Microwaves: Not Just for LeftoversMy Journey in Getting on the Bands
Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ
N6RMJ Photo
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Why the Microwave Bands?• Originally, I looked for a multiplier or “something different” for Field Day 2003
• Home-brewing: Building your own creation and putting it on the air
• Contesting!
• Using weird and strange parts
• Building!
• Antenna restrictions
• You can be loud with “little antennas”
• Contesting!
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Searching for Answers. . . .
• Searching the Internet• Google-search: Microwave ham radio
• SBMS
• Mike King, KM0T
• Microwave and VHF-plus club meetings
• Reading the books
• Microwave Update events
• Just “doing it!”
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Operating Opportunities: Contests
• ARRL VHF and Up Contests• January, June, August, September
• More points for higher frequencies
• Field Day, “just another band”
• SBMS 2GHz and Up Contest• April
• Club competition
• Off-season means distance record breaking attempts
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Which Band?
• Check past VHF and Up contest write-ups to see who is doing what in your area
• Beacon availability
• Club and contest activity
• The decision: 10GHz!
N6RMJ Photo
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Buy It or. . .?
• Build it or buy it, getting on the bands still requires some building . . . .
• A “store-bought” transverter must be “integrated” with an IF system
• Guaranteed, proven, customer support
• Faster, all or most all parts available
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. . . Build It?• Commercial microwave ham-specific kits
• Guaranteed, proven, customer support
• Surplus commercial bits & pieces
• Not usually guaranteed functional
• Takes time to find what you need
• No after-sale support
• Used gear?
• Make sure the unit works
• Check to see if the seller’s callsign appears in contest results to verify the rig “really” works
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
1W
PA
PIN
SW
FT-817
(432 MHz)
LNA+20 dB +20 dB
PLL
SYNTHESIZER
10 MHz
TCXO
SEQUENCER
POWER
SUPPLY
+24 VDC
+12 VDC
+5 VDC
-5 VDC
-12 VDC
TX
RX
9936 MHz
10,368 MHz
9936 MHz
PTT
4X MULTIPLIER
2484 MHz
WA6NIA 3cm XCVR
432 MHz
432 MHz 10,368 MHz
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
WA6NIA DragonSlayer
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Morpheus (AKA, “Successful Failure”)KH6WZ
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Morpheus II KH6WZ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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Morpheus III KH6WZ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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FrankInspired2 KH6WZ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Ms. JuneKH6WZ
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Wiki-Wiki Transverter KH6WZ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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Basket Case KE6HPZ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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Lazarus The Next Generation
N6RMJ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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Milkman N6XQ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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W6DTA
(SK)
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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WB6DJI
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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N6EQ
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
nQED Built by KH6WZ
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KG6EG
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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GoldenEye WA6CGR
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
WA6MEM24GHz
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N6RMJ Photo
TheTorch WA6CGR
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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N6IZW (LASER)
What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
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What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
LightShow(24GHz)KH6WZ
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Let’s Build It!• When getting on the Microwaves, your fancy VHF/UHF all-mode rig becomes an “IF unit”
• There are many stages and sub-systems to get from a “pile of parts” to a working rig. If you get stuck, move on to another section, rather than just stop working on the rig.
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Words of Encouragement. . .
• “A rig will never be completed if you stop working on it.”
• “Shoot the engineer, and just build it!”
• If you need help, ask! Most microwavers are willing to help new people, because new operators means more contacts in the next contest!
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The Building Stages: Highly Emotional
• A complex project broken down into separate modules• RF: Microwave section
• IF: Transforming to audio
• Multiple-voltage power supplies
• Control circuits
• Antenna & feed system
• Housing and support structure
• Test & verify along the way
• Integration of systems
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The Successful Failure• A “Seinfeld” version – it’s
“made from nothing”• Lots of guessing• Plenty of mistakes• Building and re-building• RX OK, TX not so OK (power
too low)• No QSOs• See CQ magazine, December
2003 and January 2004 for the complete story. . . .
Morpheus
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A Total Re-Build. . .
• Morpheus was totally ripped apart, and re-packaged a week before the contest.
• Morpheus II: Open tray/chassis helps service-ability.
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Testing and Proving
Get on the air and talk to someone!
The SDMG/SBMS “Tune Up Picnic” before the big contest
A well-equipped lab helps – call fellow club members!
Listen to the beacons
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The Final Test . . . .
Plug it in, light it up, and get it on the air!
Can you hear me now?
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Where to Go?
• Microwaves = Limited to Line-of-Sight• NOT necessarily so!
• Is Higher Better?• NOT necessarily so!
• Microwavers very shortly discover that signals are enhanced and propagate much farther than L-O-S
• Weather affects signals, inversion layers and humidity impact propagation
• Behavior is like light: Reflected, refracted or absorbed
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CM96wa: Kettleman City, CA
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CM96wa: Kettleman City, CA
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DM03wt: Signal Hill, CA
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DM03wt: Signal Hill, CA
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DM03tw: El Segundo, CAPark here
The water tower
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DM03tw: El Segundo, CA
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DM04ti: “Secret Site 51”
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DM04ti: “Secret Site 51”
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DM03xq: Huntington Beach, CA
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DM03xq: Huntington Beach, CA
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CM97kh: A Scenic Overlook
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CM97kh: A Scenic Overlook
KH6WZ
N6CA
KB8VAO
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The Fear that Drives Us:Rule Number 5.5
• “A transmitter used to contact one or more stations may not be used subsequently under any other call during the contest period . . . . ”
• When your rig breaks, you pack up and go home. . .
• Or do you? Be prepared to trouble-shoot your rig in the field and get back on the air, because you can be a long way from home. . . .
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You are NOT Allowed to Give Up
• Remember, most of the time we are hundreds of miles away from home
• If something breaks, we have to fix it• Every microwave contester needs a field tool kit
• Most important is a cordless soldering iron• Vise-Grips®• Clip leads• Etc
A broken interface cable killed this radio in a recent contest. Clip leads jumpered the broken wires, and the rig was functional again!
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Enhancements
• A microwave rig is still just a radio: “You can’t work ‘em if you can’t hear ‘em!”
• Microwavers usually go thru stages of continuous improvement
•Receiver noise figure & gain•Antenna & feed system•Frequency stability & accuracy•Support and aiming•Transmit power
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Receiver Improvements
• Noise Figure: Lower is better
• Minimize feedline loss
• No feedline = No feedline loss!
Waveguide antenna feed and T/R relay in FrankInspired 2
Close-up of W6QIW’s 10GHz rig. Less than 12-in. of UT-141!
KH6WZ
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More Power!• Amplifiers from the data and communications industries: Surplus!• Solid state power amplifiers (SSPA)
• Replacing TWTAs
• Travelling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA)• Used in satellite and terrestrial communications links
• Commercial ham-band units: Costly!
DB6NT 50W amplifier for 10GHz
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• Down East Microwave
• Kuhne Electronics (DB6NT, Germany)
• SSB Electronic
• JWM Engineering Group
• Reactance Labs
• Club meetings and e-mail reflector posts
• SBMS
• WA1MBA
• 50 MHz and Up Group
• eBay
Microwave Ham Radio Sources
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References & More Information
CQ andCQ-VHF magazine
www.cq-amateur-radio.com/
QST & QEX
www.arrl.org/
The San Bernardino Microwave Society
www.ham-radio.com/sbms/
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Recent Articles. . .
• Lau, Zack KH6CP, “Home-Brewing a 10GHz SSB/CW Transverter, Part 1,” QST, May 1993, p.21
• Lau, Zack KH6CP, “Home-Brewing a 10GHz SSB/CW Transverter, Part 2,” QST, June 1993, p.29
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “A Simplified Path to a High-Performance 10GHz Transverter System,” CQ-VHF, Summer 2007, p.22
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “Getting On 24GHz,” QST, July 2007, p. 28
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “A Successful Failure,” CQ, December 2003, p. 78
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “Microwaves: Not Just for Leftovers,” CQ, January 2004, p. 68
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Join us!
What will your rig look like?
• Loaner rigs
• Roving partners
• Technical help
• Social events
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The San Bernardino Microwave Society
Founded in 1955, the San Bernardino Microwave Society (SBMS) is a non-profit technical organization dedicated to the advancement of communications above 1000MHz with a membership of over 90 amateurs from Hawaii and Alaska to the East coast and beyond.
Visit their website at http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/
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Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ
• Licensed since 1976
• Amateur Extra Class ham radio license
• Contributing Editor, CQ magazine (“The Beginner’s Corner,” since January 2003, now “The Ham Notebook” since March 2010)
• Huntington Beach RACES Public Information Officer
• ARRL Hq. Public Information Officer
• Past president, UCLA Amateur Radio Group, W6YRA
• HF contester and DXpeditioner (W1AW, NK7U, W5RRR, 8P6BBS, 8P4B, 8P9BB, 7J1AFZ, J68DX, J68WZ . . . )
• Most memorable ham radio experience: Working in the Press Room at the NASA-Johnson Space Center (Mission Control, Houston, TX) during the first manned ham-in-space mission, STS-9/SpaceLab-1 (Dr. Owen Garriott, W5LFL, 1983)