02/17/2008 | YO9FRJ That was my 6th ARRL EME Contest participation and the 4th in this team formula. YO9FRJ team was composed by YO9FRJ (ex. YO4FRJ) Adrian and YO9AFE Joe.
We operated only the 144 MHz band after YO9FRJs EME antenna system changes since August 2007. I decided its time to quit the compromise of 4 + 4 bays 2m/70cm nested systems since early 2002 and get restored the advantage of better gain and system pattern of the basic 2m in four antennas. Improvement for the 144MHz EME system was estimated to be as much as 1.2dB in Gain can be, evaluated to be significant in G/T factor, considering the permanent increasing noise of my center city location (300k people). During the contest we ran a steady 2000 Wef to this simplified array of four 17-element Cushcraft 17B2s, horizontal polarization only. We did use again the same two receiver formula, but this time for one single band. To run the digital QSOs we tested a combination of MAP65, WSJT and Spectran software, wired from an FT847 and FT736R. A narrower BPF and the improved 2nd preamplifier paid also some benefits after lots of calculations and sweep& balance sessions to squeeze the last fraction of dBs in order to optimize overall systems Rx performances.
We used CW, SSB and JT65, without assistance. This time we made a total of 160 QSOs (31 CW, 1 SSB, 128 JT65), few dupes for a non optimized total of 58 multipliers. Claimed score went up to about 880k points. We might have managed few more cw QSOs if stations able to copy and answer our cw CQs had more patience with us. CNRs were EA2AGZ, SV3AAF, DL5MAE, OZ1LPR. Also heard at least of another dozen and so cw stations working big guns, but they were in such a big hurry always and our try to tail end them was unsuccessful. Average QSOs per hour in the 1st Leg was as low as 3.2 can be. JT65 unassisted QSOs hourly rate reached almost the same average time as cw QSOs in the absence of MAP65 and SDR with a 100kHz bandwidth receiver. However, using the FT847s 6kHz AM bandwidth and running MAP65 on another computer helped us in the 2nd Leg to work hard to keep the previous QSOs average per hour rate. Most appreciated was the random SSB QSO with Sam - RN6BN (report 57), heard working SV9GPV (George - swl report 45) and answering us like in a tropo contest like. I would like to mention again the low participation from the States side.
Last but not the least, Mr. Murphy paid his visits to us too, both October and November Legs, this time with an elevation actuator cable issues, always close to 55 deg. on the western side of the Moon path. As we decided not taking the other option for a conservative nap, the technical issue was solved always on dark, close to 5:00 am in the morning, course on hard rain and up to 7m up on the tower, losing at least one hour from the operation time, before to be back in business again and take as much fun as it gets.
73 to all from Adrian (YO9FRJ) and Joe (YO9AFE) YO9FRJ team in KN34aw. e-MAIL: yo4frj-AT-arrl.net -- YO4FRJ