DIRTY DISHES and clean signals the publication of The 50 MHz and UP Group of Northern California, Inc.

Volume 4 Number 1                  January, 1999

(Edited by Rex Allers, KK6MK)

Visit our web site at: http://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/50UP.html

Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 12, 7:30PM - at Lockheed Bldg. 202.

PROGRAM:  High Order Modulation Methods and Ham Radio by Austin Lesea, AB6VU. Austin will describe modulation methods such as QAM and the advantages they provide. He will describe how they may be implemented and possible uses in ham radio.

Austin is current employed at Xilinx designing 200 MHz, 5 million gate FPGA’s. Before that he worked at Larus, manufacturer of the highest capacity spread spectrum radio system in production. Previously he has taught at UC Berkeley and worked on the development of microcontroller ACD and PBX technology at Candela.

Nominations: This is also the meeting where the first round of nominations are made for 1999 Officers and Board Members. Please come with some nominees in mind.

DIRECTIONS: The meeting place will be the Lockheed Auditorium in bldg. 202 on Hanover St. in Palo Alto, California. Access Hanover from Page Mill Road (between 280 and El Camino). Follow Hanover as it curves right and up the hill. Watch for the Lockheed sign indicating Bldg. 202 on the left side, about 2/3 of the way up the hill.

Officers for 1998

New members welcomed

We are always looking for more people to join and share with our group. Dues are $15.00 per year, or the special rate of $25 for two years.

Please encourage anyone who might have an interest to join our group.

Contests and Events

Livermore Swap Meet - First Sunday of each month at Las Positas College in Livermore, CA, 7:00 AM to noon, all year. Talk in 147.045 from west, 145.35 from the east. Contact Noel Anklam, KC6QZK, (510) 447- 3857 eves.

VHF+ WeakSignal NETS
 

50 MHz & Up Group Minutes

Meeting of Dec. 13, 1998

The 50 MHz & Up Group held their November meeting on Sunday afternoon at National Semiconductor in Santa Clara. Officers and directors present were: Rex Allers, KK6MK, President; Will Jensby, W0EOM, Treasurer, and Bob Johnson, KF6KVG, director. The meeting was a free-form meeting and sharing session. The main activities centered around a swap meet between the members.

Jim Moss scheduled the meeting room at National for us, but unfortunately did not make it to the meeting so we were unable to gain access to the building and the meeting room. The meeting became an impromptu gathering in the parking lot. Fortunately the weather was good. Some refreshments were provided and those in attendance seemed to enjoy the meeting in spite of the makeshift meeting place.

Rex Allers, KK6MK, showed a project that he is working on with Jeffrey Pawlan, WA6KBL. Jeffrey is building a 10 GHz moonbounce system. Part of the system will consist of F1EHN tracking software and controller board for the dish motor activation. Jeffrey has selected US Digital absolute postion rotary encoders to read azimuth and elevation of the dish. The project consists of a PIC microcontroller that drives a RS 485 serial interface to the encoders. Position is read and displayed on an LCD in degrees. The position is also output to two 16-bit busses for the F1EHN controller board.

During the meeting we aquired one new member, Robert Pfeil, WA6OIW. Welcome Robert. After a period of mingling and swapping the meeting dispersed.

- Rex, KK6MK

New 120 GHz Record by 50 Up Members

by Will Jensby, W0EOM

The previous record on 120 GHz was 0.7 miles set in July, 1944 by WA1MBA and WB2BYW. They also hold the 144 GHz record of 2.3 miles. Bob Johnson, KF6KVG, and I have been working for the past six months on gear for 120 and 144 GHz. Both systems are based on Hughes harmonic mixers and 9 inch Cassegrain feed dishes. I use a separate multiplier for transmit, Bob uses the harmonic mixer as a transmitter with a change of bias on the diode.

On October 2nd, a one-way contact, at a distance of 2.9 miles, was made on 144 GHz. Bob could hear me, but his transmit power was lower, and no two-way was made. The sets were modified for 120 GHz, and on November 16th a short-range test was made near Sandhill Road and I-280. This allowed us to calibrate our receivers and bore-sight our antennas. Bob then moved north to the Canada College parking lot, where we soon made contact at 2.9 mi. Information was exchanged by slow-speed CW.

Bob then moved further north where two-way contact was again made. This was a distance of 3.3 miles (5.3 km), a new US record.

For the future, we plan to revisit 144 GHz and upgrade our 47 GHz rigs.

Will Jensby 12/03/98

Precision Oscillator Tape

At the September meeting, Rick Karlquist, N6RK, gave a great presentation -- The Use of Precision Quartz Oscillators and Atomic Standards in Ham Radio. I finally made a master copy of the video tape of the presentation. If you would like a copy of this tape on VHS, contact me - Rex Allers, KK6MK (information in officers list.) There will be a nominal charge of $6 to cover costs.

Elections for 1999 coming up

The 50 MHz and Up Group of Northern California, Inc. holds elections of officers at the February meeting. The first round of nominations for officers and board members takes place at the January meeting. More nominations and the elections take place at the February meeting.

All members, please consider who you would like to nominate to run for the Group positions.

Annual Membership renewals

Many of our members have joined in January or February, and some have signed up for just one year. For those of you in that mode it is time to renew your membership. I haven't had time to compile the list of people yet, but if you think you are in that mode, please be prepared to renew. We will let you know with the next newsletter.

On the Internet…

Do you have a Web Page relevant to our members? Let us know and we will put it here. (You must be a member.)

50 MHz and Up Group page: http://www.dnai.com/~rexahttp://www.nitehawk.com/rasmit/50UP.html The official group web page. Hosted by Rein Smit, W6/PA0ZN as part of his Weaksignal News Kiosk. The 50Up page includes an archive of newsletters.

ARRL Pacific Division Web page:  http://www.pdarrl.org/

Rex's Place - KK6MK: http://www.dnai.com/~rexa/ Microwave stuff, 50 MHz Up Group pictures and information.

Laser Communications Home Page! http://www.qsl.net/wb9ajz/laser/laser.htm Lots of bright stuff.