432Mhz Activities
This band was the very first frequency where I was active on EME. Starting with a group of small Yagi antenna’s it became soon clear that larger and more antenna’s were needed to get a better performance on this frequency. I developed a group of 8 Yagi antenna’s and found a good performance improvement.
After a while, I discovered that Faraday Rotation on this frequency was certainly influencing the signal strengths from time to time. Experiments with coupled Horizontal and Vertical polarised antennes showed some improvements to cover this unpredictable influence of mother nature.
In 2021 we moved to Erica and I decided not to take this antennagroup and prepared a feed, which is usable in the 3m dish. The feed is rotatable to cover Faraday Rotation influences. Unfortunately on this location there is quite a lot of environmental noise, which makes it impossible to receive the smaller stations in certain directions. A high performance filter was included, which helps a lot.
Station outfit
Transceiver: TS-2000X
Preamplifier: DB6NT (Micomm) – 0.35dB
Final amplifier: 300W SSPA
Antenna system: 3m solid dish, Andrews prime focus – 19dBd / Beamwidth: 16 deg / OK1DFC Rotable feed
Control system: VK5DJ – Stand alone interface
Setup progress
Some Impressions of my station can be found on the photo gallery page
May 2002 – Although from calculation it was found that my echo’s from the moon should be readable, it took until today that it really happens: My echo’s
May 2004 – First experiments with JT65 mode. I believe this is a more confient way to check conditions for stations with poor echo capability like me
Mar 2011 – First QSO’s made since 2004!!. I used JT65B with only 20Watt on the antenna’s and worked UA3PTW and I1NDP
Dec 2012 – MAP65 now operational using FUNCUBE
May 2013 – Finally worked Africa Continent for WAC: Thanks to ZS6OB
Jan 2015 – Start to operate R&S VH501 Solid State Amplifier to replace GS35b
Apr 2016 – Changed Antenna configuration to 4 x Horizontal coupled with 4 x Vertical Polarisation
Sep 2018 – Restored original configuration 8 x Horizontal coupled
Sep 2020 – Replaced defective couplers and RX coaxial cable
Apr 2021 – The Yagi antenna’s are now at PA3DOL. 70cm will now be integrated into the 3m Dish at the new location
Nov 2021 – Installed feed into 3m dish at new QTH JO32LR
Feb-2024 – Adding 2 filters to remove interference, finally made some QSO’s
432Mhz photo's
Below you will find a collection of pictures which show the construction of my 432 MHz EME station in various stages.
Bandpass filter charateristics
Combination of Low pass and High pass filter
Insertion loss: 432MHz: – 6.5dB
High freq. 433Mhz: -24.0dB
Low freq. 430MHz: -26.5dB
Spectrum before/ after installation of the filters
432Mhz Initials
Interested in my contacts on 432Mhz? Please take a look into the list.
Down below you will find a collection of recordings during the first period of my activity on 432MHz.
See here my EME setup