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Non Frames version: http://www.qsl.net/g3pho

Frames version:          http://www.g3pho.org.uk

Index: Click on any news item

(They are arranged with the latest items at the top of the list...)

THIS MONTH'S  NEWS ITEMS

• UK 76GHz RECORD EXTENDED TO ALMOST 58KM
• JAPANESE OPERATORS SET NEW WORLD RECORD AT 75GHz
• 241GHz and  322GHz RECORDS SET BY USA MILLIMETRE MEN

RECENT NEWS ITEMS

• NORTH AMERICAN 47GHz RECORD EXTENDED BY EASTERN USA OPERATORS
• MORE 24GHz EME NEWS
• UK 47GHz DX RECORD PUSHED BEYOND THE 200km BARRIER
• NEW BRITISH 10GHz EME STATION
• NORTH AMERICAN 10GHz BROKEN BY MARITIME MOBILE STATION!
• 24GHz EME - TWO WAY CONTACT AT LAST AND A WORLD RECORD!
• OSCAR 40 SATELLITE DOWNLINK  24GHz NOW USABLE BY AMATEURS!
• NORTH AMERICAN 10GHz BROKEN BY MARITIME MOBILE STATION!
• 24GHz EME - TWO WAY CONTACT AT LAST AND A WORLD RECORD!
• OSCAR 40 SATELLITE DOWNLINK  24GHz NOW USABLE BY AMATEURS!
• FINNISH AMATEURS MAKE THEIR FIRST 76GHz CONTACTS
• FOOT & MOUTH DISEASE HITS UK MICROWAVING
• 24GHz EME -W5LU & VE4MA IN ON THE ACTION!
• UK 76GHz RECORD SMASHED YET AGAIN!
• NEW WORLD AND NORTH AMERICAN 76GHz RECORD
• NEW WORLD and  NORTH AMERICAN 145GHz RECORD

• NEWS ARCHIVES FROM 2000
• NEWS ARCHIVES FROM 1999NEWS ARCHIVES FROM 1998
• NEWS ARCHIVES FROM  1997

JAPANESE OPERATORS SET NEW WORLD RECORD AT 75GHz   On 16 November 2001, at 1310 Japanese standard time, JA1ELV/2, located in PM95JI, worked JA1KVN/1 in QM06BF, on 75GHz SSB for a new world record of 151 kilometres, just 6km more than that set up earlier this year by  Will, W0EOM and Bob,KF6KVG. JA1ELV/P was heard at RS45 while he copied JA1KVN/1 at RS43.   JA1ELV/1 had 3mW output to a 50cm dish and was located at just under 2000 metres asl on the side of Mt. Fuji. JA1KVN/1 had 1mW output to an 80cm dish and was located 296 metres asl on the the slopes of Mt. Tukuba. The low relative humidity (around 42%) and fine weather obviously helped a lot! This is a very fine achievment by our JA friends. Many congratulations to them both!     RETURN TO NEWS INDEX

241 & 322GHz DX RECORDS SET BY USA MILLIMETRE MEN
 

From: Brian Justin [wa1zms@worldnet.att.net] Sent: 15 December 2001 05:30 To: Microwave Reflector; Mgef; g3pho@geocities.com Cc: Brian Justin(home); Pete Lascell; wa4rts@arrl.net Subject: mm-Wave DX... Hi all and happy holidays- I'd like to claim what I believe are a pair of North American DX records for the upper two amateur radio allocations, that being 241GHz and 322GHz. At 01:45z on Dec 15th, 2001 a QSO was made between W2SZ/4 (op:WA1ZMS) and WA4RTS/4 on the 322GHz band over a whopping distance of .05Km. Both stations were located in FM07ji. I know it's not much as far as DX is concerned, but it's on par with DB6NT's 411GHz DX record and is a North American first for the >300GHz band, excluding light. About an hour later..... At 02:35z on Dec 15th, 2001 a QSO was made between W2SZ/4 (op:WA1ZMS), located at 37-21-13N 79-10-15W (FM07ji) and WA4RTS/4, located at 37-21-49N 79-10-19W (FM07ji) on 241GHz over a distance of 1.1Km. This is a North American first for the band and a new NA record at the same time. Both of the about QSOs were made using MCW and wideband FM IF receivers. Power output on 322GHz is estimated to be just a few microwatts while on 241GHz the power is a measured 0.75mW. The stations are constructed of 80.6GHz free running Gunn oscillators driving GaAs diode triplers (Univ of Virginia design) to give output on the 241GHz band. The triplers have a tiny amount of 4th harmonic output which was used for the 322GHz QSO.  Both stations use homebrew 6 inch parabolic dishes with hyperbolic sub-reflectors. It is hoped that the Gunns will be phase locked in the future allowing the use of narrow band modulation thus resulting in better DX. I'd like to also thank Pete, W4WWQ and Geep, WA4RTS for their help with tonight's QSOs. For those who want to see a couple of photos of the gear used for this week's 241/322GHz QSOs.  You can go to: www.mgef.org and follow the News link. There is also a .wav file of a portion of the 322GHz QSO. Signals on 240GHz were about the same, and so it took a few repeats to make the QSO. Modulation used was MCW. The primary problem is that the phase noise from the free running 80.6GHz Gunn source is so high to start off with, that the resulting signal after X3 multiplication is about 500KHz wide! The widest RX IF I had was 200KHz, so most of the signal power was outside the RX passband.  The hope is to get that under control some day by phase locking the Gunn sources to crystal oscillators. The guide that comes out of the X3 multipliers is WR-3. It's a whopping .03 x .015 inches!  I just let it over-mode when on 322GHz.  The real fun was in making the dishes and the sub-reflector feeds, making the mounts for the sub.  Lots of time spent in the machine shop. By the way, WR-3 is the smallest standard size waveguide in the WR series.  Anything higher in freq and you'll need to size your own! Many thanks for the reply e-mails from all and to John, K2JJB (the MGEF web page czar) for posting the info. 73, Brian, WA1ZMS wa1zms@arrl.net Webmaster comments: Fantastic stuff Brian ... many congratulations to both of you.   RETURN TO NEWS INDEX

UK 47GHz DX RECORD PUSHED BEYOND 200km BARRIER After months of constructional work and short-distance tests, a group of millimetre wave microwavers in the North of England have finally made what is likely to stand as the UK 47GHz DX record for a very long time. The following report is compiled from information received from Dave, G0IVA, to whom we offer our thanks. On Sunday, the 21st October, 2001, Paul, G0HNW and Martin, G7MRF, operating as GM0HNW/P and GM7MRF/p, made a 203km contact with Dave, G0IVA operating as GW0IVA/P.  David Hall, M0VZT, accompanied Paul and Martin to the Scottish end of the path but unfortunately was not able to make a two way contact with Wales. This is probably due to David's smaller dish. The path is approximately 90% over sea and is line-of-sight. Paul, Martin and David (M0VZT) were located on Cambret Hill (351m a.s.l.), Galloway,in S.W. Scotland, at National Grid reference NX523577(LOC: IO74UV34)while Dave, GW0IVA/P was some 1065 metres above sea level on a subsidiary summit of Mt. Snowdon, NGR SH611552 (LOC: IO73XB18). Apart from a short 100m section, the Scottish end was "drive on" but GW0IVA/P had to backpack all of his 24GHz, 47GHz and 144MHz equipment, plus batteries, dish antenna, food, and foul weather clothing, up to the top of the mountain. He was aided by Jeremy G6ZGP. The climb took some three and a half hours after setting off at 0900 local time. The photo below shows GW0IVA/P on the summit. David is an experienced mountain climber so he was well-equipped both physically and mentally for the conditions experienced on the top.     24GHz was used first and 59 reports using NBFM were exchanged both ways very quickly between GW0IVA/P and GM0HNW/P and GM7MRF/P. 47GHz was then tried; all three stations at GM end were using their 20mW beacon sources simultaneously. The GM0HNW/P and GM7MRF/P signals were heard very soon but not MM0VZT/P at this time. After some fine tuning of dish alignment CW exchanges were made 519/419 with GM0HNW/P and 419/519 with GM7MRF/P at 202.7km.  Further attempts were made to work 'VZT but although brief signals were heard at the GW end (319) no two way resulted unfortunately.  Operators at the Scottish end used common dishes for both bands, This allowed dish headings to be accurately set up on 24GHz and then swapping over dish feed horns and transverters for 47GHz. The local oscillators used ensured accuracy and stability to within a few hundred Hz at 47GHz. Equipment details: GW0IVA/P 24GHz: 0.5w, NE32584 LNA, DB6NT transverter 45cm dish. 47GHz: 20mW TX, DB6NT transverter, 30cm offset dish, W2IMU feedhorn. GM7MRF/P 24GHz: 0.4w, NE32584 LNA, DB6NT transverter 90cm dish with cassegrain reflector and W2IMU feedhorn. 47GHz: 20mW TX, DB6NT transverter, 90cm dish with cassegrain reflector and W2IMU feedhorn. GM0HNW/P 24GHz: 0.5w, NE32584 LNA, DB6NT transverter 90cm dish with cassegrain type reflector and W2IMU feedhorn. 47GHz: 20mW TX, DB6NT transverter, 90cm dish with cassegrainreflector and  W2IMU feedhorn. MM0VZT/P 47GHz: 20mW TX, DB6NT transverter, 30cmdish with cassegrain reflector and W2IMU feedhorn. At the GM end attention turned towards Sam GI8GJX/P who had gone out to try his 24/47 GHz transverters. On 24 GHz Sam heard a weak signal from GM0HNW/P and when Paul tried to resolve Sam's signal nothing was heard at all. Signals were sent back and forth but nothing else was heard on 24 GHz. The same story applied to 47 GHz ....ah well we can't win them all! Subsequent diagnosis by Sam revealed a faulty BFR91 in the local oscillator chain in the 24 GHz system and a loose cassegrain on the 47 GHz system (hidden behind a plastic radome). The weather conditions for this DX record were very "touch and go". The path was fortunately in the only rain free part of the UK that day! Deep fades were noticed 24GHz but, strangely, 47GHz signals seemed quite steady in comparison. At the GW end the weather was very poor throughout with cloud base at approx 600m (ie we were over 400m into cloud). Over the period of operation, the weather data for Snowdon summit was as follows, obtained from the Snowdon weather station archive: www.fhc.co.uk/weather/archive/ Temp 5 deg C Humidity 104% (!) Rainfall 0 mm/hour Mean wind speed 30 mph Gust wind speed 40 mph The high humidity, due to being in dense cloud (visibility no better than 10m), definitely would not have helped with signals at 47 GHz! The only good thing was that it did not actually rain, although everything got a good soaking because of the cloud. WX - GM end Temp 11 deg C Humidity 100% + meter was off the scale The conditions on arrival at the site were not to bad; the silhouette of the Isle of Man could be made out although cloud covered the higher ground on the island. Rain clouds could be seen in the middle distance. This contact was over what is almost the longest line-of-sight path available in the UK. The longest is from Cairnsmore of Carsphairn (about 42km to the north of Cambret Hill) to the summit of Snowdon in North Wales. This 245km path was worked in the mid 1980s on 10GHz wideband FM using open waveguide! Maybe it will go on 47GHz but, in view of the signal strengths experienced over the 203km path, the large 1m dishes will be essential at least at one end. The problem will be getting all the gear to the top of the 2,700 foot mountain... there is no road! This group of operators have recently completed 76GHz transverters, so watch this space for news of possible records on that band!      RETURN TO NEWS INDEX

NEW BRITISH 10GHz EME STATION
 
 

The UK is slowly but surely but surely increasing its numbers in the 10GHz EME field. The most recent convert is Brian Coleman, G4NNS, Some time ago he acquired a very nice 3.7m diameter dish, complete with mount and  rotating mechanism. In June this year he competed its installation. During the weekend 13/14 October this year Brian worked PA3CSG and W5LUA, together with QRZs from F6KSK and OK1WAU. He also heard several others. As yet he has only 9 watts output on the band but hears his own echoes quite reliably.

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After the news of the world's first 24GHz contact (see item after this), more and more operators around the world have been trying to hear the higher powered North American signals from VE4MA and W5LUA. First on the scene was Charlie Suckling, G3WDG who had already been receiving the AO40 satellite downlink on 24GHz. He knew his receiver set up should do the business with the EME on the same band. Here's his report:
 

G3WDG and G4KGC copied VE4MA and W5LUA on 24GHz!

Having had reasonable success with our 10ft Andrews  dish receiving the 24GHz signals from AO-40, we temporarily dismantled the AO-40 equipment and put the transverter  back on 24192, in readiness for the 24GHz EME tests organised by Barry VE4MA and Al W5LUA on 9/10 October. Unfortunately the tests on the 9th were outside our window, but an extra test arranged for the 10th allowed us to listen.

We  built a new feed for the dish, based on the VE4MA choke ring feed, but fed with waveguide.  The feed is identical to that used for AO-40, except that no polariser was used and the conical horn we have been using to under-illuminate it was replaced with a choke ring.

The hours before the EME test were spent optimising the position of the feed for best sun noise.  The position was quite critical - with the feed a few mm away from optimum the sun noise dropped by a dB! After an hour or so no further improvement could be obtained and we ended up with 13dB of sun noise (at an elevation of 19 degrees with a thin overcast).

Our dish mount does not allow elevations above 34.5 degrees, and we had to wait until 5 minutes before the test to see what level of moon noise could be achieved. The moon appeared right on queue, and once it was fully into the beam we measured ~ 1.8dB.  This is about the same as we see on 10GHz, and tracking thereafter was very easy, just keeping the moon noise peaked!

With G4KGC on the receiver and G3WDG handling the tracking, we were pleased to find VE4MA's signal quite easily, a few seconds into his transmit period.  During the 30 minute sked, we copied both stations, VE4MA at "O" level and W5LUA at "M" level, and heard them complete their second QSO of the morning.

We watched their signals on the computer also using the AE4JY AO40rcv software, which has an audio spectrum analyser display with waterfall.  The capture clearly shows the libration spreading widening  the signal (a clear tone would show up as a narrow line).

We have posted the AO40rcv capture and about a minute of audio on our website at www.g3wdg.free-online.co.uk

73

Charlie and Petra
 

Gunther, VE7CLD, has also been listening to VE4MA and W5LUA via the Moon on 24GHz as this email shows ....

Hi Barry and Al,
I heard your signals on the 9th of October at around 09:02 UTC for about half an hour as well as on the 10th of October at 10:31 UTC. I copied the callsigns as well as many R's,  N's and 73's. It was hard for me to copy, because I was busy keeping the dish on the moon. I also believe to have heard a signal on October 9th at 08:20 UTC. The frequency on my receiver indicated 24,196.133 MHz drifting to 24,196.115 MHz. Moon noise on both days was approximately 1.5 dB and the weather was cloudy on the second day. I recorded most of the contacts on audio tape. It was very exciting.

73,
Gunter   VE7CLD

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WORLD'S FIRST 24GHz TWO WAY EME CONTACT
 

Today August 18, 2001 at 14:19 UTC  VE4MA and W5LUA completed the first 24GHz EME QSO after exchanging M reports.

Signals were quite good with slightly less that the normal buzz experienced at 10 GHz.

Weather at VE4MA was cool & clear while at W5LUA it was hot , cloudy  and humid.  The clouds and the moon's proximity to the sun made optical tracking impossible and thus keeping our antennas pointed at the moon was difficult.

VE4MA was using 60 Watts at the feed of an offset fed 8 ft dish & W5LUA had 80 Watts at the feed of his 10 ft dish.

More later

73
Barry VE4MA
 

CONGRATULATIONS TO BOTH OF YOU! .. Peter, G3PHO, webmaster.
 

     RETURN TO NEWS INDEX

OSCAR 40 SATELLITE DOWNLINK  24GHz NOW USABLE BY AMATEURS!

AO40's 24GHz downlink is now working well and has been used by several microwavers around the world. Stations known to be using the downlink (uplinking on 23cm or 432MHz) are W5LUA, G3WDG, DB6NT and G0HNW. We believe it is actually getting the uplink signals from the 2.4GHz equipment so many folk using the S band mode may not be aware that they are also be re-transmitted on 24GHz. Many of us may already have suitable equipment to receive this millimetre band downlink ... a standard 24GHz DB6NT mixer with 3 or 4 stage DN6NT preamplifier should do the trick. Dishes need not be very big, certainly not up to EME standards. So why not give it a go?

The following email from Al Ward W5LUA will give you all the necessary details ..

From: WARD,AL (A-SanJose,ex1)
[al_ward@agilent.com]
Sent: 03 October 2001 03:31

Subject: AO-40 24048MHz K Band Operation at W5LUA

AO-40 24048MHz K Band Operation at W5LUA

At 0715 GMT on October 1, I was able to receive the 2404 MHz beacon from AO-40. AO-40 was situated at an elevation of about 7 degrees and an azimuth of about 265 degrees. I followed the beacon until about 0752GMT when the elevation of AO-40 was less than 0.5 degree. The beacon peaked at 7dB over the noise in a 2.4 kHz bandwidth. There was several dB of fading on the
beacon.  I am using a MACOM 2 ft dish with horizontal polarity at 65 ft (This is my 24GHz tropo system). Azimuth control is via an M2 rotator with 0.1 degree readout. I can elevate up to 16 degrees  with a small actuator. Even though I was not prepared to accurately measure frequency, it appeared to be approximately 24048.081MHz initially and continuously decreased to
about 24048.055 MHz before setting at my QTH. My noise figure measures 3.0dB with an Agilent Technologies HMMC-5023 LNA mounted at the antenna. My normal sun noise with this system is 3 dB over cold sky.

I use my normal 24192MHz transverter with some modifications. For 24192MHz I use a dual conversion scheme which normally down-converts 24192MHz down to approximately 1994 MHz and then further down-converts to 144MHz. The dual conversion scheme offers greater image rejection because of the high first IF frequency. When receiving 24048 MHz, the first IF now becomes
approximately 1850MHz which I then pass on to a second mixer with a 1706MHz LO which then provides the 144MHz IF.

While listening to the beacon and passband at 24048MHz, I ran across JA1UK and I had a short QSO with him. I made the assumption that the normal Mode-S passband was also operational at this time so the JA station was probably not aware that I was receiving him on 24048MHz.

That's a short report from Allen Texas.

Best DX

Al Ward
W5LUA
EM13QC
October 1, 2001
 
 

FINNISH AMATEURS MAKE THEIR FIRST 76GHz CONTACTS

From: Michael Fletcher [michael.fletcher@oh2aue.pp.fi]
Sent: 22 April 2001 20:43

Just a brief note to tell you of our latest conquest here in Finland: Ilkka, OH1KHH/P and myself, OH2AUE/P, established first ham radio contacts on the 76 GHz band on the 19th of April this year. A couple of days later we extended our workbench QSO to 1 km with 52/54 rEports. This is a VERY Interesting band propagationwise ;-)

There is more info, photos and sound file on my website at:

www.oh2aue.pp.fi/e_test

I have also dedicated a page to my good friend, Masa, JA1ATI,
and his excellent equipment for 47 and 76GHz at:

www.oh2aue.pp.fi/ja1ati.htm

Masa has recently achieved 50 mW multiplied crystal controlled power at 76 GHz !!! With his 45.7 dBi antenna, this computes
to almost 2 kW EIRP...
 

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The Foot and Mouth disease epidemic sweeping the UK's farming areas has severely curtailed most outdoor activities in rural areas. Hiking, mountain biking, horse racing and many other sports have been restricted across the whole of the British Isles in an effort to stop the spread of the disease among cattle, pigs and sheep. National Parks and other hilly and mountainous regions of the country are, at the time of writing this in mid-March, are virtually closed to visitors.

From the microwavers' aspect these restrictions have stopped all portable operation from the popular high sites in the countryside. With the summer UK Microwave Contest programme due to start in mid April there now seems little chance of being able to operate portable unless high sites in urban areas are available. We advise all portable operaters to avoid rural locations and operated from home if possible ... otherwise find a good site remote from any farmland. Whatever happens,  we hope the "show will go on" and that the contests will be activated as much as possible.

A couple of well-known UK microwavers, Bob G3GNR and Simon G3LQR are both located on farms. We gather neither has any animal stock but there are restrictions on general movement around their regions. Bob is very near the site of one outbreak of the disease and has already had the very unpleasant experience of seeing the burning of a neighbour's slaughtered farm animals.

As microwavers we have only a minor inconvenience to put up with in relation to the problems faced by the UK 's farmers. They, in addition to the many other industries connnected with the countryside (tourism, outdoor pursuits, etc),  are facing a bleak future. Let us given them our full support by keepig away from their land until the problem is over.
 
 

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SOME REMARKABLE NEWS HAS JUST COME IN FROM THE USA ....

Al, W5LUA has finally heard his own echoes on the 12mm band while Barry, VE4MA has heard Al's echoes as well! Our congratulations go to both operators. We are now looking forward to hearing news of a two-way contact one of these days! The details shown below are from recent emails sent out by both operators.

As a side comment ... listening for 24GHz EME should not be too difficult for many of us. The 8 foot dish and low noise preamp used by VE4MA is within many amateurs' capabilities these days. Why not take a look at the Moon yourself and see if you can hear Al? Of course if you want to make a QSO then you are going to need a PA bigger than only a few mortals can afford at the present time!
 

FROM AL WARD W5LUA:

My first lunar echoes on 24 GHz by W5LUA

I was finally able to hear and record my first earth-moon-earth echoes on 24192.1MHz at 0816 GMT on March 7, 2001. My antenna is a 3 meter Andrews prime focus dish. According to Andrews, the 3 meter dish is rated to 30GHz with proper back structuring to optimize the dish's surface. The dish really began to perform when I added a back structure which looks like a tic-tac-toe board mounted to the backside of the dish. The eight points of the back structure allowed me to optimize the dish's surface by pushing or pulling on the back of the dish to enhance the accuracy of the dish's surface. The end result was improved sun and moon noise. I presently receive 12.dB of sun noise and 1.3 dB of moon noise. My feed is a scalar feed optimized per the "W1GHZ On-Line Antenna Handbook". My dish has an F/D of 0.3.

My LNA is a 2 stage W5LUA homebrew design using a pair of Agilent Technologies PHEMT devices which provided a 2.25dB system noise figure. My basic transverter is built around surplus 23GHz modules which down-converts to a 2304MHz IF which is then down-converted to a 144MHz IF with a Down East Microwave  transverter to an ICOM IC-271 transceiver. I was able to achieve about 20 watts at 24192MHz by re-tuning a Varian VTU-6191 14.5GHz TWT which I have been using on 10GHz EME at about 80 watts output. Re-tuning consisted of lowering the Helix voltage and doing some tuning in the output waveguide section.

I was using Mike Owen's Realtrak Software to track the moon. I was concerned about the accuracy of the doppler calculation of the various moon tracking programs which I have used in the past. With an expected doppler of up to 50kHz, there is not a lot of margin for error when tuning for echoes.  I ran some echo tests on 10368MHz and came to the conclusion that Mike's software was the most accurate at 10368MHz.  I therefore placed my confidence in his software at 24192MHz. Based on the doppler shift of the received echoes, I believe Mike's software predicted the returns within a few hundred Hz. On the evening of March 6 local time I had just installed my elevation rotator which allowed me to remote operate the dish from the hamshack.

Previous attempts at echoes were with all equipment mounted in a shed near the dish. I had tried for echoes prior to zenith but only thought I had heard echoes. Some clouds were beginning to cover the moon so I decided to set my alarm clock for about 2AM and give it a shot on the setting moon. First discernable echoes were heard at 0816 GMT with the moon at an azimuth of 268.8 degrees and an elevation of 38.8 degrees. The doppler shift at this time was a negative 45.3kHz. Echoes peaked very well at 0848GMT where the elevation was down to 31.5 degrees and the doppler shift was a negative 49.1 degrees. At this point, I ran out of azimuth control with my present set-up.

My lunar echoes peaked Q5 (M copy) in a 2kHz bandwidth and were easily identifiable on AF9Y's DSP software. This triumphant event came after several years of optimizing the system and many failed attempts at achieving lunar echoes. I was rather surprised to find that the echoes did not seem to be much broader than my 10GHz echoes, maybe due to the 0.3 degree beam-width of my dish. More information including the AF9Y .gif files will be posted on the North Texas Microwave Society web page at www.ntms.org.
Now to make a QSO!

Best 73
Al Ward
W5LUA
EM13QC
Allen, Texas
March 7, 2001

FROM BARRY, VE4MA:

Tonight (10 March, 2001) at about 04:30 UTC March 10 the 24GHz EME signals of W5LUA were heard at VE4MA. Signals were weak at both ends. Al's signal here was T-M copy.

I am using an 8ft offset (14 /12GHz) dish with a "large" diameter W2IMU feed into a DB6NT preamp at 1.55dB NF. I see 15 dB on Sun noise and 2.3dB of moon noise. I had no visual moon because of clouds, but this does not appear to have affected the moon noise. The beamwidth of the antenna appeared to be slightly less critical with clouds than with clear sky.

The WX here was about -1deg C (warm spell!)and about 80% humidity with snow expected overnight.

And now to make a QSO ...

Best 73
Barry VE4MA

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UK 76GHz RECORD SMASHED AGAIN!

From Peter Blakeborough, G3PYB we have the following interesting account of the latest UK record on 76GHz .... 52km

Temperature 12deg C, RH 36% , Pressure 1001, two hilltops plus a woolly hat, and warm gloves, and a Life Boat jumper.

What does it mean?

Just some of the ingredients for an attempt at the UK 76GHz record, and it worked!

G8ACE ventured to a site near Walbury Hill (IO91GI) and G3PYB used a location just south of Buster Hill (IO90MX) for the Sunday 28th January 2001 test. John G8ACE used a 47GHz source on a small horn to pilot the path to Butser, with G3PYB using a 45cm offset dish and a DB6NT transverter only. Alignment of the dishes was completed in minutes with enough signal for smooth noise in an FM bandwidth.

Both stations then sighted across the dish face to optically  set up the separate dishes for 76GHz. John's 76GHz 8mW source mounted on a 30cm cassegrain fed dish was found only 1deg off beam and  in only a few minutes. G3PYB's dish was also a 30cm cassegrain type with a DB6NT transverter running in Rx mode.

After careful alignment G3PYB obtained a 5/8 signal over the 52km path and could take FM for the report from John G8ACE.

Both stations had separate TX and RX /transverter equipment. The reverse test was rapidly completed  with John giving a 5/7report, both stations having some signal margin in hand..

Our final test was to try the 52km path on tranverter to transverter. G3PYB found John's 40 microwatt signal immediately. The near to threshold, CW would just be OK but the SSB signal was not positively identified. John could not copy Peter's transverter-only signal, which is believed to be less than 40 microwatts output.

It would have been very difficult to find the transverter-only signal without the benefit of the relatively high power IMPAT multipliers on the TX side.

Thanks must go to John for his help in aligning the DB6NT mixer and multiplier sections.

Frequency stability was excellent using stabilized ovens. However, the small hole in the 100MHz source was enough to cause a 2 to 3kHz rapid frequency change in sympathy with the wind! This was resolved by  wrapping the whole rig in a Filey Life boat jumper!!

73 to all microwavers, from Peter Blakeborough G3PYB

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NEW WORLD AND NORTH AMERICAN 76GHz RECORD

On Feb. 1, at 12.20 local time,  Will  W0EOM/6 worked Bob, KF6KVG/6 on 76 GHz. Bob was near Loma Prieta mountain, California, at the QTH of  Dave, W6NL, grid sq CM97BC.

Will was on Mt. Vaca, grid CM88WJ, accompanied by Gary, AD6FP. Mid-grid to mid-grid distance is 145 km, a new World and N.A. record. The weather was calm, mild, and hazy.

Signal margins were 1 to two S units with fades.

Bob had a 12 in dish with 1 mw.  Will had an 18 in dish, 5 mw. power.

PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND HERE:  http://home.pacbell.net/val_gary/ad6fp.html

73,  Will
 

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NEW WORLD and USA 145GHz  DISTANCE RECORD

(Photos courtesy of WA1ZMS, via WA5VJB ...many thanks)

After setting a new North American 145GHz record of 34km on Nov. 6th 2000, Brian Justin WA1ZMS/4 and Geep Howell WA4RTS/4 increased the distance on 145GHz to a world record of 61km!

The following email from Brian tells all.....

From: Brian Justin (EUS) [EUSBDJ@am1.ericsson.se]
Sent: 02 January 2001 14:57
To: 'webmaster@g3pho.free-online.co.uk'
 

Hi all and Happy New Year.... I would like to start the New Year off by claiming a new World, as well as North American, DX record for the 145GHz band.    On Jan 1st, 2001 at 23:22z,  W2SZ/4 worked WA4RTS/4 on 145GHz over a distance of 61Km. W2SZ/4 was operated by myself WA1ZMS from FM07fm (37-31-4N 79-30-40W).    WA4RTS/4 was located in FM08ia (38-2-57N 79-18-37W). The distance calculated based on actual lat/long is 61.6Km.The distance calculated based on centers of the 6 digit grids is 59.7Km.    The weather at the time of the QSO was 15F an 60% RH at the FM07fm end. No weather data was taken for the FM08ia end, but the temp was around 25F. The atmospheric losses were calculated to be around .27dB/Km.    Equipment used was the same gear that set the former North American record on Nov. 6th, 2000. This produces 5 milliwatts output of cw/ssb. The accompanying photos show the gear at W2SZ/P.

Some changes to the feed system of one dish gave the extra signal margin needed to extend the record to the 61Km mark.  The addition of Rubidium standards to each station also helped by practically eliminating any frequency error. As with the last North American record, we've reached the 0dB S/N limit of one station, so further DX will require much work on the stations themselves.     I left my audio recording gear at home, so no *wav files are available.     Pete, W4WWQ and John, N4QWF helped during this rather cold rover effort and photos taken by Pete of a test QSO earlier in the day as well as photos from FM07fm are available at:  http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=995403&a=10714084 73, Brian Justin, WA1ZMS

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