Nice TROPO Propagation on 10GHz

We have experienced nice Tropospheric radio propagation here in the Midwest of the United States of America. Many stations made unusually long contacts on HAM Radio bands from VHF to SHF frequencies. I was lucky too .. made my longest 10GHz contact so far (842km - 526 miles):

Mike MK0T confirmed our contact by sending his QSL card

Back side of Mike's QSL card

Mike finished setting up antennas on his tower just days before the event

I have made contacts with others too, this card is from Gedas,
contact was over 509 km (318 miles)

More details about our activities with more pictures can be found here and here.

Even more 10GHz DX

Worked Gedas W8BYA using Rain Cell mover Iowa. The distance of 576km (360 miles) is currently my 10GHz record.

More success on 10GHz

I am happy to show several more QSL cards for QSOs on 10GHz:

W8BYA

Rain Scatter - 515 and 519 km (322 and 324 miles)

WB0LJC

Direct Tropo 322 km (202 miles)

W0ZQ

Direct Tropo 318 km (199 miles)

Rain Scatter on 10 GHz

We have made a bi-directional contact with W8BYA in Indiana, over 500km away on 10 GHz using Rain Scatter propagation. That's my current record on 10 GHz:

Microwave season again

The microwave season is back. I will attend several ham radio contests as usual. Also try to make some microwave contacts outside of contests. Note that for ham radio purposes, "microwaves" are all legal ham radio bands from 900 MHz up in frequency.

We have tried for TROPO propagation on 10 GHz between St. Peters (MO) EM48qs and Ft. Wayne (IN) EM70jt this morning at 7:00am CDT. Me (Herbert) AF4JF on one site and Gedas W8BYA on the other. About 335 miles (539 km). We didn't make a radio contact. It was too late in the day, the Sun was too high. It was also too early in the season. We will keep trying as long as needed.

I am set up for all ham radio microwave bands except 76 and 240 GHz now. Currently obtained new 2.4 GHz station from SG Lab in Bulgaria (click for details). Most of my activities this year will be carried out from the location I used today. It's a St. Charles County Park called College Meadows (click for details). This park opens at 7:00am and closes 30 min after sunset, but the gate stays open. The rangers and police from nearby college campus tolerate visitors when it's not dark. I have been walking my dog there as soon as 5:30 am. However, we do not want to wear out our welcome there, so activities in the dark without permission are out of question.

Several pictures attached:

View in direction of 60 deg. (NE)

My dog Darcey watching the equipment

My 10 GHz station set up

My car in the parking lot (empty this early in the day)

More 122 GHz success

This "news" is actually not new. It happened in December 2020. I have just received the QSL card from Harry WA0CNS. We have made first ham radio contact on 122GHz between the U.S. states of Missouri and Illinois.

This contact crossed a line-of-sight distance of 7.67km (4.76mile). The atmospheric conditions were not all that great. The relative humidity was still too high:

• temperature 3.6 deg. C

• dew point -5.2 deg. C

• pressure 1005.2 mBar

• humidity 51.1 %

• wind speed 2.4 m/s

Signal from Harry was S9 with QSB to S5. Herbert's signal was much weaker on Harry's side (Herbert uses a 21 dB horn antenna while Harry has a dish).

Another achievement - Geocaching

 

Contest results

I am not really attending contests to win, more for fun and to test the technology. However, it feels good to receive certificates like this one:

Success with Ham Radio on 122GHz

Harry WA0CNS and myself went outdoors to play with our new 122GHz units (about 500 microW of output power, 19dBi horn antenna on my side) on Saturday, November 7, 2020. We managed to make full contact using CW signals (Morse code) across the distance of 5.2 km (3.2 mile):

This frequency is extremely difficult, signal propagation depends heavily on moisture in the air. In theory, it should work better during winter months. We will keep trying for longer distances!

Some pictures of the stations used:

More details about our attempts on this contact can be found here (click on the link).

73 Herbert

Hiking with my dog - Klondike Park, MO

I have been active recently. After our dog Darcey recovered from knee surgery and heart worms treatment (!!), she is finally able to hike with me. We have been going to several parks around Saint Louis. One of the nicest places certainly is the Klondike Park.

Here are two maps of the area:

There also are several videos on YouTube. I like this one.

Several more pictures:

The scenic overlook on the top of the cliff certainly is a good location for microwave operation, but there is a minor challenge - the entry road is blocked by a beam gate. Means that all the radio equipment would have to be carried about 1/3 mile up the hill. I will try that some day ...

Inventor Forge Maker Space

As I have posted in November, I became a member of the local Maker Space organization. That membership gives me access to big machine shop equipment, such as mill and lathe, lasers and CNC machines. Here is some basic information in case others would be interested:

Note that we have Open House every Thursday starting 6:00 pm. The picture above shows our address and some contact info.

PF 2019

My wife and me wish you Happy Holiday and very successful year of 2019, without medical trouble and stress, full of fun!

Maker Space

Wow,  I see that I haven't posted anything for a long time again ... been busy with my job duties. Maybe a little lazy at times.

Some of our microwave activities are captured on the BARS blog site.

However, I have recently discovered a place just around the corner from my house (closer than the closest pub) where I can do most of the mechanical work on my projects. Even some of the electrical. Here is more info about the place.

I am getting trained in using all the metal working equipment (lathe, mill, CNC machines ...). There are many Ham Radio related projects that depend on access to these things. I will try to catch up in publishing and show some of the results here.

In the mean time, you can go to the link posted above and read some details. You can also find a list of other maker spaces there ... maybe you will be as lucky as I was and find a similar place in your backyard?

73 Herbert

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2018

Finally Some Radio-Activity!

I have finally returned from a set of business trips. My job currently seems to be slowing down, looks like I will finally have some time for my ham radio hobby.

I have installed my 23cm looper antenna (still on temporary pole, but operational). Hope to set up more antennas before the ARRL VHF contest next month!

We have already attempted to test this antenna with KO0Z (full report here). 

73 Herbert

Bi-State Amateur Radio Society

New group of HAMs, calling themselves "BARS" (Bi-State Amateur Radio Society), has been founded in the Missouri - Illinois area. You can find some basic info on their blog site.

The BARS have a simple mission - to enjoy our hobby. BARS will support new technologies, such as microwave and optical communications, digital television, even digital modes and packet radio on all frequencies incl. HF, with emphasis on microwaves.

Herbert

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017

Hope you scatter joy and happiness wherever you go all 365 days of the upcoming year and get the same in return. Happy New Year to you!

Boys with Toys 2

My last posting was about using my RIGOL Spectrum Analyzer with frequency range up to 1.5GHz to show characteristic of a 10GHz filter. That little test made me wonder if I can use the same Spectrum Analyzer to display a signal in the 10GHz range on that analyzer. Obviously, I have to mix the signal down below 1.5GHz using a transposing signal from another synthesizer.

I have used my 24GHz transverter with 11.88GHz local oscillator, because that signal is conveniently fed to a connector on the transverter's front panel. The same mixer from my previous test (IF range only 0-150MHz) was used for the first test today:

Yes! It really works! My ELCOM on the left side is programmed to 10.805GHz (+13dBm) and the gray transverter on the right side delivers 11.88GHz (+10 dBm). Difference of these two signals is exactly 1.075GHz which is what we see on the analyzer. What we also see is the signal level below -40dBm. Hmm ...

I have tried to "zoom in" and changed the RBW ratio on my RIGOL from 1MHz to 300kHz. Signal still looks nice and clean, just not too strong:

Can we do something about the attenuation? Of course we can. I tried 3 things:

• Find better flexible cables
• Replace flexible cables by Semirigids
• Use different mixer

Luckily, I have bought good sized bundle of these flexible black cables with SMA connectors cheap on eBay. Maybe I could find some better pieces in that bundle? Tried and ... the signal strength improved +30dB:

Wow! This is almost perfect! Maybe Semirigids will make it even better:
 

Hmmm, not too much. Only about 2dB. Surprising, really. These black cables are RG-178 which is OK but not as good as semirigid, at least in theory. Whatever ... let's try another mixer:

Nice! Improvement about 8dB! This mixer has IF range 0-2GHz, but it has apparently been exposed to salty water somewhere. I have bought it cheap on eBay. Lets try better one:

No surprise here, less than 2dB below zero. This mixer behaves as expected. Note that I am feeding it LO signal 11.88GHz about +10dBm and the test signal is 10.8GHz about +13dBm. My RIGOL has internal attenuator of 10dB, so the conversion loss in this case is 13 - (10-2) = about 5dB. That is certainly very acceptable!

My next test will be with a Harmonic Mixer (same thing, but the mixer will generate harmonics from a strong base signal to be able to display higher frequencies, such as 24GHz). But that will be the topic for some other day.

73 Herbert
AF4JF