Yesterday evening I went a bit up-hill to make experiments on 2.4, 5.7 and 10GHz.
The place is only 2km from my home, and with aspace to park and set up a portable station.
I was bringing my IC-905 with the 10GHz unit added, and three antennas:
For 2m-70cm-23cm a vertical with a magnetic mount for the car
For 2.4GHz a tiny panel antenna (Hybrid double quad) (10dBi?)
For 5.7GHz a tall and narrow panel antenna, about 18dBi gain
For 10GHz a 22dBi horn antenna.
Modest station, loosely mounted on a mobile camera support.
I have made tests earlier on 2.4GHz, from a hill with no car access a bit furthe away, and from the place of yesterday.
The first test on 2.4 GHz didn't go well, as I had the antenna mounted with vertical polarisation, and the others were using horizontal. that can happen when you don't look carefully at the cable coming out from the feed point. The antenna was a yagi mounted inside a pipe "radome", so it couldn't be seen as such. Yess, silly me....
Second test was quite sucessful, with solid signals locally, at distances of about 25km, even using FM.
Yesterday's test started poorly, because the vertical on the car was absolutely not working. SWR infinite...
Looks like a bad connector, I will have to check, because it's a useful backup coom.. So no way of discussing the experiments on air.
So a phone call to OZ1GIN, working with indoor antennas on microwaves. Things did work well enough from the nearby hill, (essentially line of sight) so it was interesting to see how the system worked from a less ideal site.
Fist experiment: Test on 10GHz. I could hear the local beacon hidden behind a hill, so my system was certainly working. He could also hear the beacon with the indoor antenna. Trying to point the antennas we took turns with transmitting "beacon" signals and adjust antennas.
No signals detected from either side. 10GHZ wasn't working.
On 2.4 GHz I was using a considerable smaller antenna than the first test. Signals were weak, but a QSO in CW could be made.
The 2.4GHz system was also less, as in the previous tests the cable was connected directly to the "base" RF unit, and yesterday the 2.4GHz signals went through the 10GHz unit.
There is definitely room for improvement.
Then OZ4HZ (as agreed) made a test. A QSO with SSB was possible, although with weak signals.
2.4GHz with the smaller antenna was a qualified succes.
On 5.7GHz OZ1GIN started in the same way as on 10GHz, with sending beacon signals and turning the antennas. After a few tries, where we also needed adjusting frequency a bit, we managed to make a CW QSO, with slightly better signals than on 2.4GHz.
The signals from OZ1GIN had some scatter sound, warbling a bit, I had not expected it on the distance of 25km, but hinking about it, I probably should. There was also some moderate fading.
Then OZ4HZ, working from an apartment block came with SSB, and we could also work a bit better than on 2,4GHz. His signals did not have scatter sound, so the path was probably closer to line-of-sight than OZ1GIN.
This was my first and second QSO on 5.7GHz.
Now it's time to improve the setup, mechanically and electrically. I am fully aware that there is a lot of room for improvements.
I should also think of getting some setup at home for those frequencies. Limited height and terrain, including neigbour's houses and some trees will put quite some limits on that, but it should be possible to male some occasional contacts, for example via rain scatter on 10GHz. I have some experiments in mind, probably more on that later.
