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Summer 2004 Issue |
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 10-GHz operation in Alaska with a 26-dB horn antenna. The green box is the transverter, and the 2-meter radio under it is the “IF” radio. |
10,000 MHz |
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Ham activity on 10,000-MHz X-band is booming. If you live next to the ocean or if you live near a major lake, the signals are booming. X-band signals work swell out on the plains, too, and if you are fortunate enough to live on a mountainside, you may become the X-band king or queen of the hill!
If you’re surrounded by a forest, or if you
live down in a valley or in an urban area surrounded by other buildings,
you still have a great future on X-band because almost everyone goes
portable. Those of us on 10,000-MHz microwave rarely work from the home
QTH, and most of us always go portable to find the magic opening of the
pipeline between us and a distant station up to 400 miles away. That’s
right: 400 miles away on the 10,000-MHz microwave X-band is easy stuff
these days. Technician and higher class licensees have complete access to the entire 10,000-MHz ham microwave band. The band is 500 MHz wide, which extends from 10,000 MHz to 10,500 MHz, with SSB and CW weak-signal activity located near 10,368.1 MHz. You don’t buy the equipment off your local ham radio dealer’s shelf. You don’t need to homebrew your station completely from scratch either. In fact, if you currently run a simple Ranger or RadioShack 10-meter SSB mobile, you already have the “operating end” of a 10,000-MHz station. Better yet, multimode, brand-new HF equipment from Kenwood, Yaesu, and ICOM makes it easier than ever to build your 10,000-MHz station, thanks to the included 432-, 144.1-, 50.1-, and 28.1-MHz SSB sensitive receivers. The little battery-operated Yaesu FT-817 is a very popular transceiver for a 10,000-MHz system, because of its built-in battery supply, very low-power-output characteristics needed for 10-GHz transverters, and an LCD display that is readable in the bright sunlight.
If you’re new to the microwaves, a little
explanation of terminology is in order here. We call the transceiver that
is going to become the operating position of your microwave system the
IF—intermediate frequency. With multi-band, multi-mode transceivers, your
IF might be 432.1 MHz, or maybe 2 meters at 144.1 MHz. If you already have
a favorite radio that covers one of these bands with single-sideband
capability, that equipment might become your IF. However, the IF equipment
you choose must have low-power capabilities that will never exceed 1 watt,
and with some requirements, that low-power IF requirement might be just a
fraction of a watt. If you accidentally leave your IF radio on high power,
you will do instant damage to the next component we’ll talk about, the
transverter. Click here to return to Summer 2004 highlights Click here to subscribe to VHF _________________ © Copyright 2004, CQ Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced or republished, including posting to a website, in part or in whole, by any means, without the express written permission of the publisher, CQ Communications, Inc. Hyperlinks to this page are permitted.
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