A visit to SM4DHN EME station in 2003

 

A visit to SM4DHN´s EME station 22 November 2003

On November 16 SK0CC (Sven, SM5LE & Kjell, SM0FOB) paid a visit to Lars-Bertil´s EME station - a dream station for a Moonbouncer.  His QTH is in Gustavsfors, a small village surrounded by beautiful woodlands, rivers and hundreds of lakes. On rare occasions it is possible to see brown bears and wolves.  His 6 meter solid dish was completed in 1989 and he is QRV on the 70, 23, 13, 6 and 3 cm bands. His QTH is not so well suited for tropo etc. so he also runs a remote controlled station 20 kilometers away on a hill top (approx. 500 m a.s.l.). With this remote station he is QRV on 2 m and 70, 23, 13, 6 and 3 cm bands. The remote control link is on the 23 cm band and return channel is an ATV channel monitoring the instrument panel for the radio equipment.  In beginning of November it was a very good tropo opening in northern Europe. On this occasion Lars-Bertil got a telephone call from Seth, SM0AGP (also a SK0CC member) that his ATV signal was monitored via the ATV repeater at the Kaknas Tower in Stockholm, 250 km away.  This tropo opening was a real good one as Lars-Bertil told us. He managed to have a QSO with F6DKW first on 23 cm and then also on 3cm with 579sigs (!). The path to F6DKW is 1,465 km long, maybe a world record distance over land terrain. On 3 cm Lars-Bertil used a 90 cm dish and 10 W.  In his profession Lars-Bertil runs a company (Labetech) for development and manufacturing of equipment for cable TV etc. His company also produces equipment for hams, like transverters for 23 cm and downconverters for AO40.