ES5TV: 15 meter moonbounce successful!
I think this a First… (see comment below)
Back in October I posted about a monster 15m antenna (read ES5TV’s description here) going up in Estonia. It is composed of eight 5-element monoband Yagis on a 230-foot (70m) tower.
Tonno ES5TV, the lucky owner, pondered at that time whether it might be possible to use such a high-gain antenna to work EME on 15 meters.
Mission Accomplished!
With an antenna fixed on the horizon, attempts were restricted to moonrise and moonset only and Tonno’s third attempt was recorded in the video (below).
The only problem with having such a gargantuan 15m antenna is that there’s not likely to be anyone who can reciprocate and offer a traditional EME QSO – but Tonno’s own echoes as received by him are as amazing as a QSO would be.
Check out the video of Tonno receiving his own echoes from the moon:
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Themocracy
His echoes are so strong and clear – and on 15M too. That is simply stunning.
Dave
AA7EE
Tonno’s entire write-up can be read here:
http://lists.contesting.com/pipermail/towertalk/2013-February/133517.html
He mentioned that the band was open at the time, meaning that refraction was occurring. This makes his accomplishment even more astounding since only some his RF was getting through.
awesome
I feel a bit a pussy now not to dare to place my little toy beam up
You made me laugh, Jaap!
But on a serious note – maybe a smaller station (even though not EME capable) could hear Tonno’s sig since he’s hitting the Moon with some real ERP. After all, two small 2-meter EME stations can’t necessarily work each other, but they can work the superstations.
UPDATE: Looks like K3LR is interested in a 15m EME sked with ES5TV. Here’s his 15m antenna (28 elements):
http://www.k3lr.com/2011/CQ11CW/IMG_3300.jpg
Oops – it’s not a First! See the following from JH1KRC in 2006:
http://eme.dokidoki.ne.jp/sound/jh1krc/index.html
I am sure they did verify that the echo’s they hear are reflected from the Moon and are not ionosphere echo’s as they can be very loud at 15m?
But if they can hear echo’s from the moon. It must be possible to have 2-way using JT65B and small antenna at the low side.
The timing delay is correct for the moon’s distance.
And I agree – a weak-signal mode EME attempt by small stations would be very interesting. “Small” in this case would be a kw and a ‘normal’ Yagi.
Hmmm…..
Totally awesome. The return signal is HUGE for 21MHZ.
What I am most interested in the music that was chosen to accompany the video. Extremely PERFECT! Can you please inform me and others who composed the music?
Regards and congratulations for a well produced video! I love BIG antennas!
Rich, you’ve got better hearing than me – I don’t hear any musical accompaniment to this video…