ES3RF: Estonian HAMRADIO Station

New expedition of Hermann, DL2NUD, to Burkina Faso, was marred by a serious illness, as a result of which he was in the hospital for several days. Thus, unfortunately, some of planned activity was canceled. Practically, he could only work one moon pass, 23 rd of October on 144 Mhz.

The XT2AFT’s setup was, as follows:
144: 17 el. yagi M2, 350W, peamp
432: 38 el. yagi M2, 450W, preamp
1296: 55 el. yagi, 270W, preamp
2320: 67 el. yagi, 100W, preamp.

After hospital, Hermann worked only on on 144 Mhz during 23rd and partly 24th of October. Totally 77 QSO. I was lucky to complete QSO on 2M on 23rd of Oct. at 0238 utc. With report -25/-26 db.
Thank you, Hermann!

Group of German radio amateurs – DL1RPL, DL3RKS, DL1AWD, DL1AOB, DG5AA, DL6KVA, DJ5IW and DK8YY- made a big DXpedition to a Sao Tome and Principe Isl (S9). The call sign is S9YY. They are very active on all HF bands. But most importing for me is their EME activity on 144 and 432 Mhz. This is managed by Peter, DL1RPL.
He using 2x8XP yagi and Big Tajfun 1000 PA on 2m band and 2xEF7017 yagi and 400W SSPA on 70 cm band.
I was happy to work with Peter (DL1RPL) on the 2nd day of his activity on 144 mhz. His signal was excellent, but very quick Faraday rotation. So I had to wait, until can get his trace decoded on my screen. But than was no problem to complete QSO.
S9YY 144 Mhz EME log is here.
Next target – QSO on 70 cm. He attempted to QRV on 14th and 22nd of October. Let’s see…
YES! 14th of October, the S9YY QSO was completed on 432 Mhz too! Peter was not as good, as on 144 Mhz. Sure, I have a big problem on my RX. Of course, Peter has less ERP on 70 cm too, but, any way, he was at my screen on -30 to -28 db, but he heard me at -25db.
S9YY 432 Mhz EME log is here.

 Hard job! I was possible to complete QSO with JT0YTX only on 4th moon pass of theirs activity! If I had the opportunity to change the vertical polarization, the QSO would be held very quickly. But… I have only H-pol.

Aruba is a constituent country of the Kingdom of Netherlands in the southern Carribbean Sea. Dithmar, DF7KF and Angelo, DM1AC made a 6 days expedition there. The call sign is P40MB from locator FK42XO. They have intention to operate Moon Bounce on 144 and 432 Mhz.

I was happy to may quck QSO in thr first operation day. P40MB signal was very strong: the best, I have seen, -18 db.  In my  QSO (#12 in thelist – less, than 1 hour calling in pile-up) they were -22 db. I’ve got -21 db.

Team was promised to QRV on 70 cm EME on the next weekend. I.e. 7th and 8th of May. Let’s see..

Very quick delivering via EA5KB QSL manager.

Yaser, 9K2YM, with his cat

Nice day today: new DXCC via Moon Bounce on 144 Mhz. 9K2YM, Yaser, makes me happy! As he said, today was his first day on EME after 10 years brake.
His signal was very changeable all the time! From -25db to -30 db and sometimes disappears totally. During our QSO, which we completed at 14:27 utc, the best was -26 db.
No screen shoot of this QSO: I simply forgot to make one.
Because after QSO immediately moved to 432 MHz for another great event: short DX-pedition to Rhode Island (RI) – is a very rare state and grid for “lunatics” US state. By the way, RI is only state, which I need for my WAS Award 2M band.
Call sign AA1KK from grid FN41DP. Probably, very good setup, because their signal reached -14 dB on 432.096. As far, as I know, they have 4x25FO and good power. QSO was easy and quick. They reported -13 for me. So, new grid and new state on 70 cm.

J8/WW2DX Bequia Island: WW2DX, N2IEN, W2RE, KB2HZI are active from Bequia Island, Grenadine Islands (IOTA NA-025) 20 – 27 March 2016 as J8/WW2DX. Operate 160 – 2m CW, SSB, RTTY, EME.
On 2M band the equipment is: 2×9 el. Vertical polarization antenna and 1 kW amplifier.
To make this QSO I woke up at 3 am local time and was rewarded!  It was easy QSO. Lee answered me from the first call. May be because was not so big pile-up.  His signal was very strong. I watched him for another 20 minutes and signal was growing up to -16 db!
Thank you, Lee and the Team!
Full story is here.