432 MHz MHz AND ABOVE EME NEWS

SEPTEMBER 1997 VOL 25 # 11

ALLEN KATZ, K2UYH
Editor

ENGR DEPT., THE COLLEGE OF NEW JERSEY, TRENTON, NJ 08650-4700 (W 609-490-2817
OR H 443- 3184, FAX 609-443-1713, AND EMAIL Allen Katz, K2UYH

PRODUCTION ASSIST: TOM KIRK, KA2VAD (908-521-2049).

SKEDS CORD & DIRECTORY: DL4EBY/DK0TU, KLAUS TIEDEMANN,
HALSKESTR.35, D-12167 BERLIN, (49-30-7955467), E-Mail: Klaus Tiedemann.

***E-MAIL LIST CORD: Scott KD4LT***

*** NA EME BBS: 704-284-4854 ***

EME NETS

14.345 KHz at 1600 Z SAT/SUN

CONDITIONS

I think G3LTF said it best this month: "The Moon was keeping very unsociable hours this time and the activity was not too high ... but conitions overall were good especially at night and fading was slow on 432 especially." I found signal quality very "pleasurable" And at least during the common Eur-NA window active on 1296 quite good. The population on 23 cm has grown to the point were it is giving 70 cm some competition. In Sept we have the Italian EME Contest coinciding with the SW. This should be a good warm up for the ARRL EME Contest on 18-19 Oct and 15-16 Nov. These dates also correspond to the regulars SWs.

8th 432 MHz AND ABOVE EME CONFERENCE
PARIS 98 NEWS

The dates are confirmed. We have booked the conference halls and selected several hotels. The conference will be held in Paris City. The pre-registration is still small and we hope that the number will increase quickly. If some people are not sure they can come, still pre-register but include the probability of attendance in the pre-registration sheet. Pre-registration is very important as it will help us get the best prices. Moreover, if a lot of people want to join the conference without pre-registration, we might not be able to accommodate them - Paris is a highly popular place and there will be the Football World Cup in July 98. Pre- registration will be closed at the beginning of Oct 1997. We are now able to give more price information: Friday - about 200 FF including dinner, conference hall, video and slide projection ... (extra charge for the rooms, see below). Saturday - about 550 FF including official opening, proceedings, lectures, lunch, special dinner. Sunday - about 350 FF including the Nangay radio telescope visit, lunch in the Nangay area, debriefing, open forum (free speaking), return to Paris and fini. The ladies program is the same cost as regular registration: Friday - dinner together and free time. Saturday - tours in Paris, lunch together, shopping and special dinner together. Sunday - visit of a castle (Versailles or Loire river), lunch, return to Paris and the end of the conference. The cost of a room will be about 400 FF per night in a double room for 2 people (about 200 FF per person) and about 300 FF in a single room for 1 person including breakfast and tourist tax. It will be possible to book some nights before or after the conference, if you ask for it on the pre- registration sheet or by mail. We will accept registration only for the amateurs and their family, who will attend the conference. The pre- registered people will have the priority in the case of overbooking. The official registration will open in Jan 98 with your deposit payment (30%) due before March 98. We must pay 30% of the conference fee 5 months before the conference to book the conference hall, restaurant and rooms. After March 98, persons who wish to join the conference can be registered (with a deposit payment of 30%), but there may not have sufficient space left (mainly for the hotel rooms). The registration deadline is 15 June 98. All registered people must pay the last 70% before this date (15 June 1998). After this deadline, the conference fee will increase by 20% if space is still available (no overbooking). You have 3 ways to pre-registration: 1) Send the pre-registration sheet (see July NL) by mail to: Olivier LE CAM (F5MZN), Citi Victor Hugo, app 1214 - A2, 95200 SARCELLES. 2) Fax the pre-registration sheet to TCAR, Jean Jacques MAINTOUX (F1EHN) @ 33 1 30 67 87 86. 3) Connect to our WWW site at:
PARIS EME 98

(This site is held by F5MZN)

You can get more details by sending mail or e- mail to: Hervi BIRAUD (F5HRY), 37 rue Pierre Brossolette, 91600 SAVIGNY SUR ORGE, FRANCE, or tel: 33 1 69 96 68 79. Hervi had a big thunderstorm which broke nearly everything in his shack on 7 Aug. He needs to replace nearly everything, and thus his e-mail might not be available for a few months. If you sent recent e-mail which did not receive a reply, please re-send to one on the following list:
F1EHN
F5MZH
F6DLA
The pre-registration list (as of 15 July 97) included: CT1DMK
DD1XF
DF6NA
F1EHN
F5FLN
F5HRY
F5MZN
F6DLA
F5PAU
G4CCH
G4ERG
G4RGK
JA4BLC
JH3EAO
K1IM
K1RQG
K2RIW
K2UYH
KD4LT
N6BQ (ex AA6WI)
N8XA
NA4N
OE5JFL
ON5RR
ON6JY
OZ4MM
S56UUU
UR5LX
VE1ALQ
VE4MA
W6/SM0PYP
ZS6AXT

DH5NAH

Klaus is QRV on 70 cm EME with 4 x 23 el (FLEXA) yagis, 500 w PA (TH308) and 0.4 dB NF LNA (SSB-Electronic) from JN59cp. Klaus' e-mail address is DH5NAH, Klaus He is interested in skeds.

G3ERG

Peter reports quite a productive weekend -- My initial count has started to move again. I worked on 2 Aug JH4JLV (M/M) for initial #70. There was a good level of activity over the 23/24 Aug SW and I added F5FEN (549/449), OZ4MM (559/449) #71, G3LTF (549/439), KA0RYT (O/M) #72, DF3RU (559/449), JA5OVU (559/539), #73, JA2KRW (449/549) #74, JA9BOH (O/O) #75, JH4JLV (M/M) and K0RZ (549/449), nil in sked with NA4N, CWNR W5ZN and G3HUL. Also heard were 7M2PDT, EA3DXU, DL3EAG, S52CW, DL9KR, UA6LGH, PA3CSG, SM2CEW, I5CTE and K5MXN [?]. Heavy rain present during the weekend only appeared to have a small de-tuning effect on my array (VSWR 1.3). I have nearly completed a new HV supply for my RIW PA. So hopefully I should have a 2/3 dB bigger signal by the next SW. Skeds are always welcome via e-mail at: Peter, G3ERG or the NL.

G3LTF

Peter writes -- The moon was keeping very unsociable hours this time and the activity was not too high, better on 1296 than 432. The gear worked fairly well, after repairing a burned out connector on my 1.75" coax by building a new one at 6 AM! On 432, I worked on 22 Aug F5FEN and JA5OVU, on 23 Aug at 0500-1000 I worked N9AB, DL9NDD, OZ4MM, DL9KR, G4ERG, DF3RU, KA0RYT, G3HUL, DF9QX for initial #316 and DL4KG #317, and on 1296 between 0730 - 1000 K5JL, OZ4MM, OH2AXH, W2UHI, HB9BBD, EA6ADW, K2UYH, SM2CEW, DJ9YW, ON5RR, F5PL and WA8WZG. Heard but not worked on 1296 were EA3UM, DD1XF, VE1ALQ and VE3BQM. Conditions overall were good especially at night and fading was slow on 432 especially.

HB9BBD

Dominic has been very busy working on his new 30 m dish. He is assembling a new set of equipment for the new station. Everything has been tested except for the xverter. Dominic hopes to have the dish mounted by early Sept. He won't be QRV in time for the ARRL EME Contest this year with the big dish, but maybe by the end of the year. His plan is operate the new dish under the call HB9BBD and his home station under the HB9CW club station call. Dominic had to fly all the equipment in via helicopter, 2.2 tons. The max for the helicopter was 2.4 tons. Everything is there now. He is using 5 mm mesh to cover the 1st 6 m of the dish and 10 mm mesh for the rest of the dish. Dominic was in NA for 4 weeks on a family vacation. He traveled from Canada to the US west coast, to New Orleans, to New York and then home.

HB9SV

Rico announces that in '97 he has added 2304 to his 432 and 1296 EME capabilities. He has an 8 m dish, 100 w PA and 0.6 dB NF LNA. In Oct he will add receive for 2320 and 2424 for cross-band operation.

JA4BLC

Yoshiro relates his experience concerning missing ARRL Contest logs. I experienced a computer problem earlier this year which forced me to re-install all my software. As a result, I lost all my past e-mail and computer logs. Thus there is no file which certificates my transmission of a contest log to the ARRL. The address I sent the logs to is not certain. It was probably to KR1R, contest manager. I sent the logs just a week after the Nov contest finished. As I have no material evidence I did not contact ARRL to bother them about my missing logs. My experience is very similar to that of Lars, SM4IVE and certainly adds confirmation to his case. It is quite a pity I could not get a certification award from ARRL as I have gotten one every year for a long while.

JA9BOH

Kimio has not been too active on 70 cm lately, but was glad to add initials on 15 March with WA8WZG for #281, 10 July CT1DMK #282, and on 24 Aug G4ERG #283. Kimio is particularly interested in skeds with HP3XUG, KL7HFQ and W5ZN after the contest. He can be reached at: Kimio, JA9BOH or tel/fax 81-779-65-6059.

JH3ERQ

Mac received a preparatory license for 10 GHz EME from the Japanese Radio Authority in Aug -- After an official inspection of my equipment, I can be QRV on 3 cm. Based on past cases, once a preparatory license (for high power operation) is issued, there has been no problem in getting a permanent one. Once this license is issued, it should be very easy for others to get a similar license. The remaining problem is that 10.368 GHz is NOT allocated for use by amateurs here. 10.450 GHz is the frequency. We would like world 10 GHz EMEers to prepare for the cross frequency QSOs - as is done on 13 cm. I have a G3WDG trans- verter already and a 1.8 m dish ready to put up. I plan to repair a salvaged TWTA, but getting it to work may be difficult. If anyone has a spare TWTA for C or X band, or knows the source of a usable power amp (> 50 w), please let me know. My e-mail address is Mac, JH3ERQ

K1FO

Steve found 70 cm signals during the July activity weekend again good for summertime conditions. Activity was light but he couldn't quite make it out of bed early enough for the Eur window. Stations worked this time were on 26 July N9AB, on 27 July JA50VU, and on 17 Aug KA0RYT. He was at the NEWS Group VHF Conference during the activity weekend and had little time to operate. He did work on 24 Aug JA5OVU and on 25 Aug (Monday morning local) W5ZN (559/559) for #513. Talking to some of the EME operators at the conference like WB2VVV and NC1I got Steve inspired to try to fix his phasing line problems. He decided to attempt repairs with the array on the tower, 95' (30 m) up in the air. 1st cleaning the ends of the offending LDF4-50A phasing lines was tried with no improvement. He then brought a small oxigen/mapp gas torch up the tower and removed the 3 problem phasing lines (The LDF4-50A lines are soldered to the open wire lines). When the old lines were sliced in half it was found that water had gotten in to the lines and migrated up to 9" (23 cm) down the dielectric. The worst 2 lines have their ends normally pointed down so some sort of capillary action must suck the water up the coax as 2 of the lines whose ends normally point up are in good condition. 3 new phasing lines were made up and installed on the array. Sun noise measurements were made before the repairs (17 dB) and after the repairs (17.9 dB) making the repair worth the effort. He measured the SWR of each of the 6 sets of 4 yagis separately: #1 before repairs 1.88:1, after repairs 1.04:1, #2 before 1.92:1, after 1.07:1, #3 before 2.13:1, after 1.11:1. The 3 bays that didn't have problems measured #4 1.12:1, #5 1.13:1 and #6 1.03:1. Sun noise now peaks when the Sun is centered in his video camera, which it didn't before repairs were made. He also measured ground noise verses elevation, which indicates the amount receive degradation at low elevations. The measurements were made as cold sky (+) set to obtain only ground and atmospheric effects. At >35 deg. no degradation, at 22 deg. -0.5 dB, 14 deg -1.0 dB, 4 deg -2.0 dB, 2 deg -3.0 dB, 0.5 deg -4.0 dB, 0 deg -4.5 dB and -1 deg 5.0 dB. These measurements were made with the array horizontally polarized. With the array vertically polarized, the noise increased at slightly at higher elevations, i.e. -1 dB was at 24 deg and -4 dB was at 1 deg. The array can not be elevated below -1 deg. 70 cm EME totals for K1FO are now #513 initials, 49 states and 75 DXCC.

KA0RYT

Ron was QRV on 432 during the SW. He worked DL9KR - very loud on both V and H pol, G4ERG (M), DF3RU, DK3FB and G3LTF. Most signals were better on vert... and it seemed as though sigs were better during rain. Also heard was OZ4MM, but the rain was too hard and the VSWR on the horiz array was way up, so no attempt at a contact was made.

KB2AH

Tom has been pleased with the activity level on 1296. During the Aug SW he found conditions FB. He heard and worked about 17 stations. 50% of these were on SSB. He did find very deep librations present on 23 cm, and wonders if anyone else observed this condition? He was also QRV on 31 Aug and notes it was nice to see so much activity for a off weekend.

KB3PD

Rick's new 70 cm station is working very well. He is now running 6x19 Cushcraft 719B's with polarity rotation. Rick worked W5ZN on the 23 Aug for his 49th state on 432, (the 44th via the Moon!), and only needs Nebraska to complete WAS! Can anyone help?

KD4LT

Scott had a major setback in Aug -- When I returned from vacation, I found a MAJOR lightning hit here. It got every rig, the dish control system including computers, pre-amps and transverters, motor controls, and most anything else in shack. Everything was disconnected from the antennas and AC. It must have got in on the rotor controls from the towers or dishes. I am now in the process of evaluating the situation. Most of the major components have been sent out for repair to Kenwood or elsewhere. I sent the controller for the 22'er to Darrell and the AD210 to RTD for repair. I have re-built the computer in the shack. Everything in it got zapped except the power supply. I put in a Pentium 200. Realtrak really screems now. I don't know when I will be back on. Hopefully in a couple of weeks. The new dish was just about ready. I was listening on 1296 several weekends ago and heard very well. Even the little guys had great signals.

LA8LF

Anders was another one of the stations left out by ARRL in their EME Contest results -- My 23 cm score was 55 x 24 for one week-end of operation which would have given me 10th place. How SM4IVE could be left out with the top score on 70 cm is a mystery to me?

NP4B

Bob, the 1st station to be QRV on 1296 EME from Puerto Rico asked that no skeds be made for his station. Bob is frustrated by his poor skeds results due to his 60 watt setup, and is planning to change this situation. He is trying to purchase the two 500 w high power 1296 amps from the estate of Dennis (VE3ASO). Bob will let us know when he is ready to resume skeds.

OE9XXI

Peter on 26 July on 2300 worked DL9EBL (579/559) and OE9ERC (570/569). The next day on 1296 he added 9H1ES (O/M) for DXCC 39. This was on their 3rd sked. Fortunato was using a 3 m dish and linear pol. Others worked were K2UYH (55/58) on SSB, F2TU (54/55) on SSB, ON5RR (549/55) and K2DH (569/579) and (55/58) on SSB. On 23 Aug he added K5JL (56/56) and DC6UW (55/57) initial on SSB. On 5760 OE9PMJ and OE9YTV both worked on 8 Aug LX1DB (O/M) for initials and a new country, and on 24 Aug NU7Z (449/449) for initial #12 and a new distance record.

ON5RR

Marc writes -- Our station was on the air from 0400 to 1100 on Sunday 24 Aug. The propagation was extremely good, but from 0900 on, we had more and more problems with ground noise. The station was running the same configuration as last times: 120 w output in the shack from a 2 x 2C39 PA, 0.33 NF LNA with 35 dB gain, and cable loss of about 1.5 dB. We worked the following initials: GW3XYW, EA3UM, K5JL and SM4DHN. This brings us to initial #41. We also worked ZS6AXT, KB2AH, DJ9YW, OH2AXH, SM2CEW, VE1ALQ, W2UHI, OE5JFL, F5PL and G3LTF. Stations heard were VE3BQN, DF3RU, HB9BBD, K9BCT (?) and EA6ADW. Stations CWNR were LA8LF and DD1XF. We will be active in the Italian contest on 20/21 Sept.

OZ4MM

Stig found good condx on 1296 with everybody on SSB during the Aug SW -- On Friday I worked S59DCD (a phone arranged sked because of a visit from the local newspaper at S59DCD`s end). I worked on Saturday, on 432, G3LTF, UA6LGH, G4ERG for initial #133, WB6IMC, G3HUL, F5FEN #134, DL4KG and DF3RU, and on Sunday on 1296 OE5JFL, K5JL, KB2AH, W2UHI and G3LTF. Many stations were heard on 1296 (more than on 432 on Saturday).

S59DCD

Silvo, (S50X) sends info on his groups activity -- We finally set up a dish (6 m with f/D= 0,55) and tested all equipment. Our 1st test was on 27 July with HB9SV (O/549) without a preamp. This was followed by QSOs on 22 Aug OZ4MM (549/539) and DJ9YW (O/439). On 23 Aug we ran a special Moon demonstration for the local press and worked KB2AH (559/439), K5JL (549/449), W2UHI (559/O), K2DH (449/439) and K5JL (559/539) - worked a 2nd time. Our special thanks to OZ4MM, KB2AH and DJ9YW for QSOs during our special promotion event. We are planning to be QRV every EME weekend, starting on 20/21 Sept.

SM2CEW

Peter reports good Aug SW conditions on both 432 and 1296 although he was only QRV on 24 Aug in the morning. On 432 Peter worked the following stations: W5ZN for initial #328 and new state Arkansas, I5CTE, F5FEN, KA0RYT, DL9KR, KL7HFQ and G3HUL. Heard was S52CW with good signals, but Peter decided to call W5ZN right after his QSO with Joel. He never heard S52CW again. Switching to 1296, Peter worked K2UYH on SSB/CW, K5JL, G3LTF, ON5RR, DJ9YW and F5PL. CWNR was WA8PYD. Activity was really good on 1296. Peter has counted his EME QSOs and has made 1452 contacts on 432 and 415 on 1296. Together with his 3056 contacts on 144 that makes 4923 EME QSOs! Who will be # 5000? A special prize will be offered for this contact. (A QSL maybe...?)

W2UHI

Frank has a new e-mail address: Frank, W2UHI
He tried 23 cm EME during the ARRL's UHF contest, [This contest is usually the 1st weekend of Aug and similar to the other ARRL VHF Contests in scoring except that activity to is limited to the bands above 220 MHz. Like the other VHF contests no differentiation is made between EME and other propagation modes.], but worked only (on 2 Aug) K4QI. During the SW Frank added on 23 Aug KB2AH, K5JL, K2DH and S59DCD, on 24 Aug ZS6AXT, OH2AXH, OE5JFL, KB2AH, HB9BBD, ON5RR, GW3XYW, K5JL, OZ4MM, EA3UM, G3LTF, DJ9YW and DF3RU, on 30 Aug DJ9YW and KB2AH, and on 31 Aug ZS6AXT, DJ9YW, WA8WZG, KB2AH and F1ANH. All with good copy. Frank feels he now has his system optimized. He reads 16 dB of Sun noise with a Solar Flux of 91. He has 400 w at the feed of his 5.5 m dish. Echo sig/noise ratio at apogee is 14 dB. Frank is available for skeds most anytime the Moon is up at his QTH, and may surprise you with his presence. He listens on the Moon a lot. Call or e-mail him and he will be on.

W5AK

Joe (x-N4EL) sends his greeting. He was QRV on 432 EME in the past from Alabama (with W1JR's traveling EME station) and in the mid 80's from NJ (8 x RIWs and a pair of 8930s). Joe is now is South Texas and getting the bug again. He should be back on 70 cm soon.

W5ZN

Joel continues to add QSOs since becoming QRV on 432. In Aug he completed with UR5LX, W7FN, K1FO, KB3PD and JA5OVU on 70 cm. He also copied JS3SIM, but did not make it with HP3XUG and heard nil on his other skeds. He is getting 15/16 dB of Sun noise. Joel will not be QRV in Sept but will be back on for the Oct SW.

WB6IMC

Jon has taken over the job of publishing the VHF EME REPORT (the 2 m EME NL) from Doug W0AH ex W2CRS -- I anticipate producing the VHF EME Report will keep me busy with the VHF group, however, I want to remain active on 70 cm EME and will make my skeds when I am notified that I have them. I was on 70 cm around 0430 on 17 Aug. Nothing was heard except my own echoes which were very readable. Too bad no one was on the Moon when I was up and running. I was on for my sked with CT1DMK and exchanged (O/O). During the SW Jon added OZ4MM and PA3CSG. [Don't forget my exchange subscription to the 2 m EME Report - Al.]

ZS6AXT

Ivo writes -- I was calling for some 5 hours on Saturday 23 Aug on 13 cm with no response. Echoes were very good and the WX was ideal. On Sunday I switched to 23 cm and again in the early hours nobody there. I could have slept another 3 hours. Finally LA8LF appeared, but I could not get his attention. I then worked VE1ALQ (579/569), ON5RR (419/529) - later 529, OH2AXH (589/579), W2UHI (579/559), KB2AH (589/559), OE5JFL (589/559), HB9BBD (559/529) and K5JL (579/559). Heard were G3LTF, DD1XF, GW3XYW and few SSB conversations. After that I switched to 2 m EME for a special test with W5UN. The afternoon I spent measuring the Sun noise with the help of PANFI and fixed attenuators at it's input. I measured 16.3 dB at 23 cm, 15.5 dB at 2304 and 11.8 dB at 2320. For other PANFI users: It looks that it's scale is in voltage dBs, [? - There is no such thing as voltage dBs only dBs defined in terms voltage; dBs are the same.], because 6 dB attenuator insertion results in only a 3.2 dB drop in the reading. JA4BLC tried it and found a 4 dB drop in the reading for 6 dB attenuator. Could others try this and let me know your results please? I am very curious about this. I plan to work the Italian EME Contest during the next SW on 23 and 13 cm.

K2UYH

This was a difficult month. My father unexpectedly passed away the weekend before the SW. He had been ill and was living in a nursing home, but seemed to be doing better prior to his death. I was unable to be QRV on Saturday. The dc supply line to the preamps at the feed of my dish opened, and there was just no time for repairs. I was able to get on 1296 the 2nd night for a few hours. It was great to talk with so many old friends. SSB conditions were very good. Almost everyone commented how signals seemed more like HF than EME. I initially QSO'd at 0722 HB9BBD (569/569) on CW, but we switched to SSB (55/52) and I remained on SSB for the rest of the time, and QSO'd at 0739 KB2AH (56/57), 0748 DD1XF (54/55), 0757 DC6UW (56/55), 0804 GW3XYW (55/55), 0815 K5JL (56/56), 0832 3-way OE5JFL (56/56) and OE9ERC (56/55), 0852 SM2CEW (559/55) - Peter who was running only 60 w stayed on CW, 0857 G3LTF (54/55) and 0917 EA6ADW (55/54). I plan to be QRV on both 70 and 23 cm in Sept.

NETNOTES

DD1XF had initials with K5JL and VE3BQN on 23 cm in Aug. [My apology for the typo of Frank's call in the last NL.]

GW3XYW is getting 1.2 dB of Moon noise on 10 GHz with his HB 9' (34 segments) dish. Stu needs a TWTA to become QRV.

SM2GHR, Lars is working on a 70 cm EME station. Lar's e- mail is: Lars, SM2GHR

W1ZX has been working on getting his old 24' dish down. If anyone is interested in the dish (hub and ribs & rim), give Willie a call.

DK3WG will be QRV on 70 in Sept. Jurg needs a QSL (DL3BWW) from VE1BVL/1 in FN95.

I5TDJ will try to listen with single yagi from his country location during the SW.

W4TJ was listening on 1296 during the Aug SW and copied S59DCD, K5JL, KB2AH, K2DH, W2UHI and others. Bill is getting 12 dB of Sun noise and is working towards getting the xmit side running.

W4HHK was QRV on 13 cm for the SW but had no QSOs. Paul is always looking for 13 cm skeds.

K5JL spent his time during the Aug SW on 1296. Jay now has 1300 w on this band.

W4RDI is still not QRV on 23 cm.

NU7Z worked WB5LUA on 5760 this month. He is getting 9 dB of Sun noise with a 4 m dish and has a 50 w. He plans to move to 3456 next.

HP3XUG now has e-mail. In Aug Louie worked JA5OVU for the 1st JA-HP QSO.

KL7HFQ added F5FEN, but nil W5ZN.

N7ART has a new area code 541 not 503.

PA3CSG had an initial with WB6IMC on 70 cm. Gert is looking for WA8WZG on 70 and 23 cm. He will be at Wienhiem. [Isn't everyone in Eur?]

SM0ERR reports all is OK in 9M2 land and that they will be on 70 cm for the contest. His e- mail is: SM0ERR

S52CW is QRV on 432 with 8 yagis and 300 w.

WB5LUA blew up his 5760 preamp during tests, but is opera- tional again by now. Al is getting 27 w at his feed of his 5 m dish. On 5760 NU7Z was initial #9.

K9BCT/4 has a 4 x 7289 PA going on 23 cm.

K6IBY is working on his system. Sun noise is 10- 12 dB. He is modifying his HPA for more juice.

UR5LX worked W5ZN in Aug.

K7ICW in NV is working on 1296 EME.

EA6ADW will be QRV on 1296 on 20 Sept between 0300-0700.

FOR SALE

WB2GLW, Mike wants 20 feet elliptical waveguide with connectors EW90 type. He has for sale or trade 10' Andrews jumper LDF4-50A new no connectors $20, Transco "Y" type relay with both coils energized to close feature $40, plus shipping. Contact Mike at tel (516) 582-5246 or e-mail: WB2GLW

K9BCT/4 has for sale:
1) a Gordon High Precision (G4GHP) 23 CM 4 tube amplifier complete with water jackets; 400 w plus - $750
2) Hi-Spec 2 tube 23 cm cavity amplifier, with tubes and water jackets - $250. Contact Randy at tel 954- 472-3846 or e-mail: K9BCT/4

KB2AH has a full line of cavity amps and 1, 2, 4 and 6 tube ring amps, lin/circular feed horns and LNAs for 432 and 1296. Tom also has mounting blocks for K1FO yagis. For full details: see Tom's 1296 WEB page, for more details and pricing info e-mail: Tom or phone 908-223-5067, FAX 908-223-0901 (24 hrs) or voice 908-223-8124

TECHNICAL

This month we have a protection circuit for grounded screen tetrodes as the very expensive YL 1050 from VE1ALQ.

FINAL

* We received sad news of the passing of another good friend of EME:

K2TKN, Bill Ashby

Bill was one of my mentors and an EME pioneer, who had a 20' dish on 70 cm back in the 60's. He was always more of a builder than an operator. He publicized the design of some of the 1st HPAs for 432 and 1296 MHz. Bill will be missed.

* "The times they are a changing!" Nothing stays the same for ever. This NL and its associated skeds delivery system has been going for more than 25 years - and we are not going out of business, at least not yet... But there are new and different options to try. The 20 m net which supplements the NL has been in operation for almost 20 years. E-mail is now starting to have a major impact on skedding. (It is also great for distributing the NL and receiving reports - TNX fellows.)
The latest twist is the "Activity WEB Page". This is a location, "mailbox", at which you can indicate your intention to be active on a particular day/time. Upon checking into this page you can see with a quick glance if anyone is going to be active off the Moon (on 432, 1296 ...) on a given date. Tom, KB2AH has been the driving force behind this concept.
The "EME Activity Mailbox" is up and running on the Newsletter page of W6/PA0ZN's WEB site. The URL is:

EME Activity Mail Box

Rein says against his initial expectations it seems to be drawing quite a bit of traffic. People are also using the site to post sked cancellations and other EME related announcements. Messages will self destroy after the relevant date.

* WA8WZG, host of this year's Microwave Update invites all us to Sanddusky, Ohio on 22-26 Oct - see the registration form. Tom promises it will be worthwhile!

* As noted in my report, my father died during the past month. I want to express my thanks for the many messages of condolence received. They were very comforting.

* Please keep the news and technical material coming. Almost all submissions are now coming by e-mail. I will be looking for you all off the Moon during the Sept SW/Italian EME Contest.

SKEDS

Skeds for Aug 1997

This information was obtained from Scott, KD4LT

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For Comments or corrections: Rein, W6/PA0ZN