My very own echo - with 50W of power and 10 el. Yagi, no preamp - WOW !
I am definitely able to decode EME stations - this one was on "Ping Jockey" synchronously
My first JT65 QSO - terrestrial with my friend John WB9PNU across the Missouri river
My first QSO was Gary, KB8RQ from Ohio, USA
KB8RQ's QSL card for my very first EME contact
KB8RQ certainly is a "big gun" station. Following picture (published here with Gary's permission) shows his antenna system
One week later, another EME contact took its place in my log ! It was Sam, RN6BN from Russia
I used Motorola MICOR amplifier with 2x8560AS tuned down to 144 MHz for both QSOs. Output power 400W. My antenna was Cushcraft Yagi intended for FM (!) with gain just little bit over 10 dBd (!!!) as shown on following pictures. My transceiver is FT847.
This is the antenna I used for first decoding of moon-bounced signals - IT WORKED !!!
Wonderful ...
New antenna - M*square 12 el (2M12) - 13 dBd, even with elevation control
Currently used EME antenna .. a pair of 12el. M*square
20 January 2008
06:30-07:30 UTC - 6.7925 MHz
07:30-08:30 UTC - 7.4075 MHz
07:30-08:30 UTC - 7.4075 MHz
Link to the HAARP web site is here: http://www.haarp.alaska.edu
The HAARP transmitter transmitted for the first two seconds of the five seconds cycle. The next three seconds were quiet to listen for the lunar echo, then HAARP transmitted again for two seconds ... and the whole cycle repeated for the first hour on first frequency. During the second hour, this periodic five second cycle was repeated on the second frequency.
Transmissions bounced of the Moon were heard with 2 second delay, because the Moon is more than 300 000 km from the Earth, so radio signal needed 2 seconds to travel all the way to the Moon and back to our planet.
I participated on the test on January 20 using my FT-847 and a quarter-wavelength vertical antenna for 7 MHz band with one elevated radial pointing towards the Moon (approx. azimuth 279 deg.). Moon was high, elevation angle between approx. 55 deg. to 30 deg. during the experiment. Attached screenshots are from the WSJT software, commonly used for VHF EME.
I was able to copy the HAARP signal on both test frequencies. First picture shows the signal bounced of the Moon, the EME signal, not the terrestrial one, because the cycle started with 2 second transmittion, but my decode shows 2 second delay at the begin of every minute (signal was approx. 15 dB below noise level at the time of taking the first snapshot):
I was able to copy the HAARP signal on both test frequencies. First picture shows the signal bounced of the Moon, the EME signal, not the terrestrial one, because the cycle started with 2 second transmittion, but my decode shows 2 second delay at the begin of every minute (signal was approx. 15 dB below noise level at the time of taking the first snapshot):
I copied second signal, coming the usual, terrestrial way, without time delay couple of times during both test periods. Following picture shows it almost between the dashes of the first signal.
The second signal came through "terrestrial" path. Thanks to continuous change of distance between the Moon and the Earth, bounced signal came beck with its frequency shifted. This is known as the "Doppler effect" and calculated shift for that night and frequency was approximately 10 Hz (HAARP calculated 7 Hz). HAARP also published their power and gain calculations on their web site. It can be found here.
HAARP even sent me QSL card for my SWL report ! Note their huge HF antenna array on the picture ...
