January 3, 2021
The 1296 Mhz EME fun continues - a fantastic pandemic distraction. It has been an open winter so far, so going out to the barn and operating has been pretty easy to do. The dish gets mounted on the tripod, unfurled, and cables connected in about 10 minutes.
I finished out December adding W1PV (-20), and GM0PJD (-29) to the log. So far the new year has been fruitful with plenty of first time contacts. The last two evenings I've completed with CX2SC (-27), RD4D (-14), OH2DG (-10), OM4XA (-24), DJ3JJ (-25), LA3EQ (-30), UA9FA (-22), G4YTL (-26), PA2DW (-29), and N5BF (-21). That brings me to 57 initials.
Some baseline figures: I'm hearing the ON0EME beacon on 1296.000 MHz right at a steady -18db. The efficiency of my amp has dropped off, but I can still easily generate 350 watts that ends up being 275 watts at the feed - a comfortable level for the hybrid device that generates the circular polarity into the patch feed. So we press on.
I've traded the 1.6 meter dish back to Paul, W2HRO, and have purchased a 2.4 meter version of the folding dish from him. Who can resist almost 4db better on both TX and RX - it was the best use for my stimulus check I could think of! :-)
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| 2.4 meter folding dish on the test stand. |