[MAMS] 47 GHz

[Zack Widup]

Pete K9PW came down to my area on Saturday Nov. 11 to see how far we
could work on 47 GHz. Pete is using the new DB6NT system that has a
receive preamp and a power amp with about 100 mW output (I think). He
has a 1 foot diameter dish and a horn antenna. His station is
configured to use a baseball switch so that when one antenna is on
transmit, the other is on receive and vice versa. That way he can
rotate the setup 90 degrees to use the other antenna. I have a basic
DB6NT harmonic mixer with no preamp or power amp. I estimate the power
out is 150 - 250 uW. I also have a 1 foot diameter dish.

We started out with me on a hill on a country road that stretched for
some miles. We worked at 5, 10 and 15 km distances on SSB with Pete
increasing distances from me along the road. At 5 km we were pinning
each others' s-meters. Pete was still pinning my s-meter at 10 km and
I think he was hearing me at 40 over 9 then. At 15 km he was 40 over 9
at my end and and I think I was 20 over 9 at his end. These were all
line-of-sight paths.

Pete then drove to another hill which is line-of-sight from where I
was. I was in EN60af and he was in EN50ue. It was about a 25 km path.
I was copying him at least 20 over 9 from there and he was copying me
10 dB over 9. We made another QSO on SSB on that path.

Things were going a lot better than we expected, so I moved to the
hill I like to use for contesting in EN50rl. The EN50ue to EN50rl path
is 40 km. This is the longest line-of-sight path that I know of
anywhere in this area. I got set up there and, once we got the dishes
aligned, I was copying him S9 and he was copying me S4 to S5. We
worked on CW this time.

This was far better than I expected and it made my day! I'd been
wondering for a long time if a couple hundred microwatts could make
that path.

73, Zack W9SZ
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