ARRL EME Contest 2.3GHz and up, weekend 1
Aug 25, 2024
Using the same dish setup from the 10GHz sun noise tests two days ago I got up early on 25 August to re-assemble the feedtray and control box. I was ready to run receive tests by 04:30 UTC but the moon was too high for the linear actuator controlling the dish elevation. I started around 05:30 UTC by trying to copy the DL0SHF beacon and stations reporting on the HB9Q logger.
Using SDRplay RSP1a, SDR Console v3.3 and QMAP v0.4 I thought I would have a good chance of receiving stations over a range of frequencies but didn’t see any traces. I switched to using the Icom IC-705 and WSJT-X for a while, but once again I couldn’t see any activity. Whilst I have a linear actuator and digital inclinometer for elevation I still only have manual control and a compass for azimuth so pointing the dish accurately is a challenge.
At around 08:15 UTC I went back to using the SDR and QMAP setup and spent some time carefully adjusting elevation and azimuth settings. Eventually I managed to get dish pointed accurately at the moon and saw a strong trace on the SDR Console waterfall at 10368.201MHz. I checked QMAP and it showed that PA0PLY had been copied at 10368.162MHz a couple of minutes earlier - the trace I was seeing was OZ1LPR who runs 500W to a 2.4m dish.
Having found the moon it was much easier to repoint the dish every 45-60 seconds and over the next hour I copied a total of 11 different stations before the moon dipped below the trees.
Stations logged - all times UTC.
08:34 PA0PLY -18
08:37 OZ1LPR -9
08:50 DL3WDG -19
08:54 OZ1FF -18
08:59 HB9Q -14
09:01 ON4TA -16
09:02 OK2AQ -20
09:10 G4RFR -18
09:11 DJ7FJ -19
09:30 SA6BUN -17
09:33 IK0HWJ -19
I’m very pleased with the results and over the next few weeks I would like to optimise the feed position and add an accurate azimuth control. I also need to configure the Ardunio sequencer to handle the waveguide switch and SSPA.
QMAP
QMAP is a companion to WSJT-X introduced in version 2.7 that allows you to monitor Q65 modes in a 90kHz bandwidth. QMAP is derived from MAP65 and requires IQ data in Linrad timf2 format. I’ve used MAP65 and Linrad successfully on 2m EME for many years but Linrad can be daunting to start with.
In October 2023 MAP65 and QMAP support was added to SDR Console Version 3.3 (Build 3117) and only requires a couple of configuration settings to start running.
See the references below for setting up QMAP with SDR Console.