On the 28th of February, 1998 the very first EME ( Earth Moon Earth ) contacts from Finland were made using my 5.7 GHz equipment built specifically for this occasion. Two contacts were made, the first one with Al, W5LUA and the second with Lars-Bertil, SM4DHN.

The 4 W rig fed a 5 W coaxial load via a 30 dB coupler ( 73k ) that provided a sample for driving the 25 W SSPA mounted on top of the basic rig behind the dish.

Some measurements results of the system after we had everything aligned and installed:

- sky/ground noise > 3 dB

- sky/sun noise > 15 dB

- sky/moon noise > 1 dB

- own echoes ( ~35 k ) on CW were very strong

- as the sky cleared up slightly even SSB signals ( ~35 k ) were good !

- linear polarity

- 18 W at feedhorn connector after waveguide ( 78k ), tx/rx switch ( 52k ) and semi-rigid jumper

- LNA noise figure unknown We DID have pretty bad antenna tracking problems due to inaccuracy of the readout system and also due to the high winds experienced during the weekend. The LNA I aligned using a fluorescent lamp as a noise source in front of the horn assembly with a CW carrier injected by means of a short probe and LOTS of attenuation. Detection with a NBFM receiver for listening to improvement of C/N ratio...

The IF used was 144 MHz split mode. Frequencies were continuously checked with a 10 MHz ( yes - another Fletcher project ) TV-line secondary standard ( Rubidium ). Al's signal ( 126 k ) was slightly weaker in the beginning due to his local vegetation. Later on he was much louder for a while, but then we began to hit the nearby forest, thus ending the experiments for the time being. SM4DHN was solid copy all the way through and barely copiable on SSB also.

This time the team consisted of:

- Pertti, OH2AXH, real estate, horn constructor, The Dish !

- Heikki, OH2BSH, the operator,

- Myself, OH2AUE, microwave and RF engineering

- Harri, OH2JMS, our fearless workshop man, waveguide work, pcb's

- Kaj, OH6EH, innocent bystander !

We'll be back...