12/08/2009 | WD5AGO We operated the ARRL EME contest (27th yr) again multi tasking. 1st the microwave portion from our home QTH using our new 3.1m dish. We picked up 2.1 dB sun noise over our 2.7m dish used the last 4 years on 13cm. This year we added a twist and helped out another band, 6cm. The time spent on 6cm was 4 hours and worked OE9ERC, F2TU, W5LUA, JA8ERE, and JA6CZD. As we are only entering 13cm single op, I wanted to post we also were spread thin. We worked 34 Qs on 13cm and heard a total of 39. Biggest activity yet on this band! With the increase in 13cm activity, it will be hard to break away to operate other microwave bands next year.

I am the advisor for our school club where I am employed. To get students involved with Amateur radio and EME, I brought over a 70cm station and array designed by K5GW to multi op. The antennas are 16 x 6ft long 10 ele yagis. The students had the task of building up new baluns, phasing lines, building a temp stand, hardware, and testing. Due to poor weather our last shot was Saturday, Dec 5th to get it going. By 2200 Z sun noise checked good and good to go for moon rise at about 0330 Z. Went home and we all met back at the college to try 1st time the station. Only with a D1010 amplifier (100 w) we worked 6 stations on CW random and heard 10 that night. By morning weather turned worst and need to take down the electronics. We all had a good time and introduced 4 new hams to EME. Next year we plan to do the same except over the two weekends and with more power. -- WD5AGO