50 MHz EME
(Moon bounce)
50 MHz EME
I guess you could call this a "blog" - it is the saga of 6m EME at G4BWP (most recent "events" first) .....
2021. Long overdue update to follow - soon!
2019. Still using the single 8ele but working on an upgrade to 2 x 8 side by side Hpol. We have found the village, which expanded greatly while I was away in A6, is very noisy and that means at MR. MS is still quite quiet and we have made some good QSOs at MS. Some mechanical improvements have been made to the Spid BIGRAK and a new mounting spigot has been made locally from more sturdy materials. Progress to 2 x 8 is slow
Sometime in 2015 or 16. First the old M2 11ele 2.5wl went back up. That was then replaced with an EAantennas 8ele LFA. That antenna works quite well
December 2014. With our impending permanent relocation back to UK (January 2015) thoughts are turning to EME array V2! The mounting of "everything" on that one spigot is a very weak link. The thoughts are to reinstate the tower head unit with the AZ rotator inside it for support using a thrust bearing and then re-engineer the H frame to use a screw jack actuator arm for elevation. Maybe go down to 2 longer Yagis to reduce the wind load but at the same gain. I Will need to get one main Yagi up for HF first though!
November 2013 - it was all taken down. There was a wind storm, although nothing that strong, and the rotator and mount were damaged.
In particular the "Spid" el-az rotator seems pretty poorly made from low grade materials. After some time of wondering why it all "fell apart" so easily I saw another photo of a lighter weight Spid rotator. The penny then dropped as that one had lock nuts on the pinning bolts, and my heavy duty one did not have any supplied. So all the shaking just loosened everything up. The top mounting spigot is also far too weak for the job and the weld started ripping. The H frame did stand up very well. So time for a re-think!
What with working away a lot and having no time we have paused for a re-think and will be rebuilding next January (2015)
October 2013 - the array of four 7 ele Innova LFA antennas is finally up having started back in May. Lots of help by G8VR is greatly appreciated. The last 10% of this project will take some more time but the system is basically working and has elevation as well.
October 2009 - The boys are back! In anticipation of the K4M DXpedition coming up on 6m EME G8VR (formerly G0LCS) and I resurrected the 11ele yagi. K4M failed to show but I did work ZL3NW again as a test and also W7GJ. The Yagi is on a stronger tower and we hope it can be left in situ between trips to Dubai.
(Should be a photo here too!)
Feb 2007 - I had to take down the 11ele. I am travelling a lot for work and the 11ele was straining the rotator and tower every time the wind blew. It was in danger of getting broken. It will go back up sometime with a stronger rotator. An 11ele 6m beam is a serious antenna!
Jan 2007 HOT NEWS!
I made the contact with Rod, ZL3NW on 1 January 2007, followed by JH2POZ on 2 Jan.
Dec 2006 - With a lot of help and encouragement from G0LCS I have put up this 11 ele M2 antenna, 2.5 WL long. It is BIG! I hope to work ZL3NW via EME using JT65A soon!
Watch this space for updates!
These are the 2007 pictures
3 Sept 2021