K7RAT – SM7FJE QSO

This page describes my first ever EME QSO. This QSO took place on July 13, 1998 UTC between 0633 and 0646Z. The frequency was 50.033 MHz. The station I had at the time was barely EME capable – but I had heard my own echo occasionally.

Here is a recording of my first echo which I heard off the moon. This was recorded on 9 July 1998 at 0354Z. While this might not seem like much – I practically fell out of my chair when I heard it. The tone is pretty high in pitch and the second and third dahs are stronger than the first. Sometimes – I find when listening with speakers – moving around the room makes a big difference in your ability to hear the signal.

I made a “schedule” (appointment) with Kjell, SM7BAE – to try and have a two way contact (QSO) off the moon. This was timed so that the moon was in the best place for me – about 3 to 10 degrees off the horizon (at moonrise). The schedule started at 0610Z (10:10 PM PDT), but I actually missed the first few minutes because I had been watching a movie with the wife.

Kjell and I were using one minute sequences. This means he transmitted for one minute at a time on the even minutes and I transmitted during the odd ones.

Nothing much happened during the first 20 minutes or so – but the moon was just starting to come into the best place for my antenna pattern. At the end of my transmission during 0633Z, I heard the last two letters of my callsign (K7RAT) come back from the moon! You can listen to it by clicking here. It is a pretty low tone (like blowing on an empty coke bottle) as I was listening up higher in frequency for Kjell's signal (which comes back around 500 Hertz above my transmit frequency).

During the next minute, I heard Kjell sending my call two different times. You can listen to this whole minute by clicking here. His CW note is around the D note an octave above middle C. After hearing this, I sent Kjell his signal report (339) during minutes 35, 37, 39, 41, 43 and 45 with nothing heard (on my end). Here is a recording of me sending 339 as heard by Kjell however.

I thought maybe I heard something during minute 38, but it wasn't enough to be sure. Finally, at minute 46, Kjell came up enough to hear him sending "33N" two or three times. This completed the next “step” in our process.

You can listen to minute 46 here. The moon was approaching 6 degrees of elevation at this point - which is the calculated peak for my major lobe. I spent minute 47 sending QSL over and over, and minute 49 sending 73.

I was using a 7 element beam on a 37 foot boom at 45 feet in height. My power was 1050 watts output from a pair of 4-250As in ground-grid. They glow pretty red at this power level. I have about 130 feet of 7/8 inch hardline to the antenna. The radio was a TS-850 with Down East Microwave transverter and a Teletec solid state amp.

This shows the six meter beam I used at the bottom of the mast. The other antennas were for the other VHF/UHF bands for 144 to 432 MHz.

Six meter moon-bounce is certainly a challenge (on CW) - but it sure is neat to be able to do it with modest equipment and antennas.

Kjell became a silent key some ten years after our QSO. He was an icon on both 2 meter and 6 meter CW EME. I also had QSOs with SM7FJE and K6QXY on six meter EME following this QSO. I once tried to make a QSO with the ZL8 DX-pedition using digital modes – but was not successful.

Back to the K7RAT Six Meter EME Page