New 122GHz Station

Do you want to become QRV on 122GHz? You can buy a kit that uses a chip that does most of the work (click here).

It seems to be doable and not too expensive!

73 Herbert

AF4JF

SLAMS Breakfast on Sunday, October 10, 2019

We have met at Denny's to have breakfast and some talk once again. There was one major topic discussed at today's meeting - optical communications. Several approached were discussed. Harry WA0CNS demonstrated his test setup in the parking lot:

Sam W0PCE told the group about his setup to test receivers. Herbert AF4JF told the group that SLAMS actually pursued the idea of optical communications ten years ago, see the laser setup here and here. Mike N0OBI demonstrated his infrared detector ... optical communications definitely seem to be the topic of our future meetings.

Info for the members of the THE_SLAMS reflector on Yahoo Groups: due to major changes of the service from Yahoo, our group will soon switch to other system Watch your email for instructions!

73 Herbert

AF4JF

Round Two, 2019 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest; Our I-70 uW Odyssey

Once again, rainy weather threatened to dampen our plans for the second weekend of the 2019 ARRL 10 GHz and up contest.  By daybreak on Saturday, September 21, Herbert AF4JF, Harry WA0CNS and Ron KO0Z decided to "risk the elements" and to go for broke.

By 9:30 am, KO0Z was QRV from Eagle Roost scenic lookout at Pere Marquette State Park, EM48rx near Grafton, IL and Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS were QRV from western St. Louis county EM48sr.  This scenic overlook offers of a 120 degree, unobstructed, panorama which covers western St. Louis county, MO, half of Calhoun county, IL, all of St. Charles county, MO and most of the adjoining western, Missouri counties.

Our contest strategy involves one station to be stationary in a high location and the other ops to employ a "shoot and scoot" by ten miles from the last location.  Hence, the I-70 uW Odyssey as part of this blog's title.

We made contacts from every spot.  Eagle Roost is an excellent location.  Rainscatter played a significant role in the contest by extending our range.  From Eagles Roost, my unobstructed view extended to 265 degrees.  However, Harry and Herbert were able to go to sites 270 degrees and still work me due to passing T-storms and rainscatter!

We are including a few photos from our odyssey here, but for a more detailed description and photos please visit the BARS Blog site:   http://bi-state-amateur-radio-society.blogspot.com/  Herbert has an excellent narrative on the site:  http://bi-state-amateur-radio-society.blogspot.com/2019/09/arrl-10ghz-and-up-part-2-by-herbert.html

73, Ron KO0Z, Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS

                               
                       KO0Z QRV on 3 cm at Eagles Roost, EM48rx, Pere Marquette State Park, IL

     
                                                               KO0Z's 3 cm rig

                   

         The T-storm to my west threatened rain, but it did provide good rainscatter propagation.

                            Harry WA0CNS & Herbert AF4JF at one of the I-70 sites.

RadarScope screenshot of some of Saturday's T-storms.  The park is north of St. Charles, MO and west of Godfrey, IL

The WB9PNU 3 cm beacon as heard at Eagles Roost on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019

ARRL VHF Contest - September 2019

Herbert AF4JF and Harry WA0CNS decided to participate in the ARRL VHF Contest as Rovers. We have selected 144-220-432-1296-10368 MHz HAM radio bands for this contest.

Herbert posted an Article on the BARS blog site.

We have picked locations in Winfield area just North of St. Peters in Missouri this time, because the line between EM48 and EM49 grids goes right through that area.

Herbert's Rover (AF4JF)

Some pictures of the dam:

Everything considered, this area worked well for VHF contacts, despite its location in the river valley. We shall return here with more microwave equipment next time.

73 Herbert

AF4JF

2019 ARRL 10 GHz and Up Contest August 17, Round 1

Saturday morning, 17 August awoke Harry WA0CNS, Herbert AF4JF and Ron KO0Z with deafening thunder claps and torrential rainfall.  Looking at the NWS radar, we surmised that the heaviest rainfall would pass the gob site, just east of Farmersville, IL by 9:00 am.  All three of us converged on EM59ek around 9:15 am and made our way up to the gob's summit.  EM59ek offers unobstructed 360 degree views in all directions.  It is an awesome VHF-uW site!  A big shout-out of thanks to RECC for giving us repeated permission to use their site!

                           Entrance to the gob know, EM59ek just east of Farmersville, IL

                      Gravel roadway up to the gob summit.  Note the RECC wind turbine.

Although the weather forecast called for overcast skies, it turned out to be partly cloudy as attested to by Herbert and Harry's sun burnt faces. 

                                                Herbert AF4JF set-up on top of the gob.

                              Harry WA0CNS listening for 10 GHz signals from Ron KO0Z.

"Shoot and scoot" map.  The yellow ring has a 20 mile diameter and the red one is 40 miles from the gob site.  Yellow pins are prospective rover sites.  Ron started at Pin 1 and worked counterclockwise.

    This shot of KO0Z is at Pin 5 just outside of Taylorville, IL EM59io about 21 miles from the gob site.  

All in all, it was a great microwave dxpedition.  The shoot and scoot idea works.  It would work even better if we can get a couple of teams to rove.  One going clockwise and the other counterclockwise.  We made great two-way Qs from every location except for Pin 6 (New City, IL) just north of the gob.  We were getting tired, sun burnt and ready to call it a day so we skipped activating Pin 6.  We did work Pins 7 and 8 before we finished up around 6 pm.

For a more detailed description of the August 17 microwave  dxpedition please check out the BARS BlogSpot at http://bi-state-amateur-radio-society.blogspot.com/

73, Ron KO0Z EM59ck

SLAMS Breakfast Meeting

Breakfast at Denny's on Dorsett Rd. next week on Sunday January 27th starting at 8:00 am. 73 Herbert AF4JF

Happy 2019

                                                        Happy  New Year 2019 to all!