MOON ECHO PROJECT (part 4): SINGLE YAGI TO SINGLE YAGI MOON ECHO EXPERIMENT & VALIDATION
(June 6, 2015)
After having tested the sensitivity of the system at different Degrade Factors, I wanted to "pressure" the system even further by trying to produce Moon Echos but this time, from Single Yagi to Single Yagi, and still without any Ground Gain as carried out in the previous tests. As predicted in the previous section, based on the signals recorded at the different degrade factors, this should be doable, assuming that the degrade factor is not too high.
In order to do this experiment, I disconnected one of the 2X14 which is on the roof so the TX antenna would be a Single 1X14RP using 1kw, and the RX antenna would be the 1X13RP LFA.
I got up at 5am that morning in order to execute the experiment. After a few attempts, I could not see any traces so I kept rotating the TX polarity hoping to see something at some point... Once the TX polarity reached 90 degrees, some traces started showing up! I found that at 110 deg I had the best signals. The RX polarity was set to 0 degree (HPOL).
See the video showing some of the Moon Echo Traces recorded. Most of them were in the -26 to -29 dB range.
As a bonus, during this experiment, K3IB (Phil) whom was running a Single Yagi 12-element HPOL with some Ground Gain and good power started showing up on MAP65. I quickly tuned in and recorded all his traces during his QSO with VK5APN, some of them were in the -19 to -22 range and were even slightly audible! See screen capture of Phil's setup (1X12H) on the logger and video of all his traces.
This overall experiment served as an excellent validation of the sensitivity of the 1X13 RPOL LFA as RX antenna where it could be demonstrated that the system can detect my own Echo Traces using a medium size Single Yagi antenna as TX source (1X14 RP/K), all of that without any ground gain, and could also decode another Single Yagi (1X12H) with some Ground Gain, this time with a relatively stronger signal as expected under such conditions.
This experiment validates that the Moon Echo System has a formidable sensitivity with very simple means and should enable meeting all the objectives described in Section 25.
I could not be more excited about this Moon Echo Project! More to come.
Stay Tuned...
***WARNING: For Best Resolution for the videos below, it is critical to select 720p HD resolution in the youtube "settings" at bottom right of the player. The 360p default setting won't yield good enough resolution to see the details. It will take several seconds before the High Resolution kicks in, so you will need to restart the video from the beginning when the High Resolution is active and select to view the video in "Full Screen Mode" for best experience...***
This experiment validates that the Moon Echo System has a formidable sensitivity with very simple means and should enable meeting all the objectives described in Section 25.