1.5M Solar Cooker Conversion for EME - Part I

 

August 22, 2025

Bob, KA1GT discovered a Chinese solar cooker for under $100 USD delivered, that shows promise as a 1.5M dish for moonbounce on microwave bands from 23cm on up. His preliminary testing is encouraging - the dish seems to have an excellent parabolic profile.  

Boil water or send RF to the moon, your choice.

 
For the price I decided to jump in and join the fun. Amazon delivered the dish to my door in three days. It arrived in a 3 foot by 3 foot (1M x 1M)  box, and weighted about 35 pounds (16 Kg). During assembly I shot a bunch of pictures that hopefully anyone else going down this path will find useful. 

Some assembly definitely required.

 While the supplied directions are pretty obscure and written in Sino-English, piecing the dish together isn't hard at all. The six panels bolt together quite easily, and the steel ring sits in six brackets that are attached to the ribs. The ring stiffens the dish and provides a place to attach a mount. Creating a mount will be one of the two main challenges of this project. A septum feed that illuminates the dish well is the other.. 

You can see three of the gold brackets the ring will attach to.

 

Detail -Bracket used to mount the support ring. 

The ring support brackets mount on the third hole from the center. 

I think I've met the mount challenge.  The dish will mate to my slew drive via a 2 inch aluminum  pipe. I attached two boards to the steel ring on the back of the dish, and I'm using an aluminum plate as a cross piece with the 2 inch aluminum tube welded in place. The aluminum plate will have a 1.25" hole in the center to act as the front bearing surface for my fiberglass feed mast. Three thumb screws will be at the rear of the 2" tube to act as the other bearing surface and allow focus adjustment. 

I'm waiting on the welder working his melting magic. 

Mock up - The two inch pipe will have gussets for strength. 

While I left the Mylar tape on the front of the dish to protect the surface during assembly, as soon as the dish sees sunlight that Mylar will get peeled off. It's just too much of a burn hazard at the focal point to leave it in place.
 

In The Early Morning Rain

 June 22, 2025

 

Civilization encroaches! That's a new road for a subdivision of 30 McMansons. 

 
39 degrees Fahrenheit (3.8C) before sunrise, a steady rain, but no wind. A perfect day to fire up the space heater in the barn, and play moonbounce on 23cm. The key piece of gear today was a white trash bag to keep the rain off the feed assembly. Don't leave home without it!

There was plenty of activity, I worked 14 stations including two new for a total of 220 initial on 23cm. Logged were OZ5TG, KG0D, RX3DR, N0CTR, N0LWF (new), W2HRO, OK1USW, SM5DGX, OK1VUM, N5TM, HB9Q, AG7CM, K6FOD, and K6DIS (new).

Alex, on his 3A2EME dxpedition, damaged his amp and was at least 3db down on transmit, even trying Q65-120D didn't conjure up a contact. The chase was fun anyhow. If EME was easy, guys with handie-talkies would do it! ;-)

HB9Q had an astounding -4 signal this morning. Take a listen. 

Chasing Three DXPeditions on 23cm EME

 May 30, 2025

The last few days have been very exciting. While I missed the MD/EA8DBM Isle of Man activity through my inattention, I did rebound and work Alex's MJ/EA8DBM Jersey Island operation. Alex rigged up a dish mount to the back of his van which works out really well until the wind blows too hard.  

MJ/EA8DBM operating from the tricked out van on batteries no less.  EA8DBM Photo. 

 The next dxpedition up was that of IS0/HB9COG on Sardinia by the dynamic duo of HB9COG and HB9CRQ. The boys were running with a 1.5M dish and 100 watts. That's a pretty small station for me, but I've learned to never pass up any dxpedition, especially with very experienced ops at the helm. It took three hours of chasing, but I finally got a decode, and then a complete contact. In the log!

Older picture, but same 1.5M dish of IS0/HB9COG.         HB9Q Photo

Last up was MU/EA8DBM. Alex took a ferry over to Guernseys Island for another DXCC operation. It seems his dish was finally giving it up after all the rain and wind, so his signal was way down. Alex heard me, but he could tell I was not hearing much back - he graciously switched to Q65-120D and we completed without drama. 

MU/EA8DBM dish looking more than a bit worn.     EA8DBM photo.

Q65-120D to the rescue once again. MU/EA8DBM logged.

23CM EME - Squeezing the Juice

May 25, 2025

The slew drive is a huge improvement, it just works to keep me fully struck by moonbeams. :-) 

After reading how LMR-400/LMR-600 cable deteriorates over time I replaced the very old and suspect LMR-400 jumper at the dish feed with a fresh length of LMR-600 Superflex. The SWR dropped to 1.2:1 and my TX signal was just a tad ( the correct technical term would be modicum) better. 

Fresh 7/8 inch hardline is on the way to replace the 15 year old LMR-600 main transmission line. The bank was kind enough to second mortgage the condo for it. A half db here, a half db there, and it starts to matter. 

On the receive side things just continue to work well. I'm still impressed by the OK1DFV septum feed - I'm pondering adding a choke ring. I worked ON4MU today who also has a 2.4M folding dish but just 150 watts on transmit. Q65-120D to the rescue.

Is the juice worth the squeeze? Sure, why not - the improvements I've made in the last two months have opened a another tier of stations to work - just now, while the moon was at perigee, In the last week I've added nineteen new stations for a total 23cm EME station count of 217.

 

ON4MU in the log. Click on image for hi-res

                                  

There Will Be Days Like This (Momma Said)

April 24, 2025

All the station improvements paid off this morning. I've been chasing the Galapagos Islands DXpediion of HD8G on 23cm EME for the last few days. It has been slow going, but finally it was Q65-120D to the rescue. Thanks to Bruce, PY2BS the HD8G EME op for his patience and skill. 

How I feel put to music!

A large part of moon bounce is tenacity!

The Galapagos side of the contact - folding 2.4M dish to folding 2.4M dish.

Testing the AG6EE 23cm Pre-Amp

 April 23, 2025

Now that I have my 23cm EME station back stable and tracking the moon tightly, it is time to see how the AG6EE pre-amp plays. Petr has packaged the pre-amp module, filters, isolation relay and a 50 ohm termination into a single package. A male N connector connects directly to the RX feed port doing away with any short stubs of coax.

Working several stations and shooting some sun noise figures shows me at least a 1.5db receive improvement over my current setup. When we have the next blue bird day here in Montana I'll breakout SpectraVue and do some better science. 

When13.8 vdc is supplied to the AG6EE pre-amp it goes into receive mode, remove the DC power and it drops into transmit mode switching the pre-amp's front end into a 50 ohm termination. 

When you hear KB2SA and his 1.9M dish in the speaker at -16 you know things are working. 

There is nothing wrong with the WD5AGO pre-amps I've been using for many years, but I have to run 2 inches of semi-flex coax ahead of the pre-amp to hook things up. That degrades the noise figure.  

It's all in one elegant package.

Slew Drive Part II

 April 21, 2025

While the slew drive itself functions perfectly, my tripod wasn't up to the task. Things were just too top heavy and unstable with 65 pounds (22 kg) of slew drive sitting at the apex. So I sketched out a drawing of what I needed and went off to visit the local welding/machine shop to throw some steel at the problem. 

It turned out quite well, especially after a few coats of green paint. The land I operate from is not my own, so to avoid having to dig and pour a concrete base I drove four 24 inch (61cm)  3/4" (19mm) diameter tent stakes through holes in the base to hold things in place. So far it looks to be a very big improvement over what I had.

Steel plate and schedule 40 pipe solve a lot of issues!

Big Boy Tracking - Slew Drive Time

 April 7, 2025

All this tariff nonsense made me realize that if I wanted a slew-drive now was the time to act before Chinese products prices went sky high. I checked with Paul, W2HRO at Sub-Lunar and he had stock on the 3 inch drives. Ship it!

I assembled the mount and used three M10 washers on each of the azimuth bolts as spacers to make sure nothing would bind. 

As usual there was the fun of figuring out how to marry it to my Green Heron RT-21 controller. It turns out the manufacturer ships these drives with various color codes for the wire connections and even different encoder pulse counts per 360 degrees. My particular unit had a pulse count of 35962 X2 and the wires were color coded as follows:

DC Motor +    Heavy Red
DC Motor -     Heavy Black
Hall A pulse     Blue
Ref. Voltage +    Brown
Ref. Voltage Return     Gray
Hall B not used     Orange  

Bench testing showed all was good and ready to go. However, lifting the 65 pounds (22kg) of slew-drive chest high to slip it onto the tripod mast was a full-focus challenge. Umph!

I have some shimming of the tripod to do to make it plumb and then we'll see if I can really track the moon within 0.1 degree. Thanks to Paul, W2HRO and Frank, KH6FA for sharing what I needed to know saving me hours of fiddling.

Getting ready to solder connectors in place and see if the motors move.

Not square, level, or plumb ... yet.

Telling PSTRotor the good news.

First RF - OK1DFC Lighweight Septum Feed

February 8, 2025

I was able to obtain a prototype of the new lightweight OK1DFC 23cm septum feed for the 2.4 meter W2HRO folding dish. Initial testing revealed a very significant improvement on receive as expected, and even a boost on transmit. With 400 watts at the feed my echoes are consistently averaging  -20.5 db near perigee. The dish with the patch feed was never better than -24 db. Bitter cold temperatures precluded too much testing or adjusting to find the exact focus sweet spot, never-the-less we have a winner!

Two representative contacts just past perigee: KB2SA (1.9m dish, 400 watts) -20/-20, W1FKF (2.0m dish, 400 watts) -21/-21.  

As a bonus the new feed is 24% lighter than the patch feed so mast deflection is not an issue.

More details here. Kudos to Bill, KB2SA for the concept, and Zdenek, OK1DFC for making it a reality!

Note that the W2HRO folding dishes have used two different mast diameters - originally 1.25 inches and currently 1.5 inches. If you order one of these feeds from OK1DFC be sure to let him know which diameter mount to 3D print for you.  

Made from 1mm sheet aluminum the OK1DFC septum feed is lightweight.

 

Echo testing near perigee, with 400 watts at the feed.

OK1DFC 23cm septum feed ready to mount. 1.184 kilograms or 2 pounds 9.7 ounces

Sweet Winter Sunshine

January 7, 2025

Shoveled a path from several snow storms and had a great EME session on 23cm.

Winter storms are a great time for amplifier building. Version 2.0 of a KISS amp.

The guts built around a W6PQL pallet - an easy 500 watts with 6 watts of drive..

ZD9GJ via 6 Meter EME

 September 18, 2024

It's not everyday you get a chance to work Tristan Da Cunha (ZD9) on any band, much less 6M EME. Lance, W7GJ is on the ultimate DXpedition. LINK to see what the end of the earth looks like.

Sometimes it all just works, and quickly too!

Hawaii 70CM EME

Date/Time: September 25 to October 3, 2024
Call: KB7Q always 1st sequence
QTH: BK29mn, Keeau, Big Island, Hawaii
Mode: Q65-60B CFOM 1500Hz DF
Frequency: 432.095 MHz
Gear: IC-9700, AGO Preamp, 500 watt SSPA, 1x 9wl Yagi
Internet: Will come up on the HB9Q Logger

Donors: KH6LC, PA3DZL, NC1I, N4DXN

It has been almost 8 years since I last activated Hawaii on 70cm. Time for another go during some pretty decent mutual moon windows to Europe. Shipping the gear over/back is spendy these days so any help is appreciated. 

September 30, 2024
Dry and a lovely visible crescent moon until the sun came up. Worked EA5CJ (-26), K1WHS (-21) and VK4EME (-23). EA5CJ and VK4EME were new, so the final station count is 20. LoTW uploaded.

I lent KH6FA my SSPA amp, so he'll be on 70cm with 2x Yagis going forward. 

September 29, 2024
Rain, rain go away! Never-the-less I worked DG5CST (-25), DK4RC (-23), and K1WHS (23). This brings my station count to 18. I ran with Cowles, K4EME for an hour, he peaked -18 but couldn't copy me no matter what polarity I tried. 😢
LoTW upload done.

The station on the lanai, well sheltered from the occasional showers.

September 28, 2024
In a word 70cm was "DISMAL". Only OK1VUM re-worked.

I did get over to KH6FA's place and see his newly activated 23cm station. Nice that Hawaii now has a permanent 1296 MHz presence. Frank is working on his 70cm station also.

KH6FA is QRV on 23cm with a 2.4M dish and 300 watts.

September 27, 2024
The dynamic duo of Digi-Key and Federal Express got the replacement power supply here from Minnesota in just under 24 hours from the time I placed the order. Some post-Covid things still work great! 

A slow session, I only worked two new stations. Peter, PA2V worked me despite lightning strikes on his end that did pop the circuit breaker right after we completed.  Logged: NC1I (-10), DL1VPL (-25), W6TCP (-21), PA2V (-18). LoTW updated.

September 25, 2024
Station set up went very well, and the moon came up thru the best opening in the trees right on schedule. I worked 13 stations, missed two, and gave PA3DZL State #46. Faraday rotation was the usual 70cm dance, but for the most part things would move off center every 30 minutes or so. Mr. Murphy sucked the life out of the amp's 48 vdc Meanwell power supply right at the end of the session. I'll not be on September 26th, but NH6Y will be from a portable spot on Maui.

There is a spare power supply on island, and in theory a replacement unit is being shipped FedEx over-night. We'll see ...

Worked: UA3PTW (-18), NC1I (-14), K5DOG (-23), UT6UG (-22), W5ZN (-23), DL1VPL (-23), PA3DZL (-20), UT5DL (-22), SM4GGC (-22), GD0TEP (-18), PA0BAT (-25), OK1VUM (-14), ON4AOI (-19). LoTW upload done.

Shooting the gap on moonrise at KH6LC's quiet QTH.

A ham-helper came rustling out of the bushes. Feral hog!

Wyoming (DN43) 70cm EME Operation

Date/Time: September 5, 2024 @ 1600z and September 7, 2024 @ 1735z
Call: KB7Q always 1st sequence
QTH: DN43rs Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area, Wyoming
Mode: Q65-60B CFOM 1500Hz DF
Frequency: 432.095 MHz
Gear: IC-9700, AGO Preamp, 500 watt SSPA, 1x 9wl Yagi
Honda 2.2KW generator.
Internet: Will come up on HB9Q Logger if possible

September 7
That was a bust! Conditions seemed to be just awful, as was the forest fire smoke. I did work NC1I again, but he was "only" -22. After an hour I called it off and went camping.

September 5
We found the wide open spot, "Moran Vista" aka "gravel pit" that Google Earth suggested, and I was ready to go just before 1600z. Today Faraday rotation favored Stateside stations, I worked only a single European. Even trying vertical polarity didn't produce. N9HF beat his computer issues into submission and worked me just before his afternoon thunderstorms started in earnest to bag his State #31. W6TCP now has 41 States on 70cm. Logged today: PA3DZL (-22), N1AV (-23), AG7CM (-24), W5ZN (-23), K5DOG (-27), NC1I (-14), N9HF (-25), and W6TCP (-22).

The Teton Mountains are just to the west of the operating position.

70 CM EME from Montana

July 27, 2024
I'm the only 70cm EME station in Montana and I haven't been on in over a year. So I put up my meager station of a single 9WL Yagi and 500 watts and got after it. This first session was quite productive. I had no wind, and a 100% visible moon. Logged were DK3WG (-20), PA2V (-22), OE3JPC (-20), DL1VPL (-26), W7MEM (-23), NC1I (-11), PA3FWV (-21), GW4ZHI (-24), and K4EME (-29). 

July 28, 2024
The next night was quite a different story. Can you say "Faraday Lock Out" boys and girls? Each contact was an hour-long struggle. Through shear persistence I worked UX5UL (-27), W5ZN (-20), and G4RGK (-27). The contact with Joel, W5ZN was especially frustrating, as you can see from the screen shot below his 4x Yagi station was excellent copy for a long, long time before polarity finally rotated just enough for a contact. Phew!

July 31, 2024
Another session to work folks who were at the Central States Conference and more.  I remembered can I change polarity with a twist of the boom if needed so that's a help. Official two way communications on 70cm via the moon completed with DL1VPL (-26), N9HF (-26), N1AV (-21), W6TCP (-25), PA3DZL (-17). W4ZST was as close to a contact as one can get, but no joy over 30 minutes. M0CTP was also heard well at times.

All in all good times - 17 stations worked over three sessions, and several folks nudged along toward their Worked All States award.  LoTW upload done.

A fine example of Faraday Rotation effects . W5ZN peaking -20, but can't hear me ... yet.

The not-so-little 70cm Yagi that could. ;-)

Idaho & Utah 23cm/33cm EME Trip

Call: KB7Q always 1st sequence
Mode: Q65-60C
Frequency: 1296.095 MHz CFOM, 902.105 MHz CFOM
Gear: IC-9700, AGO Preamp, 500 watt SSPA, 2.4M folding dish w/ patch feed
SL-1 Tracker, Honda 2.2KW generator.
Internet: Will come up on HB9Q Logger if possible

Thank you donors: PA3FXB, W7JW, DL1AT

Logs have been loaded to LoTW

July 7, 2024 Idaho DN44gh 23cm Band
Set up went well, and I was ready to rumble on 23cm by 1500z. I had very gusty winds which messed with my tracking the whole session, but I still worked 20 folks. Interest in Idaho tapered off quite sharply so I went QRT, and packed it up. Joyce and I took the Mesa Falls Scenic Loop road heading south to Utah and the next operating site.
Logged: DL4DTU (-14), DF3RU (-17), OK1UGA (-14), PA0TBR (-22), PA3FXB (-22), OK1KIR (-10), DL1AT (-21), OK1VUM (-19), UA3PTW (-10), UA9FAD (-22), IK7EZN (-20), K5DN (-18), DK5AI (-23), N6RZJ (-17), N1AV (-24), OK1IL (-20), ES3RF (-24), PA3HDG (-22), PA0BAT (-19), KB2SA (-22).

The night before we camped on the banks of the Snake River.

July 8, 2024 Utah DN41ai, 23cm Band
No wind today, and the morning was blissfully cool for setup. Newton Reservoir wasn't the very best location as I discovered - it was in a bit of  hole. However, the north end had enough open skies to the east to work. A grove of cottonwood trees provided welcome shade.The road around to the north end called for patience, a 1 mph pace, and four wheel drive low range - but we made it. 

The goal was to work Dave, G4YTL for his State #49 on 23cm. It took a while, but he was finally decoded and it was a snap after that. I also worked K7ULS via scatter. Mike was 42 miles south of me so I just bounced off the mountains to work him. There were some very strange conditions at times, I tripled checked my aiming and it wasn't me, but all signals pretty much disappeared for 30 minutes.
Into today's log went : K7ULS (terrestrial -7), OK1KIR (-14), SM6CKU (-20), SP5GDM (-23), OK1IL (-22), PA3DZL (-21), F4KLO (-23), UA3PTW (-15), RW6HM (-22), G4YTL (-27), G0LBK (-20), DL1AT (-20), PA0BAT (-21), PA3FXB (-24), EA8DBM (-22), ES3RF (-25), IK7EZN (-20), W2ZQ (-20), OH3LWP (-22), GM0PJD (-24), OK1VUM (-21), K5DOG (-21), KB2SA (-20).

Glorious shade, a real bonus this time of the year!  DN41ai, Newton Reservoir, UT

July 9, 2024 Utah, DN41ai 33cm Band
Joyce and I checked out of the hotel early while it was still cool, and headed back to Newton Reservoir to put a fourth State on 33cm. We found a lovely shady patch of cottonwood trees with wide open skies to the east. I went six for seven today, I even worked K0DSP, another 2.4M dish station. We packed up pretty efficiently and were rolling north by 2 PM local time. It was worth the effort to give folks a new State on a challenging EME band. Logged: W7JW (-25), K0DSP (-29), VE4MA (-27), W5AFY (-23), W2HRO (-22), VE6TA (-26).

Adding the 33cm transverter reaches wiring critical mass!

Wyoming (Yellowstone National Park) 23cm EME

Date/Time: June 9, 2024 1630z Start time (moon needs to clear ridge)
QTH: Wyoming - Yellowstone Park DN44lw
Call: KB7Q always 1st sequence
Mode: Q65-60C
Frequency: 1296.095 MHz CFOM
Gear: IC-9700, AGO Preamp, 450 watt SSPA, 2.4M folding dish w/ patch feed
SL-1 Tracker, Honda 2.2KW generator, Jimmy-Johns #7 sub-sandwich to fuel the op.
Internet: Nope

Just another day in the Park, but what a park. Yellowstone! DN44lw

It was a fine day for a Yellowstone Park outing. I left the house at 7 AM, stopped at the last Internet access spot at Big Sky Resort to time sync my laptop, and by 9:30 AM I was calling CQ. Signals were a bit mixed until I cleared the top of the lone pine tree between me and the moon. 

I worked 20 stations, and was pleased to give an initial Wyoming contact to several folks. Stateside folks were absent - only three W/K/N stations logged. Some sun, some rain, some wind, some mosquitoes, but nothing to slow things down. Being just past new moon meant that  I never saw madam Luna, but the SL-1 tracker did great, the 1000 count/360 degree encoders are an improvement.

Best contact was with K4EME.  Cowles chased me for 90 minutes. I saw him at a steady -23 most of the time, and finally it all clicked for him. Sweet!

Logged: F4KLO (-21), DL1AT (-23), OK1VUM (-22), PA3FXB (-21), DK3WG (-23), RX3DR (-20), ON4AOI (-15), DL8FBD (-22), OH3LWP (-20), N5TM (-20), NC1I (-11), PA0TBR (-23), DL4DTU (-20), SP9VFD (-18), IK7EZN (-21), CT1WO (-25), G0LBK (-18), G4CCH (-13), DF2VJ (-23), K4EME (-23).

Idaho 902 MHz EME

Date/Time: May 11, 2024 @ 1800z
QTH: DN44GQ, just south of Raynolds Pass
Call: KB7Q always 1st sequence
Mode: Q65-60C
Frequency: 902.107 MHz CFOM
Internet:Yes

Drone shot - DN44gq, a mile south of Raynolds Pass in Idaho.

 It was a lovely spring day for a ham radio outing. I even allowed time to stop in Ennis for a sit down breakfast at the local cafe. Light winds, 70 degrees, and no ticks made for perfect conditions setting up. I worked 12 stations and gave several folks a new State. I never saw the moon, but the SL-1 tracker did its job well.

Logged: W2HRO (-22), VE4MA (-24), VE6TA (-17), N0LNO (-22), KC0SKM (-22), W5AFY (-20), W7JW (-25), K0DAS (-22), W6TCP (-23), AC0RA (-24), K0DSP (-23), W6LUA (-22). LoTW upload done.

6,834 feet, the waters divide here.

Just too nice a day to not share the view. The road home south of Ennis, Montana.

Wyoming on 902 MHz EME

 April 19, 2024

As promised, I rolled down to Yellowstone Park this afternoon. I was surprised to find the dirt road into the Big Horn Trailhead was still under four feet of snow, but the wide pullout off Route 191 was still 25 yards into Wyoming so that was where I set up. I did have two different sets of "Lookie-Lous" stop and ask about what I was up to. The looks I got were priceless - they thought I was loonie!

Anyhow, I worked all callers again. I did have to grapple with wind moving the dish off axis, the fiberglass center post just was too slick to hold in the light breeze. A few cinch straps fixed the problem, and I already have a long term cure thought out. Once on the moon the SL-1 tracker kept me there.

Worked (at apogee no less) were AC0RA (-24), W2HRO (-20), W5AFY (-23), VE4MA (-23), W7JW (-23), K0DAS (-23), N0LNO (-23), KC0SKM (-24), W6TCP (-25), K0DSP (-24). I appreciate the activity, it makes these outings well worth the effort. LoTW upload done.

Bonus: I saw elk, a moose, and a small herd of big horn sheep on my travels to and fro.

 

DN44lw32ns Wyoming (just). Big Horn Trailhead was still snow bound.

Yellowstone Park, WY (DN44lw) with the moon riding high. Click on the photo to get a hi-res version.

Back seat station, no quick stops!

Easy 902 MHz EME

April 13, 2024

    Of course it's easy if you spend a week re-doing every cable in the station with heavy duty connectors, and pondering where is the quietest location within driving distance. A friends cabin in Tom Miner Basin (DN45me), just north of Yellowstone Park, is the ne-plus-ultra for a quiet spot. So that where I went today. It was an exceptional spring day - usually the road up to the cabin doesn't go snow free until mid-May. This year it was an easy drive in my Subaru Forester. We're talking 71 degrees at 6,500 feet elevation!

Of 11 stations calling I worked 10! W2HRO (-21), W7JW (-21), W5AFY (-20), VE4MA (-21), AC0RA (-22), K0DSP (-23), K0DAS (-23), N0LNO (-23), KC0SKM (-23) and finally W6TCP (-23) after an hour's chase. 

I have ready access to this location, so if you still need Montana I'm happy to roll uphill again.

2.4M dish, 500+ watts, and no stinkin' noise! The wicker chair was a nice touch.

The Theodolite app helps when setting the dish up. Looking 81 degrees.

902 MHz EME Challenge Parts III & IV

 March 30, 2024

The new amp rocks with in excess of 500watts, so I threw the station into the truck and drove northwest to Canyon Ferry Lake for moonrise on March 25th. The 902 noise was down, the wind was down, the moon came up, and I failed ... again. I had lots of callers including W5LUA with his best of band signal, but I heard nil, and was heard by none. Hmmm, that's a hint - I'm not on frequency.

Sure enough, at N1AV's urging, I checking the local oscillator settings in the SG transverter.  I was only 24 Mhz off frequency. The change of one, stinking, shorting block was the cure. Note to self: RTFM, it's only four pages!

A pretty, too quiet, early spring evening on Canyon Ferry Lake DN46fj.

 I re-grouped and on March 27th, from my local operating spot here in Bozeman, I made four 902 Mhz EME contacts. This gave N1AV his 50th State for W.A.S. award #5 on 33cm, and I added a sixth band to my EME exploits. Others worked were W5LUA, W2HRO, and KU4XO. 

Noise is still an issue, but the road to the mountain cabin north of Yellowstone Park gets better everyday as the snow and ice melt off and the mud dries out. That has to be a great spot to get away from the RF smog. I'm looking forward to operating from that high, off-the-grid perch.

902 MHz EME Challenge Part II

March 10, 2024

After two sessions trying to get the NXP LDMOS pallet to play nice, I replaced it with a W6PQL pallet. It took some fiddling to re-jigger the 12 vdc bias circuit, re-do the 50 vdc VDD lines, and solder the RF input and output coax in place. Slipping two layers of index card stock between the circuit board and the heat-spreader works really well - otherwise the copper heat-spreader draws the heat off too fast to get a good, clean solder joint. I could even solder the conformable coax in place with a 45 watts HAKKO soldering station cranked all the way up. 

Today was the smoke test. 3 watts of drive = 400 watts. That's 21 db gain which is very nice! I have some level setting to do with the transverter's 144 MHz drive level, even at 0% power indicated, my IC-9700 hits the transverter a bit too hard. A 3db 10W attenuator is on the way. 

I've also discovered my usual operating spot in the barn just south of town is not a good location for 902 EME reception. There are just too many 902 - 905 devices chirping away across the band. For the next test I'll retreat to the mountain cabin just north of Yellowstone Park as soon as snow comes off the access road.

In the meantime I've been streamlining the station's cables and generally getting things ship-shape for some summer travels with 902 and 1296 gear.

Onward!

Finished soldering the .250" conformable output coax in place.  Note the card stock to be removed.

The 902 MHz EME Challenge Part I

 February 10, 2024

There seems to be a sudden surge of interest in achieving Worked All States on 902 MHz. W5LUA has just nailed down WAS #1 and N1AV has 48 States in hand. I was asked if I could active Montana and other western States via the moon to help the cause. Sure! 

KA6U has been out and about including 902 EME on his epic road trips, so folks have been upping their W.A.S. totals already thanks to his Herculean efforts. Here's a taste of his activity.

Many hands make a 902 moonbounce station - Ian, W6TCP sent me a NXP Semiconductor 915 Mhz test pallet to work up into a fully functioning amplifier. I managed to stick things together in two four hour work sessions to create one of my "KISS" amps, but but initial testing was a bust. After some expert help from W6PQL, we can now say, "It's alive". I should have 350 watts to play with given the drive from the transverter. The nice thing about the NXP pallet is that the bias voltage is generated directly from the 48 VDC  VDD supply.

N1AV plyed me with a loaner 144 MHz to 902 MHz transverter he had picked up along the way. W2HRO sent west a patch dish feed for my 2.4M dish. I've have two superb WD5AGO pre-amps in hand, so I'm close to first RF on my sixth EME band! Later this month after a long-planned trip south to bask in the warmth of Mexico we'll see what can be done.

I understand Jim, W6PQL is now offering 902 amp pallets. So QRO power on the 33cm band is no longer hard to generate.

So this is a group effort to get some western States on the air - have camper will travel*. 

* Once I won't freeze my butt off - we've seen -40 degrees Fahrenheit (-40 C)   here in Bozeman this winter!

NXP QRO pallet with bare-bones support circuitry. KISS!

The W2HRO feed is a big boy! The hybrid label was applied upside down.