Final blog of the day

Back in Grand Prairie after a long day at the conference. I chose not to go to the rodeo this evening, but rather chose to stay back at the hotel and talk to some of the other guys who decided likewise.

I was able to have a long chat to WD5AGO about preamps. Tommy, Al and a.n.other are planning to run the noise figure measurements tomorrow morning. I am looking forward to seeing how my preamps measure up against the 'American Maestro's' best preamps and against some of the others being measured.

Back at Kent's QTH we were greeted by a pair of these critters! In case you are having struggling to make it out, it is one of a pair of your skunks!
I didn't get too close........

My talk on the preamps is scheduled for late tomorrow morning and the EME bid presentation is shortly afterwards.
Dave, G4HUP, was the first speaker of the conference, appearing first thing this morning. Dave, WW2R/G4FRE, also gave his talk today.

Good night ya all.

WiFi access at last.

My but it's hot here! Over 100F again today.
In spite of this we had a most interesting demonstration of 23cm from Paul, WA5WCP, who brought his portable EME system up to the hotel.
The view of jets flying over the dish and hotel as they approached DFW was quite interesting!

Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR, CEO of Flexradio talked about SDR developments at the lunch seminar. My, how this technology is moving along. I am seriously considering buying one of the FLEX1500 radios. They brought a few up from Austin with them.

Response to informal chats to various attendees about bringing the next EME Conference to the UK seem to be extremely encouraging. Dave, G4HUP, and I will be presenting the 2012 Conference bid tomorrow. As soon as we know the result, I will bring it to you on here.......

So, back to the talks now. More later.

Sam

Day one of the Conference

Its 7:00am and we are about to head out to the Conference hotel. I hope that the Dallas traffic is not too bad.

Yesterday was rather hectic and there was little chance to blog. I should now have access from the hotel lobby, so i'll get back on line from the Westin a little later.

Tempertaures hit 105F (41/42C) in Dallas yesterday, so we didn't spend too much time outside or in the van.

Last night's hospitality suite in the Westin was the first chance for everyone to get together. All the well-known faces were there and it was a great chance to meet up and swap stories from the two years since the Florence meeting. This is going to be a good conference!

73 de Sam

Good morning from Dallas.
Currently in Grand Prairie at the home of WA5VJB. The flight down from Totonto by the Air Canada JAZZ Bombarier 705 commuter jet was uneventful and arrived on time.
Plans today are to go to the Conference hotel and meet up with early arrivals.
I also need to get something 'real' to eat. The only thing I have eaten in the last 24 hours is airline food!

CN Tower

Yes, in the previous blog, if you look carefully at the skyline above the Alitalia name on the plane behind the Polish plane you will see the CN Tower in downtown Toronto. I had to look carefully to see it the first time. Just for good measure, here is a zoomed shot of it. I'm told Pearson is 27km from downtown. I'm not convinced that tower is 27km from here!
http://www.cntower.ca/

Toronto

Toronto Pearson airport. 11th August 2010

I am currently on my way to Dallas for the International EME Conference. Because of my late decision to go I had to accept a routing via Toronto. Right now I'm sat in departures at Toronto Pearson airport, waiting for my onward flight to Dallas where I should arrive around 9pm (3am UK!) I have a 4 hour stop-over.

I'm taking advantage of the free WiFi courtesy of Rogers Cable....

I will try to blog from the Conference, if there is suitable WiFi access, otherwise it will be nightly updates from the QTH of WA5VJB!

There should be some interesting photos to share with you and hopefully, some news about the 2012 International EME Conference.

73 from a balmy 31C Toronto.
Sam

I have decided to re-launch my blog. I originally started it so that I could blog whilst on my trip 'down under' back in the summer of 2009.
It appears to me that this is a great medium for posting current project and operating news.

I have completed my February GHz bands column for Radcom and submitted it to the editor to be laid out in Desktop published format. The February column (out in January) will carry part 6 of my 'Getting started in EME' series. This is the first of two parts on pre-amps.

Good news. I received my AE5OT licence paperwork from the FCC. Then last Friday (4th Dec) the FCC issued my vanity callsign, W5DDK. I don't have the paperwork for that yet, but the grant appears on the FCC web site, so I should now be able to use it, if I choose to. I need another trip to the USA!

Recently I have been playing with WSPR on 500kHz. Since I don't have an NoV for this band I can only listen and monitor the band.
On WSPR I have copied the G4JNT, G3XBM and G7NKS beacons as well as CW from G3KEV. All of this with an untuned 7m vertical and during the daytime.
The vertical is part of an MFJ1792 40/80m top loaded vertical.
Today I assembled the remainder of the 40m/80m antenna and guyed it at the 12 and 24 foot levels. It looks massive at 33 foot high!
The antenna still needs tuning on 80m, where I was unable to load it, but on 40m, using WSPR, I received signals from VK2 and a W1 as well as all over Europe and T6
The signals from WSPR beacons on 500kHz were all slightly stronger than with the 7 m vertical.

73 de Sam