The SK0CT Rover
To promote the microwave activity in the club, we decided to provide a portable, low power rig for all the popular microwave bands. The intention is to let club members use the Rover, preferably in the NAC microwave contests. The Rover is powerd from a 12V battery, thus making it totally portable. The Rover further consists of a set of 4 microwave transverters mounted in a reused TMA-box. The TMA box is in turn mounted on the lower part of the antenna mast. The fifth microwave transverter, for 24G, is mounted together with the antenna to minimize the feed loss between antenna and transverter. On the mast, it is only 130cm tall, are all the antennas affixed. There is one antenna per microwave band.
The antenna mast is fixed on a military surplus tripod with adjustable leg lengts. To make the tripod truly vertical, a level is affixed to the TMA box.
The following bands are included in the Rover.
| 1.296 GHz | Double Diamond | 3W output |
| 2.320 GHz (included from 010415) | Double Diamond | 500 mW output |
| 5.760 GHz | Double Diamond | 200 mW output |
| 10.368 GHz | 20 dB horn antenna | 200 mW output |
| 24.192 GHz | 30dB dB parabolic dish | 0.2 mW output |
The Rover is prepared to include the 47 GHz band in the near future.
The main rig is an ICOM IC706MkIIG. Not only the HF bands are available but also the VHF/UHF bands 6, 2 and 0.7m are included in the main rig. For the purpose of adapting the IC706 to the microwave transverters, an extra microwave band selector is added as well as a TX power attenuator with its control circuits.
If you are interested in operating the Rover, get in touch with the most frequent users, e.g SM0EPO Per-Olof, SM0NCL Christer or SM0DFP Per for more details.
73 de Per, SM0DFP