[NLRS] Not a bad weekend here in EN13

[Baker, Donn B]

Hi Mike,
Well, I suspect you did more good working Gene than you would have in
Dayton.  It was, uh... damp.  Rained most all of Saturday.  Not terribly
hard, but steady.  Still, managed to find a few treasures.

Ran into Matt, KF0Q, and Earl, N0HZ.  We may have been the only reps from
NLRS.

I remembered you were looking for 26 GHz-rated attenuators, so I did a
little looking.  Actually found nothing, but did do some talking.  VERY
pricy.  And will come with 2.9mm, 3.5mm, or 'K' connectors.  These
connectors WILL mate with SMA, so interoperation is possible.  Some SMA
males are rated to 26 GHz (ex., the Johnson ones which use .141 cable center
conductor as the center pin).  The problem is with any SMA which uses a
"glue drop" or a "detent" to hold the dielectric in-place.  This includes
almost all the female connectors.  Either provides an impedance bump.  Good
ones are rated to 18GHz, and most will "work" at 24GHz.  They're just a
little lossy, and may not be perfectly repeatable.  The 2.9 & 3.5mm
connectors are VERY pricey... as much as $30-$40 each.  Too much.

This appears to be true for attenuators, also.  Find ones that are rated to
18GHz, and try/measure them at 26 GHz.  Most will work, although they may
not give the "rated" attentuation.  (I'm using an attenuator rated to 2GHz
in my 10GHz station... works just fine.  A tad more attenuation than its
spec'd for, but where I'm using it, it doesn't matter.)

Anyway, glad you guys did good.  Hope you documented the 10GHz experience...
WX conditions, etc.  We still need to understand all that for propagation.

73 Donn

PS  I picked up a 1w 24GHz amp and will be ordering an LNA this week.  We
may have to wait until January, but we will have to try 24 GHz between the
Cities and Sioux Center !  (dbb)

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Mike A. King - KM0T [mailto:scsueepe@mtcnet.net]


>Since I did not go to Dayton, 

SNIP

>Worked on the 24 ghz project on and off this weekend.  All 
>prototyping is
>done.  Tested sequencing circuit, relays, pa and pre amp.  All 
>working well.
>Measured 1.97 watts to the feed horn!  (and the preamp still 
>works!:)  Hope
>to be done in a month.
>
>