I haven’t posted in a while and thought I would change things up by posting a video from a 2014 EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) CW contact I made at K6JEY. The contact is between I1NDP and K6JEY with me at the key. I figured some would get a kick out of hearing what EME CW on 1296 MHz sounds like. There’s roughly a 3 second delay between transmit and receive. CW Speeds are slower for readability. Even so, copy of EME signals can be challenging at times due to the immense signal path losses. You’ll hear a lot of repetition in the communication to ensure the message gets across. This night proved to have very good conditions with signals returning from the Moon sounding like 20 Meter HF!. I think we made a total of 9 EME contacts that night between CW and Digital.
Enjoy the video! (Expand to full screen for high quality view)
That’s Doug, K6JEY in the background. He leads a loyal group of sidewalk EME enthusiasts with gatherings at his QTH for various EME contests. In recent years, Doug has set up a portable 10 foot parabolic dish with homebrew 1.2 GHz feed. As you can see in the video, the rig is a Kenwood TS-790, backed by a homebrew 1.2Ghz water cooled amplifier (above the Kenwood) pumping out 300 Watts. This year Doug is trying out 2.3GHz for EME. For more information on Doug, K6JEY and his band of sidewalk EMEers, please visit his website: http://www.nitehawk.com/k6jey/
W6SFM Bug Roundup!
The Samuel FB Morse Club Bug Roundup is this weekend! I’ll be switching between my XOGRAPH, ATOZ and River of Doubt bugs. I hope to work you on the air! For more information on the Bug Roundup, check out the Samuel FB Morse Club page: http://www.w6sfm.com/Bug_Roundup.html
73 for now Paul N6EV ‘dit dit’