JW on 432MHz-EME

Good news - the JW/SM2BYA 432 MHz EME operation is going to go ahead:

About a month ago we filed a scheduling request for the EISCAT Svalbard Radar 32-meter antenna for the weekend October 18-19, 2003, ie the first ARRL EME contest weekend. It now appears there is about a 95 % likelihood for us to get the full contiguous 48-hour time slot from Oct. 18 00 UT to Oct. 19 24 UT ! This is much better than we ever dared hope for...

This operation will be predominantly CW and some SSB. Sorry, no JT44 and no skeds. Since Oct. 18/19 is one of the busiest contest weekends of the year, we have decided to pick a transmitting frequency and a listening band high up in the CW segment, to minimise the risk of mutual interference between our operation and the regular contest traffic.
The plan is for JW/SM2BYA to use 432.073 MHz for transmitting and .075 - .080 for receiving. No SSB frequencies have been selected yet. To comply with the Region I band-plan, any SSB operation should be above 432.150. We are aware of the problems that may

 result because of the non-alignment of the band-plans in Regions II and III and are still thinking about how to handle the issue.

Due to the high latitude (78 N) the moon will be continuously abovethe horizon for the whole 48-hour contest period, so everybody should have a fair chance at a contact. The ESR antenna has about 41 dBi gain at 432 MHz, so two long yagis and 50 watts should be enough for a CW QSO with JW/SM2BYA. Please spread the word to terrestrial 432 operators !
Questions to sm2bya@telia.com

73 Gudmund SM2BYA