23CM EME Roving Station Installed

December 23, 2021

The 23CM EME roving station is now installed and operating from my truck.  The station uses a 2.4M folding dish from W2HRO and a 600W PA built from the W6PQL pallette (runs at 350W to the feed).

During roving operations in 2022 I plan to operate two stations simultaneously at most times.  The stations in the truck include:
  • 6M KW - 3el M2 Yagi at 32 feet - MS/Es
  • 2M KW - 2X10HV EME, 7el ME Yagi at 32 feet - MS/Es/EME
  • 222 KW - 2x16 for EME 1x16 at 32 feet for MS
  • 70cm KW - 4x25 for EME
  • 23cm 600W - 2.4M folding dish
I plan to operate 23cm at all stops and one additional station depending on conditions and demand.  This afternoon I tested running the EME station (no moon) and 222 stations simultaneously.

The dish now has a counterbalance to improve elevation linearity.



23cm Q5 transverter is driven by ICOM 705 on 2M.  3 watts output from ICOM 705 drives transverter to 10W output.  The transverter output is attenuated 3db and 5W to the PA delivers 350W to the feed.  WD5AGO preamp and filter on RX side.



The control center has two radios, the ICOM 7300 on 28Mhz drives the 222 Q5 transverter.  The ICOM 705 on top of the 7300 is the driver for 6M, 2M, 70cm and 23cm.  The Yaesu rotator controls the 23cm dish.  There is a 2nd Yaesu G5500 not shown that controls the 2M, 222 and 70cm EME arrays.  The AR40 rotator rotates the 32 foot mast for the MS/Es antennas.  All of the equipment on the left is mounted on a "pallette" and is moved as a unit into the back seat area when not in use.

The PC has two side monitors.  The PC runs two instances of WSJT-X at the same time.  I also run chat windows, RF noise monitoring/display software and rotator control software on the PC. 


The 222 station runs a full KW output using a Harris PA.  The PA is driven by a Q5 transverter.  30W from the transverter runs the PA to 1KW output.  The blue 110V to 220V autotransformer in the middle can drive two PAs to a KW output at the same time.  Two Honda EU2200 generators provide 110V.


This winter and spring I will do several short trips before doing the long tour starting in June/July.





so

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