We used the VR 5000, by itself as a band monitor.

Rein W6SZ, Doug K6JEY, John KJ6HZ, and Bill N6NM

Helen KI6LQV Lunar Ephemeris expert, tracking and refreshments.

------ From a 144 MHz WSJT session with 2 K1FO 12 element Yagis ------

Street Position, DM03tw

Helen, KI6LQV in QSO with KB8RQ

" K6JEY I2FAK OOO "

"RO "

Doug, K6JEY with mouse

Another view of the Antenna

Pointing EAST

With old Cross Boom

Silent Key Night 2009 at K6JEY

K6JEY, other Home Page