[50mhz] 6m update from KH8 - third moonpass

[Lance Collister, W7GJ]

July 15, 2014 - Third moonpass.  We are truly very fortunate with the weather here!   
Although it rains during the day, it has  been clearing off each night for visual 
moon tracking during most of the operating hours  ;-)   This is especially fortunate 
for operation on 6m EME, because I am having to elevate my antenna to its maximum (60 
degrees) and interlace the elements in between the dacron guy ropes.   When the ropes 
become wet, there can be lots of problems when the elements hit the mast's guy 
ropes.   However, if they are dry, it is possible to elevate without having the 
amplifier shut down as the elements hit the wet guy ropes during extreme 
elevations.   Tonight the maximum elevation was only around 81 degrees, which means 
the moon was 21 degrees off my beam heading. I can only imagine what kind of lobe 
there must be at that point! However, the ground gain of some Region 2 horizon-only 
stations certainly made up for the aiming limitations on my end!

Tonight was filled with a number of surprises.  One troubling one is that I seem to 
have an infected toe...I will try to seek some medical attention tomorrow.   On a 
more positive note, we arrived at the site tonight with an extra 30 minutes to spare 
before moonrise, and I had a chance to check for terrestrial activity.   There were 
two KH6 beacons coming in, and I finally raised some activity o on 50.125, working 
WH6XM and KH6/KB6EGA and WH7FC.   I also later worked KH7Y on CW off the side of my 
antenna while I was answering EME callers on JT65A mode.

Another surprise was a number of calls on 6m EME from new stations I didn't even know 
had EME capability!  Many MANY thanks to all who turned out give a call!  Yesterday 
we had displays by low flying "Flying Foxes", Samoa's huge fruit bats.  And Sunday 
night I found a number of large brown toads when I went out to aim the antenna - very 
similar to our experience a few year ago in 3D2.  Tonight I was introduced to the 
huge coconut land crab!  Bob bravely inserted his foot in the photo for scale ;-)

  Tonight I copied (but did not work) K8WW, EI4DQ, K7RWT, W9GA, K6EME, W3UUM, W6XU, 
KF8MY, W7UT and OH6MIK.   I completed with the following stations, bringing the total 
up to 21 6m EME stations worked so far: G8BCG, KB8RQ, VE3KH, VE3MMQ, JG2BRI, OA4TT 
and ES6RQ.

-- 
Lance Collister, W7GJ
(ex WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX, 3D2LR, 5W0GJ, E6M, TX5K)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT   59834-0073
USA
TEL: (406) 626-5728
QTH: DN27ub
URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
Skype: lanceW7GJ
2m DXCC #11/6m DXCC #815

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