The Dish presented in the pictures is a 5 meter Solid Dish.
The design calculations and construction were done by myself.
The building of the antenna was finished in Nov 1995.
At the moment the feed is a VE4MA-type but this feed will be
replaced by a W2IMU Dual Mode Feed in the near future.
The antenna is fully computer controlled using a VK3UM Modem and software. The modem has been constructed by myself.
When in use the center of the Dish is 9 meter above ground.
As I live in a residential area I hide the antenna during the
periods between EME weekends. The tower is folded to get the dish
to ground level between the trees.
A TH-338 Cavity Amplifier is providing 500 Watts to the feed at 1296 MHz.
The receiving system measures 16.5 dB of Sun Noise with a flux of 71.
There are plans for 2304 MHz for early next year. The only part missing
at this point is an amplifier for 100 Watts or so.
Plans also exsist for operation om 9, 6 and 3 cm EME.
Later this winter I shall return to 432 MHz when I have finished my Rotateable Dual Dipole Feed antenna for that band. The amplifier for this band is 2.5 KW Cavity Amplifier.
I got on 144 MHz EME in 1988 with 6 * 17M2 Yagis and 1.5 KW.
312 EME contacts with 190 initial QSO's were made on 144 MHz before
I moved to 432 MHz in April 1990.
At that time the antenna for 70 cm was a YAGI array with 6 * 38M2 and 1.3 KW
output. With this system 485 contacts with 160 initials were made before
moving on to 1296 MHz in December 1992.
For comments etc: Anders M. Thorrud, LA8LF
So far we made 494 contacts with 96 initials on 1296 MHz.
