On 1/10/2013 2:20 PM, Rob wrote:
Ian Jackson wrote:
While these technical discussions are very interesting, I can't help
feeling that most of it will go over the head of the OP. Even if he
knows nothing about amateur radio, he will by now have realised that
moonbounce is quite a specialist subject, and not something that the
ordinary man-in-the-street would be able to suddenly decide to have a go
at. If he does know about amateur radio, he probably knows this already!

Well, I have not personally used moonbounce but I have visited a moonbounce
station back in the late seventies and I sometimes read about moonbounce
as it is today, and I get the impression that it has become a lot
easier for the average ham to build a moonbounce station.
It may not be for the ordinary man-in-the-street and probably also
not for the ordinary novice radio amateur, but someone who can read
and think and is not without money should be able to assemble a
JT65 moonbounce station. Back in the seventies it required you to
be a lunatic, have a suitable location, and a real lot of money.


Yes, there is a program that works for recieved signals below the noise,
does all the work for you, and lets you run as low as 100 watts with a
single decent yagi on 2m.

It also looks up calls from a built in database and is wrong often
enough that most real EMErs with an ounce of respect won't use it. Many
logs submitted show QSOs with people not on the air.

There is nothing like actually hearing the signal.

tom
K0TAR