I have been playing with a new Triquint ULNA device (TQP3M9036). It
Shows a lot of promise. It is like a MAR or MSA device in that it is
50ohm in and out. and has a claimed NF about .4db nf ( their numbers).
I have built several pramps to test them and have gotten even better
than they claim and they cover 50-1296 with ease and NF is .4ish or
below. The S11 and S22 are both great and the OIP3 is +35db also
...very nice device. It has great promise as a good terrestrial LNA.
Preamps are foolproof to build and would cost under $50 if all the best
quality parts are used.
Just for information only ...
Pete WA2ODO
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Sri I made, at least a mistake, I send it again.
Hi all,
Very interesting answers. I come from Sats world, where the Doppler
is a serious issue and it is so quick that it is impossible to work
JT65.
I will speak thinking in one carrier. Sats need to receive in only
one fix frequency (it is an active RX with a wideband), if the Sat
receives a carrier in this frequency then it will be repeated. The
signal TX from the Sat will be in one fix frequency. So people who
work Sats must correct its TX frequency (according with actual
Doppler) to reach the sat in its fix frequency, in the same way
because of the Sats will repeat this signal in a fix frequency, people
must correct its RX frequency (according with actual Doppler).
This way of dealing with Doppler is very interesting because NOBODY
KNOWS the Doppler of the other stations and nobody needs to know it,
we only need to know our own Doppler.
If we would use this agreement to EME communications we will always
speak about the frequency we hit the Moon, in other words the
frequency which the Moon hear us and repeat our signal.
The actual EME software shows us the Doppler as the sum of the Doppler
effects to reach the Moon and to receive the bounce signal, so Moon
will receive us at ½ Doppler announced, the other ½ effect will appear
after de bounce.
I will try to set a couple of examples.
1.- We will agree to hit the Moon in 1296.070. This is the frequency I
will announce in the log. In our software the dates will be:
*Self Doppler
+3KHz
*DX Doppler
-2KHz
The sign that the software shows will aplly to RX frequency and the
opposite to the TX frequency, and always ½ magnitude on each one.
Both of us must deal with Doppler, each one must do their task to hit
the moon in the agreed frequency and to receive the bounce according
our Doppler. Then we must set on our transceivers:
*Me
TX: 1296.070 -1.5KHz = 1296.0685MHz
RX: 1296.070 +1.5KHz= 1296.0715MHz
*DX
TX: 1296.070 +1.0KHz = 1299.071MHz
RX: 1296.070 -1.0KHz= 1296.069MHz
Each station who sees the post will act only according its own
Doppler. Don´t mind where is the DX station.
2.- In this case I see a signal in my receiver in 1296.070. What
kind of pair of frequencies I must set (I know nothing about the DX
station I have still decode nothing), I only know me own Doppler, and
it is +2KHz. I must hit the moon in the same frequency that my
partner:
TX: 1296.070 -1.0KHz = 1296.069MHz
RX: 1296.070 = 1296.070MHz
WE WILL NOT NEED TO KNOW NO MORE THAN OUR DATES.
I haven´t spoken about what frequencies will be the echoes (both
echoes), to make the understanding easy.
As a drawback we should change our habits, we should always use the
RIT as follow:
TX: The frequency we choose plus the opposite sign of Doppler and ½
Doppler magnitude.
RIT: the sign of our Doppler and ½ Doppler magnitude.
Although at first glance it seems not to be interesting in 144MHz but
we will always hit the target in whatever band, even in 144MHz.
Somebody can tell that they need a computer, to do JT65 of course, if
you do CW surely have a smart phone with the proper software to know
your own Doppler or you can print it before.
If I made some mistakes let me know.
It is my 2 cents.
Juan Antonio
EA4CYQ
Its been awhile since I have been QRV with my 2m-eme station.
Four independent problems in my transmission line during the winter
kept me off the Moon and then my HVPS acted up. Well it turned out
to be a simple problem but it didn't appear that way. My 4kV dropped
to 2.8kV without a load. I envisioned all kinds of problems but in
the end it was simply a blown HV fuse. It did not blow open but
instead went to 16meg-ohm which was enough to drop the HV with very
low current being drawn by the HV panel meter.
Having no replacement fuse, I decided to remove the HB fuse holder
from the HVPS since changing the fuse required removing the 8877 deck
from the rack to gain access thru the HVPS top plate which is
directly under the amplifier. I will order some more HV fuses from
Nebraska sales ($25/ea.) and make an inline HV fuse box which will be
much quicker access to replace a fuse. Actually, I have only blown
two of these fuses in 8-years of running.
How I blew this one is that the 6-dB attenuator that I was using to
lower drive to my transverter to keep drive below 50w to the 8877
failed in short resulting in over 100w drive to the 8877. Anode
current spiked taking out the HV fuse as it is designed to
do. Probably hit over 2kW output!
A couple other improvements will make recovery from HV events
quicker: I brought the 240vac mains fuses to the front panel of the
HVPS and increased them to 20A. And I added a vernier to the 8877
drive input cap. Looks like I got a finer tune on the input as it is
taking less drive to reach 1200w.
I will be QRV Sunday from about 1400utc to 1700utc (Moonset):
144.116, 1st for CQ and on N0UK logger. Mon> I will be trying to
work 6W/PE1L in Senegal very early in my morning. We only have about
30-min common Moon on Monday but this increases on subsequent days.
73, Ed - KL7UW
http://www.kl7uw.com
"Kits made by KL7UW"
Dubus Mag business:
dubususa(a)gmail.com
Despite the minus 25-30 Degree C weather I activated the station for the 432 contest.
Activity is lower than previous years and an elevated K index disturbed conditions.
The following stations were worked this weekend;
N4GJV, ES5PC, VK3UM, JA6AHB, I1NDP, OK1CA, UA3PTW, SP6JLW, LZ1DX, NC1I, DL9KR, SP7DCS.
Huge signals this weekend from DL9KR, NC1I, UA3PTW, OK1CA, and VK3UM despite the disturbances, and apogee conditions.
I called W1AW/4 and received QRZ's, and heard the following with no opportunity to call, DL7APV, DF3RU, PA3?, and IK2OLO?.
Overall a fun weekend and nice to hear some of the big signals make it back from the moon.
I also managed to work WA4NJP as W1AW/4 prior to the contest period.
I hope to make it on for the 13 cm contest next month.
73's to all and thanks to the stations who got on.
Grant
VE6TA
DO33gs
Hello EMErs,
Day 2 in Panama started out well, Monday here. My wife and I are still on New England time, and while Panama is only one hour difference in time zones, we are used to starting out day before 6am. It should be noted that breakfast time here generally starts at about 10:30am. The rental is on the banking district so we walked to a panadera (bread store) to have breakfast, however they only had some leftover bread. We did buy one piece for $0.20 and walked further to another store to have empanadas (pastries filled with meat and cheese), served hot, made from flakey pie crust. I get these at home since my wife is Colombian, they are always good.
After breakfast I planned schemes to help with the EME situation and dismantled the equipment on the balcony. My wife was very helpful with this and it went much faster with two people. We then walked around the town again waiting for the building administration to open so we could get the key to the heliport.
The building administrator was quite interested in what we were doing and of course wanted to make it "safe". What could possibly go wrong at the top of a high rise building 30 stories up with no railings, it makes me a bit sick to my stomach just thinking about it, let alone setting things up. We finally agreed upon a good place to operate and hauled the equipment up.
One of the difficulties has been power. Finding outlets is difficult, I am very glad I brought long thick extension cords because I have needed over 100' of power cable to get to the operating position. After running the new power cords and taping everything down, I started reassembling the station, it went together quickly. Nothing seems easy in the heat though, 34C and so much humidity, I was afraid I would short out the equipment with sweat droplets!
After setting up and connecting all the cables, it was lunchtime (our lunch) so we went to have lunch before moonrise. This was a huge mistake! As we were eating lunch, it started raining, then raining more until you could not see in front of you because of the thick rain. It did not matter if we walked or ran, we would be soaked. We waited for a break and ran back to the room, only to see the skies open up even harder and the lightning begin. There was a huge bolt and crack directly in front of the condo, you could see the "impact" on the ocean water.
My wife wanted to go check on the radio setup, and for good reason, when we got to the top floor, even though the radio equipment was covered by a concrete overhang and shelter, it was all soaked through completely. This made my heart sink. I did have the for sight to disconnect all power, but the water was everywhere.
Once again, I disconnected everything and took it in to dry off. The radio was soaked inside water was dripping out. I opened the cases and used my wife's hair dryer to dry all the equipment out. Even still, the radio would come on but did not have a display. After about an hour I was able to get the radio dry enough to operate correctly.
Moonrise was approaching so it was time to get things connected again. But the sequencer was always keying the transmitter. After a few minutes of trouble shooting, I can only guess that somehow that large bolt of lightning found its way into the fourth channel of the sequencer. This is ok, I have a spare channel and switched to the extra channel for the radio. All was operational.
About that time, John, K1OR texted me asking when I was starting. "now" was the answer and a few sequences later, I could see the screen was filled with traces. It was on now for sure! that was the last time I called CQ for quite a few hours to work though all of the calling stations.
Below is an unofficial list of worked and heard stations. If you are not on the list, and think you should be, please send me an email, I will double check. If we didn't work, please don't give up, there are other opportunities to work, I'm here all week, but will be switching to 70cm Wednesday or possibly Thursday depending on the number of 2m callers.
Thank you all for making this a success, I really do hope to work as many of you as possible.
73 from Panama,
Paul
HP/KG7HF
211300 1 -24 1.3 336 3 * HP/KG7HF DF7KF
211500 4 -23 2.7 135 3 * HP/KG7HF OK1RD
211900 0 -28 3.1 153 19 * HP/KG7HF ES6RQ
213100 6 -25 2.9 -108 3 * HP/KG7HF DM1CG
213900 3 -20 3.7 -363 3 * HP/KG7HF HB9Q
213900 0 -27 2.9 -188 2 * HP/KG7HF I2FAK
215100 3 -23 3.4 634 3 * HP/KG7HF EA2AGZ
215300 7 -21 2.9 92 3 * HP/KG7HF OK7XX
215500 1 -25 2.7 -161 3 * HP/KG7HF DF2ZC
215500 2 -25 3.2 -511 4 * HP/KG7HF SM7GVF
220500 0 -27 1.8 -51 3 * HP/KG7HF PA2CHR
220900 2 -25 2.8 35 3 * HP/KG7HF DF2ZC
220900 0 -28 2.5 906 21 * HP/KG7HF PA0JMV
221900 0 -26 1.2 409 3 * HP/KG7HF SP4K
222300 1 -25 3.0 -237 1 * HP/KG7HF F6BKI
222300 0 -27 1.9 -143 29 * HP/KG7HF PE1L
224300 4 -20 2.8 833 3 * HP/KG7HF DL8YHR
224700 1 -26 2.5 8 2 * HP/KG7HF K7MAC
224700 0 -26 2.8 393 1 * HP/KG7HF IK1UWL
224700 0 -28 2.6 -132 2 * HP/KG7HF I3MEK
225700 4 -25 2.4 398 3 * HP/KG7HF KD3UY
225700 3 -26 0.1 178 3 * HP/KG7HF K6MYC
231300 1 -29 2.7 -234 5 * HP/KG7HF IK1UWL
231700 0 -26 3.7 293 3 * HP/KG7HF DL8GP
232300 0 -24 2.7 546 3 * HP/KG7HF K5QE
232500 0 -28 2.7 -318 3 * HP/KG7HF K1OR
233500 0 -28 1.4 423 3 * HP/KG7HF G4FUF
233700 2 -27 3.4 132 3 * HP/KG7HF K9MRI
233900 1 -27 2.8 -40 3 * HP/KG7HF WA3QPX
234900 3 -23 3.0 -32 3 * HP/KG7HF K1CA
000300 2 -25 3.4 -229 3 * HP/KG7HF WA4NJP
While I have no man made noise, in the last 2 weeks I noticed my Smeter going from barely S1 to S3 to S4. The culprit is my main computer. When turned off no problem. So what can I do about it??? will grounding the computer help?? This seriously affect my reception. My 10 years old laptop does not interfere or generate noise on the receiver. The main computer is window 7 & I guess the power supply may be the problem but I really do not know. Any suggestion would be helpful
Serge VE1KG
Dear moon-net,
Just for laughs, I was wondering if I could use my old AO-40 sband downlink
gear to hear EME big guns on 2304 mhz or 2320 mhz. I have one of the old 3
foot by 2 foot "bbq" dishes and a DEM 2400-144RX receive converter. I figure
the dish will be OK, but not sure of the receive converter. Are there
filters which will prevent it receiving down to the EME band? Couldn't find
the info on the internet.
Sorry silly question, but thought others might have had the same idea.
73,
Bob
KD3UY
