[Moon-net] 6m EME reults today
LANCE COLLISTER
w7gj at q.com
Mon Jan 14 11:26:31 CST 2008
Hello Al,
MNI TNX for your thoughtful and constructive suggestions! I greatly appreciate your
pointing out these important questions, and I will attempt to respond to each of them
below:
Al Ward wrote:
> Lance
> You might want to enlighten folks as to how the stations showed up.
The stations contacted all had either seen postings on the DX Summit or on one of the
following real-time chat pages:
http://www.on4kst.info/chat/login.php?band=1
http://www.chris.org/cgi-bin/jt65emeA
Were
> they on schedule?
Most 6m EME contacts are made either by schedule or by coordination on one of the
popular real-time chat pages listed above. There still is very little totally random
activity, due to the fact that signals are so weak and most of the current stations
involved with 6m EME are horizon-only. Typically, I call CQ and announce it on the
chat page. People across Europe who are interested monitor my CQ frequency and me as
the moon comes down through their ground gain lobes during the European moonset.
Are they always around at certain times?
The EU stations contacted are frequently on the ON4KST 6m chat page. In addition,
many more stations on that page were listening, offering reception reports, and
making notes of when the signals were peaking, in order to better refine their
understanding of the various ground gain lobes with their antennas at their
individual locations. Since I had already contacted many of these other stations,
they typically do not call, but only listen to see how conditions are.
For example, an especially interesting situation is the data collection that Paul,
HB9MFD is doing, trying to gather comparison data on 6m EME signals received by RH
Circular as compared to horizontally polarized antennas. Paul is often listening for
6m EME signals when the time is convenient, and monitors the ON4KST 6m chat page to
watch for activity. Previous experiences of KH6/K6MIO suggest that fading is also
quite large with circular polarization, due to the fact that there is more going on
than with 6m EME fading than just Faraday polarity rotation. In addition, there can
be much scattering and deflection of signals off course, which causes very deep and
rapid QSB on 6m EME signals. It will be very interesting to see what Paul finds from
his observations.
Will they be on
> in the future?
Yes, these and many more stations are quite active on 6m, and are often found
monitoring the ON4KST 6m chat page. As I mentioned, one of the key elements in
finding new EU stations is to be active and call CQ on an announced frequency when
the following conditions are met:
1) Period of low "degredation" (dB difference factor comparing current conditions to
the ideal or theoretical conditions which would occur if the moon were in front of
the quietest part of the sky AND at its closest approach to earth). This daily
degredation is displayed on the JT65 screen, and is also shown in predictions
provided by a number of the EME tracking programs, including my old TRACKER
(http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj/tracker.htm ).
2) The Kpp index is low (at least under 3). EME signals down on 6m are very easily
scattered out of the way by geomagnetic distubances, so periods of lower geomagnetic
activity are typically better. That is one reason why this point in the solar cycle
is so attractive for 6m EME - the geomagnetic field is often very quiet these days.
The reference source I usually use to watch as an indicator for this is:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/rpc/costello/pkp_15m_24h.html
3) Moonset takes place at a very convenient local time of day for the European
stations. Stations are more likely to be on the air during the daytime on the
weekends, or early evenings during the week. However, I have been quite surprised by
some of the replies to my CQ have come from "night owls" in Europe when their moon is
setting after local midnight.
Do they have email addresses?
Yes, all the stations I contacted do have email addresses, although I did not use
email to set up skeds with them this weekend. Very often email IS used to set up
skeds with stations - especially if they do not have internet access in their ham
shack, or if the local time differences do not easily permit schedules to be set up
on the chat pages.
It looks more like a brag list
> than anything else.
I apologize for giving this impression, and hope that this more complete explanation
fills in the missing information. My goal is to spread the word that there IS EME
activity taking place on 6m, and provide some indication of the size stations that
are routinely involved. Unfortunately, many stations ignore 6m other than during
summer Es or sunspot cycle maximum, believing that the band is dead. As can be seen
from my DX contacts, nothing could be further from the truth! On EME, the 6m band is
open every month (particularly during the times of month when conditions are most
favorable), and most of the contacts I make are with horizon-only, single yagi stations.
You might still suggest that it is not fair to imply that 6m EME is open to everyone,
because I have four large yagis with full elevation. HOWEVER, what I want to stress
is that if single yagi stations can work ME while I am aiming up in the sky, they can
probably work other single yagi stations who are also aiming at the horizon. It
seems that people very quickly forget that a single yagi aimed on the horizon - with
clear flat terrain in front of the antenna - can enjoy ground gain equal to an array
of four yagis elevated to track the moon. Those extra dB of ground gain when aimed
on the horizon are a very important key to making 6m EME possible!
A good example of this capability happened this past weekend, when OZ6ABA contacted
ZL3NW on 6m EME. Both are using single yagis on the horizon only. I know it was a
new DXCC for OZ6ABA, and a very exciting contact for both stations. What was the
secret? Just careful planning to find a time when the moon would be near the horizon
for both stations at the same time, and a desire to work some DX on 6m! Remember -
with a single yagi aimed at the horizon, you typically have at least 2 good ground
gain lobes at various elevations (typically between 3 and 7 degrees and 10 and 15
degrees), depending on how high the yagi is above the ground. So, you can see there
are at least 4 combinations of possible "window times" to try to coordinate each
month between two horizon-only single yagi stations. If you include multiple days,
and both moonset and moonrise, the possibilities increase and provide more choices to
also include consideration of days with lowest degredation.
Did you work them on a CQ on 50.190?
Yes, I was calling CQ on 50.190 when the stations listed answered me. I also saw
traces from some other stations but did not complete with them. To make it easy for
potential moonbouncers to find me, I usually call CQ on 50.190, which is a frequency
clear of birdies for me. Other stations usually announce their favorite CQ
frequencies for EME, all of which are between 50.180 and 50.220 MHz.
Since the JA stations do not transmit for EME above 50.100, they always work split.
The real-time chat pages are very helpful in such cases for finding out what
frequencies the JA stations are using to receive and transmit.
Are they found on
> the HB9Q reflector?
As explained above, most of the European stations I have contacted on 6m EME have
come from people posting contacts or reception reports of me on the DX Summit, or
from logging in on the ON4KST 6m chat page to see what is going on. The ON4KST chat
page works very well for this purpose for several reasons:
1) There are many 6m stations who regularly use that page to check 6m band conditions
and/or arrange 6m contacts in real time. Since many 6m stations in Europe routinely
use JT6M for 6m random meteor scatter and/or weak Es contacts, the stations on this
page also provide a very large pool of prospective EME stations. Many of the
European stations have digital mode capability on 6m, and it is simply a question of
turning their antennas toward moonset. This is an area in which the European
stations are far ahead of North American stations, and I am not sure why...but I
believe as more and more European stations demonstrate what can be done year-round on
6m with digital modes, more North American stations will begin to add that capability
to their stations.
2) The page is very convenient because each user is able to alert a particular
station with a question or reply to their question. This is particularly helpful
when a station needs to change a frequency due to QRM, and cannot afford to waste any
valuable moonset time. This has been a problem with the N0UK JT65 EME page, where
it is very easy to miss messages being directed to you because of the very high use
by 2m and 432 EME stations.
3) Handy provisions are made on the page to post and display contacts on the DX
Summit, show maps of contacts, geomagnetic weather conditions, etc.
4) Although there also is an ON4KST EME page, the amount of 6m EME activity so far
has not required moving to that separate page, and up until now at least, EME
operators are very welcome on the page. I am sure it would be different during
summer periods of high Es activity in Europe...however, during those times 6m EME is
often not very good anyway due to Es shielding.
> Just curious.
> 73
> Al W5LUA
Thank you very much for your valuable comments and interest, Al! I hope that this
more lengthy explanation is helpful to those wishing to give 6m EME a try. Happy New
Year and VY 73, Lance
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: moon-net-bounces at list-serv.davidv.net
> [mailto:moon-net-bounces at list-serv.davidv.net] On Behalf Of LANCE COLLISTER
> Sent: Sunday, January 13, 2008 11:10 PM
> To: moon-net at list-serv.davidv.net; magic at 6meme.com; 50mhz at qth.net
> Subject: [Moon-net] 6m EME reults today
>
>
> Hello!
>
> Who says there is no DX to be worked on 6m these days? Despite the Kp index
> of 3,
> the degredation was very good (only -2.4 dB). AND the moonset today came at
> a very
> convenient time of the evening for the EU stations :-)
>
> I am very pleased to report JT65A mode contacts with the following stations:
>
> LA4ANA -27 dB (short boom 5 element yagi and 100w)
> I2KBD -22 dB (Alberto's first 6m EME contact)
> OY3JE -26 dB, but incomplete (Jan had noise come on during my final RRR)
> PE1BTX -28 dB
> GM4WJA -17 dB (WOW - what a signal!)
>
> I am especially excited about the contact with LA4ANA, which is the smallest
> station
> I have contacted so far on 6m EME. Now that we are at the bottom of the
> sunspot
> cycle, conditions for 6m EME have been VERY good. Especially if you have a
> flat,
> clear area toward the moonset or moonrise, your antenna could have some
> valuable
> extra ground gain when it is aimed on the horizon. This is one of the
> secrets that
> makes 6m EME possible for many stations. We hope to see more 6m stations
> join us on
> the moon soon!
>
> VY 73, Lance
--
Lance Collister, W7GJ (ex: WN3GPL, WA3GPL, WA1JXN, WA1JXN/C6A, ZF2OC/ZF8)
P.O. Box 73
Frenchtown, MT 59834 USA
QTH: DN27UB
TEL: (406) 626-5728
URL: http://www.bigskyspaces.com/w7gj
2m DXCC #11/6m DXCC #815
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