144 MHz EME: Graves radar 143.050 MHz heard

Today Friday 1st of April is my lucky day! I've heard the first radio signal off the Moon!

I listened for ham radio signals from the Moon after having erected my 2x6 vertical yagis. I listened most of the time on 144.120 MHz - but no stations were heard. I was disappointed. I had expected at least some stations be visible on the waterfall. The reason - probably - was lack of big gun stations.

The danish ham radio magazine OZ published "Experience EME using simple equipment" in their July 2015 issue. The message was clear: Use the French Graves VHF-radar signal as a beacon, and listen to its reflections off the Moon! The radar is located in 70140 Pesmes, France (locator JN27SI). It transmits a powerfull beam between 15 degrees and 40 degrees elevation. The azimuth angle is between 90 degrees East through South until 270 degrees West. The purpose is to track LEO satellites. As a side effect, the radar signal at 143.050 MHz will hit the Moon and bounce back to Earth.

The map below shows the location of the Graves radar. It is far away from my QTH.

OZ1BXM QTH and the Graves radar in France.

I used my EME station for receiving the Graves signal. My Yaesu FT-847 can easily tune to 143.050 MHz, and when I aimed the antennas towards the Moon, the radar signal (continous wave) was heard immediately and visible on the waterfall.

A screen-dump of the "Wide Graph" waterfall in WSJT-X is displayed below.

Wide Graph waterfall displaying the radar signal.

Kind regards from OZ1BXM Lars Petersen
Homepage oz1bxm.dk