CQ Moon! Demonstrating that a huge dish is not required at all, EME results author W7EME used this single Yagi (5 wavelengths long) to make the round-trip from the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) operators ran up their power bills for the 30th ARRL International EME Competition, held on September 20-21, October 18-19, and November 15-16, 2008. The use of newer technologies and operator endurance continue to be the cornerstone of the most successful contest stations. The brute-force approach to EME in general has faded a bit in recent years, and as a result, the EME competitor now has a larger selection of stations with which to compete.
The 2008 event once again provided outstanding activity and yielded some nice scores. EME contesters have traditionally been at the cutting edge of competition and utilize any and every advantage available to them. Smaller stations are scoring higher and higher total scores and have been logged by most participants nearly every year for some time now. Portable contest and Special Event stations also made a larger appearance in the competition this year.
There are three separate weekends of competition. For the accomplished microwave contester, the 2304 MHz and Up competition occurred on the weekend of 20-21st September. The second and third segments were held during the Moon's passes of 18-19th October and 15-16th November. The latter two weekend segments are for QSOs on 50 MHz through 1296 MHz. (Weekends are dedicated to different sets of bands to allow station and antenna reconfiguration.)
How are contest dates selected?
Dates are selected from predictions of the three weekends having the best EME path conditions. These include factors such as path loss (which at 144 MHz can vary by 2 dB or more between the moon's perigee and apogee) and sky temperature (the level of noise behind and near the Moon as seen by the antennas). Other factors affect the choice of the weekend segments, such as suggestions from the EME community, conflict with other contests, holidays, and similar events. While the Moon may be "up there" every weekend, with such a difficult path little things can certainly make a weekend "good" or "bad" for EME.
EME Categories
In this annual event, participants may choose from a variety of entry categories. The classic Single-Operator entry is the fancy of most EME contesters, although there are a handful of Multi-operator teams. Stations may choose to operate CW-only, Digital-only, or Mixed Mode. Participants must also choose to compete using a single band or as an All\-Band entry in either of the 50-1296 MHz or 2304 MHz and Up groups. The Assisted category was a further extension of the contest and is available to any Single-Op or Multi-Op contest entrant. The Assisted category allows the contestant to coordinate and advertise their operation in real-time, during the contest, by means of the Internet or otherwise.
The results of the competition show a total of 140 entrants and 7 check logs. Of the total, nearly 90% of the entries are Single-Operator with entries in almost all of the different categories. The remaining entries are in the Multi-Operator categories. The total of 140 submitted logs in 2008 is down from the previous year’s competition of 183 entries. The reported total of completed QSO’s was also down in comparison to the 2007 event, with just over 8500 QSO’s in 2008 compared to 10,100 in 2007. Single-Operator entries totaled 124 of all entries and the remaining 16 entries were the Multi-Op and commercial facility stations. Single-Band, 222 MHz remains the only category for which an entry has never been received.
Category Winners
The overall highest score of the 2008 ARRL International EME Competition goes this year to the mighty Multi-Op, All-Band, Mixed-Mode efforts of HB9Q with 360 Q’s and a score of 5,724,000 points. Team HB9Q was composed of HB9CRQ, HB9EHJ, HB9DRI, HB9COG, HB9EFK, HB9JAW and HB9TST. The competition's second highest score overall was made by Team K1JT. With a score of 5,696,000 for their 356 contacts completed, Team K1JT was operating as a "Neighborhood" Multi-Op, All-Band, Mixed-Mode entry under Rule 7.1 that allows nearby stations optimized for different bands to "team up." (The rules for the contest are on-line at www.arrl.org/contests/rules.) This effectively combined 144 MHz operation at K1JT with operation on the bands through 10 GHz at K2UYH. K2TXB, K2LNS, K1DS, K2BMI and W2KV were involved in the K1JT contesting effort. Top scores in each category are shown in Table 1.
The ARRL Contest Staff gratefully acknowledges the following amateurs who submitted their logs as checklogs: DL7APV, EA3MS, JM1WBB, PA3CWN, PJ4NX, RW3BP and UA4HAK.
Where the Action Is
The 2304 MHz band is showing more and more activity. This contest was a good example of the increasing population on 13cm. This band continues to dominate the first weekend of the contest. It is likely the New Band of Choice for the more technically-minded ham and a good place to find the modern analog operator on CW and SSB.
The 144 MHz band has always been host to the greatest activity. The use of digital mode JT65b from the WSJT suite of software (available for free at www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT) was the choice of the 2 meter contester in 2008. The quantity of CW stations was down considerably from years past.
The 23cm band was also a good place to hunt points for the contester. Many smaller stations are now enjoying 1296 MHz EME with quite a few of them active on the second and third weekends, accumulating QSO points.
EME – Learn More
EME should be attempted by any amateur wanting to try something new, exciting and rewarding! There is now a wealth of information on the How-To and What-To by simply searching the subject on the Internet. The Web site of Paul Kelley, N1BUG is a great read for the beginner at www.n1bug.net/operate/emebasic.html.To learn more about and download the popular WSJT software suite, see the Web site of Joe Taylor, K1JT: www.physics.princeton.edu/pulsar/K1JT. The state of the EME art is described on the home page of Leif Asbrink, SM5BSZ: www.sm5bsz.com. See the sidebar to this article, "Getting Started in Moonbounce", too. It is easier than you think to put together a small station and give EME contesting a try. You will instantly find yourself in the middle of fantastic science that also doubles as a great hobby.
Lessons for the EME newbie can be obtained by observing the repeat success of top score holders. They are utilizing all of the tools at hand, always. There is awesome equipment available to the modern EME contester and weak-signal enthusiast: dual-polarity antenna systems, specialized hardware for stereo reception of both antenna senses, and software suites offering weak-signal capture with call sign and frequency mapping that just get better every year. The minimum-required budget just keeps getting smaller, too!
EME contesting is within the reach of even the weekend VHFer. Try it--it’s fun, it’s technical, and it's rewarding! Good luck to all next year! Please check www.arrl.org/contests/rules for the 2009 dates of the 31st annual 2009 ARRL International EME Competition and possible changes to the structure of the contest categories.