It was a warm sunny evening for the May SHF. This time I set-up 2 bands in the back garden, 3cm (1W, 60cm Offset Dish) on the mast at 7m, and 9cm (10W, 90cm Prime Focus Dish) on the Gear4Music 4m tripod at 3.5m off the grass. Both were guyed as there was a slight breeze.
Conditions on 10GHz seemed to be not that great, yet again I could not here the Reigate beacon GB3SEE. Also the Farnham SDR website was down so I could not check if my signal was reaching it. First QSO's on both 3cm and 9cm SSB were with Neil G4LDR near Salisbury (IO91EC, 67km) to the South West. This is probabaly my best direction from home, although I have to point through a large number of tall trees. On 9cm I was using the Pluto SDR barefoot on RX with the Stealth SM3437 RF Amp. Signals from Neil were at reasonable strengths on both bands.
Next in the log was David M0GHZ in Chippenham (1081VK, 93km) who was just readable above the noise on 3cm for a marginal QSO, but undetectable on 9cm probably due to the dish being so low down. My second and final QSO on 9cm was with Noel G8GTZ, who was at home in Basingstoke (IO91KF, 33km). Great to make our first contact on that band. I also tried with Keitrh G4ODA on both bands but no signals were recieved at either end. Quite a few folks were struggling to work North - South paths.
It was fun to test the new 9cm VE4MA-design horn feed masterly crafted by Neil G4DBN. It seemed to work well and I am very grateful for all his hard work and skill. Next I need to do some fine tuning to optimise its exact position in front of the dish, for maximum gain. But a great start!
I really enjoyed this contest and was fairly pleased with a total of four QSO's, two on each band. Certainly nice to increase the complexity and get active again on more than one band at a time. Next month for the June SHF UKAC I plan to be active on three bands 9cm, 3cm and 6cm. Planing to go portable too! Stay safe, drink tea and enjoy your GHz radio!
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| 9cm with new VE4MA-design feed |
Conditions on 10GHz seemed to be not that great, yet again I could not here the Reigate beacon GB3SEE. Also the Farnham SDR website was down so I could not check if my signal was reaching it. First QSO's on both 3cm and 9cm SSB were with Neil G4LDR near Salisbury (IO91EC, 67km) to the South West. This is probabaly my best direction from home, although I have to point through a large number of tall trees. On 9cm I was using the Pluto SDR barefoot on RX with the Stealth SM3437 RF Amp. Signals from Neil were at reasonable strengths on both bands.
Next in the log was David M0GHZ in Chippenham (1081VK, 93km) who was just readable above the noise on 3cm for a marginal QSO, but undetectable on 9cm probably due to the dish being so low down. My second and final QSO on 9cm was with Noel G8GTZ, who was at home in Basingstoke (IO91KF, 33km). Great to make our first contact on that band. I also tried with Keitrh G4ODA on both bands but no signals were recieved at either end. Quite a few folks were struggling to work North - South paths.
It was fun to test the new 9cm VE4MA-design horn feed masterly crafted by Neil G4DBN. It seemed to work well and I am very grateful for all his hard work and skill. Next I need to do some fine tuning to optimise its exact position in front of the dish, for maximum gain. But a great start!
I really enjoyed this contest and was fairly pleased with a total of four QSO's, two on each band. Certainly nice to increase the complexity and get active again on more than one band at a time. Next month for the June SHF UKAC I plan to be active on three bands 9cm, 3cm and 6cm. Planing to go portable too! Stay safe, drink tea and enjoy your GHz radio!