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| 10 and 1000 via the Moon |
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| Written by Jan van Muijlwijk | |||||
| Sunday, 13 June 2010 15:07 | |||||
On May 22nd the DT once again was active by way of the moon. This time two more milestones were scored: the 10th “first” was achieved and meanwhile more than 1.000 contacts were made. Jan van Muijlwijk reports: And then there was this very successful expedition to Mauritius by our “own” René (PE1L), Eltje (PA3CEE) and Johan (PE9DX), all of whom have also been active from the DT. The main object of this expedition was 2 m but although at the moment the DT does not sprout antennas for this band, just like last year in Kenia, they took along a small 70 cm yagi and that band is available on the DT. Previously we had clearly agreed that in case the internet-connection failed, we would explicitly know when and on what frequency we would try to make contact. Mauritius had never been active by way of the moon, so contact with “our” threesome would be another first for PI9CAM, to wit nr. 10! Eene, who all but always signs up for a major part of the technical side, this time was on holiday, so we planned some extra time for building things up. Fortunately his instructions were firstclass and our memory served us alright, so we finished installing the radiostation in ample time. Around four-thirty Saturday afternoon we could get started and from that moment on we could log in one station after another on 23cm. Dick Harms used his lovely brass straight key and enjoyed the great number of incoming calls.
With the guys on Mauritius (3B8EME) we had a scheduled to try 70 cm around 17.30 hrs. On due time we met on the internet and decided to initiate a beginning. Signals were received without any problems, and on finding that obviously only with great difficulty could they hear us in horizontal polarisation, we switched to vertical and were answered right away. The connection went smoothly and the 10th first was a fact! A great moment for cracking open the last bottle of champagne from the fridge ☺
The antenne on Mauritius Later we heard that René, Eltje and Johan delivered a lecture on EME for the local hams on Mauritius. One of these guys told them he had read somewhere that nowadays even SSTV was feasible by way of the moon…. Just fancy finding that PI9CAM’s SSTV EME experiments even get through to Mauritius! Eltje and Johan could tell this man that they themselves had been present when these SSTV EME contacts were made from Dwingeloo. It’s a small world! ☺ After this success we went on to 23cm again to hunt for some weaker stations. John (PA7PB), for instance, at some past time also active from Dwingeloo, easily entered our log with his 2,4 m dish and a mere 22 Watt. We were also able to make contact with JT65 and that in CW, too, with a station with a 1,2 m dish and 100 Watt in Slovenia. On 23 CM we then went on in CW with those numerous contest-stations. Michael and Monika, of course, entered our log with strong signals from Kaliningrad. Came the moment when Peter Matlung took over the straight key from Dick and after the first shakey-ish contacts, that also went without a hitch For Peter it was years ago for him to have used a straight key. Obviously it is just like riding a bike. That is something of an art one never loses either! Paul and Pieter-Tjerk were present, too, and tried to get a second WebSDR going (on 70 cm), but it kept eluding them. Fortunately the 23 cm WebSDR worked like a dream, for the 23cm contest yielded the most activity. For the first time Pieter-Tjerk was bodily present in the DT when we sent his “strange noises” to the moon. This really went much easier than attendance by telephone. We think we got very nice and usable echoes of these “strange noises”. What this leads up to, Pieter-Tjerk himself is going to explain shortly. But it is spectacular! 
Fred Tak, assisting and advising us, was also present all night. Those who were new here got a guided tour in and around the DT. As usual: a Highlight! 
For the occasion Cor Veldman had built his own 4-Yagi EME-station in the garden. With an adequate Doppler-shift it should have been possible for us to observe both his direct signal and the moon-echo. Alas, in spite of furiously trying to get everything right it refused to come off. Somewhere something must be wrong, although Cor is not sure where. Next time we’ll try again. With four Yagi's, it should be feasible! 
In the end we performed a test that had nothing to do with radio at all. Daniella de Paulis was in Rotterdam and had borrowed a Windows laptop to play MMSSTV, We wanted to find out if our internet-link by way of Skype from the DT to Daniella would yield enough quality to emit SSTV noises without appreciable loss of quality. In due time this will be necessary when we’re going to execute her art project. We had some trouble leading Daniella through installing the MMSS TV installation procedure by telephone. She is used to (handling) a Mac ☺ , but we got through and succeeded in finding out what was needed. But the pictures arriving at Daniella’s were rather distorted. Which is a bit odd, for during a test I had performed via Skype at home before, I could not find any loss of quality. In short: a test to be executed once more! On the whole I did not see my cot before 05.00 hrs. The blackbirds, who were waking up, kept me awake for a bit. It had been another fantastic, inspiring and historical night!
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