May 25, 2025
The slew drive is a huge improvement, it just works to keep me fully struck by moonbeams. :-)
After reading how LMR-400/LMR-600 cable deteriorates over time I replaced the very old and suspect LMR-400 jumper at the dish feed with a fresh length of LMR-600 Superflex. The SWR dropped to 1.2:1 and my TX signal was just a tad ( the correct technical term would be modicum) better.
Fresh 7/8 inch hardline is on the way to replace the 15 year old LMR-600 main transmission line. The bank was kind enough to second mortgage the condo for it. A half db here, a half db there, and it starts to matter.
On the receive side things just continue to work well. I'm still
impressed by the OK1DFV septum feed - I'm pondering adding a choke ring.
I worked ON4MU today who also has a 2.4M folding dish but just 150
watts on transmit. Q65-120D to the rescue.
Is the juice worth the squeeze? Sure, why not - the improvements I've made in the last two months have opened a another tier of stations to work - just now, while the moon was at perigee, In the last week I've added nineteen new stations for a total 23cm EME station count of 217.
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| ON4MU in the log. Click on image for hi-res |