OK, it isn't as much fun as firing off an M-60 machine gun, or base
jumping from Mt Aconcagua, but it still can be a hoot. This last pass of
the MOON on Saturday night into Sunday morning of the EME Contest will
feature just about everyone who is capable of putting a signal to the
Moon and back on 222 MHz. OK, you say but I am not capable of sending a
signal to the Moon and have it come back strong enough for anyone to
hear it. Think again! Last night, I tried a test with N1YCQ in FN41.
N1YCQ has a single 15 element yagi and about 190 watts RF in the shack.
Wheat tells me that he has about 2 dB of feedline loss. His beam is
fairly low to the ground. We started at his Moon rise and went for about
25 minutes and when the Moon was just below 5 degrees, I copied him for
three transmit periods. It was quite exciting to see his direct signal
at about -20 path and then see his Moon reflected signal at -25 dB about
400 Hz higher and with a 2.6 second delay. The bad news was that he
could not detect me, or we would have had a nice QSO via the Moon.
I plan to be active around 222.080 as the Moon rises in New England and
then across the mid West. I will be monitoring the HB9Q chat page for
222MHz. (There are different chat pages for each band) If you want to
try a horizon attempt, just get onto that HB9Q 222 MHz chat page and let
us know, and we will make noise in hopes that a contact can be made. I
will be active until about 0300 UT. Then the Moon is too high for me to
aim. I can be back again at about 06:15 UT when it drops below 62
degrees again. I have to QRT when the Moon rises in Hawaii at about
0330UT.
So please try and allocate some time around your Moon rise. If you do
not have a Moon tracking program, WSJTX has aiming info for your
location in real time. You can get an idea from these numbers around
the country.:
Maine 21:40 UT
Indiana 22:50 UT
Arkansas 23:35 UT
Idaho 00:30 UT
California 01:30 UT.
I hope to see you on 222 this evening. Of course Sweepstakes SSB is
going on, but Sweepstakes is not quite as exciting as base jumping or
squeezing off bursts from an M-60 or a 50 cal Browning.
73
Dave K1WHS
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