john, i agree lets make a showplace out of the site. i am not sufficiently technical to figure this out myself but i will enjoy operating the vhf weak signal station. i will help finance things that we need to accomplish you desires, john. regards, george bernard w6nre PS: tonite i talked into riveside af6hp running 100 watts. there is a san diego net on tuesdays at 8 PM on 144.230 santa barbara, ca web page is www.balanceindustries.com for my company cell 818-370-9407 -----Original Message----- From: John Maetta Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 5:39 PM To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... Hi George, Yes, the rotor on the telephone pole does not rotate and we noted that the 2 meter antenna on coax 'B' had 2.5:1 SWR at 144.200. So we have at least two problems on the pole. I would sugest that we install a sequencer circuit to properly switch the preamp into 'bypass', then key the high power amp and finally enabling the radio's TX. At this power, 'hot' switching any coax relay will quickly shorten their life or burn them out, I speak from experience on this one. The results of 'hot' switching can be seen on the relay pieces on the shelf under my 2 meter amp, a rather expensive repair. Tomorrow I will order two 4 event sequencer kits from W6PQL. One is for another project of mine and the second will be donated to sequence the IC-736, TE Systems amp and any preamp we install. I should have these ready for test by Memorial Day weekend. The SARC has the makings for a great VHF station with EME capability. Weak signal VHF station design is not to be rushed...Lets do it right the first time, I will be glad to help. 73 John ----- Original Message ----- From: george bernard To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 20:00 PM Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... john, i think there is a horiz 2m atenna already on the big mast but the rotor does not work. it that one corroded also? thank you for providing yours, should we put a mast mounted preamp on it? we can use the landwehr and if it doesnt work then i can purchase an AAR model but you need to help me solve the 300 watt problem. regards, george w6nre ps: i will be up at the club for 2m ssb nets on wed at 7:30 pm till about 10:30 pm. want to come up and watch what goes on? there are two nets, one at 8 and one a 8:30 pm. santa barbara, ca web page is www.balanceindustries.com for my company cell 818-370-9407 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: John Maetta Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 5:53 PM To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... I took the nearly new Cushcraft 13B2 out of my backyard storage shed and assembled it. Using my backyard test stand, I was able to adjust the SWR to ~1.2:1 @ 144.200Mhz, right at the 2 Meter weak signal calling frequency. Here are the test photos and the antenna www.n6vmo.com/arpics/SARCCushcraft13B213ElementYagi/index.html Just a couple of coats of Krylon just before installing it on the tower and it should server the SARC very well for several years. 73 John ----- Original Message ----- From: jportune@xxxxxxx To: David Dowler KA6BFB ; sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 15:55 PM Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... In what state is the 13el 144 beam, up on a tower, down but still assembled, or disassembled? And what condition is it in? I think Dave Dowler KA6BFB is the best person to offer it to for the club. See email address above. TNX John W6NBC ----- Original Message ----- From: Paul Andreasen To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 3:29 PM Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... John, I have an additional 13 element 144 here that isn't being used if you need it. I haven't come near to getting my antennas back up yet. (give it another decade) Paul At 09:10 AM 5/10/2009, you wrote: I agree with John P.'s assessment and propose the following: In an effort to get the SARC on the 6 meter band, I will donate a 5 element 50MHz yagi to install on the portable roof tower. Along with that, I will donate a Cushcraft 13B2 144MHz yagi for the portable roof tower. We can troubleshoot the log periodic at our leisure, and reinstall it if decided. I will have a day or so over the Memorial Day weekend and will try to get the two antennas (50Mhz and 144MHz) mounted and tested. Hopefully, I can have it ready and use the station on 50MHz during the June VHF contest. If someone has a 220Mhz yagi, now would be a good time to get it mounted too. Does the SARC have enough 9913 or equivalent to make another run or two up to the portable tower? Is the radio room penetration have enough room for another coax or two? In addition, we noted that SARC's the horizontal 144MHz, on coax 'B' exhibited 2.5:1 SWR at 144.200MHz. Something else to troubleshoot in the future. 73 John ----- Original Message ----- From: jportune@xxxxxxx To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 8:30 AM Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... My phone is 805-406-6176. But on a conventional SWR bridge you should not be getting high SWR. So if you are, you do have a problem which is not due to the basic design of the antenna. Other than that I really do not have any other suggestion. Call if you wish, though. John W6NBC ----- Original Message ----- From: george bernard To: sarcmembers@freelistsorg Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 8:26 AM Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... john, i think you are correct. can you call me on home fone? 805-688-6324 and we can discuss what to do about this $1500 antenna? how do we use it? do we just have to tolerate the high swr? george santa barbara, ca web page is www.balanceindustries.com for my company cell 818-370-9407 -------------------------------------------------------------------- From: jportune@xxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 8:22 AM To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... Rember basic radio theory. A log-periodic is basically a NON-resonant antenna. So "some" instruments may not see it correctly. But on a basic SWR bridge is should show low SWR on any requency within its range. ----- Original Message ----- From: george bernard To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 8:09 AM Subject: [sarcmembers] Re: SARC Tower and Dish move... john, do you think that a log periodic antenna might not resonate on any ham bands? it is covering 50-1300 mcs so maybe it doesnt dip like we expected it to on 144.2? perhaps i should just call ted henry at hrc and purchase a 15 element yage for that tower/rotator and call it quits with the log periodic? it worked fine for me in goleta on six and two meters and also on 432.12 ssb. thank you for donating the use of your 70 amps for this rig. we need to tell all members not to run power up past 300 watts as you recommend and also how do you want to proceed on the landwehr preamp which is in the workshop area? btw i got the ultrasonic bird repeller installed in my airplane hangar at smx airport yesterday. it is made by Bird-X.com company of chicago, cost was only $249. regards, george bernard w6nre PS: the photo of the explorer sheriff scouts who are using my donated "black box uhf radios" on 460.275 and .325 were useful by visiting police officers from other jurisdistricts working the fire. sheriff brown allowed us to program channels 1-7 to the same freqs as the regular motorolas which his peole carry. i bought 24 of them and a computer to program the freqs. channels 8-16 are gmrs channels for the kids to talk with each other these are only $150 each so if they fail we delete the serial number and trash the radio. if one gets lost we dont worry about it. santa barbara, ca web page is www.balanceindustries.com for my company cell 818-370-9407 ------------------------------------------------------------------ From: John Maetta Sent: Sunday, May 10, 2009 7:22 AM To: sarcmembers@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [sarcmembers] SARC Tower and Dish move... All, Yesterday, with the help of Bob, W6RFH, we were able to reposition the EME dish and portable tower. The new locations allow much shorter control and hardline runs to the operating positions. My special thanks to Bob, for his expertise in delicately moving of the fully loaded EME tower. www.n6vmo.com/arpics/SARCTowerandDishMoveMay92009/index.html I have loaned SARC the use of my Astron RS-70 powersupply to power the TE Systems 144MHz amplifier. It is modified to power and provide cooling air to the amplifier. Later, W6NRE arrived and we discovered during testing, that the log periodic antenna exhibited high SWR on 144.200MHz We also noted that the antenna was not resonate on any amateur band or frequencies in the VHF range. The log periodic antenna was taken down for further troubleshooting and the tower is currently laying flat on the SARC roof. The 1.29GHz amplifer has new cooling water and tested to 200 watts output, it should be ready for 1.2Ghz EME operation by June 6th. Hopefully, after the monthly meeting, it can be successfully demonstrated by providing our first 1296MHz EME contact. This past week, I noted an ad on QTH.com for a almost new 12' parabolic TVRO dish. The dish is for sale and located in Solvang. I emailed the seller and asked if he had not sold it, would he be interested in donating it to the club. He happily agreed. If it becomes available, and meets with the board's approval, along with focal and mounting requirements, I will meet with him to transport it to the club, swap it out with the current 10' dish. The 10' dish will then leave for the dump, unless a club member wants it. The new dish will provide ~50% more reflective surface area than the 10' dish. This extra surface area will add ~2.8dB of gain, effectively almost doubling the ERP and adding ~1/2 S-Unit of received signal strength. 73 John