[AK-VHF] Updates and 1296 EME

[hspil]

Howdy everyone,

First just some updates on what I've been up to:
For this summer I hope to get a good clean setup for satellites. In particular, with doppler compensation for the linear satellites, and installed in the car to do grid roving.
I built a prototype quadrifilar helicoidal for 70cm based on a [3D printed scaffold from AB7E](https://www.printables.com/model/1293002-qfh-antenna-for-435-mhz-satellites). It works nicely for receiving: no noticeable directivity or cross-polarization fading. Much better this time of year than standing in the cold and waving around a yagi. The VNA says it is off frequency a bit for the satellite segment of the band, and not very well matched. The design also doesn't lend itself to weatherproofing, nor to being aerodynamically mounted to a car. To scale the design up for 2m would overflow the bounds of my printer and use absurd amounts of plastic, so I need to work on a better design.

For a full duplex transceiver, I've got a Pluto SDR clone in the mail. I returned a hackRF clone last year, because I couldn't figure out how to get gnu radio to transmit single sideband with a properly suppressed carrier; the spike at 0 Hz was at least 10 dB above my sideband content when transmitting a constant tone. Hopefully the Pluto will work better. Power amps and filters are still in the works.

Further down the road, maybe next year, I'm thinking about working toward EME. It seems like 1296 MHz is a good band to start with.
Preliminary calculations suggest that a 10 foot long helical would give about 20 dBi, which seems to be about in the ballpark for a moderate capability EME station and amenable to the space I have available (probably also the roof of the car). W6PQL's amplifier kits look like a relatively affordable way to get a few hundred watts and avoid getting lost in the weeds designing amplifiers.

Any advice or pointers would be appreciated, especially any unique issues with EME up here in AK.

73,
Hudson Spillers, KL4LJ
North Pole, AK: BP64HR