European Microwave Scene in Brisbane

[VK4OE]

Greetings to all!

This comes as advance notice that on Wednesday evening the 25th of April, John Wood, G4EAT, will be at the Brisbane VHF Group presenting a talk about the amateur microwave scene in Europe.

John is a keen exponent of microwaves in amateur radio, and he lives in an excellent location near the East coast of the UK. He has lots of varied experience on several bands 1296 MHz, 10 GHz, 24 GHz and higher, with several DX records attained along the way. John is also an interesting presenter and will illustrate his talk with relevant images and diagrams, etc.

For anyone with even a slight interest in the captivating world of microwaves, this will be an evening not to be missed - we need all the 'inspiration' that we can get!

As usual, this meeting will be at the home of Rob Bathgate VK4ZDX at 53 Arrol Street, Camp Hill, starting around 7:30 p.m. I acknowledge that it's the Anzac Day public holiday - the balance of opinion suggests that that could facilitate greater numbers of folk attending rather than a reduction.

All will be welcome!

Please advise me if you are planning to attend - if we're completely swamped by numbers, we'll possibly have to look for a larger venue, although the space at Rob's place is not small - the "test and tune-up" day that we had there last year was 'comfortable' and a great event!

Should be a good evening - hope that you can come!

--Doug Friend, VK4OE.
(uwaves at bigpond dot com)

[VK4OE]

Greetings again to all readers.

This excellent event is now just over two weeks away! Several folk have indicated to me that they will be present, but I can only operating in the belief and hope that there will be others.....some definite information will assist planning of the evening!

In order to be sure of seating and accommodating all who plan to come, please drop me an e-mail [uwaves(at)bigpond(dot)com], or ring me on 07 3391 5526, or text me on 0428 191 066, or 'post' something on this forum to say that you'll be there and how many folk you're bringing with you.

Thanks in anticipation,

--Doug Friend, VK4OE.

[VK4TIM]

Hi Doug,

I'll be there as will Q (I think).

[VK4CDI]

I'll be there Doug....
Cheers
Phil VK4CDI

[VK4ADC]

Many thanks to John G4EAT, and Doug VK4OE for organising this event and publicising it. There were 17 in attendance, including most of the enthusiastic microwavers around SE Qld.

While the talk was based on the European scene's activities, a number of 'missed possibilities' arose during John's nearly-2-hour presentation. Europe has many active amateurs in a close concentration while Australia doesn't - but - the distances being worked at 1296, 2400, 3400, 5760 and 10368 with relatively low power are repeatable here in VK if we put our energies into it. John expanded on the anomalous propagation methods they use over there, with attention to the Hepburn charts to predict the possibilities of "tropo openings" in the microwave bands even when the path is not there at 144MHz or 432MHz.

He also drew our attention to the use of rain scatter (RS) at 10GHz ( plus bands 2400MHz and up) to work many hundreds of kilometres - something that would allow us in Brisbane to work into Sydney etc.. when weather conditions were right. Sceptical ?? I have to admit that I was until John provided the details of the forward scatter, side scatter and back scatter effects that they implement by use of the Weather Radar to pinpoint exactly where to point their antennas. The evening was interspersed with questions with knowledgeable answers provided by John.

John showed an number of images of the European installations concentrating on the microwave bands, with a few from the USA included, and provided ideas on how to get equipped for the various bands.

Many thanks for the visit and interesting talk, John.

Also thanks to Rob, VK4ZDX, for hosting the evening at his QTH and Leanne, his XYL, for the fine supper provided.

John G4EAT at left, Doug VK4OE at right

John demonstrating rain scatter effects using a weather radar image

A few more photos and descriptions are available on my web site at http://www.vk4adc.com/web/index.php/ope ... e2012.html

[VK4OE]

Greetings again to all readers!

Thanks Doug 'ADC for your quick-off-the-mark summary of last evening's great talk and timely public words of appreciation to John and our hosts. It truly was an interesting and stimulating presentation! Many thanks again to John G4EAT for showing the way forward that we can all now go!

I thought that John's last couple of slides left us with some very appropriate amateur microwave challenges. The following comments summarise his messages to us all:

* The value of developing and increasing a network of microwave beacons. It leads to stimulation of activity on otherwise quiet bands.

* We should more explore tropo propagation modes, say by inland ducting or surface ducting over sea paths.

* Great microwave Rain Scatter (RS) possibilities during storms

* Need to explore the level of attenuation of millimetric amateur bands due to atmospheric humidity - a factor largely unexplored in Queensland.


John's parting challenges were that:

"The rest is up to you (meaning us!)"

"Get out there and have a go at microwaves - you’ll not regret it. It will liven up your amateur radio and give you a real sense of achievement. You’ll no longer be a 'black box operator'!"


OK fellows - who's for establishing an RS-ready home station on 10 GHz????

Best 73,

--Doug Friend, VK4OE.

p.s. Here are two pics from my camera:

This is a summary of the current level of microwave activity in the UK. Note the numbers of users - and these figures are only a conservative estimate!

Lively talking after the presentation: Rob, VK4ZDX (back to camera); John, G4EAT; Doug, VK4ADC; Ron, VK4KLC; Phil, VK4CDI; and Jason, VK4YOL.