Who says moon bounce is difficult

Amateur Radio is technology friendly and radio amateurs have never overlooked opportunities to apply new technologies in their activities.

Take moon bounce for instance. It is often said that it is difficult and one needs massive arrays of antennas and make one's garden look like the Sentech antenna park in Meyerton. Not so, and Hannes Enslin, ZS6JDE, proved it.

He recently was on a 3-week visit to Zambia (9J) and was active on 2 metres using WSJT, especially FSK441 for Meteor Scatter and JT65B for EME.

WSJT is a computer program for VHF/UHF communication using state of the art digital techniques. It can decode fraction-of-a-second signals reflected from ionized meteor trails, as well as steady signals more than 10 dB weaker than those required for conventional CW. One of its operating modes is particularly well optimized for amateur EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications.

On 25 and 26 May in only 2 Moonrise and 2 Moonset windows, he made a total of 20 EME contacts on 144 MHz and at least 8 other stations were heard but not worked due to the basic station he was running.

The station comprised of a Yaesu FT857D running 9 Watt into a TE Systems 400W Linear Amplifier and feeding a 9 element 2M 9SSB antenna with Suhner 0,5 inch feed line. The antenna was mounted on a portable tripod and elevated with a weight and rope "primitive" system.

Of course, a call like 9J2JD is sought after in the log for 2 m EME everywhere in the world. But it is still quite remarkable that this number of stations was worked in such a short time with what can be described as minimal equipment for EME. Well-done Hannes.

Source: The South African Radio League

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