Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

This is an EQSL card I received this week from the station I worked in the Special Events video . It is from Nigel who was working the call sign MX0SSW which is Silcoates school. They were raising money for the blind. I worked this station on 2m FM. This card from HR1AAB is from Alberto who is located in Honduras, South America, he was a 5 and 9 signal on 20m. I used my FT-847 and the antenna was the vertical multi-band Hustler 6BTV. This is a card which was a nice surprise from Maurizio who is not a Licensed Ham but what we call a shortwave listener. He heard me speaking to a station in Spain on 40m, again on the FT-847 but this time I used a dipole antenna which is a G5RV. The same evening I managed to work over 25 stations on 40m, countries included Greece, Italy, Spain, Russia, Tenerife, France, Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. There are many shortwave listeners and as you can see they do have fun sending cards also. Some shortwave listeners win awards for collec...

The Shack is looking cool with my latest addition.I am now the proud owner of a MFJ-969 Deluxe Versa Tuner II,this unit arrived from the USA courtesy of Hamcity.com and after paying the import tax it worked out that i saved £32. The MFJ-969 Antenna Tuner gives you MFJ's superb AirCore Roller Inductor and full 6 meteres through 160 Meter coverage!You get everything you've ever wanted including...300 Watts PEP SSB full featured antenna tuner, widest matching range, full size lighted Cross-Needle SWR/Wattmeter reads true peak forward power, QRM-Free PreTune, 8 Position antenna switch, built in 50 Ohm dummy load, heavy duty 4:1 balun -- all in a tough, attractive cabinet. MFJ's famous 1 year No Matter What warranty. The MFJ-969 Antenna Tuner's AirCore Roller Inductor, gear driven turns counter and spinner knob gives you exact inductance control for absolute minimum SWR. MFJ's exclusive AirCore Roller Inductor has an air core that can't burn up! You get ultra-high-Q...

This week the HF bands haven't been in good shape at all, the other evening was spent trying to work DX stations on 40m and 20m. I was most surprised when I ran into my old friend VE3OWV Nick on 40m, this was amazing as I was using my G5RV. I also worked a handful of German stations, some Italians and a Spaniard all on 40m. The spanish station was only operating on 5 watts (QRP). After a couple of hours of 40m I decided to flick back up to 20m (my favourite band) and worked 2 stations from Puerto Rico. Above is a card from one of them Jose WP4AOO. I did this contact on my Cobwebb but then switched to the Hustler 6 BTV and added a couple of S points to the signal with a 5 and 9. This morning on my way to work I had a quick contact with a VK station (Australia) on 20m - not bad for a mobile on 50 watts eh?! 73s for now

This is a short film demonstrating a contact into Russia with RA1ZN (Vic) on HF using my Mobile station which is a Yaesu FT100 and Maldol 20m Monostick and some good propagation. Enjoy it! 73s DE 2E0HTS Simon.

This week I haven't been on air much during the evenings, I had a quick listen around but the bands have been a bit quieter on an evening. My activity this week has been mainly from my mobile station which comprises of a Yaesu FT-100, 2 Maldol HF antennas mounted on the rear (one for 14MHz and one for 7MHz) through a 2-way switch. Also, on the rear wheel there is a 7/8 wave 145/433MHz this is fixed to a home-brew stainless bracket. My activity was mainly on listening mode travelling to workbut I did manage to contact Russia, Estonia and the Ukraine with solid 5 and 9 signals both ways. Receiving wise I have heard ZL (New Zealand) and VKs (Australian stations) quite loud all on 14MHz. This has been happening at 7.15 UTC. On my return journey USA, Saudi Arabia and most of Europe have been giving excellent signals to the mobile which is disguised as a porcupine but is actually a humble Toyota Rav4.

QSL (confirmation) This is a QSL card from a station I spoke to from my home setup. He was located at the Russian Space Centre Energia. His callsign was R3K. I have many other QSL cards from all around the world. These cards confirm a QSO (voice contact) with stations using similar equipment all around the world. Weather Satellites This is also another part of the hobby I am interested in. This is an image of the UK, Europe and Africa transmitted from a weather satellite orbiting the Earth and received by my humble station. The radio I used was the Yaesu FT-857 hard-wired to my PC using Bonito Radcom software to decode weather images.

I started off this week listening to higher portions of HF around 14 - 14.350MHz and I was very pleased to have stumbled across some rare DX stations giving me a solid signal 5 and 9 was 8P6GU who was Haschel from Barbados. After chatting to him I went on to speak to stations in Honduras, Puerto Rico, Peru and the USA. The best performing antenna seemed to be the Cobwebb which consists of the formation of a large spiders web laying horizontally. I also use a Hustler vertical which often works well into South America and a G5RV which is a 102ft long dipole fed with 300 Ohm ribbon feeder. The reason all my antenns work so well is probably due to my location which is right on the top of a small hill 1000ft tall hanging off the edge of a very steep drop. Radio paradise! Finally I worked M0RHQ , an RAF station ( RAF Linton-On-Ouse ) this afternoon which was an arranged QSO. I managed to speak to some of the personnel and a small networked formed from stations around the UK. This was on ...

Here is a picture of my station. I use this to contact different countries, my latest contacts include Barbados, Honduras, Brazil and the USA. So far I have 94 logged countries out of 334 so I have a long way to go!

Hi this site is is aimed at anyone who might be interested in amateur radio. Amateur radio ''ham radio'' is a world wide hobby which uses radio equipment to communicate with other ''hams'' local and world wide. To do this you need to obtain a radio licence which allows you to transmit radio signals on many different frequencies and modes. Frequencies are measured in megahertz and a mode is the type of transmission such as am, fm, ssb, cw, data, rtty, packet and many others. You can talk or use Morse code or if you have a p.c connected to your radio you can transmit data or images even tv. To get licenced you can join a local radio club and sit a fairly simple exam and obtain a foundation licence, in the UK there are three licences foundation, intermediate and advanced. I currently hold an intermediate licence and have done for just over three years. If you would like to find your nearest club have a look at the radio society of Great Britain website at...