Moonbounce Adventures
First WD1V EME (earth-moon-earth aka "moon bounce") contact with Russian station
RD3DA, Yuri, in Krasnogorsk, Russia on 6/27/09 using 3.2 meter dish and 150 watts on
1.296 GHz. Signals were about S-4. Clouds covered our view of the moon
most of afternoon which meant "instruments pointing" of the dish. The moon
was only 28% illuminated at 2:00 PM local time when we began operating.
Krasnogorsk, Russia is 4490 miles (polar path) from Manchester, NH. The
moon was 230,298 miles away making the total radio trip about 460,600 miles.
That is about 18.5 times the distance around the Earth at the equator.
We also worked PI9CAM in the Netherlands. Listened to several other stations
- some on CW and SSB and heard our own echoes briefly on CW.
Update as of 9/15/09:
4 Countries - 3 States + My Own Echoes
Russia, Netherlands, England, USA
NJ - K2UYH
TX - W5LUA
CA - K7XQ
Update as of 10/11/09:
Denmark, Estonia, Brazil, and England.
Denmark was my first Morse (CW) EME contact -- random, analog, no computers were used for contact.
WD1V EME Station:
VE1ALQ copper feed, dual port, circular polarized with 88 ft. of LMR-600
WD5AGO dual stage preamp at feed
DEMI Power amp at feed with Astron 50 amp 12 volt DC supply near dish
Kenwood TS-2000-X - indoors - CW, SSB, WSJT-65 digital
My thanks to Don, W1FKF, and Bill, WA1DMV for mentoring and assistance in all aspects of
getting to the moon.
A new iPhone is supplying 1 degree digital compass readings for dish azimuth values.
Screen shot below shows confirming first contact data.
VE1ALQ copper feed for 1.296 GHz
My First Analog CW Contact off the Moon (Stig's Dish is about 30' in Diameter > 50 dB of gain)
5/1/2010 Sold EME dish to K0TV - Jerry - who will operate the dish from his station in
Hudson, NH. I'll be attending the Dayton Hamvention this year and wondering what the
next project and challenge will be. There is always something new going on in radio.
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