My Arecibo Operation
Here is my initial setup for trying to work KP4AO on April 16, 2010. The antennas are 2 x 11 element (WA5VJB design) made on wood booms. They are phased with RG58 coax and a BNC T adaptor.  The radio is a Kenwood TS-2000X running 50 watts.  I did not have a preamp this day, and with the low power at Arecibo I did not hear anything.

The location is my back yard.  On the subsequent days I moved the antennas down to the ground and extended the legs on the tripod.

On day 2 I got a good preamp and added a 100 watt amplifier.  I was able to copy KP4AO's SSB about 80% and got 100% copy on CW.  I called long and hard but they did not hear me.

 

On Sunday I decided to get out the big amp.  After some reconditioning work it worked well but I decided to limit power to 400 watts due to the small phasing lines and BNC connectors.

 

The two small pictures are 'thumbnails'. You can click them for a larger image.  They show the amplifier and the way the antennas were set up on Sunday.  Below is a picture of the equipment setup on Sunday. Even with the 400 watts no contact was made.

Also, here are links to spectrum recordings made at Arecibo:
http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_1.wav 4/16 startup
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_2.wav 4/16 CW
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_3.wav 4/16 CW
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_4.wav 4/17 SSB
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_5.wav 4/17 SSB
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_6.wav 4/17 SSB
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_7.wav 4/17 CW
 http://www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT/EME_8.wav 4/17 CW

You need to use Spectravue to see these spectrum displays and to tune in and listen to the signals presented therein.  You can download for free here: Spectravue Download.  Be warned that these files are very large (about 1 GB each except EME_8 which is much smaller). Below is a screen shot of one of KP4AO's first receive sequences in the EME-7 file.

Note the narrow gray line in the black area.  Below it you can see my signal from Saturday when I was running 100 watts.  If you download and listen to this file you can clearly hear me calling them - proving that a small antenna and 100 watts was enough to easily work them (except for the competition!).

Note that to use these files with Spectravue you need to click the tab named "Wave IN Setup", enter or browse to the desired file, then enter the center frequency as 432040000, and check the box labeled "Invert Spectrum".  Close the box and click the start button.  Select the CW-U mode.  Now you can click on the various signals to hear them, or tune by entering changes to the Demod frequency box.  You can also tune by using the up and down arrows to increment or decrement the individual digit in the demod box that is selected by the mouse.  You may also want to try various Span settings to spread the signals more or less.

 

 

Barbara and I