[NLRS] NLRS - 10 GHz Club?

[Brent Casavant]

On Tue, 1 Jun 2004 N0HJZ at aol.com wrote:

> I'm not meaning to rip on anyone operating 10 GHz.  I think the research and
> experimentation the group has done in the past few years is commendable.  I'm
> wondering if there is anything else going on in our club?  Is anyone working
> meteor scatter anymore, building a kit for any band below 10 GHz, working on
> any beacons, looking for any aurora, working EME, etc?  What really got me
> was that we are less than two weeks from the June VHF QSO Party and no one
> has announced any plans.  If we were two weeks from the 10 GHz Contest, we'd
> have all sorts of plans floating on the reflector.

OK, well as a non-microwaver, I'll chip in what I'm working on.

Last week I installed the 10W common-IF drive option in my DEMI 222-28,
after many disappointing and frustrating experiences with the DEMI TIB.
Anyway, the 10W common-IF drive wasn't working as expected (power was
always in the non-linear range of the final RF power amplifier, good
only for FM).  This morning I sat down and studied the parts layout
diagram one more time, and found the crucial jumper wire I'd forgotten
to install.  After a bit of tweaking it came up like a champ.  Then it
was off (belatedly) to work.

One minor frustration with it is that I can't tune things to reach
full output drive power on 5W -- I have to crank my IF rig up to 10W.
I'd prefer not to waste that 5W as heat, so I'm going to study the
transverter TXIF circuit to determine if I can convert it to a 5W
drive.  But I probably won't do that until after the June contest.

The other big project is figuring out how to convert my 17 foot ladder
into a tower/mast before June.  I think I have the basic idea figured
out, but we'll see how it works in practice.  I'll spend this coming
Sunday constructing the monster.  A 2x4, some plywood and U-bolts,
several guylines, and a 10 foot section of EMT conduit seem to be the
way to go.

That said, I'm still interested in hearing what other people use for
portable masts/towers for holding modest (5-12 foot) Yagis, particularly
if you have a system that doesn't require a trailer to haul it around.

Finally, I'm going to spend a few hours reconstructing the feeds on my
homebrew 222 and 432 beams.  The 222 feed fell half-apart right before
measuring it at Aurora, and the 432 feed was a first-time-Yagi-builder
hack job.  Word of advice: don't use LMR-400UF for a balun, LMR-240 is
easier to work with, and is just as good at those lengths. :)

Speaking of which -- are the Au2004 antenna range results going to
be posted anytime soon?  I gotta say, it sure felt swell when I got
a disbelieving "nice work" after I pointed out that my homebrew 222
wasn't a commercial antenna.  The 432 was a somewhat different story. :(
But with both, I was quite pleased with the gain measurements and how
well they compared as antennas with a major design criteria of "it fits
in the back seat of my car".

Future plans: I bought a Ramsey laser kit at Dayton.  Going to put it
together and give it a try, sometime after the June contest.  Using
that circuit as a basic idea, I'm going to try to improve on it.  Laser
is the one "exotic" area I have a keen interest in pursuing, and I'd
like to get an impressive laser system going someday.  I'm hoping to
that I'll be able to construct some sort of device that can carry
several simultaneous channels of audio, data, and possibly video.
And I'd like to be able to shoot several miles carying all that
information.  This may be unrealistic, I'm not sure.  But it sounds
fun anyway.

Lastly, I've got to get myself on HF.  This probably takes priority
over the laser work because I have to get that sky loop up before
winter.  But this is predicated on getting my home office/shack
set up, which is predicated on new carpeting, which is . . .

Anyway, look for our multi-op station on the air in June.  We should
have phone and CW on all of 50, 144, 222, 432, 902, 1296, and (I believe)
10GHz.  Not sure if we'll use N0RPM, KC0IYT, or K0SGI (our employee club
callsign, or an approximation thereof).  The plan right now is to work
from George Oman park in Eagan, as it seems like a darn good choice from
our Radio Mobile experiments of a few months ago.  Unfortunately I don't
know the 6-digit grid off the top of my head.

Brent, KD5EMB

-- 
Brent Casavant			http://www.angeltread.org/
KD5EMB				-.- -.. ..... . -- -...
44 54'24"N 93 03'21"W 907FASL	EN34lv