dl1ymk2012

Summary of EME DXpedition GJ/DL1YMK 2013

30/09/2013

Hello moonbouncers,

today we have reached our goal and activated our 6th band from Jersey over the moon, So this is, to our knowledge, the first time ever that a portable EME station been put up somewhere in the world accomplished cw eme contacts on 6 different bands (70, 23, 13, 9, 6 and 3 cm)! The 5 th band, activated from Jersey yesterday, was 3 cm, despite the fact that it was a questionable decision to become qrv with a weak station as part of a DXpedition set-up during a contest. We knew from the beginning that our signal would be marginal, because we used the small 1,8 m solid dish with around 35 W in the feed, but with a little patience from both sides a QSO has been demonstrated to be feasible. As a very experienced station OK1KIR managed to complete a fully random QSO with us, without logger and other help. Furthermore DL7YC with excellent operating skills had enough patience, other stations in the contest wooling unfortunately didn´t bring up that patience. During trials with us they changed to other, stronger station, which was a pity…… Not sure, if we will be able to work these stations tomorrow, as our moon window is getting narrower with every day now and closes very early. So tomorrow we intend to start on 10368.100 (placing our theoretical echoes there) at 0430 UT for the last time. Before 3 cm we were in the contest on 9 cm, on this band with a noticable signal and worked as initial: SP6OPN and ES5PC, some others were dupe. Today as 6 th band we activated 70 cm, while Faraday was playing tricks on us and rotated the polarisation by up to 90 deg. So only the stations, which had a rotary antenna system had nice signal strengths, while others were extremely hard to copy for us. We worked: OZ4MM, I1NDP, OK1CA, JA6AHB, DL7APV, G3LTF, OH2DG, OK1KIR (as first station on all 6 bands!!! TNX for the ufb QSOs), SP7DCS, LZ1DX, OK1DFC, DL9KR and LX1DB.

If there is still interest, we would be able to come back on 9 or 13 cm on Wednesday morning. Pse send us a mail!

73, M&M

Pictures gallery

one illustrates the obstruction by hedge to the South and West	new portable 1.2 kW SSPA, which was used for 23cm for the first time

28/09/2013

Hello moonbouncers,

during the contest we were active only on 13 cm (for the last time from Jersey) so far, because we had high wind gusts up to force 7 and heavy rain during the morning, so no possibility to change the feed and the station to 6 cm, where we need calm weather to track the moon reliably. We worked 30 stations during the ARRL contest, (which we think is a quite remarkable result for a portable station), 18 of these were new initials on 13 cm from Jersey. These are: SV1BTR, OK1CA, UA5Y, IK3COJ, SP6OPN, OH2DG, YO2BCT, PA7JB, HB9Q, PY2BS, PA0BAT, HB9SV, SD3F, OH1LRY, DF3RU, DL7YC, V6TA, K5GW. Tomorrow we intend to be QRV again on 9 cm and will perhaps also give 3 cm a first chance; in minimum we will test our receiving capability. We have already assembled the small 1,8 m solid dish made by 6 petals, which we have already used in TK, because our wobbling big dish is not suitable for 3 cm (is it??? - at least 6 cm was not THAT bad...). If the 3cm station works as intended, we may go for a special session on 3 cm. During the last weeks at home, we tried to get more power from the SSPA in the dish, using flex guide, which was donated by several hams all over the world – thanks again to those friends!. So we hope that we have a slightly improved TX side compared to TK, where we lost nearly 16 W from 42 W in a short coax run! For those interested in a 6 cm QSO to Jersey and who did not catch us so far, we intend to come back next week with sked proposals. Who knows, whenever someone will crazy enough again to bring Jersey to the moon on mw - and is able to do so in a portable style, hi??

73 de M&M

27/09/2013

Hi lunatics,

today was the 2nd and last session on 23 cm from Jersey – and again we used the alternative callsign MJ/SA6BUN. Most of our QSO-partners had no problem to decode this challenging callsign (yes, as Doug, VK3UM, has already mentioned, it is definitely an alphabet soup, hi), but we believe, we all had fun with it. Sorry for those, who came continuously back with the YMK callsign, because they didn´t listen carefully to our call, these QSO’s are not valid. The only exception was KL6M, because in this sked we used MJ/DL1YMK! A special challenge for a DXpedition station are sideband-QSOs, which are very unusual for a temporary set-up somewhere in the world. So we are very happy to report 6 SSB QSOs on 23 cm today, with I1NDP, OZ4MM, UA3PTW, HB9BBD, OK1DFC and OE5JFL. We received in all QSOs a 54 or even better report! Certainly, a major contribution to this improvement of our portable station is a new SSPA, which the operator has designed and built during the last winter. urthermore we worked in CW: JA6AHB, PA7JB, PY2BS, LZ1DX, OH2DG, OE5JFL, OK1DFC, HB9BBD. It is very much appreciated that a few friends got up at night for us, before going to work. Probably they looked a bit tired today. On the other hand we ourselves had only 4 hours of sleep this night, but we believe that sleeping at night is definitely overestimated, hi. Tomorrow, Saturday, during the contest we will be QRV first on 13 cm, also in crossband for JA and US. When there are no further stations to work, we come back to 6 cm, because a friend of us has written, he would be very sad not to have tried working us on Jersey. So we changed our plans, that we only make one day on 6 cm. We estimate, that we will be qrv on 6 cm from 0900 until 1200 UT. So a very last possibility to work Jersey on 6 cm!! On Sunday in contest we will start with 9 cm and than we look, what we do….

CU off the moon, 73 de M & M

Pictures gallery

shack with fine walnut furniture in our luxury holiday home	dish nested in backyard, with part of house obstructing our East

relaxing on sun chair in the garden after a long night	punishment for not operating JT, taken at medieval Mont Orgueil Castle, Jersey

2nd operator, human tracking system

26/09/2013

Hello moon bouncers,

this night we have activated our fourth band from the Island of Jersey over the moon, means: 6 cm. Surprisingly enough the set-up was performing much better than from Corsica during our last year´s DXpedition, when we tried 6 cm for the first time on a DXpedition. We used again our old stressed dish, which is far from ideal on higher frequencies, but optimised carefully the feed position with sun noise. Furthermore we exchanged a lossy cable in the RX chain, obviously both changes contributed to the success. We started very early in the night (at 0400 UT) and want to thank all other crazy guys, who rose together with us so early! Willi, your beacon again helped us to be confident in our dish heading and to optimise the tracking, which is manual (and is named Monika). Due to heavy rain in the night we protected the open 6 cm feed and LNA with waste bin liners, while the SMPS was hidden under a sun chair in the garden – relative dry, at least the RCI did not trip….

We worked LX1DB, OK1KIR, PA0BAT, PA7JB, G3LTF, SV3AAF, DL7YC, W5LUA, K2UYH, OK1CA, PA3DZL and G3WDG (nc) – again many “country firsts”! So it is a significant improvement compared to the 5 qso´s on 6cm from TK!

We now change to 23 cm for the second and last chance to work us on 23 cm. We intend to be qrv from 0020 UT for JA until moonset around 1100 UT and have a few skeds from time to time. For all skeds tomorrow pse note: we start on .045 TX (please correct for Doppler) at the disclosed time, 2 min sequences. PSE listen carefully to the callsign, we will use the same callsign as during the first day on 23 cm!!!!! And that was NOT MJ/DL1YMK, hi.

After tomorrow we don´t come back neither to 23 cm nor to 6 cm, but we will be qrv on 13 cm (Saturday) and 9 cm (Sunday) during the ARRL contest. Next week we intend to activate 2 further bands, 70 cm on Monday and than 3 cm (with the small but more accurately shaped dish).

CU off the moon, 73 de M & M

25/09/2013

Hello lunatics, this morning we had our first 9 cm event from Jersey and surprisingly enough we have heard our own echoes from the beginning on. Yesterday we have spent quite some time to optimise the feed position with sun noise and obviously we did it right. Our last 9 cm experiences during an EME DXpedition were from the Aland Isles with weak signals, but today most QSOs were quick and easy. We worked in CW: OK1CA, OK1KIR, DL7YC, PY2BS, G3LTF, PA3DZL, PA0BAT, W5LUA, K2UYH, OH2DG, LX1DB, LX1DB in SSB, G3WDG and Petra, G4KGC. We are very happy to have worked so many stations and again many of them as country firsts! Thank you very much to those who got up with us at ‘dark thirty’ (like that, Al!) and have set us a beacon from time to time! Did we ever mention that for each new successfully activated band during a DXpedition we enjoy a good Single Malt? So this was our third band to operate from here and tomorrow morning we hope to make it on the fourth band, but this will be very hard, because it will tricky 6 cm. When we worked on 6 cm last year from TK, the strength of our signal was borderline. So we optimised the feed position also on 6 cm with patience today, which differs a lot from the feed position in TK. Hopefully it will be better and not worse, hi. So please be patient with us, call us longer and give a string of your callsign, to identify the sound of the own call is much easier, hi. Tomorrow we will use the same callsign as today (but not for all bands in the next days, hi). We intend to start at 0400 UT on 5760.100 and will be also in the HB9Q logger (it is always Monika to manage that).Only problem just now is the rain here, because our set-up is not protected well against the rain. We have to use waste basket liners tomorrow morning…

73 de M&M

24/09/2013

Hello lunatics, we are happy to confirm, that we have activated this night the Isle of Jersey on 13 cm for the first time over the moon. Congrats to all stations who made their “country firsts”. We worked in CW: JA4BLC, PA3DZL, OZ4MM, OK1KIR, G3LTF, OK1KKD, ON5TA, CT1DMK, F1PYR, SM6CKU, SV3AAF, W5LUA, WD5AGO, PA3CSG, WA6PY, LX1DB, LX1DB (SSB, great signal, Willi!!), PA2DW. Despite the fact, that the dish is partly obstructed at moonrise, we have heard our own echoes from the beginning at 17 deg (earlier is problematic) until moonset, which is slightly obstructed by a tree in 275 degrees az.. For the first time we have a really luxurious holiday house with all comfort we can wish – and no bedbugs like in TK, no mice competing with us for bread, no huge spiders in the beds. Furthermore we are able to operate from the house, not from a well ventilated barn, hi. Due to the fact, that we didn´t get enough sleep during the last 2 nights we will change our timetable a little and intend to start tomorrow on 9 cm somewhat later. We will be qrv on 25 th of September from 0130 UT (with 30 deg moon) and we will tx on .100. Pse correct for the Doppler! We just optimised the position of the 9 cm feed with sun noise ( risky…) and hope to be spot on in the night. According the wish of a close friend we will try 6 cm earlier than previously announced, this means on Thursday, 26 th of September from 0400 UT on. We intend to use the big dish, knowing it is far from ideal shape. We will under-illuminate it, as the center of that sloppy something is more accurate. As we expect very small signals we will use the HB9Q logger like from TK. We can make skeds in beforehand, if you wish. That’s it for now, it is time for sightseeing!

73, M&M

23/09/2013

Hi gents, After nice qso's in the EU window we now take a nap. We will be back in the US window from 0500UT......and yes, with this call wsjt would go mad, so better Listen carefully and make the difference to computer games.

Hi gents, we are happy to have made it again to the moon for our 10th CW-EME-DXpedition; during the first activity session on 23 cm we worked the following stations: OK1kIR; VK3UM, OZ4MM, G4CCH, F5SE/p, JA4BLC, G3LTF; DJ9YW, I1NDP, LX1DB, HB9BBD, HB9Q, OK1CS, PA3CSG, G4RGK, IK2MMB, ON5TA, PA3FXB, PA0BAT, UA3PTW, W5LUA, SP7DCS, K2UYH, WA6PY, VE6TA, PA3DZL and at the end Peter LTF gave us another report, when calling CQ for a long time did not solicite any other taker. I hope it was fun for all to stir a little in the ‘alphabet soup’ (nice phrasing, Doug!) of callsign, of course, we knew it would make things harder for every one, but for tonight’s activity we can assure you we’ll use the same prefix ;-)

) Actually, British Ofcom has given us the freedom to chose from 3 possibilities…. Tonite, Monday 23 rd, we will be active on 13cm from 2200 UT on, as the moon needs to be @ 17° up to clear from most of the obstructions given by our holiday home. When there are no more takers from JA/EU we will go for a sleep, but definitely will be back for the US window from 0500 UT on. Our window to the West will close at approx. 0900 UT. We can RX on 2304, 2320 and 2424 MHz, (JA’s pse call long time, as WiFi QRM expected…) On Tuesday 24th we will give it a try on 9 cm, starting at 2300 UT, the US window opening at 0540 UT and closing at 0920 UT on Wednesday morning. For those who could not catch us during tonite’s 23 cm activity, we plan to be back on Friday nite 0020UT until 1100 UT. For smaller stations skeds are of course welcome, just drop us a line by mail.

73 de M & M

22/09/2013

Hi CW-EMEers, we arrived safely at the destination, started to set up the station yesterday and finished the dish 2day. As always, we have some obstructions to the East, our window will start no earlier than 2120ut 2day, 22nd of September. Means: Doug, you have to be VERY quick and we will be probably weak in the beginning, because the dish at that time will be partly obstructed by the house. The windows to EU and US should be ok, as the moon is pretty high in declination. We will be around 1296.045 in CW, spread out please, as we have SDR support, operated by 2nd OP Monika. If the station is still active and sound 2morrow, we ill update the start time for 13cm - this DXCC to our knowledge has never been on the moon on 13cm. We are worried by a naval radar very close by, on 23cm so far no QRM, but horn feeds look like S- or C-band radar, so we expect intererence on 13 or 9cm, hmmmm...

73 de M & M

08/09/2013

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