KA1GT VHF/UHF/Microwave/EME Pages

23cm dish. 10Ghz dish in the background.

These pages are a project by Bob Atkins, KA1GT, and contain information for radio amateurs interested in weak signal work on the bands from 144MHz through 10GHz and above. My station has been on and off the air in the USA since around 1978 and I was on the air in the UK as G8EKB in the early 1970s. I operated from a QTH at Yale University between about 1978 and 1981, working on 144, 432, 1296 and 10368MHz cw and ssb. I also operated 432MHz EME using 16 Quagi antennas and worked several dozen stations. I moved QTH to NJ in 1981 to take a position at AT&T Bell Labs and operated on 144, 432, 1296 with some brief portable work on 2304 and 10368 ssb.

Between 1980 and 1989 I wrote the microwave column ("The New Frontier") for QST each month. In 1990 I wrote the microwave column for "Ham Radio" until the magazine went out of business (unrelated to my writing for them I hope!).

I was pretty much QRT for the decade of the 2000's with only occasional operation. In 2014 I moved from NJ to Maine. In have very basic 50MHz capability (100W and indoor crossed dipoles). VHF/UHF terrestrial operation is difficult from my QTH. I cannot put up a tower, so the terrestrial antennas would be low and blocked to the south and southwest by trees, buildings and hills. I have a decent shot to the north and northeast, but from Maine there's not much activity in those directions (Nova Scotia and Newfoundland)! I do not operate HF, though I do have a single "long" wire and I have operated FT8 on 15 and 20m.

My principle activity is on 1296 EME with a ~3.1m dish with ~240W at the feed. This has been quite successful. I no longer have 432MHz EME capability.I also have 10Ghz EME Rx capability (GPS locked, with with auto-tracking polarization rotation) using an 1.2m prime focus dish. I currenly do not have Tx capability on 10Ghz.

If you have any good microwave links you'd like to see listed here, please send them to me at ka1gt@hotmail.com