Astra3

I do not have access to hi-speed data links such as fibre optics ("glasvezel") in my new QTH Zuidzijde near Den Bommel at Goeree-Overflakkee (QTH locator JO21dq). 6 weeks without TV was not that difficult, but it would be nice to see some moving pictures now and then.

I discovered that people in the neighbourhood use satellites to receive TV transmissions.

CanalDigital is a popular satellite TV-provider. I bought a satellite dish and satellite receiver from them. After installing the satellite dish and programming the receiver, now I am able to receive about 300 stations from which a lot transmit in High Definition (HDTV).

In order to receive the Astra3 satellite, elevation of the dish is 29.5 degrees and azimuth is 23.5 degrees east. 15 meter coaxial low loss cable connects the dual LNB to the M7 receiver.

Satellite dish installed

Astra3  (at 23.5 East) receive parameters

Off topic;

Lighthouse in Ouddorp

Ouddorp beach

View Tilsedijk

Zuidzijde

Picture of our next QTH: Zuidzijde on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee:

QTH locator: JO21dq

View on the harbour of "Stad aan het Haringvliet", a village about 8 km from Zuidzijde:

Low-lying land ("polder") near Dirksland

Steamtram station Middelharnis

Tulip field in the vicinity of the water tower from Zuidzijde

Same tower (built 1934), view from our garden

47 Amps Power Supply

Henny, PA3HK, had some used Hewlett Packard Power Supplies for sale. Yesterday I picked up one. It is a rather small unit (27 x 6 x 6 cm) and is capable of delivering 47 Amps (!) at 12 Vdc.
I made the small modifications to get it to work (3 jumpers installed and a 27 ohms resistor in the power supply of the fan) and now the unit runs fine.

I intend to use it for the 145 MHz transverter discussed earlier.

Off topic: Battenoord 11 Sep. 2017

Restored 'TCB' (Tiel-Buren-Culemborg) Railtram from 1906, now located at Ouddorp:

First 2m SSB QSO

First 2m SSB QSO realized with homemade transverter (See my blogspot article April 23)
Henk, PE0HZD replied on my request to make an USB QSO on  144.550 MHz.
Allthough our station distance (Zoetermeer Buytenwegh .. Oosterheem) is about 5 km´s it is worth to mention it..

Off topic; statue of Mr. Olivier B. Bommel in Den Bommel

Jupiter

Last Wednesday evening there was a micromoon in a clear sky. A good opportunity to make some photoos. I found Jupiter in the constellation Lion.

                                                        Constellation Lion

Jupiter is the large dot left from the middle, the star Regulus (a blue giant) is on the right

The picture was taken from the 'silence area' near Weipoort. With an exposure time of 8 seconds and the light from the micro moon the area was captured:

Some amateur astronomers make beautiful pictures from the planets. For example Richard Bosman: http://www.astrofotografie.nl/index.htm
He made this nice photoo from Jupiter:

145 MHz transverter

I found an interesting article in Funk magazine from May 1999.
It describes a 28 MHz to 145 MHz transverter.
Since I would like to use SSB modulation on 2 meter I am considering to make a transverter based on the schematic shown here:

My Yaesu FT450 can be used for the 28 MHz Intermediate Frequency processing.
Then all modulations (AM, FM, SSB, CW, digimodes) will come available.

I still have a power module M57719 (145 - 175 MHz) from Mitsubishi waiting to be used; this module can be used to boost the RF power of the transverter to a level of 14 Watts although I am not sure whether the power module can handle AM and SSB signals.

eQSL from Albania

This week I received my first eQSL from Albania from a digimode QSO I had Augustus 2006 with Dimitri. The callsign of Dimitri is ZA/IW2JOP.

                                  eQSL from ZA/IW2JOP

                                                      Albanian scenery

Betelgeuse

Betelgeuse is the ninth-brightest star in the night sky and second-brightest in the constellation Orion. The distance to us is estimated at 640 lightyears. 

It is a first magnitude star and with the bare eye you can see it is reddish. The star's name is derived from the Arabic Ibt al-Jauza, meaning "the hand of Orion". 

I managed to make a photo of Betelgeuse ("Betelgeuze" in Dutch) early this month with my Canon1000D. An exposure time of 12 seconds was good enough to capture the red supergiant (30 times the mass of the sun).

It is funny to realize that the light that Betelgeuse emitted in the year 1376 arrived in 2016 on earth. In 1376, Yusuf III, Sultan of Granada was born.

January 2013 I made this photo of Orion. Brightest star Rigel is found in the right hand lower corner.

eQSLs from Toscane and Andorra

IK5ZUL, Giancarlo, confirmed our 4m QSO  made July 2012:

Another remarkable QSO confirmation was sent by Archie, C31BO. It concerns an old QSO from July 2006. The QTH, Andorra, makes this card valuable to me.

Off topic:

Old railway bridge over the river Lek in Culemborg. Picture from the early 1970's with 1200 series NS locomotive. For a long time this bridge was the longest in Europe. I lived in Culemborg from 1966 till 1986.

Zeelandbrug, on a foggy morning October 25, 2017

JT beaconing on HF

JT65 is an excellent mode for QRP experiments on HF. This weekend I did some short trials with this mode on 5.35 MHz with my "MARS"-modified FT450.

My 5 Watt JT65 beacon signals were captured by the PSK reporter website:

https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html

I was inspired by Bas, PE4BAS to activate the beaconing mode in JT65 instead of WSPR:

 http://pe4bas.blogspot.nl/2015/12/beaconing-with-jt-modes.html

                                      First JT65 beaconing attempt January 2, 2016

                                      WSJT-X screen during beaconing

And.. heard by DP1POL, Antartica, distance 13.687 km with 5 Watts on 14 MHz:

Results of JT9 beaconing (14.078 MHz) during 1 hour on 20 m, January 3-2016,  were not too bad: