 GB3KEU 5 GHz beacon now on air
Peter G3PHO reports that the 5 GHz beacon GB3KEU is now operational.
He writes:
After a freezing cold morning drilling holes in a brick wall for the support mast, the GB3KEU beacon is at last up and running from the Sheffield Amateur Radio Club location at Meadowhead, Sheffield.
We "threw the big switch" at 11.15 GMT Sunday 6 April.
I kept the LO running all the time between the beacon leaving my home and being raised on its mast. I had no frequency standard at the club to check it with so imagine my elation when I got back home (after a two hour drive around Sheffield with a 5.7GHz receiver running in the van, listening to the beacon signals) to find I could still hear it when I parked on my drive. Normally I cannot hear any microwave beacons here unless there is a tropo lift to the Continent!
I was also able to hear my shack marker, set to 5kHz below the beacon freq and was therefore able to check the beacon on air against it and it's as near to 5760.925MHz, it's official frequency, as I can make it without any more sophisticated gear.
Please listen for it and give me a frequency check on the zero beat carrier.
Reports to: GB3KEU at g3pho.org.uk
Details:
Callsign: GB3KEU (In memory of Tim Leighfield, G3KEU, a keen 6cm op and now SK)
Frequency: Nominally 5760.925MHz
Antenna: Slotted wave guide. Omni.
Power out: 25W erp
Keying: FSK, nominally 400Hz shift.
Line up: G8ACE OCXO-> DB6NT 5.7 beacon module -> DB6NT PA (at reduced o/p)
My thanks to Trevor M0TWS and Steve M1ERS of the Sheffield Amateur radio Club) for coming along in inclement weather and helping with the installation both yesterday today.
We all owe a debt of gratitude to Peter, G3LRP (nr Wakefield) for his extremely generous donation of both DB67NT modules to this project. He's been waiting a very long time to hear this beacon! Many thanks also to the Telford club, G3ZME very kindly donated (via G3UKV) a beautifully made slotted waveguide antenna.
At present the beacon is mounted on a short mast, projecting just above the roof of the club shack. We have plans to move it elsewhere and higher on the building but that will have to wait for summer to arrive :-). The urgency to get it on air now is due to the NoV which would expire on 30 April this year had we not had the beacon active by then and I will not be around for a whole month starting very soon.
After switch on, I spent a couple of hours driving around the outskirts of Sheffield and into the hills to the west and north. West is a bad direction for the beacon due to building obstructions. To my surprise I even heard it when I was down in the deep valleys of the Eastern Peak District.
My RX antenna was a simple 2-6GHz log periodic by WA5VJG, the transceiver being on the floor of the van all the time. The doppler effects while I was /M where quite something!
73 Peter, G3PHO
UK Microwave Group (UKuG)
http://www.microwavers.org/
Sheffield Amateur Radio Club
http://www.sheffieldarc.org.uk
|
