The Deep Space Exploration Society participated in the 2024 ARRL EME contest using the K0PRT station operating on 23 cm (1296 MHz). This was the first major contest that was held at the new building, and it was a very successful operation with over 20 participants across the two weekends. Paul NO0T coordinated the activity with several out-of-town visitors in attendance.
The first weekend, October 19-20, was impacted by a severe storm that came through Haswell on Friday night and prevented operations for the first day. After the storm it was discovered that there was a failure in the dish movement mechanism. After climbing inside the pedestal, a broken chain was found on the azimuth drive. After two trips to the Eads NAPA auto parts store a replacement chain was put into operation. This allowed the station to participate in the contest on the second day.
The second weekend, November 16-17, had very good attendance with some local visitors, good food, and folks sleeping over in the new building. The heating, kitchen and restroom in the new building worked out great for those that attended. Thanks to Bill KC0FHN for insuring that the new building was operational. In addition to the operators on site, there was also a remote operation by Mark VK6PY. Mike K0FYR shot a great video covering the second weekend of the contest: ARRL EME 2024.
Alex K6VHF provided a detailed breakdown of the contacts made during the contest: Contest Results. Highlights include 163 contacts, of which 9 were CW, the rest were Q65 Digital. There were 31 countries worked, across 5 contents and 18 zones. This included an amazing contact with Martin PJ4MM in Bonaire who was running 10 watts into a 63-element antenna. We were the first US station to work him. See the photo below that shows an in-person exchange of QSL cards at Alex’s house.
Over 50% of the contacts were to Europe. With a score of 1,536,800 points, we likely finished in the top 5 worldwide. If we had been able to operate on the first night in October, we would have done even better!
Equipment used include the DSES 60-foot dish, Icom 705 and “Dianne” – a 1296 MHz transverter with 300 watts of power. Various software programs include WSJT-X, Win4Icom, N1MM+, Splashtop (for remote access) and the DSES custom built antenna tracking software.
Thanks to everyone who participated and cleaned up after the event.
Bill Miller, DSES VP, has written a great report on the DSES Open House that was held on October 5, 2024. It was a very successful event with over 100 attendees enjoying the new building and other activities.
The first DSES SSTV EME Party was held on Saturday September 28, 2024. Successful image transmissions were made to several EME stations in Europe and the United States. See the report including screen shots of received images.
The activity was conducted from the new DSES operations building at our Haswell Colorado site. Here is what the Dish operations console looked like during the event:
As mentioned at the recent EME Conference in NJ, K0PRT will be having the first Fall SSTV EME QSO Party on Saturday September 28th on 23cm. K0PRT will be in operation with the 60 foot dish and about 350 watts. Moonrise in Colorado will be at 3:00 AM (09:00 UTC) so we will be up very early to work EU. Moonset for us is 5:30PM or 23:30 UTC. We encourage as many stations as possible to get on SSTV that day. We will be using YONIQ Improved SSTV software – for those new to SSTV, YONIQ is not a new program, but a continuation and an update of the wonderful work done by JE3HHT called MMSSTV. So, it’s simply a version of the original software, which shares its GNU license as is the desire of its legitimate creator Makoto Mori.
The latest version of YONIQ is 1.13.3 and can be downloaded from YONIQ v1.13.3 (Thanks to Grupo Radio Galena). There is an English language UI version option in the software dropdowns.
Stations that hear K0PRT – please send us the pictures that you copy (also, if you can capture the audio file, please send that as well) to Paul Sobon sobonpaul(at)gmail.com. We will post as many of these pictures received as we can on the DSES web site.
We will be coordinating on HB9Q Logger. Suggested frequencies between 1296.120 – 1296.140
The Deep Space Exploration Society (DSES), a 501 C(3) non-profit (K0PRT) is working to save a 30-foot EME dish which was built and used by Bruce K0YW who passed away last year. The 30-foot Kennedy EME dish is located in a remote area of SW Colorado near Ignacio and is scheduled to be torn down for metal scrap this July so that the property can be sold by Bruce’s XYL.
DSES is trying to raise donations to help pay for a crane and then transport the antenna 330 miles to their location near Haswell Colorado in SE Colorado and reinstall the dish. All donations received will help fund this dish removal, which includes crane rental, transportation, lodging and any associated cost in the reassembly process and re-mounting this dish back on the 25-foot tower secured to a large concrete foundation at the DSES Plishner Site in Southeast Colorado.
No amount is too small and DSES really appreciates your support. The plan is to rebuild and reinstall the dish late this year or early in 2025.
We are thrilled to announce that, once again, the Deep Space Exploration Society (DSES) has been invited to participate in the 2024 European Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) Contest sponsored by DUBUS and REF, set to commence on May 10 at 0000 UTC. This prestigious European contest, focusing on Continuous Wave (CW)/Single Side Band (SSB) communication, presents an exciting opportunity for our members to engage in Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication with the international community.
Date Begin: Friday, May 10, 2024, at 6 PM MST
Date End: Sunday, May 12, 2024, at 1 PM MST
Location: Paul Plishner Radio Astronomy and Space Sciences Center 9301 County Rd 20, Haswell CO 81045
Last year, our participation in the contest yielded remarkable results, with our members successfully contacting over 80 stations off the moon using our formidable 60-foot dish. In fact, our collective efforts secured us a remarkable 2nd place in this esteemed worldwide contest. Building upon this success, our goal this year is to surpass the number of contacts made and demonstrate our ongoing commitment to excellence in deep-space communication.
It’s important to note that the contest primarily occurs during daytime hours, aligning with the moon’s morning rise and facilitating communication with many European stations. Additionally, we anticipate Pacific and Asian EME contacts during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Moonset times are scheduled for 10:20 PM MST on Friday and 11:20 PM MST on Saturday evening, providing ample opportunities for engagement.
For those planning to join us, rustic overnight accommodation will be available in the new unfinished building. Please remember to bring your own sleeping bags and cot/air mattress. Alternatively, the Cobblestone Inn in Eads, CO, is available for those seeking more comfortable lodging. Reservations are necessary for accommodation at either location.
To facilitate our planning efforts, we kindly request interested participants to contact:
Photos courtesy of Glenn Davis. Text by Bill Miller.
On Friday afternoon October 14, 2022, we prepared the 60-foot dish antenna for the weekend’s Moonbounce communications operations in the ARRL EME contest.
Glen Davis updated the tracking software, checked the callibration of the mount and helped as ground crew and photographer. Meanwhile Ray Uberecken and Bill Miller climbed the scaffold and changed the feed from the 437 Mhz antenna to the 1296Mhz antenna. They also installed Ray’s 180 watt amplifier at the antenna feed point and checked the system reception from Ray’s Calhan residence beacon.
This was our most successful EME season to date, not just in the number of contacts we made, but in the participation of our members, in successfully using a digital mode for many contacts for the first time, and with our equipment working well with no trouble. And we are learning from our experiences.
For our December weekend we had Gary Agranat WA2JQZ and Ray Uberecken AA0L operate through the whole weekend. We also had Jim Burnett WB0GMR, Flyod Glick WD0CUJ, Bill Miller KC0FHN, Glenn Davis, and Marc Stover. Jim got his first experience operating EME, making some of the digital Q65 contacts Friday night. Floyd, Bill, and Glenn stayed Friday night. Marc was there both nights to make time lapse movies of the antenna tracking the Moon. Glenn ensured our tracking system was working well. Everyone had a chance to call CQ on SSB and to hear their voices reflect back from the Moon 2 seconds later.
Moon bounce is communicating by sending signals to the Moon, and reflecting those signals back to Earth to anyone else who has visibility of the Moon and the necessary equipment. With the Moon’s distance a quarter of a million miles away, traveling at the speed of light, the signals take about 2 seconds to make the round trip journey. And the signals are significantly weakened by traveling that long a distance. With the Moon traveling at a different velocity from one’s location on the surface of the Earth, there also is a Doppler shift to compensate for. Moon bounce communications therefore can be quite a technical challenge. Reliably copying the weak signals can also be a challenge. With our large 60-foot dish antenna, our group is fortunate to have an excellent capability to meet all these challenges.
Because Moonrise was at about the time of sunset (as it was on the November weekend), our EME operation was essentially all over night, with a short period available also after sunrise.
We operated on the 23 cm band (1296 Mhz). We operated Morse Code CW, SSB voice, and Q65 digital mode. More about our technical setup later.
Friday evening, the Moon rose shortly before the 0000 UTC contest start time. We pointed our 60-foot antenna to the Moon and started tracking as we waited. (Photo by Gary Agranat WA2JQZ)Moonrise Friday evening (Photo by Gary WA2JQZ)Our operation setup in the trailer. Our transceiver was an ICOM IC-1275A. We sent Morse Code CW with a keyer set to 16 words per minute. (The keyboard could also be used for sending Morse Code, but that wasn’t used.) Antenna tracking was set and monitored with the computer and display at left. We monitored our signal output with the power supply meter and scope display located in the rack further left. The laptop at right was used for logging. Off to the right a separate laptop was used to control making the digital Q65 contacts.
On our December weekend we made 47 EME contacts. Added to our November weekend operation, that brought the total number of contacts to 92. This compares with the 50 contacts we made for the contest last year.
Of the 92 contacts, 54 were CW (Morse Code), 2 were SSB phone, and 36 were in the new Q65 digital mode. 53 contacts were to Europe, 33 to North America, 3 to South America, 1 to Australia, 1 to the Philippines, and 1 to Asia (Japan). We contacted 22 unique DXCC entities, 16 states, and 3 Canadian provinces.
For the November weekend, Dan Layne AD0CY got our Q65 digital mode working and made 2 contacts then. On the December weekend, Jim WB0GMR operated Friday night and made 8 Q65 contacts. Gary WA2JQZ stayed for the operations on both weekends and made the other contacts (CW, SSB, and Q65) with the help of Ray AA0L.
For this year’s contest we experienced no significant technical problems. That enabled us to start operating as soon as the contest time started and as soon as we had a signal path to the Moon. The operations for both weekends went smoothly and with a relaxed tone.
Our 60-foot dish antenna bathed in full moon light as it tracked the Moon during operation Friday night. The planets Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter (lower center to upper left) brightly lit the western sky after sunset. (Photo by Bill Miller KC0FHN)Our 60-foot antenna tracking the Moon. (Photo by Glenn Davis)
Ray AA0L contributed this technical description: The moonbounce equipment this year consists of an ICOM IC-1271A with a built-in low noise preamp (about 1 dB), a VHF Design 150 Watt amplifier at the feed, a Tokyo High Power intermediate power amp with built in Gasfet preamp, VHF Design .3 dB nf, 30 dB gain preamp at the feed and a KL6M feed with a choke. All this provides a noise figure of 0.4 dB with an overall gain at the feed of >40 dB. We have more than sufficient gain in both directions to overcome the 200 or so feet of feedline from the trailer to the dish feed.
Our 60-foot antenna tracking the Moon Friday night. (Photo by Bill Miller)
On Friday night we tried to get in as much Morse Code CW contacts as we could. We switched to digital Q65 when we had contacted most of the CW contacts we could hear at a given time. Through the night we alternated back and forth. We also occasionally attempted SSB voice.
Gary copying Morse Code CW during a contact, with (L to R) Floyd Glick, Glenn Davis, and Ray Uberecken. (Photo by Bill Miller) Due to the Doppler shift, we had a gap between transmit and receive frequency by as much as 3 KHz. We switched between the two frequencies by using the transceiver’s two VFOs. We used the WSJT software by (W1JT Joe Taylor) to continually calculate and display the frequency difference. (Still from a video by Bill Miller)Jim WB0GMR (standing) and Gary WA2JQZ operating SSB. Jim later operated digital Q65 and made 8 contacts. (Photo by Floyd Glick)Bill Miller KC0FHN calling CQ.
On Saturday morning we determined when the Moon would rise in Japan and in Australia. We stayed awake for that, and when those times came, we searched for those stations. That’s how we immediately found our Japan and Australian contacts, as soon as they had a signal path. We got them in time before the pileups that followed. When we couldn’t hear any additional stations, we went to sleep.
We had an unexpected power failure late Saturday morning, after the Moon had set and we were taking a break. The cause was eventually traced to a pigeon that had short circuited the transformer where the electric power comes into the site. We called the local utility, and after a couple of hours they reset the circuit breaker on the main county road. This was unfortunate for the pigeon. But fortunately for us this didn’t happen during our EME operation, and didn’t disrupt us.
As we anticipated, most of the stations we heard on CW on Sunday night were ones we had already worked. Therefore on Sunday night we concentrated most of our efforts on digital Q65. We made most of our digital contacts then.
Gary, Glenn, and Ray. Digital Q65 operating. (Photo by Bill Miller)
On Sunday morning after the Moon had set, as we woke up and wound down and had coffee, Gary made some HF FT-8 digital contacts on the 15 and 20 meter bands. A portable multi-band end fed antenna was extended from the trailer to the service tower. And the contacts were made on a Yaesu FT-950. The bands were open to as far as Europe and Japan. This gave us a chance to get on the air on the more traditional ham bands, and to be part of the rest of the ham radio community. Over 50 FT-8 contacts were made.
The Yaesu FT-950 operating HF FT-8 and the End fed antenna extended to the service tower. (Photos by Gary Agranat)
This was our most successful EME operation to date. We made more contacts, our equipment worked well as expected, we had increased participation, we developed our experience further, and we all enjoyed the experience. Certainly hearing one’s voice or signal come back from the Moon 2 seconds later is an experience one doesn’t forget. This should give us a basis for doing more EME operations, better, and more times than just for the contest.
This year several members also devoted their efforts to photographing. Marc Stover’s time lapse movie work and Floyd Glick’s lunar photography follow.
Mark Stover devoted all of Friday and Saturday nights to record time lapse movies of our dish antenna tracking the Moon, from Moonrise to Moonset. He used several cameras, capturing several perspectives, and several aspects of the antenna’s and sky’s motions. These are still images from photographing. These are followed by a one-minute movie he edited together. The temperature both nights dropped to the teens F. Marc wore an exposure suit to keep warm.
MoonriseOur operations trailer K0PRT at night. The constellation Orion is rising in the southeast.Moonset with the antenna tracking.A still-image from Mark’s movie, as the Moon nears the western horizon before dawn, with the antenna precisely tracking it. The constellation Orion is to the left of the Moon. The tight Pleiades cluster is to the right. The Moon itself is in front of the constellation Taurus.
Floyd Glick (WD0CUJ) took these astronomical color images of the Moon on Friday night. He took these unfiltered images through his 5 inch Maksutov telescope (unguided). Floyd wrote: “The Moon actually has color, but because it is so bright our eyes perceive it as black and white. I have enhanced the colors (solar temperature = 5900K) in the last picture to illustrate them better.”
QSL confirmation cards we received for our EME contacts, by eQSL and post office mail. Countries represented are Argentina, Chile, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, and the United States:
Some of the variety of QSL cards we received for our high frequency (HF) FT-8 digital contacts from Sunday morning, on the 15 and 20 meter bands. We reached North and South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa:
