Thursday, June 4, 2020

Moonbounce on 21 MHz from the worlds largest antenna array for the band!

The 21 MHz antenna array of ES5RY in Estonia is reputed to be the largest in the world for that band.


The array is made up of eight 5-element Yagi's for 15m mounted on a 70-metre tower. It has a gain of 16dBd in free space with a beamwidth of less than 30 degrees.

It has a phasing system which allows the selection of five different take-off angles.... 4, 7, 10, 15 and 30 degrees.

Here is a video of ES5RY hearing a signal coming back from the moon on 21 MHz!



This next video shows the construction of the array...

3 comments:

Photon said...

Nice for those who can afford the stupendous amounts of money involved. But not a very good advert for radio. I think men who put these things up forget they are on borrowed time, and that the maintenance burden of something that complex will soon overwhelm them.

Bring on the weak signal modes and the possibilities it brings us mere mortals, with one antenna and a postage stamp garden!

Anonymous said...

Totally disagree with Photon and his post. When i first became interested in 2m EME with a single yagi i needed the big array stations to experiment with. Good luck ES5RY. If i had the time, money and land i would do the same. How on earth that is a bad advert for radio is beyond me.
73 M0BKL
Steve

Anonymous said...

This array didn't last unfortunately

https://qrznow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/m_DSC_0274.jpg