La baliza ON0EME cumple cuatro años

La baliza de rebote lunar en 23cm, ON0EME lleva cuatro años funcionando sin descanso. Eddy ON7UN da algunos detalles sobre su funcionamiento, su futuro y las ampliaciones previstas para este año

Escribió:

In the early days we had some power amplifier problems, I believe these issues are solved now. We had to include a heating system for the winter time, so the beacon box is heated when no moon is present. high humidity in winter time was a problem.
We added thermostats to the cooling blocks, to the ventilation system of the beacon box …. so we try to get a constant temperature in the box…. This all seems to work, since the system runs now with minor maintenance.
We sometimes have software hiccups in the webserver …. and need to reset the webserver, but these are minor issues. We needed to replace some power supplies …. but sp far so good.

We NEVER had any mechanical issues. The antenna has been tracking the moon even in high wind storms …. the antenna tracks the moon even with stormy weather. We made some mechanical stops so we would be able to secure the antenna when high wind alerts where announced. We have always run the antenna in AZ and EL even when stormy weather was present ….. Credits go to Marc, ON5OT who is the mechanical designer of the system. We do have spare motors, gears and so on but so far the antenne is making its tracking arc every day when moon is present. ( around 1500 times the antenna has been tracking east to west )

We consumed around 15.000 Kw/h of electrical power …. lucky we have a sponsor for this. It would have been an electricity bill of more than 5K euro.

We hope to keep the system running in the coming years, we still have a good relation with the landlord so he allows us to operate our container in the corner of his property.

This year we will add two tropo beacons on the tower adjacent to the EME antenna. The beacons are being build now, ON0EME on 10368,875 and 24048,875 MHz. These are terrestrial beacons with the call ON0EME, since we have added them to our moon beacon license. The beacons will be installed on a 60 m high tower just next to the EME antenna.

Best 73’s Eddy ON7UN