The Ohio/Penn Dx PacketCluster
DX Special Bulletin No. 1219.1
BID: $OPDX.1219.1
June 21, 2015
Editor Tedd Mirgliotta, KB8NW
Provided by BARF80.ORG (Cleveland, Ohio)

Thanks to the Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society, Northern Ohio DX Association, Ohio/Penn PacketCluster Network, AB5K & the AR TelNet Clusters Network and OH2BN for the following DX information.

Press Release from the Lunar Surface [edited]

21 June 2015

THE FIFTY-THREE (53) USA/VE AND THE REST OF THE WORLD HAMS WORKING OJ0B ON 2M EME/MS

The recent OJ0B activity with 462 QSOs with all continents on 2M EME and MS left many wondering as to whether the so-called “science approach” of using the moon as a reflector is today’s routine undertaking. It was Lenna, OH1NL (SK) who experimented with this path back in the 1960s and made a first-ever 2M EME (earth-moon-earth) EU/USA QSO with Willis, W6DNG, in 1964.

Here is the list of the 50 U.S. amateurs and 3 Canadians using the moon to contact OJ0B on JT56B (thanks Joe, K1JT) and Meteor Scatter - copying signals often below band noise.

Please note these guys and invite them to give you an EME overview at your next club meeting.

Stations listed here in order of their fine QSOs:
1-10: K9MRS, NT0V, VE1KG, WA4NJP, K1OR, W6BBS, N9HF, AA4SC, KB8RQ, K5QE
11-20: W5ZN, N9XG, W8PAT, W4RBO, KD3UY, KF8MY, AE3T, KI4TZ, W1PV, W0XG
21-30: AD4TJ, K6EME, N7NW, W7MEM, N5TM, W2DBL, NJ2R, NC2V, K5WBM, N6BBS
31-40: WA3QPX, K9CT, VE2JWH, N8PR, NZ5N, KE4PT, N7SC, N0LWF, N8GTI, W7IUV
41-50: K1CA, K1SCE, W4YTB, K3RWR, KC8ENN, VE5UF, KK6FAH, KB7Q, W5UN, KG7HF
51-53: K5DOG, W5NE, AA9MY

First in Europe: IK1UWL, SP4K, UA3PTW, ON4AOI, I3MEK
First in Oceania: ZL2ADU, VK5APN, VK4CDI
First in Asia: JA5EEU, JH8CMZ, UN9L
First in Africa: ZS6JON, ZS1LS, ZS6OB
First and only in South America: PY2FN

The OJ0B group is grateful to Joel, W5ZN, and John, OH5NZ, for their role as valued pilots. Now also the EME/MS QSOs are part of the ClubLog/OQRS system.

OJ0B EXPEDITION DEDICATED TO THE LATE LENNA, OH1NL
Lenna Suominen (1917-2004), an early VHF pioneer, hailed from a small town in the southwest of Finland. He was deeply involved with the science of VHF communication, strongly believing in the possibility of 2M EME contacts dismissed by the experts as being out of reach for radio amateurs.

Lenna proved the skeptics wrong as he made a 2M EME QSO from Finland to California with Willis, W6DNG on 11 April 1964. This went down in VHF history as one of the major achievements of the 1960s in the field of Amateur Radio.

Professionally, Lenna served in corporate management in charge of engineering in his home town. During World War II, he saw combat as a signals officer and played a role in R&D for the design of Finnish wartime communications equipment.

QST, February, 1964
U.S. to Europe on Two Meters!

MOONBOUNCE is a very special kind of amateur endeavour. We’ve had a pretty fair idea of the requirements for earth-moon-earth v.h.f. communi- cation for many years now, and the figures are not encouraging to even the most ambitious and well-equipped v.h.f. man. De spite the known nature of the handicap, a few v.h.f. enthusiasts scattered over the world have devoted endless man-hours to the moonbounce problem, with a dedication that is in the best ham tradition.

Moonbounce requires antennas that the average ham hardly dreams of building, let alone designing them himself and then putting them up in an average residential location. Taking nothing for granted, Bill has tried just about every configuration, and all polarizations, including reversible circular.

This objective was achieved by W6DNG and OH1NL on April 12. We have a new 2-meter record, and with it a batch of v.h.f. “firsts.” This is the first real 2-meter lunar QSO over any distance, and it is the first transatlantic contact above the 50 Mc band, the first West Coast- to- Finland v.h.f. QSO - and so on down the list. The author of these lines has probably listened to as many hours of weak-signal v.h.f. DX recordings as any man alive. These include every known form of v.h.f. propagation, and nearly every 2 meter moonbounce tape ever made. Quite a few of the latter show readable signals at times, and one would have been tempted, certainly, to have called them QSOs. But always the vital factor of complete exchange of information was lacking, till now. After listening care fully to the April 12 recording made by W6DNG we have no further doubts. This is communication, for sure.

---- 73 Jarmo OH2BN

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