KA6U EME Expeditions

KA6U Update - June 30, 2022 - 2030UTC Thank-you everyone who called today Overall decent conditions. I will update LoTW in the morning. Here is today's operating location along a very lightly traveled road.  Time is just before Sunrise, one hour before Moonrise. Background RF noise on 23cm was about 3db higher than a "quiet" location.  I don't know why.  23cm dish and 70cm yagis shown.  2M Crosspol yagis are on the ground. James, K7KQA visited for several hours and also operated the station.  It was great to have an entertaining visitor! Home Depot supplied some 15kg cement blocks I can use as tie-downs when setting up on pavement.  I used the blocks today instead of the 1M long circus tent stakes  Faster and easier to setup than driving the stakes into the ground.  Also much quieter. Tomorrow I am going to have a shorter operating day. Instead of getting up at 2:00AM local time, I will leave for the site in Oregon at 5:30AM local time, 1230UTC. The revised location i

KA6U Update June 29, 2022  1400UTC The next activations will be in Washington and Oregon starting tomorrow, Thursday June 30.  Based on success with dual-band operation at last stop I will operate dual band again.  I will start with 23cm and 70cm then switch to 23cm and 2M. Washington - DN06MG37 - June 30, 2022 1330UTC - 1500UTC 23cm and 70cm 1500UTC - 1830UTC 23cm and 2M 1830UTC until finished 222 Oregon - DN05JV47 - July 1, 2022 1430UTC - 1600UTC 23cm and 70cm 1600UTC - 1930UTC 23cm and 2M 1930UTC until finished 222 If there are more 2M callers I will continue on 2M until complete. Next states planned starting on July 3rd: Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, try New Mexico again

KA6U Update - June 27, 2022 0400UTC  All QSOs from today in Idaho have been uploaded to LoTW. If there is anything missing please send me an email. At the beginning of the session I ran 23cm and 2M at the same time. I then switched to 23cm and 70cm at the same time. I believe I have the folding dish pointing figured out now so I should have a consistent 23cm signal now.  I believe I will be able to initialize the pointing direction without needing to see the Moon or the Sun. It helped greatly to have a couple of the biggest stations provide a "beacon" for a few minutes. After completing operations this morning I drove from the Idaho/Nevada border to Kennewick,    Washington on the Washington/Oregon border, a distance of about 600 miles. Incredible scenery on this drive across two mountain ranges, grasslands from horizon to horizon and the Columbia river. When I set up this morning in Idaho the temperature was about 4 C.  When I arrived in Washington State the temp was about 3

KA6U Update -  June 25, 2022 2100UTC I have completed the activation in DN21px in Nevada. I have corrected LoTW to show Nevada for the state. :-) If you want paper QSL's please send to W6TCP, Ian (see QRZ.com for address) I left to go to the site at 1:30AM local time and returned to hotel at 1:30PM local time. DN21 in Nevada above.  Tomorrow's activation site is close-by across the border into Idaho. The location is only 1 mile from my hotel.  Shortest drive to activation site ever.  2M antennas on tripod. Operating plan for Sunday June 26, 2022 - DN21 Idaho 23cm and 2M EME at about 0400UTC 70cm EME at about 1000UTC - 1200UTC (pending completion with 2M callers) I will continue 23cm EM3 if required 222 EME and/or MS 1200UTC - 1500UTC Leave by 1600UTC to drive to Oregon/Washington border, Kennewick, WA (8 hour drive) Plan to arrive in WA by 2400UTC (5PM local time) Stay in Kennewick for 6 days until July 2nd.  Activations in OR and WA No activations during New Moon Leave for Bil

 KA6U Update - June 23, 2022 2330UTC I completed operations in Utah and have driven to the small town of Jackpot, Nevada on the border of Idaho and Nevada. I will activate Nevada on Saturday morning and Idaho on Sunday morning.  Both activations will be in the vicinity of DN21px.  I plan to operate 2M and 23cm at moonrise followed by 70cm then 222.  Because of very smooth station operation today I believe I can run 2M and 23cm at the same time. No operations on Friday June 24 Nevada Moonrise Saturday June 25 1000UTC Idaho Moonrise Sunday June 26 1100UTC When I go to an activation site, if possible, I try to arrive 2 1/2 hours before the schedule start time.  I plan for 90 minutes to set up the station (2 antenna systems) and 60 minutes to fix problems. Today I was able to setup in 60 minutes and NO problems at all in setup or operation today! The Moon wasn't visible today so pointing alignment used compass, digital protractor and your signals and reports. This is the station runnin

KA6U Update - June 22, 2022 -  1700UTC The activation in Wyoming DN41 is complete.  QSOs from 23cm, 70cm and 222 Mhz are uploaded to LoTW. Many minor issues today caused delays which resulting in not being able to run 2M today and missing the EU window for 70cm. I may be able to return to Wyoming in the next two weeks on the way back to Colorado.  If I do return, I will activate 2M and 70cm only.  Please watch for announcements here. 23cm station is working much better.  The challenge is getting initial alignment correct.  I am working on ways to address this. Tomorrow I will also be in DN41 but in Utah, about 7 miles into the state.  Operating plan: Moonrise about 0900UTC - 1100UTC - 23cm good EU window 1100UTC - 1300UTC - 70cm - EU window 1300UTC - 1400UTC - 23cm 1500UTC - 1700UTC - 222 Mhz No 2M operations are planned tomorrow. Later in the week, Idaho and Nevada. Thanks, Peter KA6U

 KA6U Update June 21, 2022 - 2000UTC I have found what appear to be very good operating locations in DN41 in Wyoming and in Utah.  Both locations are about 20km from my hotel. I estimate both locations will require the Moon to be about 10 degrees above moonrise to clear low hills in the foreground.  I should have good Internet connections at both locations Operating plan updated: Wyoming DN41NE32 - 0900UTC June 22, 2022 Utah DN41KE77 - 0900UTC June 23, 2022 Wyoming operating plan: 0900UTC - I plan to start with 23cm EME from Wyoming.  If everything goes well, I may also turn on 2M EME but I need to be careful because this is the first operation with the new W6PQL PA 1030UTC - 70cm EME 1300UTC - 222 EME Weather should be ideal with temps in the 40's and 50's F and almost no wind.  Clear to partly cloudy. For 2M operations PJClient, HB9Q for other bands. If I do operate two bands at the same time, I do not plan to confirm QSOs on chat. Hope things work tomorrow. 73 Peter KA6U

 KA6U Update - June 21, 2022 0230UTC - DN41 ACTIVATION DELAYED 24 hours   I have arrived in DN41 in Wyoming.  I have arrived too late in the day to select a suitable operating location.  It took 4 hours this morning to arrange for a place to leave my RV trailer.  This is because no dealer is available to do repairs until October.  Yes, really.  I will return to Denver on July 12 and do the repairs myself.  Because of that delay I am arriving near Sunset in southwestern Wyoming. Therefore I am going to delay the DN41 Wyoming activation until June 22, 2022 starting at approximately 0900UTC.  This is a hilly area and I need to have time to find a good location. Operating plan is modified: June 22 - 0900UTC - 23cm EME.  I will not run 2M at the same time Wednesday morning.  This is the first use of a new PA for 23cm and I must monitor it's operation very closely Priority after 23cm is 70cm for WAS.  If there is time I will also run 2M After 70cm/2M I will run 222 I am still planning on

KA6U Update - June 20, 2022 - 0400UTC Plan update. I have fixed all radio equipment, rotators, etc.  I have installed new 23cm PA and should be 3db or so louder on 23cm.  Hopefully I will be able to see echo more reliably which will help with pointing accuracy during nightime operations. I am planning to take a more northern route and go to Evanston, WY on the border of Wyoming and Utah tomorrow. If I am able to get to Evanston, WY tomorrow I plan to activate DN41 in Wyoming first.  I plan to be there for several days to have time to activate WY and UT on multiple bands.  Latest plan if everything works: DN41 Wyoming - 0900UTC June 21 - 23cm and 2M followed by 70cm then 222.  Weather forecast is clear low wind 4 degrees C If operations go well on the 21st then I plan to activate DN41 in Utah on June 22 around 0900UTC with same operating plan. If necessary I will do "clean-up" operations in either WY or UT on June 23rd After this stop I plan to go to Southern Idaho/Northern Ne

 KA6U Update - June 19, 2022 - 2030UTC I have arrived in Denver, CO.  I hope to leave my RV Trailer for service in the morning and then drive to Utah. Today I installed and tested the new W6PQL 23cm PA.  With the new PA I will be at least 3db and maybe 4db louder on TX. I am having problems getting the 23cm dish correctly aligned if the Sun is not available to calibrate Azimuth.  I attempt to align to the Moon only visually, however I have found the best I can do manually is 2-3 degrees which results in significant loss. I hope that with the extra TX power I will be able to hear my echo off the moon reliably.  I am able to find my echo rarely with the previous PA.  I suspect the power at the feed was only 200W or so based on accurate measurements I can make using the PA with calibrated power measurement.  With 400W at the feed this should help with aiming. My pstrotator program went crazy today and wrapped the cables until the controller blew the fuse.... I am still working to recover

 KA6U Update June 19, 2022 New Mexico Because of terrain clearance from the operating site in New Mexico I will not be able to see the Moon until 1000UTC.  This time wont work for EU.  I will go back to New Mexico later in the year. I am expecting to be QRV from EM76SV in Raton, New Mexico at about 1000UTC June 19th

 KA6U Trip Update - Murphy on the Road Tonight near the Texas/New Mexico border one of the tires on my RV had a blow-out (really a blow-up). It blasted a hole in the floor in the kitchen area but only took out a few water hoses (and part of the floor). So the plan is revised.  Tomorrow morning, Saturday, I will put the spare tire on and drive to Raton, New Mexico.  On Sunday morning starting at about 0700UTC I plan to be QRV on 23cm.  I know this is a bad time for EU.   Because of this event I will not be doing an activation in the 4 corners area this Summer near Teec no Pas. Next I will drive to Denver CO to get the RV repaired.  This will probably take a couple of weeks. So without the RV I  am planning to do a 3000km circuit around the Northwestern/North Central US. After dropping the RV off on in Aurora, Colorado Sunday the 19th I will go over the mountains to Utah.  Here is the revised plan, grid information in a future posting: Utah June 21 Nevada June 22 Idaho June 24 Oregon Jun

 KA6U Activations Update - June 14, 2022 Activations start on June 20th - 5 States 2M/222/70cm/23cm EME Current plan with more detail on specific locations to follow: June 20 - Colorado near Olathe, CO June 22 - New Mexico - 4 corners area near Teec No Pos, AZ June 23 - Arizona - 4 corners area near Teec No Pos, AZ June 24 - Utah - 4 corners area near Teec No Pos, AZ June 26 - Nevada near Mesquite, NV Operating times will start in the very early mornings due to the extreme heat expected.  Moonrise will be between 0800UTC and 0930UTC during these operations. The CO, NM, AZ, UT activations will be in DM56/DM57.  Nevada in DM26. I have the dual station operation working again.  I replaced the ICOM 7300 and 9700 radios with two ICOM 705 radios.  The 705s do not appear to be affected by high RF levels during portable operations.  The ICOM 705s are very compact and use only 6 inch USB cables for computer connections.  All of my PAs are driven to full output with 5 watts drive.  This will all

 KA6U Update - June 7 activation of EM31 in LA is postponed I will not activate EM31 in LA later today.  I will reschedule. No other schedule activations at this time. We are getting ready for the June VHF contest. After the contest I will be heading out on the road from TX. If I don't do LA this week, I will activate before the end of the trip. Peter, KA6U

KA6U Update - June 6 2022 - 1430UTC I plan to activate EM31 in Louisiana on Wednesday June 8th. The operating plan is: 70cm EME - 1930UTC - 2130UTC (or all callers complete) 23cm EME - 2130UTC - 2300UTC 222 EME - 2300 - 0100UTC Please send me an email if anyone needs LA for WAS on 2M.   If you need EM31 as a grid, please call K5QE on 2M during the June VHF contest. We will be on 2M during both Moon passes with a BIG station. Thanks, Peter KA6U

KA6U Update - June 6, 2022 - 0130UTC Thank-you everyone for calling me over the last four days. All QSOs are updated to LoTW.  This year I will not post QSOs on the blog page.  If you have a question please send me an email, thanks! I will not operate later today, June 6 in Louisiana.  Four 12 hours days to start my trip was enough ;-). After reconfiguring my truck station all four EME bands are working very well.  Today started out well on 23cm with good signals after Moonrise.   Unfortunately it appears I had a very loud noise source in the direction of Moonrise.  I determined that between 10 and 30 degrees of elevation in the 90 degree direction (Moon direction) the noise was greater than my Sun noise = I could not hear.  So I stopped 23cm operation. 70cm had low noise and excellent signals.  The best I have seen from my station. I worked Bernie in ZS4 land immediately when I came on 70cm with excellent signals.  Later in the afternoon deep QSB for US stations.  I could decode stati

 KA6U Update - June 5, 2022 0100UTC I have returned to the hotel after 1st day activation in EM34CA in Arkansas. 98 QSOs are uploaded to LoTW from Oklahoma and Arkansas operations. If any QSOs are missing please send me an email. Sorry for late start.  Planned location wasn't suitable and I had to search for a backup location.  Found a good location today I will return to tomorrow. Conditions early in the day were very difficult on 2M with strong QSB and different H/V paths in different directions.  70cm started very difficult with mostly lockout conditions in US for first 90 minutes.  Then 70cm became wide open with very strong signals. 222 was very difficult at the beginning and I had to switch polarity between TX and RX.  I estimate about 1 km of round trips between the Truck and the antennas to rotate polarity.  The plan for tomorrow is as follows: 23cm EME Q65-60C at Moonrise 1620UTC - 1920UTC - I should be on time tomorrow 70cm EME Q65-60B from 1920UTC - 2200UTC or all caller

KA6U Update - June 4, 2022 0230UTC I have arrived in Nashville, Arkansas.  I plan to activate EM34 Saturday and Sunday. Moonrise Saturday is about 1530UTC. I have learned that the ICOM9700 does not work reliably in my portable station. So I am removing the 9700 and going back to the ICOM705. The ICOM9700 USB interface is very sensitive to RFI, the most sensitive of any radio I have used.  This causes the the waterfall update to randomly fail.  I replaced the rig control with a CI-V cable because 9700 rig control is even more sensitive than audio. At least 20 times today the ICOM9700 audio failed which preventing decodes. The ICOM9700 seems ok for use in a home shack but not for portable operations, at least high power and multiple stations. For the next few days I will operate only one band at a time.  Until the station is much more reliable (ICOM interfaces) I will only run one station. The plan for tomorrow Saturday EM24 Arkansas: 2M EME JT65B from 1530UTC to 1900UTC 70cm EME from 19

 KA6U Update - June 2, 2022 2340UTC I added a short operating day to the beginning of my trip today.  I left Texas at 5 AM drove up to Oklahoma and waited for storms to pass before setting up at about 1800UTC. Thanks to those who called on 2M and 23cm.  Here is a photo of the setup in EM24PD on a penninsula in Broken Bow Lake. I had a number of issues with generators, network in truck, rotator alignment, all to be expected for the first activation in several months and lots of new equipment, installation, etc.  By the end of the day I believe I have the issues resolved. Tomorrow starting at my Moonrise 1430UTC I should be on both 2M and 23cm at the same time.  The 2nd generator is working now.  I will also finish calibration of my new rotator for the 23cm station using the Sun at low elevation.  Today I had multiple issues that prevented proper calibration. If everything works this is the plan: 23cm starting at 1430 Moonrise - Run all day 2M starting at 1430 Moonrise - Run until 1815UT

 KA6U Roadtrip - June 2, 2022 0100UTC Update _ Early start around 1800UTC today I am leaving for Oklahoma tomorrow morning from EM32 in Texas at about 1300UTC.  It is about a 4 hour drive to EM24 in OK. Because I am leaving early I plan to operate on two days from OK, June 2nd starting at about 1800UTC from EM24 and also on June 3, 2022 starting at Moonrise, about 1430UTC. Later today, June 2nd I may not run two bands at the same time.  I will probably start with 2M.  If  setup and operations go well I may try to run 23cm at the same time later today, June 2nd.  If I can't run both at the same time, I will run 2M first then 23cm.  I should have lots of time for callers on all bands. On June 3rd I plan to run 2M, 23cm, 70cm and 222 EME.  If I complete with most 2M callers on June 2nd, I may start with 70cm on June 3rd. I haven't run dual bands since updates to the station so there is a possibility of RFI issues. This week while staying at Marshall, K5QE's place I have been a