Because the NAC on the fourth Tuesday each month promises good activity on 13 cm, I installed the new 75 W solid state linear and turned the dish to Scandinavia. Despite the QRM on 13 cm around here (may be from WLANs) and the Taunus mountains about 25 to 30 km north of Mainz, I was very pleased to work DL1SUZ in JO53 (471 km), G3XDY in JO02 (547 km), OZ3ZW in JO54 (583 km), DL0VV in JO64 (538 km) and OZ1FF in JO45 (633 km) on 2320 MHz.
QSOs on 13 cm – QRB > 400 km
After spending a day in Leipzig, I came home quite late. In the train already I had a look to the KST chat and on the Hepburn index. Both promised an interesting evening. After turning the dish to the west, I heard GB3USK in IO81 (783 km) very loud via tropo. In the following hours I could work G4EAT in JO01, G4ALY in IO70 (888 km), GU6EFB in IN89 (778 km), G6HIE in IO90 and F9OE in IN78 (954 km) on 1296 MHz. The most impressive signal was the one of Keith, GU6EFB from Guernsey, who was 59 here in Mainz, by running only 10 W in SSB.
Opening on September 6th – QSOs on 23 cm – QRB > 500 km
In the evening I had the dish pointing to the moon to perform some echo tests. After finishig that, there was some office work to do. The pc was still tracking the moon and showing the spectrum around 1296.030 in a waterfall diagram. After a while I noticed a strong signal at .050 keyed in F2. It lasted just for a few seconds before it disappeared. I watched the display and could see it every now and then with various signal strength. Very soon I identified it as HB9BBD. This beacon is always very strong here – as long as the dish is turned in the right direction (175°), but at present it was pointing to the moon with an azimuth of 130° and an elevation of 10°. While thinking about that, I was looking at the moon outside the window, hearing the signal coming up in QSB and seeing a plane passing the moon.
Since Frankfurt airport is not too far from my QTH in Mainz, planes are passing by in a wide variety of altitudes. Using planefinder.com I was was able to find a correlation between reflections and planes flying in certain heigths, distances and directions. May be it will be possible to use aircrafts not only for forward scatter. If anyone is interested to try aircraft side scatter, please contact me. It could be helpful, when obstructions like noise sources, buildings or mountains are blocking the direct path.
The past week I was ill and had to stay in bed. So all the improvements I had planned for 13 cm weren’t done. Because I was short in time, only Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon could be used to be QRV on 23 cm. In the ON4KST chat I arranged a couple of skeds. Finally 29 QSOs filled the log. Most of the DX contacts have been made eastwards to OK (10) and OM (3). Other countries worked are DL, OZ, I, G, PA, OE and S5. At least I logged 5 QSOs with a QRB of more than 700 km. ODX was OM6A in JN99jc over 769 km.
QSOs on 23 cm – QRB > 500 km
Tonight I had a sked with Howard, G4CCH. He was there on the tick. We met in the HB9Q chat to arrange the details. What shall I say: Within a few minutes he became my first initial on 23 cm EME! As he told me later in the chat, I have been his #365 on CW (wow). After the completion of our QSO Nando, I1NDP called me to be the #2 in my just created initial list.
I am very happy now. Tnx Howard and Nando!
Tonight I added about 3 dB of power and – of course – directed the antenna to the moon to perform an echotest. I did not really expect to hear something but – what a surprise – there seemed to be a sound in the noise. I continued and after a couple of “dah-dah-dahs” it was sure, that there were my first echoes on 23 cm!
Unfortunatly the moon is setting now and so it´s too late for a QSO. I will have a whiskey and go to bed, looking forward to tomorrow.
73s & gn
The NAC is always an opportunity to work stations from Scandinavia on 23 cm. Yesterday I had QSOs with Frank, IK3HHG and Giorgio, IK3GHY in JO65 over 570 km. The signals were quite poor compared to QSOs before but were accompanied by strange pings – lighting scatter as Henning, DF9IC explained me tonight. So I wondered how the conditions would be this evening and turned my dish to the north. I started with DL0VV (JO64AD / 538 km). After a while I heard OZ9KY (JO45VX / 683 km) calling CQ and could add a new square to my collection. He was followed by SK7MW (JO65MJ / 691 km) with another new square and new country for me. In the meantime more and more stations from the UK logged in at the KST chat. Now the dish was turned to 298°. John, G3XDY (JO02OB / 547 km) could be detected on .215 and after a meep in the chat he turned his antenna to me. John produced a big signal in ssb peaking here 57 with little QSB. It was the second new country for me tonight and square #50 at all on 23 cm.
gn all
Just a few hours in the evening I was able to spend at my station. No remarkable DX worked, but I watched G3XDY working DF9IC in SSB.
The DUBUS Contest was another opportunity to have a look at the moon. In the meantime I installed the preamplifier at the dish and the reading of PowerSDR showed me approx. 10 dB of sunnoise. I was surprised by seeing the tracks of not less than twenty stations in the waterfall diagram. After getting used to the special sound I could read the complete calls of OK2DL, SV1BTR, HB9SV, G4CCH, F2TU in CW.
Having had not much time I could only pick a few stations on 23 cm. Best DX were OM3KII (JN88UU/696 km), OL9W (JN99CL/719 km) and OM3W (JN99CH/722 km).