144MHz & EME

This is the band where most likely you may hear my signals. It’s the one from which I started and due to the many possibilities that offers, is still in my heart, even if I experienced a lot on higher bands…

EME from JN54vf

RS1002 PA by I4BER

As long as I lived in Bologna with my old family, I didn’t have any chance to have a serious antenna, therefore I was on air only from portable. Time went by and on the late ’90s I succeed to arrange a little EME station on a countryside place 80km from my hometown. Big help cames from Lionel VE7BQH that led me straight to the Moon! I owe him very, very much!
The station was little but really effective: 4×10 el K5GW home made and 300 W pulled out from an incredible PA built 40 years ago by Goliardo I4BER with an RS1002 Siemens tube (4-250 Eimac). Unfortunately, after 2 years of activity, I had to close down everything quickly, due to family’s problems. Here a couple of nice videos from that place:

After several happening on my life, on late Y2000 I set my base on JN55rf as IW4BLG/3.

At the beginning I started up again with a single K5GW and a commercial (Dresseler) pre-amp, right under the rotor. 30m of 1/4″ Cellflex connected the antenna to the shack.
There, fond place my TR751E and the 4-250 power amplifier, ready in case of need… Nothing very special so, but still a good set-up to enjoy the time spent on this band.

In the late fall 2003, with the help of some friends and a bit of lucky, I got almost all the part to assembly a better PA, with a 3CX800 tube. Now, the Moon was closer…first EME test with WSJT software were (unbelievable) satisfactory, even with only one antenna and 30W!!! (of course quite ok with the PA!)

Screenshot of WSJT sw “eme-echo”

If you can’t believe that, look at the picture above: this is the result of an “eme-echo” test made with the WSJT Software, 30W in the shack and a single K5gw antenna beaming at the Moonset.; As you can see, the “Q” of the echoes is almost 0 (zero) but after 10-15 minutes of integration, I could get the “spike” of my signal back from the moon. This is one of the most extreme testing the WSJT software suffered, for what its author said to me, commenting my results…:-)
: On the summer 2004 I took the decision to “came back to the Moon!” and; “not because it’s easy, but because it’s hard… “; Therefore I fond a way to install my old 4×10 group in my little garden. 1/2” cellflex for tx and better preamp was then added to the previous set-up. About 900W and everything to learn again… first test was successfully and on the better days I could hear my echoes too! Ok, very week but they were there!

Well, after some more experience I retired my old TR-751E and started to use the FT-726 as a main rig for EME too. It was smoother, much less birdies, continuos power level, CW Xtal filter, BPT, etc. etc.

Sadly even the nicest stories have an end.. and this happened in the spring 2005..

For the second time I had to unbuild everything and move away..

My EME story ends here.. but I would like to thanks to all of you who had the patience and gook luck to hear me via the moon.

Some audio of my own echoes

Here the log of my short but enthousiastic activity with few audio samples where available…

From JN54vf

n° Date Call sign Aerial PWR WW-Loc QRB Sched/Rnd State Initial US State DXCC Field Square
9860 32 7 13 15 31
1 27-ott-96 VE7BQH 384 el. coll 1800 CN89KI 8751 Sched British Columbia 1 – 1 1 1
2 15-mar-97 F3VS 24 x 20 3000 JN38LF 580 Random France 1 – 1 1 1
3 15-mar-97 SM5FRH 32 x (19+9) 3500 JO88BW 1664 Random Sweden 1 – 1 1 1
4 16-mar-97 SM5BSZ 4 x 14 cross QBL 5-3500 JO89IJ 1721 Random Sweden 1 – – – 1
5 05-apr-97 SM2CEW 6 x 19 cross 1500 KP15CN 2460 Random Sweden 1 – – 1 1
6 05-apr-97 IK2DDR 4 x 18 CC 1200 JN55GN 178 Sched Italy 1 – 1 – 1
7 05-apr-97 VE3KDH 4 x 2M18 1500 FN03CL 6941 Sched Ontario 1 – – 1 1
8 05-apr-97 K0GU 4 x 17 B2 1500 DN70MQ 8682 Sched Colorado 1 1 1 1 1
9 3-may-1997 I2FAK 16 x 18M2 YL 1057 JN45OB 225 Random Italy 1 – – – 1
10 3-may-1997 VE3AX 4 x 2M18 8877 FN02CW 6976 Sched Ontario 1 – – – 1
11 3-may-1997 W5UN 32 x 17M2 1500 EL29HK 9012 Random Texas 1 1 – 1 1
12 23-ago-97 JH2COZ 4 x 14 1500 PM94NW 9390 Sched Japon 1 – 1 1 1
13 24-ago-97 I3DLI 6 x 16 L2Y 8877 JN65BK 137 Random Italy 1 – – – 1
14 31-ago-97 DL5MAE 8 x 17 M2 8877 JN58VF 445 Sched Germany 1 – 1 – 1
15 20-set-97 SM5FRH 32 x (19+9) 3500 JO88BW 1664 Random Sweden – – – – –
16 20-set-97 SM5BSZ 4 x 14 cross QBL 5-3500 JO89IJ 1721 Random Sweden – – – – –
17 20-set-97 EA3DXU 2 x 17 M2 2600 JN11CM 838 Sched Spain 1 – 1 1 1
18 21-set-97 9A2AT 4 x 16 2500 JN86LL 475 Random Slovenia 1 – 1 – 1
19 21-set-97 F1FLA 6 x 16 1000 JN26KU 615 Random France 1 – – – 1
20 21-set-97 I2FAK 16 x 18M2 YL 1057 JN45OB 225 Random Italy – – – – –
21 21-set-97 KB8RQ 24 x 19 M2 2400 EN80AD 7441 Sched Ohio 1 1 – 1 1
22 18-ott-97 W5UN 32 x 17M2 1500 EL29HK 9012 Random Texas – – – – –
23 18-ott-97 I5JUX 8 x 20 1000 JN53CW 131 Random Italy 1 – – – 1
24 18-ott-97 I3DLI 6 x 16 L2Y 8877 JN65BK 137 Random Italy – – – – –
25 18-ott-97 SM5BSZ 4 x 14 cross QBL 5-3500 JO89IJ 1721 Random Sweden – – – – –
26 18-ott-97 SM5FRH 32 x (19+9) 3500 JO88BW 1664 Random Sweden – – – – –
27 18-ott-97 9A2AT 4 x 16 2500 JN86LL 475 Random Slovenia – – – – –
28 29-mar-98 K1CA 8 x 19 1500 FN42IV 6407 Sched New Hampshire 1 1 – – 1
29 04-apr-98 IK3MAC 30 X I3DLI19 1000 JN55SH 123 Random Italy 1 – – – –
30 04-apr-98 F3VS 24 x 20 3000 JN38LF 580 Random France – – – – –
31 04-apr-98 I3DLI 6 x 16 L2Y 8877 JN65BK 137 Random Italy – – – – –
32 04-apr-98 SM5BSZ 4 x 14 cross QBL 5-3500 JO89IJ 1721 Random Sweden – – – – –
33 04-apr-98 W5UN 32 x 17M2 1500 EL29HK 9012 Random Texas – – – – –
34 04-apr-98 KB8RQ 24 x 19 M2 2400 EN80AD 7441 Random Ohio – – – – –
35 31-mag-98 OZ1HNE 4×18 cross 8877 JO57GG 1455 Sched Denmark 1 – 1 – 1
36 28-giu-98 7K3LGC 4×15 cross 700 QM06HA 9733 Sched Japon 1 – – 1 1
37 28-giu-98 PA2CHR 4×17 QD 1500 JO22XA 969 Sched Netherland 1 – 1 – 1
38 18-lug-98 W0RWH 16x19xxx 1400 EM39SX 8000 Sched Montana 1 1 – 1 1
39 16-aug-98 WA9KRT 16×17 K5gw 1500 EN61PG 7542 Sched Indiana 1 1 – – 1
40 05-set-98 JA4BLC 4×17 M2 2000 PM65NM 9379 Sched Japon 1 – – – 1
41 04-oct-98 JN1CSO 8×3.5wl xpol 600 PM95MM 9698 Sched Japon 1 – – – 1
42 11-ott-98 IK3MAC 30 X I3DLI19 1000 JN55SH 123 Random Italy – – – – –
43 11-ott-98 SM5FRH 32 x (19+9) 3500 JO88BW 1664 Random Sweden – – – – –
44 11-ott-98 W5UN 32 x 17M2 1500 EL29HK 9012 Random Texas – – – – –
45 11-ott-98 I2FAK 16 x 18M2 YL 1057 JN45OB 225 Random Italy – – – – –

From JN55rf

46 20-nov-04 F3VS – – JN38LF 478 Random France – – – – – –
47 04-dic-04 IK3MAC – – JN55SH 11 Random Italy – – – – – –
48 04-dic-04 IK2DDR – – JN55GN 81 Random Italy – – – – – –
49 04-dic-04 I2FAK – – JN45OB 177 Random Italy – – – – – –
50 26-gen-05 PA0JMV – – JO21PM 834 Sched Holland 1 – – – 1 –
51 12-feb-05 K6PF – – DM13AR 9860 Sched California 1 1 – 1 1 –
52 19-mar-05 SV1BTR – – KM17VU 1311 Sched Greece 1 – 1 1 1 –
53 20-mar-05 EA6VQ – – JM19MP 311 Sched Baleari Isl. 1 – 1 1 1 –