W1RJA EME event, Echoes of Apollo

Dave Olean, K1WHS and Bob Petersen, KB2RWW provided a complete EME station at the site of the 36th Eastern VHF Conference hosted by the North East Weak Signal Group. We successfully made contact with KP4AO at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico off of the surface of the moon.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• EME
• W1RJA
• Arecibo

[gm4jjj]

Excellent - who is who? I would like to know because many years ago Dave K1WHS was my very first EME contact (on 144).

[smeuse]

@gm4jjj Dave, K1WHS, is the gentleman who made the contact. He's wearing a green coat.

[fetblaster]

Great video, Steve. I especially liked the di pickle antenna. After the QSO, if you are hungry you can eat the antenna. That is a great feature. The video quality looks excellent. Our QSO was 16 minutes after the KP4AO sequence started and their amplifier had quit again. They were running low power, but the audio came thru quite well. Thanks.

[smeuse]

@fetblaster Thanks. It was a team effort. There were a group of 6-7 of us who did the setup, including several runs to the hardware store to find a new cross-boom, and a run to someone's house to get a backup generator! We got it all setup with about an hour to spare.....it was a great time and I think got a lot of exposure to hams at the conference who wouldn't normally get involved in EME (including me!) KB2RWW and K1WHS really went above and beyond, a truly Herculean effort.

[gm4jjj]

Many thanks and say hi to Dave from me.

[fetblaster]

It is great to see Dr. Gordon Pettengill, ex KP4BPZ, and a Director of the Arecibo Ionospheric Research facility in this video. Gordon was responsible for the first EME tests from the Arecibo dish in the 60's. He can be seen looking at the laptop screen and is in the foreground during the QSO. We tried to have him make the QSO, but I think he wanted to avoid the spotlight.