2021 Road Trip - Update 68: 222 EME Activation FN20 Project Dianna - September 21, 2021 1300UTC

The visit to the Project Dianna site is complete.  The facility was great with quite RF conditions.  The ISEC Amateur Radio Club supported our operation and also operated the 23cm 60 foot dish EME station.  Simultaneous 2M and 23cm EME at Moonrise last night.

I am still planning the FN00 activation later today.  I hope the time is not too late.

• FN00RA - Near Bedford, PA - Sept 22 0000UTC - 0500UTC (or all callers complete).  144.132 2nd JT65B, I will have Internet access

21 QSOs were completed on 2M EME and UA3PTW also completed an SSB contact on 1296 using the 60 foot diameter dish.  Russ K2TXB joined me for the operation and also operated the 2M EME station.  Contacts are updated to LoTW

This is one of the first Amateur 1296 stations from the 1950's.  On the right is a 2.5kw Klystron run at 1000 watts for Amateur use.

The 60 foot dish was built in 1958.  The dish was used to track the first US satellites launched in the 1950's and 1960's  The small 2M EME array in the front was built in 2020.

This is the control center for the radio telescope/EME station.  The telescope monitors the Hydrogen emission at 2.1Ghz.  The control terminal is on the left.  The second monitor is an SDR.  The French radar is the large signal in the middle.  On the right is the Kenwood transceiver.

It was great to participate in my first 1296 and SSB EME QSO with UA3PTW.

The station is currently open on Wednesday and Saturday to the public.  Visitors have an opportunity to hear their voice bounced off the moon.  They can also watch in realtime as the telescope tracks pulsars and displays other signals detected using the radio telescope.

This is what the station looked like in the 1946 when the first Moonbounce tests were successful.  The antennas are the array of dipoles on the tower at the right side of the photo.