IARU contest 2022 Day 1 Garrowby IO93XO

After the boredom of last years IARU TV contest I decided to do something different in 2022. Being on a walking holiday in Ravenscar the week after the contest I decided to try some paths  up there with the only other station likely to be active Rob, M0DTS and also try for a UK first on 122 GHz

I travelled up on the Friday which went so smoothly I even had time to visit the Yorks air museum which was very interesting

Saturday morning I travelled out to Garrowby IO93OX. It was very breezy. While setting up the Red Arrows flew low overhead on their way to the Teeside air display, Nice of Rob to arrange the welcome

122GHz was setup first as it was going to take most time. G4NXO/P was at IO93PW49 5.6km away. Output was around 12uW using DB6NT HSCH-9401 diode mixers with 100mw of 40GHz local oscillator and 146.5MHz IF at both ends. Antennas were pasolink dishes fed with VK3CV horns via a machined adaptor.

47GHz QSOs were also completed with G4NXO/P over the 6,  16 and 37km paths at IO93PW, IO93PU and IO93RQ respectively. I used my old DB6NT mixer with a DB6NT 47GHz amplifier used as a preamp and power amp and pasolink dish. G4NXO/P used my complete DB6NT transverter with W1GHZ horns

Rob, M0DTS/P. I went to IO94DF, a 66km line of sight path. 2 way QSOS were had on my intended bands 2GHz to 24GHz. I also had 2 way QSOS on 2 unplanned bands. 23cm using my DEMI narrowband transverter and half a 23cm Tonna antenna, (thrown in the car at the last moment) and held on the tripod with Wilco large croc clips. The other band was 432MHz using the 1W IF drive for my 24GHz transverter into the dual band mag mount on the car. This QSO was made even more challenging by Fylingdales Radar QRM

13cm equipment. Note manner of affixing yagi to tripod!

24GHz and 6cm FMTV setup

122GHz 

I also worked G4EEV two way on 23cm. Loud signals both ways, even with my miscalculation of which way west was, and working him off the back of the beam!

 

47 & 76 GHz outing to Notgrove IO91BV

 Originally I had booked the afternoon of Friday 25th June off work to go and watch a worcester T20 cricket game, but my ticket was cancelled due to covid restrictions. The question was what to do with the spare time? The answer was to persuade Noel G8GTZ to go out portable so we could try the Notgrove to Combe Gibbet path on 47 / 76 GHz, something we didnt really have time to try in the IARU 2021 contest

Noel managed to receive my pictures on both 47 and 76 GHz but I could not receive his DATV signals in the reverse direction. We did however manage an SSB QSO on 47GHz over the 67km path

The path towards IO91GI from IO91BV

My 47GHz signal as received by Noel

My 76GHz signal as received by Noel

IARU TV Contest 2020

For this years IARU ATV contest I decided to get a bit more active than last years 2 QSOS and go portable at three locations :-

Saturday.

Left home at 0800 and drove the 84 miles from home to Walbury hill IO91GI (thanks to Noel for the opportunity to use the site while he went elsewhere) Having never been there before it was a bit tricky to find, but the photos from google maps Noel supplied helped. 

Having 7 TV bands plus 2m FM talkback setting up the equipment took a long time, At the start of the contest worked G8GKQ/P on all bands 432 to 24GHz at 54km.

Worked G8LES at 40km on 23 and 13cm and he received my signal on 9cm (he has no transmit on that band) 

Worked G8GTZ/P at 51km 432 to 24GHz except 13cm (equipment trouble his end).

Transmitted my signals successfully to G4LDR at 30km on 24GHz to 9cm during some huge rain storms which forced a couple of hasty retreats into the car. Could lock to his carrier on all bands but got no further than Carrier and FS lock.  Did have a two way on 13cm with him

Drove back home arriving at 2240

Sunday

Left house at 0700. Arrived at cleeve common car park IO81XW at 0800 

As a new location the rules said I needed new contest numbers in the Portsdown 2020. No problem I thought, I have previously saved a suitable new set to USB drive. Imported them but subsequently not even the Portsdown touchscreen would respond. After much searching found ethernet cable and did a factory reset via SSH. Manually set all parameters. Lost 2 hours so no time for expedition to trig point for LOS 24GHz path.  Worked G8GTZ/P at walbury at 76km on 13cm to (surprisingly) 10GHz,   Just not enough signal for 24GHz.  Location getting overrun with visitors so left at 1200

Drove the 29 miles to Notgrove, IO91BV, a site that should have a good path to Walbury (and would not be crowded!!) 

The Membury TV mast can be seen through the gap

Decided to change the contests numbers manually and avoid risk. Worked Noel at 67km 23cm to 24GHz. Signals were not too loud on DATV but huge on 24GHZ NBFM.  

Worked G0MJW with big signals both ways on 70cm and 23cms. 

Saw signals from G4CPE on 70cm but couldn’t attract his attention with my 5W Tried getting signals on 70cm to G3VKV but path too blocked locally. Good signals on microwave bands from GB3ZME 3 and 5 GHz but too late to work the M0YDH/P in that area. Did hear the GB3LPC beacon on 3.4GHz narrowband for the first time.

24GHz DATV World Record extended

As it was IARU contest weekend and G8GTZ was going to be portable at Dunkerry Beacon IO81FD it seemed an ideal opportunity to extend the 24GHz DATV record from Cleeve Common IO81XW81. It would also nice to try out the upgraded 6GHz FMTV system. so a trip to Cleeve common was setup for the Sunday morning

Friday night I checked out the 24Ghz system and was getting low transmit output on both DATV and SSB. Many hours were spent investigating with no success

Saturday morning I got out the spare 2W W2PED amplifier module. Over coffee I spotted that the replacement amp had 6 bias pots, the installed amp had 5 bias pots. Analysis showed that one of the Bias pots had come off the installed board. The multiturn pot is very small so I had to resort to raiding a 2Ghz amp board to harvest one. It was installed and the bias set to match the voltage on the replacement module. After many lost hours we were good to go

Sunday morning, Arriving on site at 1030 first the FMTV was setup

Noels picture was quickly seen:-

After the 2 way QSO the FMTV gear was then removed and the 24GHz equipment Installed.

 To align the antennas we had a 24GHz narrowband FM QSO, Noels signal pinning the s-meter on the FT817, looked promising. I then transmitted DATV and Noel instantly saw the picture:-

Noel then transmitted and I instantly saw TV data being received but no picture. After Noel trying lots of datarates and parameter permutations a picture was finally seen:-