offsetdish

2,4 m offset dish - solid Aluminum mirror

At the beginning of 2020, I decided to test on the EME 47 GHz band. It was necessary to find a new dish that was geometrically accurate to the demands of this band. The following images will tell you how the whole project turned out. The new dish replaced a previously used antenna Prodelin 2,4m.

13/06/2021 - 5760 MHz test

TRV 5760 MHz with W2IMU flare and septum square feedhorn

I was QRV on 6 cm only on Sunday 13 June. I managed to make many CW and some multimode QSOs during the day. On Saturday I had made a new W2IMU collar for my 6 cm square septum feed. The result was very good and it turns out that the properly calculated collar helped to illuminate the whole area of my offset antenna very well. The only problem I noticed was with the spreading. The maximum spread was around 140 Hz and at that time, I had trouble reading stations that used higher CW speeds. Normally high speed CW does not give me any problem. I QSO’d for the DUBUS 6 cm Contest using CW UR5LX, OH1LRY, OK1CA, UA3PTW, OK1KIR, KL6M, DB6NT, SA6BUN, G4CCH, SM6FHZ for initial #38, DF3RU, JF3HUC #39, ES5PC, PA3DZL, G4NNS, IK0HWJ #40, DL7YC #41, G3LTF, OZ1LPR, VE4MA, SM6CKU, VE6BGT, WA6PY #42, VE6TA and WA9FWD #43 for a total of 25x23

23/03/2021 - 3400 MHz test

To use the 3400 MHz band in offset dish, it was necessary to make a new flare for the septum feed so that the dish with F/D 0,6 was correctly illuminated. So I made the second mode of the W2IMU feedhorn and connected with the septum feed square profile, which I use by default on all bands up to 5760 MHz

11,8dB Sun noise /CS - 0,22dB Moon noise /CS

QSOs worked during DUBUS 2021 and day after - 3400 MHz part

21st of March
10:34	OK1KIR	JN79GX	559	549	CW
10:39	OK1CA	JO70UR	579	569	CW
11:10	OK1CS	JO70FD	559	559	CW	#32
11:26	DF3RU	JN59UL	559	559	CW
11:31	OH1LRY	KP10NJ	559	339	CW
11:52	OK1KKD	JO60WD	559	539	CW
12:27	G4CCH	IO93QL	559	449	CW
13:32	PA3DZL	JO21LS	RO	O	CW
15:35	ES5PC	KO38HJ	559	549	CW
17:31	OZ5G	JO55	RO	O	JT65	#18 JT
20:51	VE4MA	EN19LU	-7	-15	JT65	#19 JT - #21 DXCC
21:00	W5LUA	EM13QC	-1	-9	JT65
21:04	G4CCH	IO93QL	-2	-8	JT65	#20 JT
22nd of March
19:51	G4DDK	JO02PA	-22	-19	JT65	#21 JT
19:56	DF3RU	JN59UL	-4	-12	JT65
20:00	PA0BAT	JO31FX	-7	-11	JT65	#22 JT
20:06	G4CCH	IO93QL	-6	-7	JT65
20:49	G4NNS	IO91FF	559	539	CW	#33
21:03	VE6BGT	DO32FK	559	559	CW	#34
21:18	KN0WS	EN34MG	-22	-15	JT65
21:31	PA3DZL	JO21LS	-6	-11	JT65
22:19	VE6TA	DO33GS	559	549	CW	#35
22:38	VE6TA	DO33GS	-8	-15	JT65	#23 JT

12/10/2020 - 24 GHz test

Today I ran another test of dish on a 24048,025 GHz. I tested the signal reception of the DL0SHF beacon. Conditions: Clear sky, temperature 12°C , elevation 36°, moon noise 1.7dB. See below for a print screen from WSJT.

Here you can listen to the signal of the DL0SHF beacon after covering a distance of 720,000 km. One recording contains a CW recording and one recording a QRA64D signal

CW QRA64D

10.-11.10.2020 - ARRL EME 2020 - 1296 MHz test

There was an ARRL EME contest over the weekend, so I made a new collar for my septum feed and tried to optimize the system for 1296 MHz. I've worked with 50 stations in total. I'm still making minor adjustments to the second part.

03/10/2020 - final installation

Today I finished the last part of the installation on the dish. Two 2x50kg concrete blocks are in place. The dish was recalibrated with the new counterweight. I also measured the sun's noise in the 24 GHz band today, and during the IARU UHF - SHF contest I made several QSOs to the terrestrial in the 10 - 5.6 - 3.4 GHz bands The antenna works very well for this kind of use as well.

24/09/2020 - temporary solution

Today I was working on the details of the assembly. To make the gearbox work lightly for elevation, a parabola had to be added to the balance beam. The final step will be the final installation of concrete blocks weighing 2x 50kg.