[Moon] The Swedish 4Th 432 & UP EME meeting CW

[Russ K2TXB]

Yes Jars, you are good at being sarcastic.  How well would you do with a 4
Yagi system on 2 meter CW if you did not have a sked or have a list of
possible stations calls (either in memory or on paper)?

 

Apples and Apples please.

 

73, Russ K2TXB

 

From: Lars Pettersson [mailto:sm4ive at telia.com] 
Sent: Friday, August 15, 2014 5:17 PM
To: moon at moonbounce.info; Russ K2TXB
Subject: Re: [Moon] The Swedish 4Th 432 & UP EME meeting CW

 

Ok got your point
How effective would it be if you remove deepsearch and calltxt?
Or to be sarkastic who needs an radio when you have the calltxtfile and cpu.

Russ K2TXB skrev 2014-08-15 21:31:

*******  I respectfully disagree with your suggestion that CW (dino) EME
must be more expensive than digital operation. Some of us have assembled
reasonably effective 2m and 70cm CW stations at what I suspect is a lower
cost than anyone has done with digital

Hello Ron. I do not understand why you think this.  My 2 meter EME station
consists of a used 25 foot aluminum tower (free), 2 KLM 16LBX antennas
(bought new in 1983 when they first came out, so cheap by today's
standards), A Yaesu EL/AL rotator pair (G5500 bought used for $250).  I
built the polarity rotation system entirely from junk box parts, using an
old TV rotator.  Also needed a 2 way splitter (bought used for $50), some
aluminum tubing to make the supporting masts, and quite a bit of hand work
(free as I did not charge myself).  For the digital side, The software was
free, The computer was free (cast off from work, but could have been bought
for under $200), and I built my own computer to rig interface (for under $30
in radio shack parts plus junk box parts).  I don't remember what the
antennas cost but I am guessing around $300 for the pair (maybe less).  So,
for the whole digital system I spent less than $650 dollars ($850 if I had
to buy the computer).

Contrast that to putting together a comparable 2 meter EME station capable
of making a similar number of CW contacts.  Here I would need at least four
antennas (probably more).  So the cheap aluminum tower is out.  I would need
an H frame, a much heavier duty (and separate) AZ and EL rotators, and a
four way or multiple power splitters, more phasing lines, connectors..  The
extra cost for all of that is more than the cost of my whole system.  And
that would not even include the ability to change polarity (I can not figure
out a reasonable method of mechanically rotating polarity of Yagis on an H
frame, and XPOL Yagis are much much more expensive to buy and to support.)

All of the other parts of my station (receiver, transmitter, feed lines,
preamps, amplifier, automatic rotator control system, connectors, etc.) are
required for both systems and can be ignored.  Also it is likely that most
hams already have a computer in the shack so that can be left out of the
digital cost too.

I suppose that my setup is among the cheapest around, but it is still
capable of generating more contacts in a year than I made in 15 years on CW
with 4 of the same kind of Yagis.

Maybe you want to reconsider?

73, Russ K2TXB

 

 

On Aug 14, 2014, at 2:13 PM, Michael Barlow <badl79 at yahoo.com
<mailto:badl79 at yahoo.com> > wrote:

Hi Guy,
I respectfully disagree with your suggestion that CW (dino) EME must be more
expensive than digital operation. Some of us have assembled reasonably
effective 2m and 70cm CW stations at what I suspect is a lower cost than
anyone has done with digital.
As for required space, an effective 70cm antenna system can be quite small.
An HB9 (I regret to say that I am unable to remember his entire call) had an
absolutely superb signal, some years ago, while using an antenna array that
was erected on his apartment balcony. As I recall, his receive capability
was a match for his ufb transmit signal.
                            73 de "a dino", Ron  n4gjv 

 

 






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-- 
I only work real EME no chatts no Bagpipes
CW is King!!!!
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