Hams in Space!

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73 Review by Dick Goodman WA3USG Number lOon your Feedback card Skymoon Software for EME communications. Skymoon 9102 Kings Drive Manvel TX 77578 (713)331-4200 Price Class: Version 1, $40; Revision 2, $50 One evening in tate November 1990, I received a telephone call from Bill Brown WBBELK informing me that Dave Blaschke WSUN was on the air operating rnoonbounce. Bill suggested that I try receiving WSUN on 2 meters. I was quite pessimistic about my chances because my antenna system consists 01 a single Hy-Gain circularly-polarized yagi used for OSCAR satellite operations. I do, however, have a low-noise mastmounted preamp and a short (60 foot) run of RG-213 coax going to the shack, so I gave it a try. It took about 10 minutes , but from under all the noise I was finally able (barely) to make out the W5UN's callsign on CWo It was about the weakest signal that I have ever heard, but considering that I was using a single yagi it was quite an accomplishment. I have read articles in several amateur journals stating that the big guns on moonbounce could be received on modest equipment, but I never believed it, until now! While the "Instant Track" program gave me the azimuth and elevation of the moon, and allowed me to automatically point my antenna, I found there were quite a lew other considerations not addressed by this software package for moonbounce operations. Enter: Skymoon Computer software has certainly evolved in the last 10 years, especially in the field of amateur radio. Since the software developers who write ham radio applications sottware are usually hams themselves, they are generally technically-oriented individuals. This translates into a useful software package for others with similar interests. look at the impact of " Packet Cluster," and the variations of logging programs on chasing DX . There are also many effective propagation forecasting programs for determining when OX will be available. For the ham interested in OSCAR operations, there are seve-at good satellite tracktnq programs which will indicate when the desired satellite will be in view, Now, lor 40 73 Amateur Radio Today - March,1991 Photo A. Main screen ofSKYMOON. Photo 8. Map showing the moon's location in relation sources in the sky, as viewed from yourOTH. the ham interested in moonbounce, or EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communications, there is a spiffy new software package called "Skymoon," written by Dave Blaschke WSUN, of international moonbounce fame! I reviewed Skymoon on two different cornputers: a Beuren AT clone running at 12 MHz with a VGA display, and a Comp-U-Add 386 running al16 MHz using an EGA, and later a VGA, display, There are two revisions of Skymoon. Revision 1.0 will run on any IBM PC clone with Hercules, CGA (Mode 4), or a CGA monitor. Version 1.0 comes on a single 5.2S" floppy disk, and it can be executed and run from a single drive system. Revision 2.0 comes on two 5.25" floppy disks, and requires either a hard drive or a larger capacity floppy drive (720K, 1.2M, or 1.44M). Skymoon requires 2S6K of memory to run. For this article, I primarily reviewed Revision 2.0, but I'll provide a brief comparison to Version 1.0 later in the review. Skymoon is easy to install-you simply copy all the files from the two floppy disks to their own directory on your hard drive. Before you run Skymoon, you must execute a configuration program. This tells Skymoon your offset to UTC, call, QTH, and latitude and longitude. To start Skymoon, type "SKY MOON" and press < ENTER> . It takes Skymoon about 10 seconds to draw its graphical interface .. ami screen. This generates a world map .. showing the location of the moon and a moon rise/sel line (see Photo A). rotne right of the map isa menu which describes the purpose of each function key. Below the map are multiple windows of real-time data containing the following information: -The primary station (your station) azimuth and elevation to the moon (if the moon is not in view, the elevation will be a negative number). eThe current distance to the moon in kilometers . to noise »The background sky temperature in degrees Kelvin. Depending on where the moon is in relation to noise sources in the sky, this value will change. -Path loss in dB relative towhen the moon is closest. -rcterpath degradation in dB. s The moon declination angle and the Greenwich hour angle (GHA). -For those used to astronomical positioning parameters, the moon right ascension and the semi-diameter. Next to each parameter is an arrow that gives the status of each (increasing or de-
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