From w7gj at q.com Thu Oct 1 03:17:44 2015 From: w7gj at q.com (Lance Collister, W7GJ) Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2015 07:17:44 +0000 Subject: [50mhz] V6M Report Message-ID: <560CDE18.9070207@q.com> Hello! If you have a lot of patience or a fast internet connection and are interested in seeing the complete summary report and photos from the V6M 6m EME DXpedition, it is FINALLY available here: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/V6M.pdf Enjoy! Hope to work you on 6m from the next rare DXCC! VY 73, Lance -- Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX, 3D2LR, 5W0GJ, E6M, TX5K, KH8/W7GJ, V6M) 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 Interested in 6m EME? Ask me about subscribing to the Magic Band EME email group, or just fill in the request box at the bottom of my web page (above)! From w7gj at hotmail.com Mon Oct 19 11:05:10 2015 From: w7gj at hotmail.com (Lance Collister) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 15:05:10 +0000 Subject: [50mhz] [Moon-Net] Old Eimac Moonbounce notes [KA9Q] In-Reply-To: <1445241348287.0b1022b4@Nodemailer> References: <1445241348287.0b1022b4@Nodemailer> Message-ID: Thanks for sharing this David! I am glad someone archived these. W6PO was instrumental in building an EME population around the world, thanks - in large part - to his "Moonbounce Notes"! Remember, this was decades before any internet, so it was very difficult to share ideas on how to solve problems facing would-be EME-ers. And as you pointed out, one of the fundamental problems facing everyone at that time was trying to figure out where the moon was going to be for them - let alone for somebody else at the same time! That is why I started working on my first computer program to solve this problem in 1973. The first TRACKER program was in BASIC using the DTSS ( Dartmouth Time Sharing System), as few people had access to DOS-based computers themselves. The following year, I re-wrote the program in FORTRAN so it could be used on DEC PDP-11 computers that were making their way into businesses. K1CA was very helpful in providing access to a computer where he worked for this project. Many of us relied on a stack of annual moon position printout that we obtained from a generous ham at such a business! It is hard to believe how far we have come over the last few decades, now that virtually every EME-er has access to his own (much more powerful) personal computer! The original program has evolved over the years and is still used around the world by hams on Windows operating systems today: http://bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/GJTRACKER.zip Another of the other very helpful features of the Moonbounce Notes was to share photos and diagrams of how people were constructing elevation systems, amplifiers, preamps, etc. - none of which were available commercially in those days. Many of the same questions about antenna systems are being asked today by new EMEers, and it just may be that some of the old issues of the Moonbounce Notes could help spark some ideas on how they could solve their mechanical problems. Perhaps the most valuable offering of the publications was showing that is was possible to work EME with the antennas pictured. EME was no longer an unreachable dream - these many stations were proving it to be a reality! And if they could do it with THOSE antennas, YOU could have success too! That was the reason I started posting some photos of the antennas I have worked on 6m EME: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/6mEMEstns.htm It was my hope that newcomers would again have the same response as to the original Moonbounce Notes photos, and realize that 6m EME was not so far from their reach, either! Nowadays, which JT65, EME is within reach of many more people. And its additional sensitivity has even made it possible to operate EME on 6m with a modest station. Last August, I worked 37 stations on 6m EME from V6M during 3 moonrises and 4 moonsets with my single 6M8GJ yagi! All random contacts without access to the internet. A few decades ago, nobody would have imagined such a thing was possible! With the predicted declining activity of future sunspot cycles, 6m EME is undoubtedly going to continue to become more widespread among 6m DXers! Continued GL and DX to all! VY 73, Lance On 10/19/2015 7:55 AM, David Anderson wrote: > I thought some of you might like to see this note from this week's AMSAT news: > > + Eimac Moonbounce Notes collection > > Way back in 1980 when I first got interested in amateur satellites > and AMSAT, I wrote off to Eimac Corporation for their "Moonbounce > Notes" collection. > > While on a household paper eradication campaign I came across them > and scanned them. I thought others might enjoy a look back at some > bleeding-edge ham activities from the mid-late 1970s. It's > particularly amusing to see how much effort was spent just tracking > the moon with the technology then available. > > http://www.ka9q.net/moonbounce-notes > > This is a raw collection of pdf files, but the file names are pretty > descriptive. Collect the entire set! > > If anybody has any notes missing from my collection, please let me > know. > > [ANS thanks Phil KA9Q for the above information] > > I somehow got hold of a number of those Eimac notes in the late 70's, and it was > the computer listings for moon position calculation by Lance WA1JXN (W7GJ) that got > me started in computing myself, typing it into some automatic test equipment at > work and getting output on line print paper, years before I had a Moonbounce > station myself. It became a dream and an obsession to make a Moonbounce contact > after that. > > 73 > > David GM4JJJ > > > > _______________________________________________ > Moon-Net posting and subscription instructions are at http://www.nlsa.com/nets/moon-net-help.html > -- Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8, E51SIX, 3D2LR, 5W0GJ, E6M, TX5K, KH8/W7GJ, V6M) 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