I brought my 10 GHz transverter up with me to KC9ULA's QTH in Girard, IL, EM59ck and I set it up in Debbie's upstair room which has a window facing the southwest (218 degrees) back to the beacon. So far I haven't had any luck hearing the beacon, but I was hoping with the advancing rain shield I may just luck out and get some rain scatter. Around 1:00 pm 18:00Z I thought I heard some faint cw, but it could have just as well been my hopeful fancy. As an experiment I opened up the window and the signal jumped up from out of the noise to an S1 to S2. I had taken off the window screen earlier, but the window does attenuate the beacon. I raised and lowered it a few times just to make sure. The window does not have any tinting. The beacon was staying in there rather well with just a hint of QSB. At the time Girard was experiencing light, but steady showers. Around 18:15Z I copied the beacon telemetry and I decoded the output as 2.77 watts, 12.94 volts, internal temp 51 (not sure about my copy on this one) degrees and the PA temp ast 62 degrees.
Yea, I've heard the beacon from 58.3 miles away with rain scatter propagation!
73,
Ron, KO0Z
We are group of Ham Radio enthusiasts, interested in microwave radio frequency technologies.
Yes this is true .. glass attenuates 10GHz, even if not tinted. However, you can copy the beacon - congrats!
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Thank you H! I let John know about the reception report. After the rain quit, I tried listening again without any luck so I am rather confident that I was experiencing rain scatter. I am anxious to try again when the showers return.
DeleteRon, KO0Z