[FLWSS] Beacon Report. Another station heard from.

[George Presley]

Hello fellow 10 Giggers,

Andrew (WB4BKC) and I went out Friday after noon looking for Joe's beacon.
We took my rig with the 2ft dish and Andrew's rig that has progressed to the
receive level. He will be adding his name to the fully operational list
pretty soon.

Since I'm only 15 miles from Joe's location, we setup in a small clearing in
front of my house. That was a bust. I knew that the trees on Joe's property
did not favor my QTH, so I was not surprised. We loaded up and headed North
and East to the UCF parking lot, where the tailgates are held. Most every
one knows that location.
 
We fought the going home traffic and also knew the rain would overtake us
before too long, but luck was with us long enough to give it a try. Armed
only with a compass and a rough idea where Longwood was, we began the ritual
of tuning and scanning the horizon. Pay Dirt! We had him this time. I had a
S2 copy on my IC706 with the 2.3KHz SSB filter but easy copy. With the
direction established and signal confirmed, we powered up Andrews RX only
rig. This was the first test for his system to hear signals other than ones
a few feet away. We could not get a copy so we used the situation to
compare, evaluate, and mix things up since we used the same IF.

First, it was noticed that his receive noise level was much higher (S6),
mine (S2). Yah, we knew that total system gains would be different but
relative observations were all that we could do. Then we substituted his
FT-897 with my 706. Now he too was seeing about a S2 noise so the two
transceivers, without the preamps kicked in, were similar and allowed us to
conclude that the problem was farther up the chain. While we had Andrew's
transceiver subing the 706, Andrew tweaked the signal by using his DSP and a
440 Hz CW filter. It was quite an improvement in S/N and brought up a S2
signal to a S6. I guess I'll have to buy a CW filter for the 706 or buy a
FT-897. Hmmm....let me weigh that one. $$$$$$ vs $$.

Since the only other gain stage left was the 10 GHz Harris boat anchor, with
an unknown noise figure, we could now see where we were going to taking this
"Road Show". I am using a waveguide switch and a Harris boat anchor too, but
I got Joe to conform that my noise was 2dB. We don't know if this was a fair
test, and because Andrew was using coax and a Transco for antenna switching,
we disconnected the antenna cable to the Harris preamp and watched for a
change in noise. No difference. Conclusion, all from preamp or cover-up??

After doing mix and match, I notice a few wet spots on my arm. RAIN! Panic!
Where is the plastic? Oh D.. A.., here is a perfect chance to experience
"Rain Scatter. The conditions were perfect. Joe to my left, and dark clouds
to my right. There suddenly was a Rain Bow in the sky. It was almost
spiritual. Even I had enough high school science classes to know that there
had to be some rain somewhere close to that. I swung the dish around and
slightly above the horizon. The beacon was now much louder but with the
typical raspy cw note. Typical to you operators that have experienced that,
but it was new to me and was saved to memory. All I can say about it is that
it's a broad spot in the sky and a great reflector. Oh yah, the CW note was
like my homebrew novice 40M rig with one 4MFD cap in the power supply.






After the next meeting at Joe's place, you can view his terrain for both of
the locations we tried. With Google Earths help, I determined that if you
are standing under his beacon and looking at his house, that is the
direction to my QTH. If you look to the left and at the barn, that is the
direction to UCF. Look back to the right. See trees....they are not your
friends.

The numbers are: UCF parking lot, 28/36/10, 81/12/19, 12.5 miles, elv. 80ft.
132.4 degrees from Joe's location.

That was our adventures and fun was had by all. Thanks again to Joe's
endeavors another dimension has been added to the hobby.

George K4RSV
Andrew WB4BKC

Joe's call is KI4NPV