Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

With the new Autumn beginning the WX (weather) is not expected to allow outdoor operations to continue as regularly as the last months Satellite operations here at the 2E0HTS QTH. With this in mind Louise(M3TLL) and I decided to invite our friends/fellow Radio Hams, Phil-M1PAC and Josh-M0DIT to a last bash of BBQ, Out Door fun and some Radio QSOs using my ARROW LEO set up and Phil's IOIo set up. We also had a play around with the FT-847, GS-250 and IOIo during the busy day. The WX was great, the sausages, burgers, steak and corn also went down great! We had lots of contacts on the FM SATs outside and a couple of VO-52 passes were worked inside the shack. We also heard Scotland-GM4PPT from up near AYR on 2M SSB (144.300) and on the FT-767 the US stations were coming through well as were stations from Brazil on 20M HF. The Sun was on our side, here Louise-M3TLL is busy taking pictures and enjoying the day. Myself-2E0HTS re-positioning the ARROW. Operating as BBQ Chef In Between pa...

After watching a selection of second hand antenna rotators on eBay, I decided to go for a brand new model which I got through Nevada's eBay shop at a buy it now price. Nevada have been selling the Yaesu G-250 Rotators at a promotional discounted price so it wasn't to hard to decide to purchase a new item rather than a used one which gave me peace of mind instead of not knowing the life expectancy of a pre owned unit. I've been using the recently purchased antenna rotator for the last 10 days and have found it to be excellent value for money. I installed the recently mentioned IOIo beam on the GS-250 and have had successfully greatly improved 5/9 exchanges on the LEO Satellites, as well as the DX worked on 2m SSB. The Rotator is well constructed and assembles easily in minuets, it comes with u-bolts ready to fix to your poles. Its design and choice of material has been well thought out as its shape is pleasant to the eye as well as practical and usable with good water resist...

After progressing from my vertical to the broom stick yagi and then experimenting with the IOIo beam, I finally ended up using some 10mm alum bar for the 144-145 Loop and Reflector and 6mm alum bar for the 435-436 Loop and Reflector. Mainly to stand up to the WX and Winter. The finished model of the IOIo beam was then mounted at 20 degrees elevation on the new Yaesu gS-250 rotator that I have just added to my Shacks equipment list. With the new antenna and rotator installation I have made many QSOs over the last weekend and found it to be very successful on VO-52 using SSB. At present I have not experimented fully on the FM SATS such as AO-51 and SO-50. I have made a few QSOs on both of the FM birds and have so far noticed that the horizontal polarisation on the RX 435-436 Loop is not as good as the Vertically polarised previous design. I might consider altering the antenna but it's too early to say at the moment, as you can see in the video it does a good job and is working v...

Using the The IOIo Beam To Work Satellites and also 144MHZ SSB DX During A Contest. /Portable Hope you enjoy the video.