SM6FHZ 432 MHz EME

The antenna for 432 MHz EME is my 5.5 m dish with a f/D of 0.37.

I  started with using a XE1XA ring feed for 70 cm EME and tropo. Polarization is possible to rotate more than 90 degrees by hand. Remotely controlled polarization rotation will be implemented.

SM6FHZ 5.5 m dish 432 MHz sun noise measurement  432 MHz feed in the dish during initial sun noise measurements

XE1XA feed with rotation axis   432 MHz XE1XA design loop feed with polarization rotation axis

%.5 m dish with 432 MHz BFR Loop    432 MHz Dish with SM6FHZ BFR loop feed  (Beam Forming Ring)

432 MHz BFR Loop feed  432 MHz SM6FHZ BFR Loop Feed closeup

The BFR Loop feed was installed in the dish December 11, 2010. Unfortunately I was not able to check performance on the sun or any galactic noise source due to their positions that day. I measured 11.8 dB sun noise (SFI 89) at a sun elevation of 1.5 deg. I had nice return from the moon with this feed. I will evaluate the performance as soon as there will be a opportunity.

The transmitter chain consists of an ICOM IC-756pro3 driving a home-made high IP-transverter (modified 450 MHz cellular Rx board both on Rx and Tx) followed by a MRF644 pre-driver to a 2*2SC2897 (MRF309) driver. The power amplifier is a GS23b tetrode in a Russian TV Tx-cavity running very calm. 

SM6FHZ 70 cm transverter, PA and HSP power suply   From top down: 432 MHz transverter, GS23b power amplifier and HSP power supply

GS23b 70 cm PA  432 MHz GS23b power amplifier during construction work

Feeder loss is about 0.6 dB using 7 m of 1 1/4" foam heliax + 0.3 m of 1/2" super flex heliax + 6 m of 7/8" foam heliax.

The receiver chain starts with a RelComm RDL-SK006 relay for Tx-Rx shift. Preamplifier is a ATF-541 43 on a OZ1PIF board with a modified input circuit. It measures an NF below 0.4 dB including the relay. The antenna port of the relay is connected directly to the 20 cm of low loss air dielectric coax supporting the ring of the feed (see feed picture above). And I do have a second preamp of the same kind as a redundancy in case of LNA failure. The performance of both of the pre-amps are the same.

432 MHz ATF 541 43 LNA  432 MHz ATF 541 43 preamp and TR-relay

About 20 m of RG-213 cable runs from the LNA at the feed into the transverter via a band pass filter.

For the moment I am working on the polarization rotation and indication device.

Initial sun noise measurement show 11.4 dB (at a solar flux of 72) with Leo as the cold sky reference. Measurements of Cygnus A show 1.9 dB and Sagittarius A (never over 4 deg elevation by me) show 4.1 dB over Leo as cold sky reference. Ground (at -4 deg elevation) to cold sky is 4 dB.

I have a list of a few things to improve on the 70 cm EME station. I hope to gain performance as I implement them one by one.

SDR-recordings from the ARRL EME contest 2013 (October 27th):

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0834 28.022MHz 000.wav

 

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0834 28.022MHz 001.wav

 

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0834 28.022MHz 002.wav

 

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0834 28.022MHz 003.wav

 

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0920 28.022MHz 000.wav

 

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0920 28.022MHz 001.wav

 

http://www.2ingandlin.se/27-Oct-2013 0920 28.022MHz 002.wav

 

Right click on the link and choose "Save link as". The files are about 100 MB each. Plays in the SDR-Radio S/W. You can then see the 70 cm band from 432.000 to 432.050 MHz and listening to the stations present in that frequency range.

SM6FHZ 432 MHz EME initials list (2022-03-15):
Initial # Call Date Time Square Square # Field # EME DXCC # State # Mode Distance QSL Remarks
1 I1NDP 2009-11-08 07:29 JN45AL 1 1 JN 1   CW 1352 OK Eu
2 NC1I 2009-11-08 07:45 FN32OB 2 2 FN 2 1 MA CW 5916 OK Na
3 UA3PTW 2009-11-08 08:07 KO93BS 3 3 KO 3   CW 1687 OK  
4 DK3WG 2009-11-08 08:55 JO72GI 4 4 JO 4   CW 585 OK  
5 DL9KR 2009-11-08 09:06 JO40DE 5       CW 837 OK  
6 DL7APV 2009-12-05 04:14 JO62JR 6       CW 522 OK  
7 K0RZ 2009-12-05 04:23 DM79JX 7 5 DM   2 CO CW 7732 Sent  
8 K1RQG 2009-12-05 04:36 FN54PP 8     3 ME CW 5480 OK  
9 SD3F 2009-12-05 04:48 JP92AO 9 6 JP 5   CW 671 OK  
10 SV1BTR 2009-12-05 05:03 KM18NO 10 7 KM 6   CW 2242 OK  
11 DF3RU 2009-12-05 05:18 JN59UL 11       CW 881 OK  
12 KL6M 2009-12-05 05:39 BP51DC 12 8 BP 7 4 AK CW 6766 OK  
13 SM4IVE 2009-12-05 05:49 JO79SD 13       CW 286 OK  
14 G3LTF 2009-12-05 06:57 IO91GG 14 9 IO     CW 1104 OK  
15 JJ1NNJ 2009-12-05 19:17 QM06GH 15 10 QM 8   CW 8563 OK As
16 OZ4MM 2009-12-05 19:58 JO55GH 16   9   CW 247 OK  
17 VK3UM 2009-12-05 21:39 QF22RO 17 11 QF 10   CW 15972 OK Oc
18 OK1CA 2009-12-06 05:36 JO70GM 18   11   CW 783 Sent  
19 DG1KJG 2009-12-06 06:14 JO30NT 19       CW 797 OK  
20 SM2CEW 2009-12-06 07:21 KP15CR 20 12 KP     CW 1073 OK  
21 KP4AO 2010-04-16 17:05 FK68OI 21 13 FK 12   SSB 7634 OK  
22 JA6AHB 2010-04-24 14:46 PM53CP 22 14 PM     CW 8388 OK  
23 OK1DFC 2010-04-24 15:32 JN79GW 23       CW 847 OK  
24 OE5JFL 2010-04-24 15:52 JN68RL 24   13   CW 944 OK  
25 DL4MEA 2010-04-24 16:28 JN58RI 25       CW 1006    
26 SP6JLW 2010-04-24 19:39 JO80JK 26   14   CW 832 OK  
27 SP7DCS 2010-04-24 19:55 JO91MN 27       CW 794 OK  
28 LU7DZ 2010-05-15 15:05 FF78RA 28 15 FF 15   CW 12192 OK Sa
29 R2/DL1YMK 2010-05-16 07:18 KO04FV 29   16   CW 596 OK  
30 OH2PO 2010-10-30 05:55 KP10XH 30   17   CW 763 OK  
31 PA3DZL 2010-10-30 06:20 JO21HM 31   18   CW 807 OK  
32 K4EME 2010-10-30 07:39 FM08KF 32 16 FM   5 VA CW 6590    
33 ES5PC 2010-10-30 08:33 KO38HJ 33   19   CW 875 OK  
34 W7CI 2010-10-30 09:36 DM41UN 34     6 AZ CW 8771    
35 PI9CAM 2010-10-31 07:14 JO32ET 35       CW 621 OK  
36 N4GJV 2010-10-31 09:42 EM95PS 36 17 EM   7 NC CW 6892    
37 SV3AAF 2010-10-31 10:06 KM17KO 37       CW 2342    
38 WA6PY 2010-11-27 07:12 DM13LA 38     8 CA CW 8909 OK  
39 K7XQ 2010-11-27 09:09 CM97QI 39 18 CM     CW 8608    
40 OH2DG 2011-03-12 14:44 KP30CK 40       CW 885 OK  
41 OZ6OL 2011-04-09 14:22 JO65DJ 41       CW 223 OK  
42 VE6TA 2011-04-09 18:32 DO33GS 42 19 DO 20   CW 6731    
43 K2UYH 2011-04-09 19:25 FN20OF 43     9 NJ CW 6222 OK  
44 DL1YMK 2011-04-10 11:41 JO31QX 44       CW 671 OK  
45 JA0TJU 2011-04-10 14:02 PM97HI 45       CW 8384    
46 LZ1DX 2011-04-10 15:59 KN22TK 46 20 KN 21   CW 1923    
47 LY/DL1YMK 2011-06-03 07:05 KO06MB 47   22   CW 575 OK  
48 K5GW 2011-11-19 07:32 EM12QX 48     10 TX CW 7988 OK  
49 G4RGK 2011-11-19 09:26 IO91ON         CW 1048 OK  
50 F2TU 2012-03-03 15:29 JN38LG 49   23   CW 1069 OK  
51 LX1DB 2012-03-03 17:28 JN39CO 50   24   CW 946 OK  
52 JA9BOH 2012-03-04 14:15 PM86FA 51       CW 8428 OK  
53 DJ3JJ 2012-04-15 09:20 JN48JS 52       CW 982 OK  
54 K5QE 2012-09-09 08:27 EM31CJ 53       CW 7990 OK  
55 I2FHW 2013-10-27 09:03 JN45NU         CW 1298    
56 HB9Q 2013-10-27 10:58 JN47CG 54   25   CW 1154 OK  
57 OK1KIR 2013-11-17 16:31 JN79DW         CW 790 OK  
58 SM3JQU 2013-11-17 17:56 JP82QM 55       CW 645    
59 PY2BS 2013-12-01 10:43 GG66PJ 56 21 GG 26   CW 10498 OK  
60 G0JLO 2019-10-19 05:52 IO92FS 57       CW 1001    
61 PA2V 2019-10-19 09:13 JO22IM 58       CW 713    
62 UT5DL 2019-10-19 22:22 KN18EP 59   27   CW 1195    
63 SP9VFD 2019-10-20 09:37 JN99XO 60       CW 1015 OK  
64 DL6SH 2021-02-20 13:40 JN48SW         CW 954    
65 DG5CST 2021-02-20 13:48 JO60DS 61       CW 737    
66 PA5Y 2022-03-12 21:15 JO21VO         CW 758    
67 W5LUA 2022-03-13 00:31 EM13QC 62       CW 7976    


http://www.2ingandlin.se/FHZ_EME.htm

Updated March 15th, 2022.              http://www.2ingandlin.se/SM6FHZ.htm