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

[Ron Barlow]

Hi Russ,

 Your ~ $650 figure (which you state does not include the cost of a computer, receiver, transmitter, amplifier, feedlines, auto rotator control, etc., exceeds my total investment, in a 2 band station, and that does include  the cost of the my (home made) receiver, transmitters, sequencer, etc, in other words, the whole 9 yards. (No auto rotator control, etc., as my junk is all bare bones---no DSP, Linrad , GPS,  AGC, etc .)

 This was made possible by the use of wood boom antennas, home made open wire phasing harnesses, rotation and elevation systems that used discarded tv antenna rotators as their power source, H frames  that were made from salvage yard materials, receiver & xmtrs, etc. made from flea market components, the use of CATV coax for xmit feedline, etc.. etc.

 No expensive tools or test equipment was required for construction.

 Yes, some time and effort was required to do this, but I (mostly) enjoyed it, and I considered it to be a valuable "hands on" learning experience. 

 This "junk  box" station has been quite reliable (to quote Lefty Gomez, I'd rather be lucky than good), and it works well enough to provide respectable self echoes, on both bands, Faraday permitting. 

 As for the number of contacts per year, that is not nearly as important to me as the enjoyment that I derive from my experiences while playing with CW EME. I regard my EME activity as an enjoyable persuit, in its own right, not as solely a means to some end (DXCC, etc.).

 That enjoyment would not be present (for me), while using digital technology. To sum it up (for me),  the journey is more important than the destination----an analogy to another hobby, that I enjoy.

 To each his own, however! YMMV! I  do not wish to impose my priorities or preferences on others. I only wanted to point out that CW EME does not have to be expensive, nor does it require huge amounts of space, or a physically large antenna system (at least not on 70 cm.).

 

                                             73 de Ron   n4gjv 

 

2m: 4 x 3.1 WL fixed H pol & 2 x 4CX250s  

70 cm: 4 x 6.8 WL fixed H pol, & 2 x 4CX250s 

 

   

 

  


From: k2txb at dxcc.com
To: badl79 at yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 15:31:50 -0400
CC: moon at moonbounce.info
Subject: Re: [Moon] The Swedish 4Th 432 & UP EME meeting CW








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> 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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