CY9C Saint Paul Island NA-094 August 2016
You can check out the official CY9C DXpedition Website here.
[Accommodations]
[Travel]
[Logistics]
Portable 2m EME Station:
The 2M EME station is coming together. A lot of time and resources has been spent getting the station “dialed” in for the expedition. Anyone who has ever took a stab at EME knows that building a permanent station is a challenge, building one for portable use has a whole new set of challenges.
The 2M station will consist of the following gear:
- Elecraft K3/100
- Internal K144XV 2m Transverter
- IT-Labs Atlas 1000 – 1KW SSPA Amplifier
- SSB Electronics 2m Preamp SP200R
- SSB Electronics Sequencer
- TimeWave Navigator Sound Card
- Precision Frequency Reference (GPS Clock)
- Yeasu G5500 Az/El Rotor System
- Green Heron RT21-AzEl Controller
- MFJ Tripod
- Custom Cross Boom Assembly (pics below)
- Pair of Innov 9 Element Yagi’s Antennas
- Apple Macbook Air (Dual boot OS X/WindowsX)
Up to this point the pair of 9 element yagi’s were positioned vertically using an aluminum cross boom from the M2 Leo Pack kit. Since CY9 will be within reach of many states on 2m meteor scatter, I have decided to modify the antennas and mount them horizontally for terrestrial contacts. This will also allow me to take advantage of “ground gain” during my moonrise and moonsets. I could no longer use the M2 aluminum cross boom so I custom built a replacement which consists of a solid rod of aluminum for the center section ( which the rotor gets clamped down on) and very sturdy and strong fiberglass rods for the actual booms.
Here is a picture of the original aluminum cross boom with the yagi’s in V POL.
Here is the new fiberglass cross boom.
Big thank you to Steve W1SMS for donating his time and mad fabricating skilz modifying the Array and boom!
Here is the completed assembly with the yagi’s now mounted H POL.
Here is the gear in the lab being tested.
The K144XV transverter outputs between 8-10w while the Atlas needs about 14-16 watts of drive for full 1KW output. When running the K144XV at full output I would get about 550w output from the Atlas. I prefer to run about 750-800w, this give plenty of overhead and well within the spec of the amp. Luckily the Atlas has a 6db attenuator on the input!
Here you can see the 100-6, this is a 6db pad.
We replaced it with a 3.75db pad taken from a TV transmitter board.
After the operation we now see 750-800w output 🙂
Another issue was the K144XV is not very stable on its own. RX was ok until you transmitted.
Serious dog legging during TX. I immedietly ordered up the stability control options from Elecraft for the both the K3 and the K144XV with the ability to add a 10 mhz external signal source. The high stability crystal probably would have been fine but I wanted a rock solid signal over the moon, especially since many will doing all the work to see my traces over 477,800 thousand miles and ~250db of path loss. I wanted to mitigate any issues. The final option was grabbing a Leo Bognar GPS 10mhz clock. This little item is great! 5-19v DC and a GPS antenna will give you two BNC connectors with a stratum 0 locked time source.
Powering the GPS clock via USB is fine but when I tried sourcing from a 12v supply the case became so hot I could not hold it. I decided to simply power from USB.
Some contacts made with the system.
KB8RQ QSO.
It was fun working my first 2m Expedition! 6Y5AZ
Operating EME from CY9C
2M EME Contacts August 20, 2016 First MR.
0029 PA5Y JO21 -16
0040 VE1KG FN84 -11 (Tropo)
0055 RX1AS KO59 -13
0101 OZ1LPR JO44 -13
0106 ON4AOI JO21 -16
0110 UR7DWW KN18 -10
0113 SP4K KO03 -16
0116 UA3PTW KO93 -15
0121 PE1L JO23 -18
0126 YL2GD KO37 -13
0131 OK1RD JN79 -11
0135 RK3FG KO86 -14
0139 ZS5LEE KG50 -17
0143 DK3BU JO33 -9
0147 ZS6OB KG44 -18
0153 DL8GP JN39 -22
0157 I2RV JN45 -17
0203 DF2ZC JO30 -21
0207 S52LM JN65 -21
0211 PA1GYS JO22 -20
0215 PA0JMV JO21 -23
0219 ZS4TX KG30 -17
0223 UZ5DZ KN18 -15
0232 OK1UGA JO80 -18
0249 HB9Q JN47 -20
0253 UX5UL KO50 -18
0258 K9MRI EN70 -19
0306 OH2LHE KP11 -21
0309 UT6UG KO50 -18
0316 I1ANP
0320 HA8CE JN44 -15
0324 OH2BC KP30 -17
0327 W5UN EM23 -16
0333 DK5EW JN48 -19
0337 ES6RQ KO28 -23
0341 DL8SCQ JN48 -22
0345 RU3GX KO92 -22
0349 SM5CUI JO89 -20
0353 LZ4OC KN33 -22
0357 OK1CU JO80 -16
0401 KA0RYT EN35 -22
0407 VE2JWH FN35 -24
0414 UR3EE KN88 -25
0420 KB8RQ EM79 -15
0425 W2HRO FN20 -22
0429 RT5G KO92 -18
0434 DK3WG JO72 -17
0441 F5AQX JN27 -22
0446 SM2BYC KP25 -16
0455 UR3UB KO50 -22
0501 RW1AY KO68 -23
0509 SM5KWU JO89 -26
0515 UX0FF KN45 -26
53 Contacts first night.
August 21, 2016
1133 ZL1HD RF82 -25
1137 KD3UY FM19 -22
1147 JM1GSH QM06 -22
1151 W4YTB EL98 -15
1159 AA4SC EM94 -19
1204 VK5APN PF95 -15
1209 N4QWZ EM66 -19
1227 W7MEM DN17 -16
1237 K7MAC DN13 -9
1243 JA5EEU PM63 -13
1246 JE1TNL PM95 -11
Total 64 first moon pass
August 22, 2016 MR
0134 HA0DU KN07 -25 (First 6M EME Contact)
0152 DL9MS JO54 -21
0156 RU1AA KP40 -16
0201 I2FAK JN45 -14
0206 DM2BHG JO51 -22
0208 ZS5HV KF59 -16
0213 PA5MS JO21 -26
0220 DL8YHR JO41 -21
0225 SV8CS KM07 -19
0230 I3MEK JN55 -19
0235 SM7GVF JO77 -16
0242 F6HVK JN27 -19
0248 I3LDP JN55 -22
0253 RZ3BA/1 -13
0302 OK1IL JN69 -17
0306 ZS6JON KG33 -18
0312 RX3A KO95 -17
0317 LZ2FO KN13 -16
0320 OH7PI KP32 -20
0324 ZS/PA3CMC -21
0328 N9HF EL99 -19
0333 DK5SO JN58 -17
0336 DK4RC JO60 -13
0343 UN9L MO13 -21
0348 S50C JN76 -16
0356 PA3FYC JO31 -21
0400 DG1VL JO61 -21
0406 ES3RF KO29 -19
0413 DK5YA JN49 -15
0418 SP4KM KO03 -14
0423 EA6VQ JM19 -16
0437 K5QE EM31 -20
0445z – GALE FORCE WINDS HAVE DESTROYED THE ARRAY.
Unfortunately, I could not hack together a working yagi to attempt to make q’s on a single yagi, the feed points were destroyed and not enough element pieces could be assembled with the resources we had with us. Lesson learned: Stronger support for the tri-pod and base. The rotor was also a casualty from the fall 🙁
[Notes on Meteor Scatter and ISS]
Satellite Station Status:
[Gear]
[Rotor System]
[Operating Procedure]
[Sat Pass Schedule]
6M Station:
[Gear]
[Operating Plan]
HF Stations:
2 thoughts on “CY9C Saint Paul Island NA-094 August 2016”
Hello Lee,
I read that you will going fer 2m-EME to ZD7.
Is this correct….what date ?
best greetings
Jurg, DK3WG
Hi Jurg,
Actually that is not correct. We were looking at the possibility of trying to get to ZD7 but unfortunately we won’t make it. Looking at alternate locations.
73 Lee
WW2DX