BATC Forum

On 21 march I ran some DATV tests on 9cm with G4XAT/P at IO92GD. The path plotter prediction showed that it was not quite LOS but worth a try. I was running 4W of DATV from my Portslang4 acting as an IF for a DB6NT transverter with the under-run 15W Toshiba amp. The antenna was a 15dBi steel horn

Gareth's signals were huge. The best MER seen at 333kS was 30.8dB (while a plane took off from his end of the path) but were normally 28dB. 2MS had a MER of 20dB but allowed good quality moving pictures
We also tried narrowband. 2 way nbfm was easy!

Thanks to Gareth for going out and enduring the cold

After working Gareth I had a 2nd QSO on 9cm DATV , this time with G4NZV. More callsigns worked on a weeknight on 9cm than in the whole IARU contest!

A great late afternoon/evening with very pleasing results too. Everything worked as planned, the Toshiba amp did great service sending RF in exchange for about 19A/Hr from my leisure battery. Thanks for posting the signals etc. I was amazed to see your NB peak at over 5/9+40dB! 2K SR both ways was virtually instant lock too. Both my Portsdown 4's/Pluto/Mini-Tiouners were faultless all evening too, not a single re-boot needed.
I'll be going back to the Warwick area on the weekend of our next activity weekend, if anyone knows of a good site for car based /P on top of the Chilterns (not too far off the M40 is possible) I can head there Saturday late afternoon/early evening again, with 70cms, 23cms and 3.4GHz. Sunday I plan to be at Burton Dassett again all day, assuming others will be around to play. Can also load in 5.7GHz as that is all compact stuff too.

Open to offers...

Gareth