A primer on Amateur (ham) radio microwave projects and operation. Includes examples of the various systems in use on the West Coast USA.

1. Microwaves: Not Just for Leftovers
My Journey in Getting on the Bands
Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ
N6RMJ Photo

2. Why the Microwave Bands?
• Originally, I looked for a multiplier or
“something different” for Field Day 2003
• Home-brewing: Building your own creation
and putting it on the air
• Contesting!
• Using weird and strange parts
• Building!
• Antenna restrictions
• You can be loud with “little antennas”
• Contesting!
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3. Searching for Answers. . . .
• Searching the Internet
• Google-search: Microwave ham radio
• SBMS
• Mike King, KM0T
• Microwave and VHF-plus club meetings
• Reading the books
• Microwave Update events
• Just “doing it!”
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4. Operating Opportunities: Contests
• ARRL VHF and Up Contests
• January, June, August, September
• More points for higher frequencies
• Field Day, “just another band”
• SBMS 2GHz and Up Contest
• April
• Club competition
• Off-season means distance record breaking
attempts
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5. Which Band?
• Check past VHF and Up contest write-ups to
see who is doing what in your area
• Beacon availability
• Club and contest activity
• The decision: 10GHz!
N6RMJ Photo
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6. Buy It or. . .?
• Build it or buy it, getting on the bands still
requires some building . . . .
• A “store-bought” transverter must be
“integrated” with an IF system
• Guaranteed, proven, customer support
• Faster, all or most all parts available
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7. . . . Build It?
• Commercial microwave ham-specific kits
• Guaranteed, proven, customer support
• Surplus commercial bits & pieces
• Not usually guaranteed functional
• Takes time to find what you need
• No after-sale support
• Used gear?
• Make sure the unit works
• Check to see if the seller’s callsign appears in contest results
to verify the rig “really” works
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8. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
10 MHz PLL 2484 MHz
TCXO SYNTHESIZER
432 MHz 10,368 MHz 1W
PA
+24 VDC
9936 MHz
POWER +12 VDC
SUPPLY +5 VDC
-5 VDC
-12 VDC 4X MULTIPLIER
TX
FT-817 PIN
SEQUENCER
(432 MHz) SW
PTT RX
9936 MHz
432 MHz 10,368 MHz
+20 dB +20 dB LNA
WA6NIA 3cm XCVR
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9. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
WA6NIA
DragonSlayer
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10. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Morpheus (AKA, “Successful Failure”)
KH6WZ
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11. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Morpheus II
KH6WZ
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12. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Morpheus III
KH6WZ
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13. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
FrankInspired2
KH6WZ
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14. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Ms. June
KH6WZ
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15. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Wiki-Wiki Transverter
KH6WZ
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16. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Basket Case
KE6HPZ
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17. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Lazarus The
Next Generation
N6RMJ
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18. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
Milkman
N6XQ
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19. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
W6DTA
(SK)
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20. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
WB6DJI
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21. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
N6EQ
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22. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
nQED Built by KH6WZ
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23. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
KG6EG
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24. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
GoldenEye
WA6CGR
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25. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
WA6MEM
24GHz
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26. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
TheTorch
WA6CGR
N6RMJ Photo
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27. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
N6IZW (LASER)
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28. What Does a Microwave Rig Look Like?
LightShow
(24GHz)
KH6WZ
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29. Let’s Build It!
• When getting on the Microwaves, your fancy
VHF/UHF all-mode rig becomes an “IF unit”
• There are many stages and sub-systems to
get from a “pile of parts” to a working rig. If
you get stuck, move on to another section,
rather than just stop working on the rig.
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30. Words of Encouragement. . .
• “A rig will never be completed if you stop
working on it.”
• “Shoot the engineer, and just build it!”
• If you need help, ask! Most microwavers
are willing to help new people, because
new operators means more contacts in the
next contest!
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31. The Building Stages: Highly Emotional
• A complex project broken down into separate
modules
• RF: Microwave section
• IF: Transforming to audio
• Multiple-voltage power supplies
• Control circuits
• Antenna & feed system
• Housing and support structure
• Test & verify along the way
• Integration of systems
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32. The Successful Failure
• A “Seinfeld” version – it’s
“made from nothing”
• Lots of guessing
• Plenty of mistakes
• Building and re-building
• RX OK, TX not so OK (power
too low)
• No QSOs
• See CQ magazine, December
2003 and January 2004 for
the complete story. . . .
Morpheus
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33. A Total Re-Build. . .
• Morpheus was
totally ripped apart,
and re-packaged a
week before the
contest.
• Morpheus II: Open
tray/chassis helps
service-ability.
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34. Testing and Proving
Listen to the beacons
Get on the air and talk
to someone!
A well-equipped lab helps – call fellow
club members!
The SDMG/SBMS “Tune Up
Picnic” before the big contest
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35. The Final Test . . . .
Plug it in, light it up, and get it on the air!
Can you hear
me now?
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36. Where to Go?
• Microwaves = Limited to Line-of-Sight
• NOT necessarily so!
• Is Higher Better?
• NOT necessarily so!
• Microwavers very shortly discover that signals are
enhanced and propagate much farther than L-O-S
• Weather affects signals, inversion layers and humidity
impact propagation
• Behavior is like light: Reflected, refracted or absorbed
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37. CM96wa: Kettleman City, CA
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38. CM96wa: Kettleman City, CA
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39. DM03wt: Signal Hill, CA
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40. DM03wt: Signal Hill, CA
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41. DM03tw: El Segundo, CA
Park
here
The water
tower
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42. DM03tw: El Segundo, CA
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43. DM04ti: “Secret Site 51”
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44. DM04ti: “Secret Site 51”
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45. DM03xq: Huntington Beach, CA
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46. DM03xq: Huntington Beach, CA
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47. CM97kh: A Scenic Overlook
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48. CM97kh: A Scenic Overlook
KB8VAO
N6CA
KH6WZ
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49. The Fear that Drives Us:
Rule Number 5.5
• “A transmitter used to contact
one or more stations may not
be used subsequently under
any other call during the
contest period . . . . ”
• When your rig breaks, you
pack up and go home. . .
• Or do you? Be prepared to
trouble-shoot your rig in the
field and get back on the air,
because you can be a long
way from home. . . .
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50. You are NOT Allowed to Give Up
• Remember, most of the time we are hundreds of
miles away from home
• If something breaks, we have to fix it
• Every microwave contester needs a field tool kit
• Most important is a cordless soldering iron
• Vise-Grips®
• Clip leads A broken
interface cable
• Etc killed this radio in
a recent contest.
Clip leads
jumpered the
broken wires, and
the rig was
functional again!
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51. Enhancements
• A microwave rig is still just a radio: “You can’t
work ‘em if you can’t hear ‘em!”
• Microwavers usually go thru stages of
continuous improvement
•Receiver noise figure & gain
•Antenna & feed system
•Frequency stability & accuracy
•Support and aiming
•Transmit power
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52. Receiver Improvements
• Noise Figure: Lower is better
• Minimize feedline loss
• No feedline = No feedline loss!
KH6WZ
Waveguide antenna feed and Close-up of W6QIW’s 10GHz
T/R relay in FrankInspired 2 rig. Less than 12-in. of UT-141!
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53. More Power!
• Amplifiers from the data and communications
industries: Surplus!
• Solid state power amplifiers (SSPA)
• Replacing TWTAs
• Travelling wave tube amplifiers (TWTA)
• Used in satellite and terrestrial communications links
• Commercial ham-band units: Costly!
DB6NT 50W amplifier for 10GHz
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54. Microwave Ham Radio Sources
• Down East Microwave
• Kuhne Electronics (DB6NT, Germany)
• SSB Electronic
• JWM Engineering Group
• Reactance Labs
• Club meetings and e-mail reflector posts
• SBMS
• WA1MBA
• 50 MHz and Up Group
• eBay
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55. References & More Information
The San Bernardino Microwave Society
www.ham-radio.com/sbms/
CQ and
CQ-VHF magazine
www.cq-amateur-radio.com/
QST & QEX
www.arrl.org/
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56. Recent Articles. . .
• Lau, Zack KH6CP, “Home-Brewing a 10GHz SSB/CW
Transverter, Part 1,” QST, May 1993, p.21
• Lau, Zack KH6CP, “Home-Brewing a 10GHz SSB/CW
Transverter, Part 2,” QST, June 1993, p.29
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “A Simplified Path to a High-
Performance 10GHz Transverter System,” CQ-VHF,
Summer 2007, p.22
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “Getting On 24GHz,” QST, July
2007, p. 28
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “A Successful Failure,” CQ,
December 2003, p. 78
• Yoshida, Wayne KH6WZ, “Microwaves: Not Just for
Leftovers,” CQ, January 2004, p. 68
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57. Join us!
• Loaner rigs
• Roving partners
• Technical help
• Social events
What will your rig look like?
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58. The San Bernardino Microwave Society
Founded in 1955, the San Bernardino Microwave
Society (SBMS) is a non-profit technical organization
dedicated to the advancement of communications
above 1000MHz with a membership of over 90
amateurs from Hawaii and Alaska to the East coast and
beyond.
Visit their website at http://www.ham-radio.com/sbms/
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59. Wayne Yoshida, KH6WZ
• Licensed since 1976
• Amateur Extra Class ham radio license
• Contributing Editor, CQ magazine (“The Beginner’s Corner,” since
January 2003, now “The Ham Notebook” since March 2010)
• Huntington Beach RACES Public Information Officer
• ARRL Hq. Public Information Officer
• Past president, UCLA Amateur Radio Group, W6YRA
• HF contester and DXpeditioner (W1AW, NK7U, W5RRR, 8P6BBS, 8P4B,
8P9BB, 7J1AFZ, J68DX, J68WZ . . . )
• Most memorable ham radio experience: Working in the Press Room at
the NASA-Johnson Space Center (Mission Control, Houston, TX) during
the first manned ham-in-space mission, STS-9/SpaceLab-1 (Dr. Owen
Garriott, W5LFL, 1983)
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