[Mep-dev] Don't forget this coming weekend

[James French]

On Tue, 2009-08-11 at 10:21 -0700, Michelle wrote:
> Hi James and the list,
> 
> I'm in the process of putting together a 10GHz rig here (I blame James for the inspiration!),

Go ahead and blame me for everything!!! Everyone else does...:D
BTW, I have started a blog at w8iss.wordpress.com which has the latest
info from the Great Lakes area for microwave activity. It will be moved
to my home system at w8iss.no-ip.org as soon as I get wordpress running
here.

> but will miss the upcoming weekend's contest due to having an insufficient oscillator. The phase
> noise of the programmable external oscillator I used (at the last minute before the range party
> at Kerry Banke's QTH) was too high for the rig to work. I might be ready by September, since I
> ordered W6PQL's OXCO kit already and have a 106.5MHz crystal on order as of... today, with a
> three week lead time. 
> 
> How high was the phase noise? Well, AD5T calculated that the carrier from the DB6NT transverter
> was at best 40dB below the noise. 
> 
> Here's a spectrum of the oscillator used at the range party:
> 
> http://mustbeart.vox.com/library/photo/6a00e3989d138d0001011017f2fdf9860e.html
> 
> We were able to tell that there was a received signal in there when other people transmitted at
> the range party - it was just about 150kHz wide. Heh.
> 
> The 10GHz rig is going to be used for both narrowband activity as well as MEP experiments for 10GHz.
> 
> There's been a lack of updates from me over the summer. With three children home from school during
> the summer, the opportunities for proper documentation of efforts tend to be less than there are
> during the school year. All three of my kids will be in school, for the first time, this coming
> school year. The youngest will be in preschool and the oldest in third grade.

I was about to send out an email asking if the project had been put on
standby with the lack of postings. I had forgotten that you had those
pesky harmonics during the Summer.
> 
> The SBMS tranverter, which is the bridge design between now and when uWSDRs arrive, is entering
> second-edition territory. 3GHz and 5GHz boards will be a parts-list change.

I would be interested in seeing more about the 5GHz boards when there is
more information. I already have the 3.4GHz verter from DownEast.

>  The intent is to have a quad-band design.

Quad-band design? More info please.

>  Orders are not being taken quite yet, but we'll get enough to construct two MEP stations. 
> 
> 
> More soon,
> -Michelle W5NYV

I have been working on getting the W1GHZ 900MHz transverter set put
together these past two months. Been slow because of needing parts and
an injury at work. Will post more as I get it together.

James W8ISS