VA3TO 10GHz Portable Station


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Front | Internal | Mount1 | Mount2





Equipment details:

Dish: 24" prime focus Macom with integral waveguide crook feed.
Transverter: DB6NT/Khune MKU 10 G3.
LNA: Downeast Microwave W5LUA design 3-2 ULNA kit. 22dB Gain/ 1.1dB NF.
Driver PA: Downeast Microwave 3-3 23dB Gain/ 2.5 Watts.
Final PA: Downeast Microwave 3-8 >6dB Gain/ 8 Watts.
Sequencer: W6PQL 4 event sequencer kit w/ W6PQL latching relay driver kit.
10 MHz Reference OCXO: Bliley NV47A1282.
I.F. Rig: Icom IC-705 @ 144 MHz.


Accomplishments to date:

Distance (CW - Rain Scatter): 726km - VA3TO in grid FN03cn to K1RZ, AF1T, W1MKY & K3WHC in grid FN41ee.

Distance (CW - Rain Scatter): 726km - VA3TO in grid FN03cn to K9PW in grid EN52sa.

Distance (CW - Airplane Scatter): 645km - VA3TO in grid FN45bc to VA3ELE in grid FN03dm.

Distance (CW - Tropo): 618km - VA3TO in grid FN35qi to VE3KH in grid FN03cg.

10GHz VUCC: 63 Grids from a portable site in grid FN03cn, all analog modes (CW/SSB).


During the 2015 10 GHz & Up Contest my old dish was blown over and badly damaged by high winds. The dish was bent beyond repair so I decided to rebuild using a very efficient 24" Macom dish which is far more manageable than the unweildy 36 incher. I also put the electronics in a weatherproof NEMA box. My original dish used a speaker tripod that wasn't very stable so I bought a surveyor's tripod and adapted it to use a heavy duty Manfrotto 3-axis camera mount. The improvements from lessons learned resulted in a nice compact and weatherproof unit that quick-mounts to the tripod for relatively fast set-up and tear-down. The rebuilt station uses most of the same components from my original station with the addition of a Bliley 10 MHz OCXO which made a big difference. After an initial 3 minute warmup there is no perceivable drift and I'm always bang on frequency. I also added an 8W DEMI PA. The new system has been performing very well.


Some of my microwave QSOs were recorded and posted to Youtube: uWave QSO Videos


Updates:

During the 2022 10 GHz & Up Contest I scored 2 new grids from my favorite portable location at FN03cn to reach the 50 grid VUCC mark.

Grids #51 - 55
Within 3 weeks in July 2023 I sucessfully worked 5 new grids to bring me up to the 55 grid level. Thanks to N8IUP (EM89), VE2UG (FN46). KC0IYT (FN42), N8IUP (EN75) and K9PW (EN62).

Grids #56 & 57
On August 12 /23 I worked the elusive K1TEO in FN31 and later N8ECI in EM79 bringing my total up to 57 grids.

Grid #58
On June 05/24 Rene VE2UG drove out to FN45ge in Saint-Malo, Quebec, near the New Hampshire border in attempt to give me and Kevin VE3KH the new grid via rainscatter. There were no good rain cells between us on rainscatter.com after he arrived so we tried the direct path which was a longshot at 687 km. Nothing but a few short lived bursts of dashes, probably from aircraft scatter. We waited around and eventually a cluster of cells formed down near Oswego, NY that worked for us. A big thank you to Rene for making the 3 hour drive each way ! !

Grid#59
On July 16/24 we had a cluster of storm cells move through Southern Ontario that continued east across Lake Ontario and into Upstate New York. I was watching guys on the reflectors report on some great rainscatter contacts while I was stuck at work. As the end of my work day approached I saw a couple of opportunities to score a new grid or two so I sent a couple of texts out to arrange skeds. After work I headed over to my spot at FN03cn and worked K1FMS in FN32 with ease for the new grid. I also tried with KA1UAG in FN33 but the he did not have a great view to the horizon in the direction of the storm due to the Green Mountains, so there was nothing heard at either end.

Grid#60
On July 29/24 Gedas W8BYA noticed that the forecast was calling for storms around the west end of Lake Erie so he drove out to EN60xt to see if he give out a new grid. I was following the activity through the afternoon from work. It was a little touch and go as the cells were dissipating then reforming as they moved east. Just as my work day ended another cell formed near Detroit. A couple of local guys worked Gedas so I hurried over to FN03cn. The cell had dissipated to the point where the dot on rainscatter.com was no longer red but I still managed to work him for grid #60 !

Grid#61
On July 30/24 Peter VA3ELE did another one of his Mini-DXpeditions to give out more grids from northern Ontario. I worked him from his first stop in grid FN07cb via rainscatter for #61. I already had the other grids that he visited but nice to get a new one out of his 3 day trip. Thanks to Peter for taking time out of his vacation to do this.

Grid#62
On Aug 27/24 we had a long front of dense rain cells with high tops sweep across Michigan. I was watching it at home on rainscatter.com when I saw an e-mail from a microwave reflector come in from Pete K9PW announcing that he was heading over to grid EN52sa to see if he could work anyone to the east. I loaded up the car with my 10 GHz rig and drove over to my VUCC spot at FN03cn. I set up the rig and once it was warmed up I heard Peter VA3ELE working Pete. I panned around and found K9PW's signal then tail ended their QSO.

Grid#63
On Jun 30/25 I worked Peter VA3ELE in Grid EN98va from FN03cn. He was on yet another weekend Mini-DXpedition to give out more grids from northern Ontario. I really had to work for this one. It took at least 40 minutes as some rain moved in just a litte south of Peter that obscured the path. it wasn't high enough to be useful and came and went. He was hearing me, got the grid but not the callsign. I repeated over and over and finally signals came up from a combination of airplane and rain scatter. Thanks to Peter for his perseverance !




10 GHz VUCC (63 Grids).












Grids Worked from FN03CN


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