Last weekend, people around the world were watching the skies to observe a rare celestial event, as a lunar eclipse coicided with a so-called "Supermoon". A Supermoon occurs when a full or new Moon is at its minimum distance (perigee) to earth. This phenomenon last time was observed in 1982 and is not expected until 2033. The phenomenon yielded a Moon that appeared "redish" and up to 14% larger than usual.
As it relates to EME, the Moon being so close to earth and the sky noise being low produced the lowest Degrade Factor of 2015. As the geomagnetic activity was stable, the EME conditions were excellent during that weekend.
LOW ERP QSO WITH ZL3NW
(12-Element, 500 watts)
As a results of the excellent EME conditions, I wrapped up a few neat QSO's with Low ERP Stations. The smallest station I contacted was ZL3NW (Rod), who was running 500 watts into a Single Yagi 12-Element K1FO. The nice picture to the right shows Rod's QTH in New-Zealand and his antenna system (the 2m antenna is the small one on the very top of the tower).
For this QSO, I was TXing using the 2X14 RPOL (located on the roof) and was RXing using a Single Yagi 13-Element RPOL LFA (located in the backyard).
The video of the complete QSO with ZL3NW is available to the right. It is remarkable that using a Single Yagi 13-Element RPOL LFA, I was able to copy Rod's low ERP station at -22dB! Thanks to the excellent EME conditions, but above all, thanks to RPOL...
The next day, I performed an Echo Test using the "Moon Echo Project Capability". Below the setup that was used:
TX: 2X14 RPOL (965 watts)
RX: 1X17 RPOL LFA
(No ground gain)
The quality of the Echos produced was absolutely outstanding and some were on the threshold of being audible! See video to the right.
***WARNING: For Best Resolution, 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...***
SUPERMOON ECLIPSE YIELDS OUTSTANDING EME CONDITIONS