[ADXA] gotta brag a little....

[w5zn at w5zn.org]

CW EME is rare these days as most of the folks have migrated to JT65,
although a few die hards still remain. 

Back in "the old days" of EME before JT65 it was, of course, all done on
CW. That was really, really tough without a big array and almost never
heard of with a single antenna. The really great thing today is, even
with JT65, hardware technology has improved and receiver and preamp
noise figures have significantly improved that makes things better as
well. Even so, completing a CW Q on 432 MHz today as Dennis has is a
SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENT!!!! 

ZN 

On 2019-11-17 23:01, patw5vy at gmail.com wrote:

> You definitely need to brag about a CW EME QSO.  Very cool.  I need to get organized an try to work DL7APV on 70cm JT65.  A single 18L in my tower stack with no elevation control.  Probably need to build a pair of yagis like you did and put them on a tripod with elevation..  
> 
> Last year I traveled to Dayton to the Microwave Update conference. A tour of the VOA Relay Station at Bethany, OH, (just north of Cincinnati) had been set up as part of the conference.  Bethany was built to put a big HF signal into Western EU during WW2.  They had 250KW transmitters and really big Curtain Arrays with nearly 20dbi gain.  In the early days of operation Bethany got their Audio Programming from VOA HQ in Washington, DC, via AT&T Long Lines program feeds (land lines).  A few years before Bethany was closed they installed about a 10M dish for program feeds via a geosynchronous satellite.  When the station closed the dish was left but all the drive mechanism was removed.  The West Chester Amateur Radio Club, WC8VOA, has developed and maintains a great museum that is well worth a stop.  The WC8VOA folks scrounged/built parts to get the drive working again and put together a 10GHz EME station with a 40W Traveling Wave Tube (TWT) amp.  They had it fired up for our visit and
the moon was in view.  It was really cool to hear them sending VVV and then listening to the return....well out of the noise and with the distortion from the irregular surface of the moon.  I'm sure you heard the same sound on your QSO with DL7APV.  The 10m Dish mount was built for Geo Synch Sat use and doesn't support horizon to horizon movement....they have a limited range to track the moon.  
> 
> There is probably a very small number of hams who have done CW EME....maybe you can get a T-Shirt! 
> 
> 73, 
> 
> Pat, W5VY 
> 
> FROM: adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net <adxa-bounces at mailman.qth.net> ON BEHALF OF Dennis Schaefer
> SENT: Friday, November 15, 2019 11:36 PM
> TO: ADXA <adxa at mailman.qth.net>
> SUBJECT: [ADXA] gotta brag a little.... 
> 
> I just accomplished an item on my Bucket List - a CW EME QSO.  I worked DL7APV on 432.063 on CW.  I had 80 watts output to two Cushcraft 19 element yagis that had worked a lot of grids at K5UR in a previous life.  I've worked quite a few JT65b "QRP EME" contacts but wasn't sure I'd ever make it on CW. 
> 
> 73, 
> 
> Dennis 
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