[Moon] 1A0KM EME story

[dl5mae at wa7v.ampr.org]

Dear OM,

 some days are gone since my 1A0KM activity. Well, what to say?

 It was rather challenging operation and I am still puzzled why things
were going so bad (on EME) this time?!

 Maybe you have some idea?

 Some background:
We arrived at 1A0KM around 0800 utc on saturday 14th.
We were not able to build up any antennas immediately as the "diplomat"
 was just coming in...So everything was kept QUIET until the early
afternoon.
We were looking around the QTH to find a place to build up the antennas.
 We decided to build up the antenna in the garden of 1A0KM.
Unfortunately
after a while we got the info that its not possible to  build it up in
the garden...

So the only place was on the parking area...
There was a van where the 6m antenna and a single 2m antenna was
 mounted. The van had an pneumatic mast.
We got the OK to build up our antennas there.
We removed the 6m and 2m antenna and build up the 2x17el M2. The 6m
antenna was build up on another tower.

 So the problem was now that we had the high building towards east and
we
 needed about 45 deg elevation to see the moon.
Another problem was the palm-tree to the south and another tree to the
 north. So it was very hard to rotate the antenna...We used
 3-dimensional-rotations (elevation-azimut- up/down by the pneumatic
mast)
to overcome the problem...Everything was very difficult...!!!! 1A0KM is
just too small DXCC!

 We build up the array on saturday afternoon and got ready abt 16utc. We
 got alot of cross-modulation with preamp 1. So we changed to preamp 2
(not so sensitive!).
First test with Jimmy, SV1BTR failed. Lots of noise on our side (from
 the city!) and no good condx towards SV. After 25 minutes we QSYed for
an Es opening towards UK. The band was not really open that good but we
 worked about 30 stations, half of it on FAI...or whatever propagation
on CW mode (G, GI, F, PA0)!!!

 Anyway, next day we thought it will become our day...

It took us until 0850 utc until we got an reply from Jimmy, SV1BTR, as
the moon was just behind the church and we needed 45deg of elevation.
We heard Jimmy very loud and clear and
QSO was done withhin a few minutes.
Then EA6VQ was heard but lost in QSB. Afterwards IK3MAC was worked
easily.

 A few more CQs were sent out and several stations answered but lost due
to fast QSB.
The morning-moon-slot was not that long as very soon the palm-tree
 blocked us and one of the antenna touched the tree already.


 So we decided to go for lunch and started operation after 12.30 utc
 again. At 1315 utc KB8RQ was answering and we made a quick QSO. He was
very loud and only one call was needed.
At 1345 utc I heard Peter, SM2CEW, calling us.
I had a lot of QRM at this time from our short-wave station. However, we
were able to work Peter through the noise.

Later IK3MAC called us again and we exchanged 559/529 reports. Graziano
was really loud!

I also heard other stations with but only bits like V3S (F3VS?/SV3AAF?),
A4J (???) , 7DC (SP7DCS?) and others but my personal deep search was
switched off (hi).

Very loud was Marko, LZ2US. He called us and I replied with O-report.
 I never heard Marko coming back to us. Only a few minutes later I heard
someone sending RRRRRRR and 73 to us but it was 400Hz higher of
LZ2US-freq. Was it Marko or anyone else??
But sorry, no QSO as I never sent RO.

 At 20 degrees of elevation I had to quit EME as
one of the antenna touched the palm-tree...(again!)

 I continously called CQ in hope of chance of conditions. But I had the
feeling the conditions were
just stack continously and did not change for the whole day. Also only
 one day after new-moon was not good but I had no other choice due to
work and high elevation is needed
at 1A0KM for EME.

Sometimes I called QRZ as I heard something but with quick QSB.

I was not even able to work W5UN. Jimmy, SV1BTR, told me that Dave was
 coming in totally vertical only at his QTH for hours.
Perhaps the same at 1A0KM??

 QRM situation was not that bad, however, sometimes there was some
city-noise and local QRM by the active
shortwave station at the side.

 So I still dont know why all this (EME-)activity resulted in such bad
result. Was it just the poor
conditions with continously vertical polarity?
Did I loose some good conditons at times when I was not QRV (due to high
buildings or this bloody palm-tree)?
Or is it some kind of continous city-noise-floor, although I had the
feeling QRM level was not that high?
More(N=no)?
How to explain that some stations were really loud while other big guns
were even not heard at all?

 Never had such an experience before. I think one day of operation is
just too less for EME.

It needs at least 1 week to see how condx are changing. Also if there is
an technical problem you may find it out when more time. But this time
everything seemed to be OK.


So my conclusion is:

- propagation was some kind of very poor and stack
  in one polarity for most of the time

 - perhaps city noise floor (although not so bad) did    hide some
signals below the noise without realizing it

 - maybe preamp was not "agressive" enough for EME (but otherwise too
much QRM!)

- extremly high ionisation due to sporadic E (even Es
in the artic circle area, like SM2)

- does the operator get deaf and old?

 So many open questions this time.

We dismanteld antennas in the morning of the 16th of July. Temperature
during this work was around 40c.
Hard job!

Despite the poor results on EME we had a great time at 1A0KM and we have
to thank very much our hosts for the invitation. At least the first EME
contacts are done from 1A0KM and we made also some nice Es/FAI/TROPO and
CW meteorscatter contacts.We met a lot of new radio friends, which is
most important for me.

Sorry to those trying hard and we could not work due to conditions or
other circumstances.

Personally, for me, its always interesting what a human is able to
achieve (or not) also under difficult situations. Looking forward for
the next challenge...

 vy 73 de dl5mae Wolfgang