[Moon] SM3BYA 432 MHz

[SM2BYA, Gudmund]

 The XYL and I went down to our SM3 QTH last weekend with a long list of 
things to do. The DUBUS contest was on the list too, but only towards 
the bottom...

Anyway, in the end I managed to operate for about four hours on Saturday 
and three hours on Sunday. Subjectively, conditions appeared poor to 
average with lots of libration fading and below average signal strengths 
from most stations.

Worked 21 stations: On Sat. VK3UM, UA3PTW, OK1DFC, SV1BTR, G3LTF, OZ4MM, 
DL7APV, NC1I, SP6JLW, KL6M, RW3PX, I1NDP, DL1YMK,K2UYH and G4RGK.
On Sun. SD3F, SM2CEW, VE6TA, K1RQG, OZ6OL and DL9KR. Copied DJ1KJG and 
I5CTE.

Guess I should be pleased that I did even that well - a sun noise 
measurement on Sunday yielded only 9.6 dB Sun/cold sky, which is about 
2.3-2.5 dB below what my system ought to deliver (and normally does!). 
If this is correct, my receive performance was in reality only like that 
of a four Yagi station, and there could have been several two and four 
yagi stations replying to my CQs that I just didn't copy. My apologies 
to all who wasted their time!

I simply don't understand what the reason could be - the antenna pattern 
is normal, the overall RX gain seems normal too and the VSWR on transmit 
is below 1.2. Admittedly, last time I had the front end down on the 
bench it measured in at about 40 Kelvin, a bit high but nowhere close to 
what would be needed to cause the overall system  performance to degrade 
this badly.  Ideas anyone?

Next operation probably around the May 1 - May 4 extended weekend / 
DUBUS CW activity. Skeds welcome!

Gudmund SM2BYA / SM3BYA

Rig at SM3BYA:    8x 21 ele Tonna yagis
                               2x 4CX250R in K2RIW PA, 800 watts out
                               0.6 dB NF, transverter + Drake R-4C + DSP59+