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This document summarizes Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication, also known as moonbounce, which uses the moon as a passive reflector to allow communication between amateur radio operators on Earth. It provides a brief history of EME starting in 1953 and lists notable milestones and first contacts between stations. The challenges of EME like noise, Doppler shift, polarization, and building an effective station are discussed. Recommendations are made for starting out in EME focusing on popular bands like 144MHz and 1296MHz using JT65 mode.

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Eddy Triyono
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332 views25 pages

Eme PDF

This document summarizes Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication, also known as moonbounce, which uses the moon as a passive reflector to allow communication between amateur radio operators on Earth. It provides a brief history of EME starting in 1953 and lists notable milestones and first contacts between stations. The challenges of EME like noise, Doppler shift, polarization, and building an effective station are discussed. Recommendations are made for starting out in EME focusing on popular bands like 144MHz and 1296MHz using JT65 mode.

Uploaded by

Eddy Triyono
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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EARTH-MOON-EARTH

COMMUNICATION
GARY LAUTERBACH, AD6FP
EME – EARTH-MOON-EARTH

• What is it?
• Using the moon as a passive reflector to communicate between two stations on earth at radio frequencies
• Who does it?
• Amateur radio operators
• Europe, US, Asia, Oceania, Africa
• Why do they do it?
• Usually because of the technical challenge, it’s hard
• The “ultimate” DX
HISTORY OF EME
• 1953 W3GKP and W4AO detect lunar echoes on 144 MHz
• 1960 First amateur 2-way EME contact: W6HB works W1FZJ, 1296 MHz (EIMAC ARC)
• 1964 W6DNG works OH1NL, 144 MHz
• 1964 KH6UK works W1BU, 432 MHz
• 1970 WB6NMT works W7CNK, 222 MHz
• 1970 W4HHK works W3GKP, 2.3GHz
• 1972 W5WAX and K5WVX work WA5HNK and W5SXD, 50 MHz
• 1987 W7CNK and KA5JPD work WA5TNY and KD5RO, 3.4 GHz
• 1987 W7CNK and KA5JPD work WA5TNY and KD5RO, 5.7 GHz
• 1988 K5JL works WA5ETV, 902 MHz
• 1988 WA5VJB and KF5N work WA7CJO and KY7B, 10 GHz
• 2001 W5LUA works VE4MA, 24 GHz
• 2005 AD6FP, W5LUA and VE4MA work RW3BP, 47 GHz
• 2005 RU1AA works SM2CEW, 28 MHz
• 2009 GDØTEP works ZS6WAB, 70 MHz
Standing: Robert Sutherland W6UOV (now W6PO), Hank Brown W6HB, Bill Eitel W6UF, George M W Badger
W6RXW (now W6TC), Al Clark W6MUC and Bob Morwood K6GLF.
Sitting: Ray Rinaudo W6KEV (was W6ZO then back to KEV), Charlie Anderson W6IVZ (now W6VW), Allan
Beer K6GSO.
THE PATH

• As seen from Earth the moon has 0.5 degree


subtended angle
• The distance to the moon from a point on Earth is
constantly changing
• Approximately 250,000 miles
• Moon moves at about 15 degrees per hour
RADAR EQUATION
• Loss = (N * R^2 * lambda^2)/(64 * Pi^2 * D^4) with isotropic transmit/receive antennas
• D – distance to target
• R – radius of target
• Lambda – wavelength (1/frequency)
• N - reflection coefficient, moon ~ 0.065
• Freespace is not lossy, energy spreads out as D^2 => to & from the target becomes D^4
• Path loss increases with frequency as ^2
• but for constant aperture antennas gain increases with frequency as ^2 for both transmit and receive or ^4 in total
• ^2 loss / ^4 gain = ^2 loss DECREASE with frequency
• Caveat: equation assumes the target is over-illuminated, may be violated at microwave frequencies
LINK BUDGET
SNR = Ta + Tp – Pl + Ra - Rs Frequency Average path
Ta: transmit antenna gain
MHz loss DB
Tp: transmit power dbm
Pl: path loss 50 244
Ra: receive antenna gain
Rs: receive sensitivity, -174dbm/Hz @290K 144 252

144 MHz JT-65 example: 500w, 2Hz BW, 2.5wl yagi 432 261
SNR = 13 + 57 – 252 + 13 + 171 = 2Db
1296 271
144 MHz CW example: 1000w, 50Hz BW, 2.5wl yagi 2304 276
SNR = 13 + 60 – 252 + 13 + 157 = -9Db
3456 279
1296 MHz example: 200w, 50Hz BW, 3m dish
SNR = 30 + 53 – 271 + 30 + 160 = 2Db 5760 283
OTHER LOSS COMPONENTS
• Atmospheric absorption
• Cosmic, Galactic and manmade noise
• Receiver noise
• Antenna pointing
• Transmit power
• Cross polarization
• Faraday rotation
• Doppler shifting, spreading, libration
• Frequency stability
NOISE IS THE ENEMY ON RECEIVE
1-3 GHz is the lowest noise spectrum

5GHz and above moon black body radiation and


atmospheric loss become significant

Below 1 GHz Galactic and manmade noise dominates

Low noise on receive requires:


1) a great LNA, T/R, zero feedline loss
2) minimal side lobes that “see” the earth
ANTENNA GAIN IS GOLD

• Works on both transmit and receive


• High power transmit is not always helpful, if you can’t hear them …
• Up to the point of under-illuminating the moon, ~6db beamwidth of 0.5 degrees, 50Db
• Can always choose to under-illuminate a big dish: minimize side lobes that “see” the earth
• Helps hearing the low power guys
DOPPLER IS THE ENEMY

• Doppler effects destroy frequency coherence of the signal:


• Libration fading: differential doppler from the opposing limbs of the moon
• Surface roughness and moon diameter destroy temporal and phase coherency of the signal
• Reflections arrive at differing times
• Above 3 GHz the combination becomes deadly
• 47 GHz EME had >100 Hz frequency spreading and 100us temporal spreading
• 47 GHz doppler change required computer to auto tune the receiver: 1 KHz/minute
POLARIZATION IS THE ENEMY

• At low frequencies Faraday rotation in the atmosphere produces lock-out


• 144/432 linear is a disadvantage
• Geometric polarization offset is always a concern
• At 1296,2304 everyone uses circular, it works well!
• At mm-wave frequencies reflected polarization is random due to roughness
MODES TO THE RESCUE

• Joe Taylor, KJ1JT, wrote a program in 2001 based on a 1996 paper by Phil Karn ka9q and Tom Clark w3iwi
• JT-44/65 revolutionized EME for small stations
• Improves SNR ~10db -> lower power, smaller antennas
• MFSK with forward error correction
• More efficient use of bandwidth and transmit power, 2.7Hz BW filters
• FEC addresses channel fading better than cw repetition
• Generated a war with CW proponents that continues to this day
• Deep Search was controversial
JT65 SCREEN SHOT
BAND ACTIVITY

• 144 MHz by far the most activity: 1000 stations, faraday lockout, JT65
• 1296 MHz second most popular, 300 stations, smaller antennas, on faraday lockout, small cw possible
• 432 comes in third, much like 144 but smaller antenna
• Microwave bands: 2304/3456/5760/10368/24192 low activity, more $ in equipment
• 50 MHz is a specialty band, huge antennas
CHALLENGES IN BUILDING A STATION

• The biggest challenge is always the antenna


• High gain is needed: pays off on transmit as well as receive
• Tracking is hard, particularly as antenna gain increases
• 2nd biggest challenge is transmit power: SSPAs have recently made this easier
• 3rd is assembling and debugging a complex system: antenna, tracking, computer, software, transmitter,
lna, T/R switching
EXAMPLE SMALL STATION
K2UYH portable: 1296 MHz DXpedition
7’ stress dish
150 watt SSPA
TS-2000x
Laptop computer for JT-65
EXAMPLE LARGE STATION
HB9Q: multi-band superstation
EME club
144MHz through 10 GHz

10M solid dish


15M screened dish
8 long yagi’s on 144

Legal limit through 1296


W6YX

• Active on 144, 432, 1296, 2304 and 10 GHz


• 144 MHz: 4x2.5wl xpol yagi’s, 1500w, JT-65
• 432 MHz: 8x2wl yagi’s, JT-65
• 1296 MHz: 8M dish, 600w, CW, SSB, JT-65
• 2304 MHz: 8M dish, 200w, CW, JT-65
• 10 GHz: 5m dish, 200w, CW, SSB, JT-65
CHALLENGES @ W6YX

• Stuff continually breaks


• Infrequently used, open field with rodents, minimal time for maintenance
• 144 MHz local interference
• 145.23 repeater is 600’ away
• Big notch cavities required ahead of the LNAs
• Line-of-sight to Silicon Valley at moonrise: noise from millions of computers, wifi hot spots …
• European window is at moonrise L
• West coast window to Europe is 3 hours shorter than on the East coast
RECENT EME HISTORY @ W6YX
• 1999 W6QI and AD6FP operate CW on 144 from a portable table in the field
• 6 QSOs
• 2x1.5wl yagi’s and 800w
• 2005 first year on 1296
• 6m dish, 80w, 20 QSO’s
• 2015 multi-op, all band, all mode, 13 operators
• 8m dish 1296/2304, 4x2.5wl xpol yagi 144, 8xyagi 432, 5m dish 10G
• 383 QSOs!! 168 multipliers (states & dx entities)
RECORDINGS
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STARTING OUT

• Choose 144 or 1296, most activity, plenty of big stations


• My preference is 1296, no faraday, still 50% cw, but tracking and xmit power are harder
• 144MHz, easy antenna and tracking, no cw, faraday rotation
• Start with JT65: vastly improves the chance of success
• Be prepared to spend 75% or more of your time on mechanical
• Find a mentor or ask questions to moon-net: http://mailman.pe1itr.com/mailman/listinfo/moon-net
• Start small, work some big stations, get infected
ABOUT ME, AD6FP

• First licensed in 1968 as WA2EIW


• Operated mostly 50-432 MHz terrestrial from NJ
• Relicensed in 1998 as AD6FP
• Operated 1 year on HF then got interested in 10 GHz
• First homebrew 10 GHz radio in 2000
• Hold/held terrestrial distance records on 10, 24, 47 and 78 GHz
• First 47 GHz EME in 2005 with RW3BP
• Started building W6YX EME station in 2000
• Employed in computer industry since 1978, currently CTO/Founder of Cerebras Systems
QUESTIONS ?

• W6PQL SSPA: https://www.w6pql.com


• AD6IW LNAs: http://www.ad6iw.com
• JT65: https://physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/k1jt/
• Antenna tracking: http://www.f1ehn.org, http://www.w2drz.ramcoinc.com
• [email protected]

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