November 2nd/3rd Activity Weekend

[M0DTS]

My 2m Rx is setup for 146.5 and rolls off by 145.8.. a bit of work to use lower re-tune etc which i don't have time to do this evening, close in signals block my Rx on the /P site hence the narrow filter.
May re-schedule and do Sunday evening /p and go for 70/23cm instead if there's some tropo...

I'll post later tomorrow if so.

Rob

[radiogareth]

Thinking about reducing BW....I remembered that the latest two versions of DATVEasy offered H266 encoding (currently using V2.17). When it was first released I'm sure I tried this across the shack, with RX being done with Opentuner and choosing the FFMPEG decoding. I remember being amazed at the picture quality.
Currently sending 66ks at 12fps, audio at 8kbs which comes up with a target bitrate of 81kb/s. Very narrow as expected and the spectrum looks OK on my R&S.
Opentuner has also locked to the signal and despite the low data rate, I can see the second hand on my OBS testcard clock.
A way forward????
Gareth

[g0mjw]

Not managed to work Martin before

Screenshot 2024-11-03 163738.png (1.57 MiB) Viewed 742 times

Took a while, but it worked!

[G4FKK]

2m success with G4XAT and G0MJW today! Using 66kS, 1/2 FEC, H266. This is the all-mode section of 2m (as the 146 MHz NOV has expired.

G4XAT 2m 20241103.png[/attachment ][attachment=1]G0MJW 2m 20241103.png

First time getting pictures to/from Mike terrestrially

[g0mjw]

And Rob 307km

Screenshot 2024-11-03 181015.png (504.63 KiB) Viewed 730 times

8PSK even

Screenshot 2024-11-03 181629.png (528.95 KiB) Viewed 730 times

Good images.

Screenshot 2024-11-03 181910.png (525.96 KiB) Viewed 730 times

[G4FKK]

And M0DTS/P for the first time ever. Still 66kS on 2m...

M0DTS_P 2m 20241103.png (1.15 MiB) Viewed 729 times

[radiogareth]

Think we can count that as a success Two images here, one H265 and one H266. The quality of H266 is really remarkable especially for moving video and 66ks
Time to commission the MRF300 amps for 2m.....
Gareth

Martin.PNG (364.81 KiB) Viewed 595 times

Martin2.PNG (344.07 KiB) Viewed 595 times

[G4HTZ]

Good to see some terrestrial activity
Wonder what antennas , power etc everyone was using .

[g0mjw]

Good to see some terrestrial activity
Wonder what antennas , power etc everyone was using .

On 4m, I was using about 5W into a 5 element yagi. I think the others were similar.

On 2m, I was using 10W into a 17 element tonna. The interesting thing is, in that part of the band, we are allowed up to 1kW and any antenna, vs the 146 MHz 50W EIRP limit. That opens up the possibility of much longer distance contacts, as stations could easily be 20 dB stronger. (Easy being a relative term of course)

Mike

[G4HTZ]

Hi mike
Good results ….i think there was a bit of a lift on the weekend …but still good going with fairly low power .

Will dig out my portsdown and see what I can see …got 9 ele yagi here with mast head LNA ….can always hear the beacons in Brittany , Cornwall …when it’s on ..Northern Ireland …so reasonable take off from here

Steve G4HTZ