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Thanks for the feedback. It helps me decide what type of videos to do in the future.

It is a very useful construction technique... easy to build, easy to try different parts or make modifications, easy to repair later if necessary!

Thanks.

Thanks for this information. I will see if I can find some of those and do some testing on them.

Yes, I am sure. But I don't have a nanoVNA yet so I used what I did have.

Hi, I did the etching myself. After cleaning the board, I put on strips of tape along the entire length, leaving spaces between strips. I then used a sharp hobby knife to cut out sections of each strip so I was left with squares of tape. Then the board was etched in ferric chloride. This board will be used for many different circuit design and testing projects. One good thing about the low frequencies is for most things you don't need to be too careful about layout or lead lengths.

@@n1bug Interesting! So do I understand correctly, that no additional preparation of the blank copper is needed when etching with ferric chloride? And can I use any tape? I already thought about cutting myself some MeSquares like being sold on QRPme, but now I am intrigued by your method. Thanks

@@yofamagtfoke Just make sure the board is clean. If it is an old one with some dirt or the copper is oxidized (somewhat dark and not shiny) I first sand it with 800 or 1000 grit sandpaper, then wipe it down with isopropyl alcohol. It can be dry sanded, but I like to use wet sandpaper and some water. You can also use steel wool or a Scotch-Brite pad instead of sandpaper. I have used all of these methods with good results. If the board is new and clean you can just wipe it down with the alcohol. Try not to get fingerprints on the board while working with the tape, but if you do you can gently wipe it with alcohol again after you finish all of the tape work. I have used three types of tape, all worked for me. Masking tape (like painter's tape). Vinyl tape such as Scotch 33", Super 88 or one of the many cheaper alternatives. Brother TZ series tapes for a label maker work great also. I have a lot of that stuff so that is what I used this time, but I wouldn't buy that just for this purpose. If there is any sticky stuff left after you remove the tape, just clean it off with alcohol or another solvent. I also have another method I sometimes use to make islands on boards, using a small carbide bit in a Dremel tool to carve away copper. Maybe I should make a video showing these two board making methods? I also use MeSquares in some projects. You will see that in one of my videos quite soon!

​@@n1bug Thank you for the elaboration! I will definitely try your method. I think I have also seen some content on the carbide bit-method here on RUclips. For me as a beginner in electronics I feel that the whole process of making your own boards also teaches you a lot of things about circuity and electronics in general. So I am happy about learning from videos like yours. Sure I would also watch a whole section on board-making :-) greetings!

@@yofamagtfoke In case you haven't seen it, I posted a video showing the tape and etching method. I think I will do one on the carbide bit or diamond burr method soon.

Thanks for your kind comments. The funny thing about that is we spent four nights completing the DFCW QSO, but several months later we completed a QSO using digital mode JT9 in less than five minutes! I was shocked to see Chris calling CQ, as that is rarely done on 2200 meters. I answered and it was a quick, easy exchange. I subsequently worked G0MRF and DL7NN, along with a few U.S. stations. After being off the band for a while I am starting to rebuild. I will make some videos as I progress and see if there is any interest in those.

So true! We made it through preparation for winter again. Now we get to enjoy messing with projects. Have fun!

I can not answer that. I have never found a schematic for this or any other LNB. There are parts on the other side of the PCB which are connected to the oscillator module. These form a path from the red coax input to the oscillator module output. I think there may be a attenuator and a filter there. Surely it is possible to cut one or more traces to disable the oscillator module, but I have not tried it so I cannot say what effect leaving the module disabled but still present may have. You can possibly find some further hints here, including a photo of the parts on the other side of the PCB: www.pabr.org/radio/otherlnb/otherlnb.en.html

You only need to remove the internal TCXO. No other modification is needed. However, be sure to feed it a sine wave. It does not lock correctly to a square wave source.

It isn't visibly obvious in the video, but the boresight tube is aligned parallel to the radiation axis of the dish. This is done by peaking the dish on sun noise and then adjusting the angle of the boresight tube left/right and up/down until the tube casts a symmetrical shadow. Once that is done... if the dish is peaked on signals from the moon, the moon appears centered in the tube when you sight through it.

@@n1bug Doesn't sound right to me. You would still NOT be looking at the sun. The shadow would be minimal when the tube is aligned - agreed. But you are using the boom of the dish to align with. That boom is not placed symetrical with the center of the dish but rather offset by NNN degrees. I agree that the LNB would be aligned but not the dish. The dish reflects signals at an offset angle. Simply pointing the LNB arm to the source does not produce a proper alignment. Try it. Align the LNB to Jupiter and then try to listen to the Jovian whistles; you'll get nothing!. Its more likely that the incoming signal has a significantly wider beam width than the offset of the dish. In this case "near enough is good enough". Own a 3D printer? There are many solar alignment tools available on Thingiverse for you to print - many for satellite dished. Make one and see what you get.

Hi Alberto. I am glad you found this video helpful. I suppose there are a few different ways to do it, but this method works for me. Good luck with your project!

As far as I can tell, I get no HF, VHF or UHF noise from the Davis. The console is some distance from any of those antennas. The Davis sensor suite is quite close to the 50, 144, 222, and 432 MHz antennas but I don't think I am getting noise from it. I should probably run some additional tests to confirm it is not bothering any bands...

@@n1bug In my case the noise was radiating from the usb connection to the datalogger. Broadband ~S7 noise in 50 meters distance from the antenna.

@@antoineroquentin2297 Interesting. I don't use the datalogger or USB. I have a meteobridge nano SD installed inside the Davis console. It connects wirelessly to my network. It is a nice solution, but quite expensive.

I think they removed your previous comment before sending a notification. I did get notified of this one so let's hope it stays. I will be curious what you might find with alternate settings. I know of at least one 10 GHz beacon that is on the air that way, probably with spurs. I don't think the spurs bother most people, but my project goal was to create the cleanest beacon possible given budget. I am now using the new LBE-1420, which also had spurs at 576.020 or 1152.040 MHz but is working great as a 10 MHz reference shifted upward. By setting the reference appropriately and using a synthesizer programmed for 1152.000000 I can get just about any 10 GHz frequency I want with no spurs and good phase noise. This is a much more frequency agile setup than any previous method tried and will probably be my final solution.

The least expensive off the shelf solution I can see that MIGHT be adequate for even a small dish like my 76cm would be about 2800 USD - the Sub Lunar SDD-3 / Green Heron RT-21 Az/El combination. The strength of such a system is not needed but tracking precision is. Most rotators cannot point precisely enough. A dish this size is 3 dB down at 1.2 degrees off target. It needs to be pointed within half a degree or so for reasonable EME success. If you have a machine shop and you are good with microcontrollers and precision position sensors, you may be able to build something for less money. I do not know if even the Sub Lunar / Green Heron combination has the precision required for a more typical 10 GHz EME dish such as the 1.8m I have in storage. That would need to be pointed even more precisely as it would be 3 dB down at 0.5 degree off target. I suspect the difficulty of aiming a dish precisely enough keeps a lot of people off 10 GHz EME. I have everything required to put my 1.8m dish on EME except for that.

It's good to be working on projects and doing videos again! There should be two or three more videos fairly soon, then another pause. I would be doing this all the time if I could.

Hi Drew. I would be interested in your findings. I need to try to do more phase noise checks on the beacon. Of course phase noise at 10 GHz is much higher than it is at the reference or the 1152 MHz synthesizer output but my beacon is looking better than most that have gone on the air in recent years. Many of them are only 40 to 50 dB down at 10 kHz. Mine looks to be at least 60 dB, possibly a little better than that. I don't have a proper measurement system but if I calibrate the dB scale on the SDR and S meter on the conventional receiver I can get a "no worse than" figure. Of course any estimate made this way is limited by receiver phase noise.

I will call you if I hear you Lou. I don't get on 6 much since all the DX went to digital which isn't near as much fun for me.

Thanks, I am glad you like it.

Hi Rob. 1. I am using Windows 10 Professinal 64 bit, but any recent version should work fine. 2. I'm sorry if I was confusing. You just need a recent version of regular WSJT-X. As long as it included the Q65 mode you are all set. I forget in which version that mode was introduced but it has been there for a while. There is no special version for 10 GHz. Good luck with your project and let me know if you need any other information or assistance. I will do my best to help.

@@n1bug Hi again, and thanks for the info. I do have a question that perhaps you could help with I attempted to set up but when I came to set up the radio selection in WXJT-X. I had no option for the Kenwood 2000 series radio. So as that option available in your WSJT-X or did you somehow add it to the selection. Thanks again Rob.

I apologise it is there! My eyesight failed me.

@@robertlang641 No need to apologise! My eyesight fails me frequently. I'm glad you're making progress.

Hi again getting a bit confused here I'm wondering how to correct the HDSDR frequency for the LNB I know about the manager button and that throws up a frequency but how does one correct for the 9750 Mhz frequency shift to match the dongle frequency Or am I missing something really obvious. Secondly I'm wondering what software you use to send the output from HDSDR to WSJT. Thanks in anticipation. Rob.

Lou, sorry I didn't answer sooner. I am not certain but I have seen evidence that supports a belief that it does scatter polarization somewhat, but not enough to completely randomize it. Measured data on 10 GHz EME signal loss due to polarization misalignment only goes to about 12 dB. At VHF we see at least 20 dB, so it looks to me like polarization is partly "spread" at 10 GHz. This is just a theory based on data I have seen. It makes sense that a rough surface that is moving would do that. I suspect it does to a lesser extent even at much lower frequencies.

It it good to be back at the project(s)

@@n1bug You're above my skill level, but that's how I improve my skills. Thanks for your videos and excellent explanations. 73!

@@n1bug Also, this reminds me of the video that W2AEW did on spurious key clicks coming from a China made 2 meter rig that was part of a repeater site in NYC that was causing horrible interference when it keyed on and off.

I'm subscribed to his channel but I haven't seen that one. I will look it up and watch. Key clicks can be nasty.

Thanks! More beacon videos coming later as the project continues.

The original version of the Arduino code by K6HX is here: brainwagon.org/2009/11/14/another-try-at-an-arduino-based-morse-beacon/ I haven't published my changes yet, because I still have more changes to make for reading temperature sensors and including that data in the beacon message. Let me know if you need any other information.

Thank you!

Thanks Lou. I'm having fun and learning a lot from this project.

Hello Chris, it's a pleasure to hear from you. The camera is my new smartphone, Samsung Galaxy 24 Ultra. I haven't learned 10% of what that camera can do yet. I miss LF tremendously but the antenna caused so much collateral damage when it fell I can't risk it again. I need to fix my LF big K9AY loop so I can at least listen. I got the beacon key clicks eliminated very nicely and will do a video update sometime this week. Very best regards to you.

I agree about the audio level when listening to the signal and apologize for that. I am still learning how to do this. When recording I have no means of knowing what the audio level is. I can adjust in post processing when editing the video but I keep making the mistake of setting the audio level based on my voice and not the signals. When recording it always seems like the receiver audio in the room is less loud than my voice but it doesn't come out that way in the recording. I will try to improve on it next time. Perhaps (this would be more work) the receiver audio should be recorded as a separate track from my narrative. Then the levels could be set independently. The pipe cap video is a long one. My method of doing them ended up being rather unusual but it worked for me. :)

I'm having a lot of fun learning and experimenting with 10 GHz!

Great to hear from you Lou. The beacon is still in development and has not been installed yet. It is destined to go at our repeater site on Stickney Hill when finished. That should be a reasonably good site. With my RX-only dish at home I have heard W1GHZ and several beacons on rain scatter, snow scatter, and tropo.

Thanks for the feedback. There will be at least one more beacon update soon, likely two.

Thanks.

I would like to have a tracking mount but every solution is very expensive. It is the way to go if you can do it.

I'm not sure about a full transmitter but a PA is easy. There are two basic forms, class D and class E. I successfully built and used both on 2200 meters. There are several designs on the web. Information about the two I built and some of my other transmitting and receiving equipment can be found here: www.n1bug.com/lfmf/

@@n1bug alright i will check it out! Thank you!

I worked about half a dozen stations in North America, two on CWE and the rest on digital modes. My best distance QSOs were 2E0ILY, G0MRF and DL7NN on digital modes. I am sure there would have been more but mMy antenna came down in a storm three years ago and I have not been active since.

Wow, that's neat! I'm sorry your antenna came down though, hopefully someday you can put them back up again😊

Thanks. I could put it back up any time. The problem is it caused damage to other antennas, towers and rotators when it fell. All antennas were covered with wet sticky snow at the time. It was a tremendous weight. When the 2200m antenna broke and fell, the sudden reduction in side loads caused both towers to move a bit a top, quite violently. That sudden motion combined with the weight of the snow on everything is what did the damage. I can't risk that happening again. 2220m is a lot of fun!

When you work on everything from old tube radios to tiny SMD stuff, you can never have too many sizes of solder wick. 🙂

@@n1bug i always runout on this wick.... you can never have enough :D

Thanks for the very kind comments. Decoding and hearing EME signals on 10 GHz was a huge thrill for me. I hope others might enjoy it too.

Howdy Lou!

I tried that with one of them but my 70 watt soldering station was not able to get the job done. I tried using a big tip, flux, etc. but it just didn't heat the solder under the pads enough.