[Moon] 1A0KM EME story

Sun Jul 22 13:56:31 CEST 2007

Wolfgang,

I'm really sorry about the poor results of the operation after the huge
effort you had to do to put 1A on EME.

I'm also sorry we didn't complete the QSO, I heard you very well when you
were sending me the report and sent you RO inmediately, then lost you for
one period and in the next period I heard you sending RRR's.  I thought they
were for me so I considered the QSO as complete, but after reading you post
I realize that they were for IK3MAC (pity he could not wait till we
completed our QSO before starting to call you...  I take note of this,
Graziano... ;-)  I didn't try to call you later as I was sure the QSO was
good.  I have the recording of your signal in case you are interested...

Regarding the conditions that day, they were very good for me.  I had no
special problem to work single Yagi stations in random, as usual, and I only
noticed some Faraday lockout for about two hours when the Moon was near the
south. The only thing I noticed was that the Sun was very, very close to the
Moon and that it was making a lot of noise if the antenna was not beaming
exactly to the Moon.  Of course this was with my 7.5 deg. beamwidth antenna,
the effect on a smaller system is different, of course.

Fortunately I was lucky enough to work 1A0KM via tropo yesterday, so the
DXCC #122 is still in the log...hi

73. Gabriel - EA6VQ
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> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: moon-bounces at moonbounce.info [mailto:moon-bounces at moonbounce.info]En
> nombre de dl5mae at wa7v.ampr.org
> Enviado el: sábado, 21 de julio de 2007 15:47
> Para: moon at moonbounce.info
> Asunto: [Moon] 1A0KM EME story
>
>
> 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
>
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