S band experiments and equipment:

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- first ES-OH troposcatter QSO with on 3400 MHz ever - also new national distance record ! (something in Finnish)

- first SM-OH QSO on 3400 MHz ever !

- since listening to the JAXA Kaguya-Selene Lunar Probe, I have been enjoying listening to the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter on S band

- with a dish of 60 cm or larger, also the modulation sidebands (SRAL summer camp in July 2013) are copiable and most likely could be demodulated with a dish of 1.2 m or so

- it is somehow exciting to occasionally see the LRO spacecraft coherent transponder downlink getting locked to the command station uplink when LRO comes back in view from behind the moon again :-)

- LRO is great fun to listen to whilst following the realtime tracking page at Arizona State University

- some highly experimental (!) 2.4 and 1.3 GHz can feeds for dishes :-)

- some notes on modifying the Fujitsu FMC080901-70 hybrid power amp to 1.3 or 2.3 GHz (in Finnish)

- 2.3 - 2.4 GHz low noise converter for Phase 3D. Listen to the DOVE satellite, converter + LNA + 2 turn helix ! ( 200 k )

- 3.4 GHz transverter ( 12 W SSPA, Nf 0.7 dB ) for 9cm EME ( First ever EME QSO from Finland on 05.01.98 ! )

- an experimental Bessel Zero modulated (for CW) beacon LO

- 2.1 - 2.8 GHz miniature low phase noise synthesizer ( photo here, 60k )

- reworking ( 52k ) Matjaz Vidmar's ( YT3MV ) GPS Quadrature Backfire Helix for 2.3 GHz. Proto by OH2BEA - tnx !

- low noise figure, three stage P-HEMT/GaAs-FET/MMIC LNA ( 38k ) for 2.3 - 2.4 GHz

- BIG file: notes on modifying a C-band feed to 3.4 GHz ( in Finnish )

- BIG file: notes on modifying a C-band LNC to a 3.4 GHz LNA ( in Finnish )

- BIG file: notes on a METEOSAT preamp for 1.7 GHz ( in Finnish )

- designing a 2.4 GHz low ellipticity dish feed for 0.55 f/d dish ( a closer view and the return loss ). Proto by OH2BEA - tnx !

- retuning 1.8 and 2.7 GHz linear microwave radios to the 2.3 GHz ham band

- modifying several Drake PLL downconverters for the 2304/2320/2400 MHz bands

- a CW beacon for 2320 MHz, 2 W out, not QRV yet. Something on the antenna

- a CW beacon for 3400 MHz, 100 mW out, not QRV yet ( photo, 69k, of LO using Bessel Zero method for modulation )

- spread spectrum experiments

- FMATV and AMATV experiments

- broadband linear repeater/beacon under construction, 10 W out, not QRV yet

- a 2.3 GHz transverter based on a design of S53MV

- working on a 2.3 GHz ATV repeater ( 12 W out ), not QRV yet

- 2.3 GHz low f/D dish feed using a Paulig Cafe Parisienne (77k) coffee can ( comes with radome ! )

- 3.4 GHz low f/D dish feed using a Heinz Baked Beans tin can

- 2.3 and 3.4 GHz coaxial subharmonic mixers ( photo of 9 cm mixer here, 113k )

- photo of 2.3 GHz mixer here, 110k

- getting ready for some serious 9 cm QRO stuff, testing a 9 kW avg. water cooled load ( 84k )

- emergency field operations feed (53k) for AO-40, 2.4 GHz, RHCP with dish

- rear detail of the candle can fixture (61k) to the electricians tubing :-)

- copper tape helix (88k) on the electricians tube (LHCP winding)

- out in the field with no test instruments, the matching appears good (sky/ground noise)

- ditto, the ellipticity is terrible, discovered using a fluorescent light as a polarised noise source...

- new feed system reduced ellipticity considerably

- cold sky/ground/inside building noise measurement of the experimental LHCP helix (83k) feed

- cold sky/ground/inside building noise measurement of an experimental linear pol. coffee can (77k) feed

- cold sky/ground/inside building noise measurement of a 2.5 turn RHCP helix (81k) feed

- cold sky/ground/inside building noise measurement of an experimental 3 turn RHCP helix (82k) feed

- cold sky/ground/inside building noise measurement of my 21 t AO-40 RHCP helix (75k)

- cold sky/ground/inside building noise measurement of my 28 cm offset dish mounted converter for 10451 MHz

- outside temp. +12 degrees C, clear sky, inside temperature +21 degrees C, spectrum analyser at 1 dB/division


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Updated 13.01.2019