EDITOR: ALLEN KATZ, K2UYH
ENGR DEPT., TRENTON STATE
COLLEGE, TRENTON, NJ 08650-4700 (W 609-490-2817 OR
H 443- 3184, FAX 609-443-1713, AND EMAIL
K2UYH
PRODUCTION ASSIST: TOM KIRK, KA2VAD (908-521-2049).
SKEDS CORD & DIRECTORY: DL4EBY/DK0TU, KLAUS TIEDEMANN
HALSKESTR.35, D-12167 BERLIN, (49-30-7955467),
DL4EBY/DK)TU
*** NA EME BBS: 704-284-4854 ***
EME NETS: 14.345 1500/1600 Z SAT/SUN; CONTL NA NET: SCOTT, KD4LT AND JAY, K5JL; EUR NET: JOE, K1RQG (207- 469-3492).
EME STANDINGS: JIM STARKEY, W0KJY, 3845 CAPITOL DRIVE, FT. COLLINS, CO 80526, (303) 226-0669)
CONDITIONS:
The consensus seems to be that contest
conditions were good, except for Faraday cross pol. to
NA, but that activity was down from past years. A big
disappointment was the absence of VE3ONT. Their use of
the big dish was pre-empted by an unexpected commercial
contact. This situation should not affect future VE3ONT
operation. The terrific signal of CN2EME was a major
highlight of the contest. Although I do not yet have a
report on their success, they must have worked
virtually everyone on 70 cm.
HIGH CONTEST SCORES:
432 MHz:
SM4IVE 141x37
DL9KR 128x39
N2IQU 123x35
K1FO 120x36
OH2PO 99x32
N4GJV 95x30
JL1ZCG 41x20
1296 MHz:
OE9XXI 77x32
OZ4MM 72x30
OE9ERC 63x31
EA6/DF5JJ 59x19
KB2AH 58x28
AA2WI 50x27
JH5LZU 23x18
2300 MHZ:
OE9ERC 10x9
Members of the crew are OE9FKI, OE9HHV, HB9RAE,
HB0HTA, OE9YTV and OE9PMJ. Sked requests and QSLs
should be directed to OE9PMJ (work FAX ++43 5574
68831). Last minute info will be distributed via the 20
m net. [How many remember OE9XXI's excellent
dxpeditions to HB0 on 432 and 1296
AA6WI:
Hoppy's 23 cm Activity Report follows -- I
worked on 03 Nov EA6/DF5JJ and KB2AH before the
contest, on 04 Nov DF3RU for initial #101, HB9BBD,
VE1ZJ, G3LQR, G4DZU #102, CWNR DL6YHR, SM4DHN, DJ9YW,
NU7Z, KD5RO, KB2AH SSB - dupe, W4RDI - dupe, K9KFR,
W2UHI - dupe, JH3EAO - dupe and JH5LUZ - dupe, Sun
noise was at 1740 13.1 dB with a SF of 73, and on 05
Nov OH2AXH, F5PL, LA8LF, F6CGJ, OK1KIR, KB3PD, SM2CEW,
IK3COJ, KB2AH SSB - dupe, WB5LUA, AA4TJ - dupe and
VE4MA. Contest results were 50x27. On 06 Nov I worked
WA9FWD for initial #103 and WAS 22. Conditions were up
and down, but good overall. The only getaways were
G4CCH, DL6YHR, and one unidentified station. The
highlight of the contest was finally working G4DZU, who
has been working for the last 2 years on his 23 cm
station.
DJ7FJ:
Joe writes on the 1st leg of the ARRL Contest --
We were QRV from Saturday to Sunday with priority on 10
GHz, and with secondary tests on 1296. On 10 GHz, we
worked F6KSX, WB5LUA, WA7CJO and WA6EXV. Lots of
different problems had to be solved in the night. While
transmitting the final report to F6KSX, the 230 V power
was interrupted. 15 minutes before our sked with
WB5LUA, our WG-relay stopped switching, and efforts to
repair it failed. Fortunately we had another relay
which could be used. On 1296, we worked OE9XXI (O/O).
Our equipment consisted of a 5 m long Yagi and a 100 w
transmitter. A sked with OE5ERC failed and unfortu-
nately the big dish radio astronomy stations from Italy
and Canada were not heard. Joe now stands on 3 cm at
initial #26, DXCC 14 and WAS 6!
DK3WG:
Jurg (x-DL3BWW) has a new call. On 2 Nov he
QSO'd CN2EME (539/559) for an initial and DXCC 74. He
was active during the 2nd part of the ARRL contest and
picked up initials on 70 cm with F5FLN, F5JJI and
JS3SIM #301. Jurg's contest results on 432 were 36x20.
He was also active on 2 m EME.
DL0SHF:
Chris writes -- Quick decisions can be good
decisions. So I decided to operated DL0SHF (JO54CG)
alone this time on 1296 MHz on 4/5 Nov. It did not look
as if I could start as planned. A heavy storm
devastated the land, the night before. I arrived with
the moon still in the trees, and immediately worked
ZS6AXT. I planned to stay until moonset, but driving
home when you are more than tired is a risk. So I went
home at 0100 and missed the chance of working a few
more stations. Conditions were good, the wind calmed
down and the sky was clear. Moon tracking works perfect
now. There are 2 TV cameras mounted on the dish. One
has a lens with a 1000 mm focal length, which can be
focused on a point in Mare Tranquilitatis ...
fascinating. I ended the night with 38x20 for 76,000
points. We will concentrate on getting the station on
13, 9 and 6 cm in the near future. We are already
operational on 10 GHz. We will next be active in Jan,
and then hope to have a bunch of skeds on 3 cm. We are
able to easily copy echoes on 10 GHz with only 5 w. We
should be able to read them with less then 2 w! We have
20 W. Worked on 1296 MHz were: ZS6AXT, OZ4MM, OK1KIR,
OH2AXH, SM3AKW, DF9QX, HB9BHU, JH3EAO, F6CGJ, F1ANH,
DF3RU, OE5JFL, JA4BLC, OE9XXI, EA6/DF5JJ, HB9BBD,
F5AQC, SM2CEW, I2COR, EA3UM, F5PAU, LA8LF, G3LQR,
DL9EBL, DD1XF, G4CCH, SM4DHN, IK3COJ, DJ9YW, GW3XYW,
VE1ALQ, AA4TJ, SM5DGX, W2UHI, W4RDI, F5PL, K2UYH and
KB2AH. Heard were K3EAV and VE1ZJ.
DL9EBL:
Karl has lots of news -- I have built a dish
for 10 GHz (6 m dia). I hope be on both 3 and 6 cm this
summer. Because of the help of Rainer, DF6NA, my TX
signal on 13 cm and 9 cm are respectively 5 dB and 4 dB
stronger. I completed my 1st QSO on 9 cm with my old 80
w PA (2 x 2C39s) with VE4MA (M/M) on 2 May and WB5LUA
(O/O) on 6 May. After discussions with WB5LUA, who is
using horz pol, I switched my feed to vert pol and
increased my power to 200 w (at the feed). I then
worked WB5LUA (569/579) on 4 Nov at 2303. We switched
over to SSB (33/55). A test with KD5RO was nil. Dave
did not find the moon. The problem turned out to be an
elevation angle error. His the feed was offset 6 deg in
el. We will try again for the next SW. In the contest I
made 4 QSOs on 70 cm, 52 on 23 cm, 2 on 13 cm, and 1 on
9 cm. I am currently building a new transverter for
2424 MHz to allow QSOs on 13 cm with JA stations. It
would be good if we could use the same frequency for 13
cm worldwide - see OE9ERC's comments in the last NL. l
will be QRV on 2424 MHz in April '96. For the summer
'96, I will be on 6 cm. DH9FAG is a new station, QRV on
23 cm with a 3 m dish and 200 w at the feed. I have
worked him with very good signals. Initial EME QSOs for
the last 2 years follow: On 432 DL6WU, KD0GT, DL9NDD,
KD4LT, K2OS, T70A, SM4DHN, IK2EAD, OZ1HNE, DL3YEE,
AA4TJ, WA8VPD, OH2PO, JL1ZCG, OZ7UHF, DF6WE, DJ9DL,
DK0TU, F6KSX, DL3BWW, EA2LU, F1EHQ, HA1YA, UT5UAS,
EA6/DF5JJ, DL0HER, KB4WM, RA6AAB, CS1EME, EI5HN, F8SQ,
W3VH, OE9ERC, VE1ALQ, DL6LAU, EA3EHQ, DF6NA, K0RZ,
DL0UL/P and CN2EME for initial #133; on 1296 F1ELL,
HB9AMH, AA6WI, KB0HH, ON4UV, G3LQR, VE1BVL, IK4NMF,
EA6/DF5JJ, OH2AXH, DF9QX, F5PL, HB9BBD, JA4BLC, LA8LF,
HB9BHU, OZ9AAR, PA3DZL, PA3CSG, DJ9YW, AA4TJ, KB2AH,
DL0SHF, SM5CFS. DD1XF, OK1CA, DF3RU, IY4ARI, S59DCD,
JH5LUZ, G4DZU, F5AQC, F5PAU, DH9FAG, SM5DGX, VE1ZJ,
K3EAV and W2UHI for initial #103; on 2304/2320 IN3HER,
SM0PYP, GW3XYW, OE9ERC, OE9XXI, OZ4MM, EA6/DF5JJ and
DF3RU for initial #13; and on 3456 VE4MA and WB5LUA.
DL9KR:
Jan writes -- The 2nd half had both its pluses
and minuses. The positive was good WX, no equipment
failures, numerous initials, and relatively good
conditions. The negative were lack of NA activity, CWNR
F5JJI, N2NQI, K1VYU, WB2VVV, WB0GGM and WA8HTL, too
much window restriction by vegetation, and the
recurring experience of trying to pull a weak one from
the noise, only to have the libration always drown out
the same letter ... never managed to fully copy W?7P,
later learned it was WE7P. I worked on 4 Nov F5AYE,
DL0UL, S53M for initial #623, WA6BJE, K5JL, CN2EME #624
and DXCC 80, K3HZO, WA4OFS, YL3AG (probably ex RQ2GAG),
DL6WU, W7FN, HB9SUL #625, DK8LV #626, W8MQW, G3LQR,
WA4NJP, VK5MC, JH4JLV, JS3SIM #627, 9M2BV dup, DK3WG,
JA2KRW, F2TU, JH0YSI dup, DL0DYW #628, HA1YA dup,
UA4API, JR1RCH, OM1TL dup, OE8FNK, KA0RYT, N4PZ, G4ERG,
K3LFO, I5MPK, KB8ZW, KD4LT, IK0EQJ dup and NC1I, and on
5 Nov K5WXN, K9BCT, W0KRX #629, HB9DXG #630, W1ZX, K5GW
#631, W0RAP, DJ6MB, CN2EME dup, DJ5RE, IK2EAD, GM3JFG,
CT1DMK #632, HP3XUG and DK5MV for a total of 128x39.
S53M is in JN86bs, YL3AG in KO26, HB9SUL in JN46, DK8LV
is using 8 yagis and 200 w from JO44, HB9DXG is in
JN47ph, and CT1DMK is using 4 yagis and 100 w from
IN50. On 12 Nov I added DL3EAG for #633, who is using 2
yagis and 400 w from JO31.
EA3UM:
Megan concentrated on 1296 in the contest and
worked the following stations: On 7 Oct GW3XYW, KB2AH,
AA4TJ, W2UHI for initial #73, EA6/DF5JJ, AA6WI, HB9BHU,
OE9XXI, WD5AGO, F1ANH, OE9ERC, ZS6AXT, OE5JFL, DL9EBL,
G4CCH, DF3RU #74, IY4ARI #75, HB9BBD and DF9QX #76, on
8 Oct OZ4MM, OH2AXH, F6CGJ, IK3COJ, VE1ALQ #77, SM3AKW,
K3EAV #78, W7GBI, K2UYH, VE3ONT, JA4BLC, JH3EAO, DD1XF
#79, DJ9YW #80 and SM2CEW, on 4 Nov DL6YDR #81, OK1KIR,
F5PAU #82, DL0SHF, LA8LF, F5AQC, G3LQR #83 and F5PL,
and on 5 Nov VE1ZJ #84, F2TU and LX1DB for a score of
45x23.
EA6/DF5JJ:
Peter finished the contest with 59x19 on
1296. He had only 300 w during the 2nd half of the
contest due to a problem with his driver. He worked,
since the 1st part of the contest, on 14 Oct VE1ZJ
(O/O), on 22 Oct DF3RU (539/539), ON4UV (O/O) for
initial #92 and the 1st EA/6-ON 1296 QSO and ZS6AXT
(539/559), on 1 Nov I0UBG (M/O) #93 - using a 3m dish
with lin pol and 100 w, on 3 Nov G4CCH (O/O), GW3XYW
(559/549), DJ9YW (549/449), KB2AH (579/559) and AA6WI
(549/O), on 4 Nov G4CCH (O/O), KD5RO (O/O), G4DZU
(O/O) #94, W4RDI (O/O) #95, N7ART (549/559) #96, DL0SHF
(549/549), OK1KIR (549/449), F5ALQ (549/549), LA8LF
(549/549), SM4DHN (579/559), F5PL (549/549) and
[partial?] SM5DGX (-/O), on 5 Nov K9KFR (559/549),
JH5LUZ (O/O) #97, F2TU (559/449) and DL9EBL (57/55) on
SSB, and on 6 Nov WA9FWD (O/M) #98. PA0PLY was heard
(O) on 7 Oct. Peter was also QRV on 23 cm and worked on
13 Oct EA3UM (O/O) for initial #9 and the 1st EA6/EA 13
cm QSO. He now has 150 w on 2304. He has had excellent
results with a new cavity preamp for 1296. With it he
is able to copy good echoes with only 10 w. By the time
you receive this NL, Peter will be back in Germany for
the winter. He will probably not return to EA6 until
March.
F5HRY:
Herve' reports on his contest activity -- This
year the ARRL EME Contest conflicted with 2 major EU
contests, and excellent tropospheric conditions on the
1st week end. (I made the 1st F to OK QSO on 3 cm
tropo, 785 km). Thus, time was hard to find, and I
managed to be active on EME only a few hours. As I did
not worked VE3ONT 2 years ago on 432, I was
particularly disappointed that they were not active
this year. Satisfaction came from CN2EME which I worked
easily ... What would the EME community do without
French dxpeditions! Besides these comments, please note
that 432 EME is getting harder and harder in France ...
Recent developments in low power commercial
transmissions and the already present radio location
system make 432 EME near impossible in urban areas.
Many ops have already given up. F could become a rare
prefix in the coming years. Rumors say that our legal
power on 432 could be reduced to a hundred microwatts.
I am afraid that this could become a general
restriction all over Eur. The only solution would be a
move to 434. What would NA do? Despite everything I did
work on 8 Oct SM4IVE and DL9KR, on 4 Nov N2IQU, G4RGK,
CN2EME for initial #30 and DXCC 14, OE5JFL, K1FO,
F6CGJ, DL9NDD, and 5 Nov G3SEK #31 and OH2PO for a
total of 11x9 or 9,900 Points. Heard were UT5DL, KD4LT,
ON4KNG, NC1I, K2UYH, I2COR, DJ6MB and N4GJV. (The rig
was 4 x 26 el Opt BV yagis on a 6 m boom, 200 ohm
lines, RX 0.35 dB NF MGF 1302 and TX 1 KW RIW amp.)
[Herve' also included a copy of an extensive letter
written to the ARRL concerning the EME contest dates.
He argues strongly for having different the dates for
different bands. He explains why different weekends
favor different bands. He also notes the frustration
created by scheduling the ARRL EME contest on the same
weekends as major Eur VHF/UHF/SHF contests. He ends by
recommending 26/27 Oct and 23/24 Nov for '96, the same
as proposed by K1FO in this and the last NL.
G3LQR:
Simon ended the contest with 15x12 on 432 and
25x15 on 1296. QSO'd in Oct on 23 cm were IY4ARI,
OE5JFL, EA6/DF5JJ, OE9XXI, OZ4MM, F1ANH, ZS6AXT,
OH2AXH, DL9EBL, HB9BHU and F6CGJ, and on 70 cm SM4IVE
and UR5LX, and in Nov on 23 cm AA6WI, DF0SHF, F5AQC,
SM3AKW, F5PAU, SM4DHN, LA8LF, EA3UM, WD5AGO, KB2AH,
K2UYH, OE9ERC, F5PL and DF3RU, and on 70 cm DL9KR,
N4GJV, N2IQU, K1FO, W7FN, OH2PO, CN2EME, NC1I, JH0YSI,
OE5JFL, DK3WG, IK1MTZ and SM3AKW. Heard but get always
on 1296 were VE1ALQ, LX1DB, F2TU, DD1XF and HB9BBD.
Simon concentrated on 1296 and only was active on 70 cm
when the moon was out of his 1296 dish's window at
moonrise and set. Simon's goal for the next year is to
increase his 23 cm TX power by 3 dB and become QRV on
13 cm. He is looking for cavity designs for GS90B and
G17B tubes for 23, 13 and 9 cm. Can anyone help?
G4ERG:
Peter was active in the contest. Despite
problems with some stations mistaking his call for
G4RGK, he QSO'd during Oct OH2PO, SM4IVE, OE5JFL,
CN2EME for initial #64, N2IQU, K1FO, N4GJV, DL9KR and
NC1I for a score of 9x8. Peter is running 4 x 7.7 wl BV
yagis and 400 w. He is planning some major up-grades to
his station when work pressures eases up a bit.
HB9BBD:
Dominique via E-mail -- I mounted the new
feedhorn with polarizer before the 2nd leg of the
contest. Sun noise improved by a little more than 3 dB,
which to me was an incredible increase! Paul, SM0PYP
tuned the new horn and achieved isolation of 27 dB,
and very good circularity. Equipped with the new feed,
I was very curious about the 2nd half of the contest.
My score is 41x23 on 23 cm. I worked 9 initials during
the 2 weekends, which brought me up to initial #66.
Unfortunately, I had to stop on Saturday night 90 min
before moon set due to a flashover in the huge RF relay
which isolates the PA. This the preamp did not
appreciate! I took the preamp from the roof top on
Sunday morning, changed the HEMT (got 0.07 dB better NF
hi) and was ready again. The log of 2nd half included
K3EAV, OK1KIR, ZS6AXT, JA4BLC, JH3EAO, GW3XYW, DL0SHF,
SM2CEW, LA8LF, SM4DHN, F5AQC #60, K2UYH, KD5RO, JH5LUZ
#61, IK3COJ #61, SM3AKW, DF9QX #62, F2TU, HB9BHU, DD1XF
#63, S59DCD #64, DF3RU #65, F5PL and LX1DB #66. For EME
directory my new tel # is +41 56 668 1944. I definitely
plan to attend the 1996 EME conference!
IK3COJ:
Aldo had good results in this year's ARRL
Contest and finished with a score of 31x20 on 23 cm. He
added initials on 1296 during the past year with K5JL,
AA4TJ, DJ9YW, W2UHI, W7GBI, OH2AXH, IY4ARI, F5PAU and
VE1ALQ to bring him to initial #60.
IK5WJD:
Alex reports on his activity for the EME
Contest -- Calls contacted were OE5JFL, DL9KR, I2COR,
K1FO, SM4IVE, UR5LX, PA3CSG, F6CGJ, SM2CEW, DL9NDD,
N2IQU, N4GJV, OH2PO, G3SEK and KD4LT, and initials with
HB9SV, EA2LU, K5JL, SM3AKW, F1EAN and CN2EME. CWNR were
JL1ZCG, JA4BLC, DJ6MB, DL6NAA, IK1MTZ and IK2EAD for a
total of 21x16. My EME statistics are now 130 QSOs, #54
initials, 11 US States, 21 DXCC and 16 Grids. Regarding
the exchange of QSL cards: I needs cards from AA4TJ
(930529), DL8OBU (950121), F5MZN (941127), F6CGJ
(941126,950610,951007), I5CTE (941119), I5MPK (950121),
IK1MTZ (950113), N2IQU (941029,951007), OH2PO
(41126,951007), SM2CEW (930626,931107,940515,950408,951007), UR5LX
(941217,950121,959506,951007) and UT5DL (930626).
Recently I subscribed to MOON-NET Server. I discovered
a lot of msg, technical info, conference dispatching,
etc. This is very good media, with excellent times for
msgs delivery. Perhaps, this MOON-NET Server can be
utilized for distribution of the EME Directory.
JA2KRW:
Tokuichi QSO'd 15x9 in the contest. Worked in
Nov were JL1ZCG, K1FO, K2UYH, JH0YSI, N2IQU, JR9NWC,
SM4IVE, DL9KR, JA5OVU, OH2PO, OE5JFL, NC1I, N4GJV,
N2IQU (dupe), PA3CSG and JH4JLV. Heard were CN2EME,
DL9NDD, DJ6MB, JA4BLC, JO3RNL, 9M2BV, I5MPK and UR5LX.
Tokuichi is back on with 4 new FO-33 yagis and an 8938
PA. He wants skeds.
JA4BLC:
Yoshiro reports - In the Nov contest, I worked
on 70 cm 9M2BV, JH4JLV, JR9NWC, JA9BOH, W9QXP for
initial #224, PA3CSG, DJ6MB and HB9SV, on 1296 HB9BHU
(539/449), HB9BBD (549/519), DL0SHF (449/449) for
initial #46, WD5AGO (339/339), K3EAV (O/O) #47, AA6WI
(549/449) dup, F2TU (549/449), LA8LF (549/549), LX1DB
(559/559) #48 and SM3AKW (449/449) #49 for a total
score of 377,300 points (144 28x15, 432 23x14, 1296
24x19 and 2304 2x1) - much less than last year's. Back
in Oct, I worked JR4AEP #43, VE1ALQ #44 and JA7BMB #45
on 1296 MHz. I finished a big PA for 2424 MHz, and now
I am getting very good echoes - 3-5 dB better than
before. Hideki, JA4CMZ heard F6KSX (O) on 10,368.1 at
around 1700 on Nov 5. He also heard an unidentified 3
cm signal (stronger than F6KSX) during Oct in his Eur
window. He is getting 10 dB of sun noise and 0.8 dB of
moon noise. His 100" solid dish (used for BS up-link
test in NHK ten years ago) can only be directed west
due to hill blockage. Hideki has a G3WDG converter and
preamps. He is located 10 miles south of JA4BLC.
Concerning the X band allocation in JA, we definitely
can not transmit on 10.368 GHz because the frequency
between 10.250 and 10.450 GHz is not for amateur radio
and is very commonly used for TV relay link (field pick
up transmitters) nowadays. Therefore I suppose we
should transmit on 10.450 GHz. I suggest a world wide
move of 3 cm EME activity to this frequency be
considered.
JA5OVU:
Tom ended with a score of 30x15. QSO'd on 7 Oct
were N4GJV, K1FO, JL1ZCG, N2IQU, JA9BOH, JR9NWC,
JA4BLC, JA5YJS, JR4AEP, JH0YSI, UR5LX, SM4IVE, DL9NDD,
UT5DL, DL9KR, OH2PO, F6CGJ, OE5JFL, SM2CEW, G3SEK and
JO3RNL, on 8 Oct K0RZ, PA3CSG, I2COR, on 4 Nov K2UYH,
9M2BV ,JH4JLV, JA2KRW, DK3WG, and on 5 Nov NC1I. He
worked CN2EME on 2 Nov.
JA8ERE:
Mikio has been working on a 1296 system,
besides his 432 QRP operation, he will have full high
power license (500 w) soon. He has already worked
several stations on 1296 with his 4 m dish and solid
state 40 w PA. He is making 2-N6CA/NA6E amps. On 432 he
will use a 16 x RIW19 yagi array and K2RIW PA. He also
plans to be QRV on 2424 MHz with dish and VE4MA PA.
JA9BOH:
Kimio's 95 ARRL EME results -- I was lucky to
contact with CN2EME on 70 cm, and was called by F5JJI.
Conditions on 144 were not so good, mostly one way. On
432, there were no Faraday rotation and my vert pol
sense was better to NA/EU horz yagi stations. Among
JA's JH0YSI has dual 16 x FO 22 el arrays and JS3SIM
used vert pol 4 yagi array. Others were using horz pol.
Stations worked on 432 were on 7 Oct at 0822 N4GJV,
0828 N2IQU, 0850 K1FO, 0900 JA5OVU, 0928 JA2JRJ, 0950
JR9NWC, 0956 JL1ZCG, 1015 JA4BLC, 1740 DL9NDD, 1746
DL9KR, 1750 UR5LX, 1802 ON4KNG, 1808 PA3CSG, 1826
SM4IVE, 1833 G3SEK, 1843 SM3AKW and 1853 OE5JFL, on 8
Oct at 1053 K0RZ, 1958 I2COR, and 2010 OH2PO, 4 Nov
0652 K2UYH, 1116 9M2BV, 1148 JA4BLC, 1626 DK3WG, 1702
HA1YA and 1720 CN2EME for an initial, and on 0733 N4PZ,
0755 NC1I, 0830 N9AB, 0840 W9QXP/7, 1140 JH0YSI, 1450
UR5LX, 1659 HB9SV, 1705 DJ6MB, 1726 IK1MTZ, and 1752
F5JJI #253 for a score of 34x21 on 432 and a multi-band
score of 278,800 points. I am mounting a 2 m dish with
K4QIF horn for 1296 to my 144 ant. I worked on 10 Oct
OE9ERC (O/O), and my 2nd with OE9XXI on 10 Nov at 2140.
Power is 100 w at the feed. I want skeds with bigger
stations. My 432 standings are initial #253, DXCC 45,
WAS 40, and 1296 #2,1,0,1.
JH0YSI:
Toshio's (JA0HVL) group worked on 7 Oct JA5YJS,
JA4BLC, JA5OVU, UR5LX, JL1ZCG, SM4IVE, JR9NWC, DL9KR,
OH2PO and F6CGJ, on 8 Oct N2IQU, K1FO, N4GJV, K0RZ and
JR4AEP, on 4 Nov K2UYH, JA2KRW, 9M2BV, OE5JFL, DK3WG,
PA3CSG, HA1YA, DL9NDD, G3SEK and IK1MTZ, and on 5 Nov
NC1I, N9AB, VK5MC, JA9BOH, DJ6MB, DL8OBU, SM3AKW,
G3LQR, DL8NRA, ON4KNG, HB9SV, CN2EME for a total of
37x21. They had HPA trouble at the beginning of the
contest, but cured this problem quickly. Their
switchable polarization array did a nice job despite of
the low activity .
JH3EAO:
Takao via E-mail writes -- I concentrated on
the 23 cm band during ARRL EME competition. In Oct my
activity was limited due to family activities, and I
was QRV only on 8 Oct during the NA window. I then
QSO'd VE3ONT (O/O), WD5AGO (439/229) and AA6WI
(559/339). On 10 Oct I made a QSO with VE1ALQ (549/549)
for initial #53 - arranged via the Internet. On 4 and 5
Nov I made QSOs with AA6WI (559/439), K3EAV (M/O) #54,
WD5AGO (549/O), OZ4MM (559/549), OH2AXH (569/429),
DL0SHF (549/O) #55, OE5JFL (569/559), HB9BBD (559/519),
OE9XXI(569/549), F6CGJ (559/449), K2UYH (559/549),
KD5RO (M/M) #56 and VE1ALQ (549/539). Heard were OK1KIR
and JH5LUZ. I was pleased to find activity growing on
23 cm - even QRM. I have made a new 23 cm cavity LNA
using FHX35 and 2SK571. The NF is 0.3 dB. This LNA has
brought me better reception compared with my old 2SK569
preamp.
JH4JLV:
Kazuhiko is back in operation after moving to a
new home. He worked 11x7 in the contest. He was on in
Nov only and QSO'd K1FO, JL1ZCG, JA4BLC, JA5OVU,
SM4IVE, DL9KR, OH2PO, OE5JFL, N2IQU #21, PA3CSG and
JA2KRW. He says his new upgraded array of 6 x FO- 24 HB
Yagis is working better than his old one. Kazuhiko
wants skeds.
JH5LUZ:
Yasumasa (Y. Sasaki, Edooka 2-2-15, Yawatahama
- shi, Ehime 796 Japan), (PM63fk) is running a 5 m
dish, 160 w PA made from 8 x M57762 modules and MGF4918
LNA. He QSO'd on 23 cm in the contest on 7 Oct JA4BLC,
IY4ARI, OE5JFL, OE9XXI and F1ANH, on 8 Oct VE3ONT,
AA6WI, W7GBI, OZ4MM, EA3UM, DL9EBL, ZS6AXT and OE9ERC,
on 4 Nov WD5AGO, AA6WI (dup), OZ4MM (dup), SM3AKW,
OH2AXH and LA8LF, and on 15 Nov K2UYH, HB9BBD, F6CGJ,
EA6/DF5JJ, DL9EBL (dup), HB9BHU and F5PL for a score of
23x18.
JL1ZCG:
worked 41x20 making QSOs with on 7 Oct K1FO,
K2UYH, JA5OVU, N2IQU, N4GJV, K5WXN, JA9BOH, JR9NWC,
K0RZ, JA4BLC, JR4AEP, JA5YJS, JH0YSI, 9M2BV, UT5DL,
DL9NDD, UT5EC, SM4IVE, OE5JFL, DL8OBU, UR5LX, DL9KR,
OH2PO, F6CGJ and I2COR, on 8 Oct WA7BBM, JO3RNL,
JA6XED, HB9SV, IK1MTZ, JA2KRW, JA6XED (dupe), 9M2BV
(dupe), JH4JLV, JA6ZHR, DK3WG, G3SEK and HA1YA, and on
5 Nov NC1I, KL7HFQ, DJ6MB and I5MPK.
JO3RNL:
Kouji worked in the contest SM4IVE, DL9KR,
UR5LX, JA5OVU and JL1ZCG for a total of 5x4. He works
on weekends, but is free for skeds every Tuesday.
JR9NWC:
Hideyuki worked on 7 Oct K1FO, N4GJV, JA9BOH,
JL1ZCG, JA5OVU, UR5LX, SM4IVE, JH0YSI, DL9KR, DL9NDD
and OE5JFL, on 8 Oct N2IQU ,JR4AEP and OH2PO, on 4 Nov
K2UYH, JA2KRW, JA4BLC, and on 5 Nov SM3AKW and DJ6MB
for a total of 19x10.
JS3SIM:
Horoshi scored 10x9 during the contest with 4 x
25 el FO (vert) yagis and 800 w. He worked in Oct only
K1FO, but added in Nov SM4IVE, DL9KR, G3SEK, OH2PO,
OE5JFL, NC1I, N2IQU, DK3WG and CN2EME. He did well in
his 1st contest attempt and is now up to #11 initial.
He likes night time skeds.
K0RZ:
Bill reports a total 70 cm ARRL contest score of
42x21. He QSO'd on 22 Oct K3HZO (O/O) for initial
#209, on 4 Nov WB0GGM (O/O) #210), CN2EME (O/O) #211,
KD4LT, W0RAP, VE1ALQ, DL8OBU, KB8ZW and N4PZ, and on 5
NC1I, W7HAH, W7FN, K5GW (559/559) initial #212, K3HZO
and DJ6MB. During the contest weekend CWNR were I5MPK,
W9QXP and W1ZX. Heard were HB9SV and DK3WG. Condx
appeared better on 5 Nov, however activity was still
lower than hoped. The tailend of the contest offered
him only about 40 minutes of moon time, but condx and
activity were the best of the contest. Like many other
stations, a good portion of the contest TX time was
spent calling, which did help keep the shack warm.
K1FO:
Steve wants to thank F6HYE and everyone who took
part in the CN2EME DX expedition for their effort.
CN2EME's signal was outstanding and from the
preliminary reports on the high number of stations
worked the crew sure knows how to run an EME DX
operation! The only possible down side to the operation
is that cross pol may have hurt their success to NA.
They were peaking vert at Steve's QTH 90% of the time.
Steve thought that conditions were good over the
contest weekend, especially on Saturday night and
Sunday AM with little Faraday rotation and very little
libration fading. At one point early Sunday UTC the
bottom of 432 was loaded with so many strong signals
(DL9KR, SM4IVE, N2IQU, NC1I, K5GW, KD4LT, OE5JFL, OH2PO
and others) that Steve felt like a "has been" on the
band. The only disappointment was the low activity (as
compared to the contest over the previous 2 years). In
listening to the 144 MHz EME net, many complaints of
low activity were also heard. This low activity
reinforces the importance of picking EME contest dates
that will not conflict with the big Eur VHF-UHF
contests. The contest at K1FO was relatively surprise
free except for some high winds and few hours of lost
operating time early Sunday morning when the bias diode
in Steve's 8938 amplifier failed. He was very tired at
the time and was alerted to the problem by a "pinging"
sound which was the 1.5 A plate meter bouncing off its
full scale pin! Fortunately he caught the problem
before further damage occurred. He didn't have a
replacement 23 V Zenar diode and most of the down time
was spent scrounging up suitable replacements which
turned out to be 3 x 8.2 V diodes in series. They were
quickly put on their own heat sinks placed on the floor
and clip leaded into the amplifier. Worked on 30 Oct
KB6IGC (M/O) #477. Stations worked in the 2nd contest
weekend were: on 04 Nov DJ6MB, KD4LT, WA4NJP, CN2EME
(549/559) #478 and DXCC #74, F5HRY (549/54) #479 -
Steve thought that he had worked F5HRY before, but he
couldn't find either F5HRY or F1HRY/P in his initial
list, W7FN, DL4MEA, W1ZX, G3LQR, W7HAH, WA7TZY, WI7Z
(O/M) #480, W0RAP, WB0GGM, KB6IGC, N4PZ, K9BCT/4 (dup),
JA2KRW, VK5MC, JH4JLV, F2TU, HB9SUL (O/O) #481, G4ERG,
DK3WG (439/549) #482, DL0UL, K1RQG, K3HZO, I5MPK, NC1I,
HA1YA, DK8LV (O/O) #483, N2NQI - should N2NQI count for
an initial if Meg was using different equipment than
Dave? [I think yes.], WA8HTL, WE7P (O/O) #484, K5JL,
K5GW (569/569) #485, DL6WU, KB8ZW, K2OS, W3ADO, JR4AEP,
PA3CSG, UA4API, G0RRJ, DF3RU and DJ2PA (O/O) #486.
Other contest duplicates worked over the weekend were:
IK0EQJ, OM1TL, W0RAP, WA7TZY and K9BCT/4. This totals
120 QSOs and 36 multipliers for the perfect contest
score of 432,000! Worked after the end of the contest
was CN2EME, their signals were so strong that Steve
couldn't resist another QSO. Stave's 70 cm EME totals
are now #486 initials, 49 states and 74 DXCC. [See
additional comments on EME Contest date by Steve at the
end of this NL.
KB2AH:
Tom says -- I did not find a lot of activity on
the 1st nigh, although sigs were fair to good. The 2nd
night showed much improvement in activity. Sig were
again fair to good. Sunday night (contest end) was also
good, but I only had 45 min window. There were many
smaller stations calling CQ all weekend. I think this
is great. Most of my contacts were made answering CQ's.
It just goes to show, you don't have to be a big gun to
call CQ and get a answer. All went well, Murphy didn't
strike once. I was quite happy, no actually amazed,
that my 2 x 6 tube 7289 amps ran without a glitch at
1.1 KW output at the combiner. My big limitation is
that my window doesn't start until 30 deg el. My final
score was 58x28 for 162,400 points.
KD4LT:
Scott has been away on business most of the last
2 months and was not on for the 1st contest weekend. He
did make it back in time to get in some operating in on
70 cm, the 2nd weekend. His total contest time was less
then 3 hours. Scott's total for the contest is 31x21.
Stations worked were N2IQU, DL6NA, K5JL, K1FO, N4GJV,
K0RZ, SM4IVE, IK6WJD, ON4KNG, G3SEK, OH2PO, HA1YA,
DJ6MB, DL9KR, CN2EME #262, IK1MTZ, UT5DL, I5MPK, W7FN,
F5JJI #263, SM3AKW, KB8ZW, G3HUL, WA4NJP, UA6LGH,
OE5JFL, K2UYH, WA4OFS, W8MQW, DF3RU and G4ALH. Scott
was not able to pick out all who were calling him ...
there is lots of QRM when you have not been on, and
everyone calls at once. Scott's plans for 23 cm are
somewhat uncertain. Scott wants to construct a new dish
for 23 cm only, instead of using his 9.7 m dish for
both bands. He can be QRV on 23 cm with some advanced
notice. His totals are now on 70 cm initial #264, DXCC
45 and WAS 43, and on 1296 initial #4, DXCC and WAS 3.
LA8LF:
Anders was on during the last part of the EME
contest with his new home built 5 m solid dish. Despite
the low Dec and reduced operating time, he still ended
with a score of 44x24, and 8 initials. He is now up to
initial #82 with the following new ones: On 4 Nov
JH5LUZ, F5PAU, DF9QX, DF3RU and VE1ZJ, and on 5 Nov
W4RDI, K9KFR and IK3GHY. On 12 Nov Anders added NU7Z
(worked on EME on 3 bands). He now have 400 w at the
feed, and is still using a VE4MA horn with pol screws,
and an adjustable position scalar ring set for his .51
f/d. He did not re-adjusted the circularity, nor the
isolation between the TX-RX ports after adjustment of
the scalar ring, and wonders if these parameters are
influenced by the scalar ring adjustment? [Barry?] CS/G
noise is approx 5 dB. He has no recent Sun noise
measurements as the Sun is behind the trees, and will
not be back until late Feb. He also lacks a good
measuring device for noise. He can only measure at AF
level, at present. His dish is covered with 112
aluminum panels, 0.5 mm thick. Anders sends a warning
to those who want to measure Sun noise with a solid
dish covered with blank alum panels. After 2 minutes of
tracking the Sun (with an outside temperature of -7 deg
C), most of the soldering on his feed melted!! The
scalar ring fell off and a large plastic bag used for
protection of the preamps also melted. Who would think
of that? Anders' standing are now on 70 cm up to
initial #160, DXCC 32 and WAS 32, and on 23 cm #82, 22
and 15.
N2IQU:
Mark is now QRV with his new 48' dish. During the
contest he concentrated exclusively on 70 cm. The dish
which was originally designed for operation around 150
MHz proved its worth on 432; Mark ended the contest
with a score of 123x35. Despite frustration at missing
easy multipliers as VK5MC. Mark plans to switch to 23
cm for the winter, and test the dish's performance
there. The center 30' is covered with a fine mesh,
which Mark feels will out perform his 28' dish on 23 cm
- still fully operational.
N4GJV:
N4PZ:
OE9ERC:
OE9XXI:
OH2AXH:
OZ4MM:
SM0PYP:
SP5CJT:
S56UUU:
UR5LX:
W0KRX:
W1ZX:
W2UHI:
W7FN:
W8MQW:
WA7TZY:
ZS6AXT:
K2UYH:
OH2PO scored 99x32 in the contest on 432.
JH1WLK is in getting on 1296 MHz with 3.8 m Dish and
100W.
JA2JRJ will QRV on 1296 MHz with 500 w and a 6 m dish.
JE1AAH is setting up for EME operation. Although he has
little experience off the moon, he is an excellent GHz
experimenter.
WQ0P is QRV on 70 cm with 2x13 WL yagis and 1 KW.
HP3XUG is LF skeds for Dec. All skeds must be via the
20 m net as the NL does not arrive on time.
VE6TA worked SM3AKW on 23 cm.
WB5LUA was visited by OE9ERC. Al's standing are on 902
initial #5, DXCC 2 and WAS 3, on 23 cm #120, 27 and 25,
on 13 cm #28, 15 and 7, on 3456 MHz #2, 2 and 0, on
5760 #6, 5 and 0, and 10 GHz #12, 8 and 4.
NU7Z worked LA8LF, but had problems with high winds.
K5JL had problems with high winds.
W4HHK made 4 contacts on 13 cm in the contest.
KD5RO missed an extra sked with WA9FWD because of high
winds.
NC7K's E-mail address is: NC7K
W9QXP's E-mail address is: W9QXP
UT5DL worked 22x14 in the 1st part of the contest.
UT7VF finished in Nov with 12x8 including initials with
N2IQU and G3SEK to bring him to #21.
UA6LGH ended in Nov with 15x10.
HB9BHU score 46x26 on 23 cm during the contest.
HL5OQ is working on 23 cm EME. His system consist of a
29.2 dBi quad array horz yagis, 0.4 NF LNA and 7/8"
rigid cable. Last year he heard OE9XXI's (O) signals
several times.
WG3I Dave is in C6A on vacation with only 1.8-50 MHz
for the Dec SW.
SM4IVE ended the contest with 141x37. Lars will try to
come to USA for the EME conference. His 70 cm totals
now stands at initial #510, DXCC ? and WAS 47.
EA3DXU ended the contest with 21x16. Nil was heard from
PY5ZBU.
G3LTF has his tropo gear up and working at the new QTH.
EME will follow in a few months.
VE3BQN's address is RR #2, ELMVALLE, ONTARIO L0L 1P0.
W1ZX has for Sale a used Bird 43 Watt Meter - call for
price, AIL 75 NF meter with cabinet $US300 & shipping,
AILTECH 7514 Noise Figure Meter $US500 & shipping,
AILTECH 7616 Noise Source $US275 & shipping, AILTECH
7380 with NF Monitor (Digital Read Out Unit) $US300 &
shipping, Several Transco "Y" type Relays with "N"
Connectors $US50 & shipping, Dynatech "D" type Relays
with SC Connectors & jumpers $US30 & shipping, General
Radio 1216A 30 MHz IF Amplifier with meter, great for
reading Sun Noise & Sky to Ground Noise $US50 &
shipping. Call Willie at 301 645 5584, 2000-2230 EST,
FAX 301 645 6853, 24 hrs,
Email: W1ZX
KB2AH is producing VE4MA like 1296 feeds with built-in
IMU type circular polarizer. Feeds are 24" long overall
with five tuning slugs for pol. Tom is getting 22 dB
sun noise with his feed. He also has a complete line of
1296 HPAs (6, 4, 2 or 1 x 7289 amps) available.
K0RZ is LF for parts for FO22 yagis.
UR4LL has for sale new GS23B tubes and 2 stage
commercial 70 cm PAs originally manufactured for
Russian military stations. The PAs require 10-15 w of
drive for the G17B 1st stage and will produce between
35 work FB). The PAs require a power supply of 1.5 KV
at 300 mA and 3-3.5 KV at 1.2 Amps. Tubes and PAs may
be purchased through Rainer, DF6NA (R. Allraun,
Trautenauer Str 12, Wuezburg, 97074 Germany, tel 0931-
86315). Rainer is able to answer all questions about
the PAs.
K2UYH is looking good 7650s and 7289s. He is also still
interested in a 12' or larger dish good for use on 10
GHz EME.
K1FO reports that he still has received almost all of
the sheet metal parts for the current production run of
Lunar-Link amplifiers. The few missing parts are due
any day. Baring any further delay, shipments of LA-70B,
70 cm amplifiers will start the last week of Nov.
Shipments of the LA-200, 2 meter models will begin in
mid Dec. Steve also has one LA-70B from the 1st
production run available. It is an assembled model that
was used as a demo unit and has some minor scratches in
the left side panel, rear panel and inside the unit. It
is available for quick shipment at a reduced price.
W1ZX will have another up-date on the EME Conference in
Jan. UR4LL and UR4LX, an others, have confirmed plans
to attend the conference.
The new directory is still not printed. Some last
minute corrections are being made in an attempt to get
you the most up-to-date directory possible.
Please keep the info coming - especially technical. We
need more technical material. I will be looking for you
off the Moon and CU via the NL next year. SEASONS
GREETINGS TO ALL. 73 - Al K2UYH.
I appreciate the thoughts and suggestions that Ian
(G3SEK) has for the ARRL EME contest dates. There is a
very good reason for having EME contests in the spring.
In the March, April and May there are far fewer ham radio
activities. During Oct and Nov there are not only the Eur
VHF and UHF contests, but there are often tropo openings,
several HF contests such as the ARRL Sweepstakes (with
separate CW and phone weekends) along with the CQ WW DX
Contest (again with separate CW and phone weekends) plus
there are many Hamfest activities such as the Pack Rats VHF
conference, the Microwave Update and the Horse traders
flea market. If you are an avid ham and even if you can
physically and mentally survive all these fall events
your marriage may not. In spite of all the other fall
events, I still believe that Oct and Nov are the
preferable months to hold the EME contest as compared
to March or even April or May. The 1st 5 ARRL EME
contests were held in April and May. (As an aside Ian
and myself were tied in score for the 1st EME contest
in 1978 with the incredible scores of 100 points
each!). Some of the spring contests were outright
disasters due to very bad weather, aurora activity and
absent stations who hadn't recovered from other winter
storm damage. The weather in NA can be horrible in
March. Blizzards often occur in March and it is often
the heaviest snow month of the year. Ice storms are
also a regular occurrence and if precipitation is not a
problem, March is usually the windiest month of the
year. Although there have been storm problems on the
fall contest dates, by my memory there were similar or
worse weather problems in the spring. To recall some
quotations from the last ARRL EME contest held in the
spring (1982): "Faraday rotation made things difficult
for fixed polarization stations."- JA9BOH. "Aurora and
high winds curtailed operating time." - G3LTF. These
were typical comments over the spring contest years
leading up to this quotation in the results for the
1982 ARRL EME Contest: "In response to overwhelming
input from the EME contest operators the next EME
contest will be held in the Fall." - ARRL. With the
contest in the fall operators can use the warm weather
months to build new EME arrays or to get their existing
systems in optimal shape for the contest. The Soapbox
comments from the 1st 2 fall contests strongly echoed
this sentiment. "In 1980, '81 and '82, winter damage
prevented me from being operational during the spring
affairs. Fall definitely gives me time to repair winter
damage." - N2CB. It is almost certain that on any given
weekend somewhere in the world the weather is going to be
horrible. This is one of the good arguments to keep the
EME contest at 2 weekends, because it gives stations
that have a weather washout one weekend another chance.
I agree that conflicts with the Eur 144 MHz contest are
a significant problem. However I believe that the best
solution is to make active EME operators and the ARRL
aware of the conflicts with the Eur tropo contests and
make sure that the ARRL schedules the EME contest on
different dates. In listening to VE7BQH on the 144 MHz
EME net it is apparent that Lionel is also aware of the
contest scheduling problems and he is attempting to
make other 144 MHz EME operators aware of the contest
conflicts. Unfortunately, it is also apparent that not
all EME operators understand or are sympathetic to
avoiding the contest date conflicts. Of course there
are some of us EMEers who are less concerned with the
contest dates and are more worried about getting enough
contest operating in. "Why not have two contests,
spring and fall." - SM4IVE, from the soapbox comment in
the results of the 7th ARRL International EME
Competition. "Let's have 2 contests every year." -
N4GJV, from the 6th EME Competition Results soapbox.
These guys are serious and judging by their continued
activity it seems as if Lars' and Ron's enthusiasm for
EME hasn't waned in the 12 years since their comments
were written! Of course other operators will never be
happy. Again from the 7th EME Competition soapbox:
"Conditions were very changeable, mostly bad, I worked
42 new stations." - YU3USB, 42 initials and he thought
that conditions were bad! It sure proves that no matter
what contest dates are selected, not everyone will be
happy. Let's keep the ARRL EME Competition in the fall
and come up with some ideas to better promote and
improve activity for the Unified Eur EME contest in the
spring. Some ideas for the Eur EME Contest are: 1. Try
a single weekend for all bands, possibly in April to
get better weather. 2. Solicit sponsors for awards for
winners such as plaques. I'll even volunteer Lunar-
Link Systems as an award sponsor. 3. Work harder on
publicity, make sure that it is promoted in the QST and
CQ VHF columns, appears in the QST Contest Corral and
CQ contest calendar and all appropriate amateur
publications in Eur and Japan. 4. Get a major amateur
organization such as the organization who sponsors the
All Eur VHF/UHF contests to put their name on the EME
contest and help promote it, publish the contest
results etc. 3 Encourage Eur operators to attend the
big US. conferences such as the Central States VHF
Society Conference and give talks about European
VHF/UHF activity (including EME). 4. Get EME special
operations on for the European contest such as DX
expeditions to countries and states that are not
regularly active on EME. 5. Encourage portable
operations from rare grids to get operators on who are
looking for initials. 6. Make sure that the date(s) for
the Eur contest are announced a year in advance so
operators can plan for it and publicity in amateur
publications can be done. 7. Try to establish a fixed
format and month for the contest, so it becomes habit
to operators like the long established tropo contests.
8. Keep the format and scoring as simple as possible,
but have extra awards for the best score in special
categories such as: top score for a 4 Yagi station, top
score from a 1st time entrant etc. 9. Send a letter to
each station who submits a score acknowledging their
participation and include the contest results with the
letter.
This information has been provided by Scott, KD4LT
For Your Comments and Corrections: W6/PA0ZN
Ron reports that during the Nov contest/SW that
Murphy apparently had complete control of the pol
phenomenon, as he experienced pol conditions that were
almost exactly the same as the extremely frustrating
conditions during the Oct weekend. He reports that he
has never before experienced a contest weekend that
provided absolutely no period of reasonable pol
alignment with fixed polarity Eur and Asian stations.
He reports, however that not one, but both weekends of
this years contest brought precisely this condition. In
addition, he experienced the same dismal situation with
the fixed polarity JA stations, again during not only
one, but during both weekends! As a result, he reports
that results, with stations in these areas, were
severely diminished, and that while polarity was
apparently often reasonably cooperative for his
transmit signal, non-reciprocity left him struggling
hard to copy normally strong stations, and prevented
him from copying others, at all. On the other hand, he
reports that his own echoes were often of reasonable
strength, as were those of other eastern US stations.
In addition, he found that CN2EME's signal was
remarkably strong nearly all weekend, with little
apparent polarity change. As a result, of these condi-
tions, Ron observed that one half of the initial QSOs
that he completed, during the weekend, were with US
stations, a situation that is not the norm, owing to
the generally much higher relative level of activity
from Eur, on 432 MHz EME. Ron's QSOs during the weekend
were with WB0GGM, K3HZO for an initial #, F5FLN #,
N4PZ, KD4LT, WA4NJP, I2COR, K9BCT #, W7FN, G3LQR, DK8LV
#, W0RAP, DJ6MB, DK3FB, WA7BBM, K1VYU #, CN2EME #,
WA8HTL, partial WA7TZY (TZY never copied Ron's call
letters correctly), W7HAH, G4ERG, I5TDJ, DL0UL #, NC1I,
KB8ZW, K5JL, DK3WG, OH5IY, WE7P #, W1ZX, partial UT5DL
- vanished, K1RQG, K5GW #, JA2KRW, VK5MC and W9QXP.
During the final 2 hours of the contest, Ron
experienced radar QRM, which caused him to miss a QSO
with F5HRY, and other unidentified stations, and
resulted in great difficulty during his final QSOs of
the contest, with IW5AVM, IK0EQJ #, and I5MPK. Contest
got-always include HA1YA (called many times), F5HRY,
WA7TZY, W3ADO, plus A22BW, JS3SIM, ZS6AXT, DL0AR and
others. Ron's contest score was 95x30 and his initial
count is now up to #508.
Steve is QRV with a 4CX1600U amp which operates
at nearly 70% efficiency. During the Nov contest
weekend he QSO'd K3HZO, HB9SV, SM2CEW, N4GJV, N2IQU,
WA4OFS, W7CI, K2UYH, OE5JFL, K1FO, DL9KR, NC1I, SM4IVE,
K0RZ, OH2PO, W0RAP and JA9BOH.
Erich writes -- During the ARRL contest, I was
QRV on 23 cm, 13 cm and 6 cm. I worked a lot of
stations. On 23 cm I have a score of 63x31, on 13 cm
10x9 and on 6 cm 2x2. On 23 cm I worked one new station
W4RDI (559/559) for initial #158. At times during the
contest I had big problems with my PA, and I had to
work with only my driver (100 w), but many stations
still heard me, Hi. For the next 3 months, I will not
be QRV, because of travel to W, ZL and VK.
Peter added 1296 initials with on 1 Nov OE9TKW
(M/M) - 1.5 m dish and lin pol, on 4 Nov W4RDI
(559/599), and on 10 Nov JA9BOH (O/O) - lin vert pol.
This brings his initial count to #197. During the
contest Peter operated almost exclusively on lin pol.
He ended with a score of 77x32 on 1296 and 1x1 on 2300.
Jukka (OH6DD) will accept 23 cm and 13 cm skeds
from now on, for all upcoming sked weekends. He will be
operating the station himself during the next SW. A
band change from 23 to 13 cm requires the change of the
feed antenna, which takes about 10- 15 min. So, it
would be convenient, if the 13 cm skeds could be
arranged one after the other to minimize the change of
the feeds. 70 cm skeds will be accepted later, when the
feed antenna is ready. What would be a good design on
that band for 0.3 f/d? [Ring Dipole?] A dual dipole
feed seems to have too narrow pattern, even with a
small reflector plane.
My E-mail address is OH2AXH
Stig's FAX number reported in the last NL was
incorrect. It should have read +45 76 40 50 88. Stig
found Nov condx poor compared to the 1st contest
weekend. It seemed that the background noise was 2 to 3
dB higher than before. He thought the problem might be
coming from in his neighborhood, but was unsuccessful
at locating a local source. Despite this problem he
ended with a score of 72x30 on 1296. Initials were made
in Nov with WA9FWD and OH3TH to bring him to #105. He
is still using a 10 m dish with IMU feed and water
cooled TH308 (TNX SM4DHN) running about 500 w in the
shack, and 275 w at the feed. Stig is interested in
skeds for 23 cm and particularly for 13 cm in Dec.
Paul writes -- I am going to attend 1996 EME
conference in Baltimore. I am still not active,
although my equipment and antennas are still in good
shape at my old QTH. I am working on new pieces of EME
equipment for 10 and 24 GHz. I am also working on a new
2.3-2.4 GHz transverter covering from 2304 to 2424 MHz,
using ceramic filters. [How about details for the NL?]
My new E-mail address is: SM0PYP
Mike was QRV during the Oct part of the EME
contest on 432, and made 15 QSOs. Mike CWNR ON4KNG for
long time, but had no success despite the fact that
Mike's echoes were stronger then the signals from
ON4KNG. Mike planned to be QRV in the Nov part of the
contest. Mike had a problem with his transverter. A
Tantalum electrolytic capacitor went bad, and this cost
Mike about an hour to locate and change.
Marko sends the following report for the NL: I
was absent for the Oct part of the ARRL contest, but on
4 Nov I worked on 10 GHz DJ7FJ (O/O) - after seeing the
WX report for Germany that evening, I was really
surprised to hear him on the band - and F6KSX (O/M),
both on random. A very weak signal (T) was heard later,
probably G3WDG/G4KGC, but to low to work. I'll have to
figure out what is the polarization loss, due to my
polar mount, when the Moon is down west. Later we heard
WA7CJO and K9KFR, but the dish hit the grass before we
could get their attention. This time no problems with
moisture -- it was FROZEN, HI. Thanks to S57UUD and
S53WW for shivering with me.
Sergej on 9 Sept worked IK0EQJ (O/O) for initial
#264, on 10 Sept partial WB4BKC (O/-) and K3HZO (O/529)
#265 and on 15 Sept S50C (O/O) #266. Sergej was
frustrated by the low activity in the 1st part of the
contest. His new 2 KW GS23B cavity resonator final
worked very well throughout the contest. He end the 1st
part with a score of 53x21. Initials were made with
JH0YSI, JA5YIS, DK0WZ, JO3RNL, F5FLN and F5JJI to bring
him to #272.
Bob is a new station on 432 EME. He is using 4
old 12', 16 el yagis mounted for vert pol. He has only
manual EL and AZ rotation control. The yagis are
mounted on an old swing set frame. He does have a big
4CX1600U PA purchased from N4PZ, but his preamp is
located at the receiver end of the feedline. Bob has
plans to improve his system, but he has already made 2
QSOs. He easily worked DL9KR (O/O) on 15 Nov, followed
by SM4IVE (O/O). Signals were loud enough for Bob to
forget about sequencing and proceed like an ordinary CW
contact.
Willie was on only during the Nov weekend of the
ARRL contest. Willie worked the following: on 4 Nov at
0130 N2IQU, 0209 K1FO, 0224 W7FN, 0245 K2UYH, 0312
CN2EME (O/O) for initial #261 and 0345 WA7BBM, and on 5
Nov DL9KR, 0136 DF5JJ, 0202 N4GJV, 0245 OE5JFL and 0300
K3HZO (O/O) #262. Willie plans to be QRV for the 2/3
Dec and 30/31 SWs.
Frank writes - I enjoyed the EME contest very
much. It is a pleasure to see so many stations on the
air and on the moon at the same time. I spend many
hours on the moon testing and calling CQ. I am retired
and fascinated with EME. I would like to hear from any
of you for a test contact, or would be glad to put a
signal on for equipment checkout. I enjoy repeat
contacts just to get more use from the investment of
time and equipment, and the fun of doing it. After a
few years of doing EME on various bands each contact is
still as big a thrill as the 1st. I am presently QRV on
23 cm. I worked 41 stations in the contest, 14
Countries, 8 USA Call areas, 3 Canadian Call areas, for
a total multiplier of 25. Conditions were variable due
to WX conditions and activity varied according to other
commitments. I find conditions on 23 cm very consistent
regarding propagation, moon position and weather. I
worked 8 new initials, 2 new states, 2 new countries
for a total of 58 stations, 17 countries and 15 states.
Don was unable to be very active during the past
EME contest -- During the Oct weekend, I was only
active on 50 MHz. Unfortunately I did not complete with
any new stations. The Nov weekend provided a very
limited window, because of the low Dec, and my
elevation limitations. I had about a 2 hour window to
Eur and no window at all to Asia. The following
stations were worked on 4 Nov DL9KR, OE5JFL, N2IQU,
K1FO, N4GJV, DL9NDD, W1ZX, F6CGJ, WA7BBM, K2UYH (not
complete), G3LQR, WA4NJP, W7CI, W9QXP and K2UYH, and on
5 Nov KD4LT, CN2EME for initial #240 and DXCC 58,
K3HZO, WA7TZY #241, KB8ZW, W7HAH, NC1I, SM4IVE, K0RZ,
K5GW #242 and W8MQW #243. My total was 25x16. I hope
next year provides better windows.
Chuck was QRV for both contest weekends. He says
"With a 4 yagi station I had to depend on the many
"big-gun" Eur stations, who were noticeable by their
absence. Result were a disappointing 15x10. After the
1st weekend a horrendous corona discharge noise was
discovered, located, and fixed on a pole about .25
miles east. Unfortunately because of the use of DSP,
this noise went unnoticed, only raising the overall
noise floor." 1st weekend QSOs were N2IQU, N4GJV,
K2UYH, K1FO, W7CI, OE5JFL, K0RZ, SM4IVE, SM2CEW for
initial #21, and G3SEK #22. 2nd weekend contacts were
DL9KR, NC1I, OH2PO, W7FN #23, W0RAP #24 and KD4LT. A
tremendous signal appeared late in the contest from
K5GW. Chuck reports that he found eventually that CQs
can pay off for a small station as long as several are
called in a row.
Fred writes -- I operated the Nov EME Contest
weekend. Results were somewhat disappointing in terms
of contacting many other stations. We heard many
signals that were too weak to really copy (wrong
polarization). The stations we did contact were K1FO,
W7FN, NC1I, K2UYH, and SM4IVE. The loudest signal award
this time went to SM4IVE. There were 2 highlights to
the weekend. One was an SSB contact with K2UYH, and the
other was hearing our own SSB echoes Q4. With this EME
weekend, we inaugurated a fully solid state transceiver
chain up to the 100 w level being driven off a TS930.
With Susan (XYL, WB7BST) piloting the antenna
positioning system, moon bounce is now as easy as 75 m.
Further system improvements being considered are a
better G/T antenna. Our old 8 x F9FT array has an
antenna temperature of slightly over 100 K. I am
curious as to what antenna temperatures others have
been able to achieve with yagi arrays?
Anyone with information can contact me at WA&TZY
Ivo brings us up to date on his fall activity.
He contacted on 23 cm, on 19 Aug OE9XXI, KB2AH and
AA6WI, and heard GW3XYW, W2UHI and EA6/DF5JJ, on 20 Aug
EA6/DF5JJ, KB2AH, GW3XYW and AA6WI, and heard HB9BHU,
SM5DGX, DJ9YW, W7GBI and SM3AKW, on 16 Sept EA6/DF5JJ,
OH2AXH, W2UHI and KB2AH, on 17 Sept VE1ALQ, HB9BHU,
SM3AKW, SM2CEW, OK1KIR and OE9XXI, and heard were
OH2AXH, W2UHI, OZ4MM and GW3XYW, on 23 Sept (ZS
Contest) SM3AKW, DJ9YW, KB2AH, W2UHI and OE9XXI, and on
70 cm K3HZO for initial #149 and CWNR ON4KNG - Ivo
sends his thanks for the contest points, back to 23 cm
on 7 Oct KB2AH, F1ANH, OZ4MM, GW3XYW, AA6WI, IY4ARI for
initial #102, OE9XXI, OE5JFL, EA3UM, DL9EBL, HB9BHU,
EA6/DF5JJ, F5PAU #103, SM3AKW, F6CGJ, OH2AXH, DF3RU,
OE9ERC and VE1ALQ, on 10 Oct WD5AGO, W2UHI, K2UYH,
JA4BLC, F5PL, DJ9QX, DJ9YW, SM2CEW, JH5LUZ #104, G3LQR,
LX1DB and K3EAV #105, getaways were IK3COJ, HB9BBD,
G4CCH, IK3GHY, OE9FKI, AA4TJ and DL6YDH. Ivo reports
that WX was surprisingly good during the contest,
although activity seemed a bit down. His 1st half score
was 31x19 on 23 cm. Ivo operated on 70 cm when 1296 was
quiet. His only objective was to give out some points.
During Aug he had the opportunity to visit OE9XXI,
OE9ERC and OK1KIR's stations. Ivo sends his thanks for
the excellent hospitality received and the chance to
inspect these truly top class stations.
The Nov contest operation followed the same
pattern as last month. This time, I was assisted by my
neighbor, KC2TA, both nights. We operated 432
exclusively the 1st day, and 1296 the 2nd, except for a
short period at the end of the contest on Sunday
(really the 3rd day), when I returned to 432. On 70 cm
we contacted on 4 Nov at 0009 G4RGK (449/449), 0025
CN2EME (559/559) for initial #567 and DXCC 77 - TNX,
0037 I5CTE (O/O), 0047 SM3AKW (559/559), 0100 OE5JFL
(569/559), 0113 SM2CEW (559/559), 0132 S51ZO (549/559),
0203 EA3DXU (O/O), 0216 DJ6MB (559/559), 0224 K3HZO
(559/559), 0228 WA4NJP (559/559), 0244 W1ZX/3
(559/559), 0258 W7FN (559/559), 0328 W7CI (559/O), 0341
W0RAP (559/559), 0408 W9QXP (549/O), 0433 W7FN
(559/559) dup, 0533 N4PZ (559/O), 0525 partial HP3XUG
(O/-) - I sent too many QRZs before realizing Louis was
calling, 0554 WA7TZY (559/559) and (55/55) on SSB, 0610
WA6BJE (559/559), 0651 JA9BOH (549/449), 0705 JH0YSI
(559/449), 0717 JA5OVU (O/O), 0722 JA2KRW (O/O), 0724
JR4NWC (O/O) and on 5 Nov at 2225 SM4IVE (559/529) -
deep in trees, 2318 KD4LT (569/559), 2341 OH2PO (559/O)
and 2359 OK1KIR (O/O) for a total of 48x33. On 23 cm we
QSO'd on 4 Nov at 2314 DL0SHF (559/549), 2324 OK1KIR
(559/559), 2335 F5AQC (549/549), 2348 OH2AXH (559/449)
and 2355 WA9FWD (439/449), and on 5 Nov at 0001 W2UHI
(559/559) dup, 0007 LA8LF (559/569), 0014 W4RDI
(449/339) for initial #136, 0019 IK3COJ (449/339), 0038
SM3AKW (559/559), 0046 KB3PD (O/O) #137, 0055 F6CGJ
(569/579), 0106 DJ9YW (559/559), 0109 SM2CEW (559/569),
0125 KB2AH (57/56) dup on SSB, 0137 HB9BBD (559/549),
0202 K9KFR (559/559), 0212 G3LQR (439/449), 0234
KD5RO/2 (549/569), 0332 NU7Z (O/O) #138, 0352 W0KJY
(549/559), 0403 WB5LUA (559/559), 0416 VE4MA (559/569),
0654 VE1ALQ (559/559) dup, 0713 WD5AGO (559/559) dup,
0744 JH3EAO (549/559), 0819 partial JR4AEP? (M/O), 0844
JH5LUZ (449/O) #139 for a total of 45x29.
NETNEWS:
G3TQF Geoff is interest in trying EME on
either 432 or 1296. He has an K2RIW PA and a 150 w
2x7289 amp.
His E-mail is: HL5OQ
Tel 0591-759-8123, Fax 0591-751-2004, and Grid PM45bd.
FOR SALE:
FINAL:
Comments on Dates for the ARRL International EME
Competition.
By Steve Powlishen, K1FO
SKEDS
DEC 1
Time 432.040 432.045
2200z DL6NAA-UT5DL
2230z W1ZX -DK8LV K3HZO -IW5AVM
2300z W1ZX -OM1TL G4ALH -IW5AVM
2330z W1ZX -IK0EQJ ON5OF -IW5AVM
DEC 2
Time 432.040 432.045 432.055 432.070
0000z W1ZX -IN3KLQ DF6NA -IW5AVM EA3UM -DL6NAA KB6IGC-WA4NJP
0030z WB0DRL-DL6NAA K3HZO -G3SEK
0100z WA7BBM-DL6NAA W0KRX -K2UYH
0530z N4PZ -K3HZO
1400z DL6NAA-JA2JRJ
1430z IW5AVM-UT7VF DK3WG -JA2ODV
1500z DK8LV -JH0YSI DK3WG -JA8ERE
1530z DL6NAA-JA5OVU
1600z G3SEK -JA2KRW
1630z IW5AVM-JA5OVU DL6NAA-JA4BLC
1700z DL6NAA-ZS6AXT DK3WG -JA6XED
1730z DK3WG -OM1TL
1800z EA3DXU-DK3FB EA2LU -IW5AVM
1830z ON4KNG-IW5AVM
1900z F5ELL -DL6NAA F1ANH -IW5AVM
1930z PY5ZBU-ZS6AXT G3HUL -IW5AVM
2030z OH5IY -IW5AVM
2100z HP3XUG-DL9NDD K3HZO -ZS6AXT
2130z HP3XUG-G3SEK K3HZO -SP5CJT WA4NJP-DL6NAA K3LFO -IW5AVM
2200z WA4NJP-IW5AVM W2PGC -DK3WG K3HZO -IK2EAD
2230z N4PZ -DL9NDD WA9FWD-IW5AVM DK8LV -DK3WG K3HZO -OH5IY
2300z W1ZX -OM1TL WB2VVV-DL9NDD W9QXP -DK3WG K3HZO -IK1MTZ
2330z W1ZX -IK0EQJ W8MQW -DL9NDD WA7BBM-DK3WG KB3PD -IW5AVM
DEC 3
Time 432.040 432.045 432.070
0000z W1ZX -IN3KLQ W8MQW -OK1KIR K3HZO -EA2LU
0030z W1ZX -DK8LV
0100z K6HXW -DL9NDD
0130z KL7HFQ-DL9NDD HP3XUG-WA4NJP
0730z VK5MC -K3HZO
1500z EA3DXU-9M2BV IW5AVM-JA5NNS
1530z DL6NAA-VK5MC IW5AVM-9M2BV
1600z IW5AVM-JO3RNL
1630z IW5AVM-A22BW DK3WG-JA7UIQ
1700z DK3WG-JH7PAV
1730z IW5AVM-JA2KRW
DEC 2
Time 1296.050
0600z VK5MC -VE1ALQ
1400z JA7BMB-ZS6AXT
1430z JR4AEP-ZS6AXT
1500z EA3UM -VK5MC
1530z JA8ERE-ZS6AXT
2030z ON4UV -ZS6AXT
2130z G4DZU -ZS6AXT
2200z VE3BQN-ZS6AXT
2230z WA7BBM-ZS6AXT
2300z W0RAP -ZS6AXT
2330z N7ART -ZS6AXT
DEC 3
Time 1296.050
0000z K2UYH -G4DZU
0400z VE1ALQ-CX9BT
0600z JA9BOH-VE1ALQ
0630z JA9BOH-K2UYH
0700z JA9BOH-N2IQU
1500z OE5JFL-JA9BOH
1530z OZ4MM -JA9BOH
DEC 2
Time 5760.100
0000z WB5LUA-DJ7FJ