NYT article: A Ham Radio Weekend for Talking to the Moon

[shireen]

A Ham Radio Weekend for Talking to the Moon

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Dogs bay at it. Lovers swoon under it. And some people like to bounce their voices off it.

The first two are easy, but sending a voice signal 239,200 miles to the moon and back is not quite as simple.

On Saturday, amateur radio buffs or “hams,” as they call themselves, will hold a global bounce-fest, using as many giant parabolic antenna radio telescopes as they can borrow around the world.

Not that one needs an excuse to hold a moon-bounce, but this one is being held as a kind of advance celebration of the 40th anniversary next month of the Apollo 11 mission.

Moon-bouncing, also known as Earth-Moon-Earth communications, or E.M.E. requires a higher grade of ham-radio technology than that used for traditional earth-bound communication across parts of the radio spectrum approved by governments for amateur use. Only about 1,000 hams worldwide have stations capable of moon-bouncing.

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more at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/27/technology/27moon.html

This is so cool! Any DU'er hams taking part in it? Let us know about your experiences. :hi:

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Not just borrowed parabolics...

...but some hams build their own. Here's moonbounce op AF9Y's six-pack of long Yagis