Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

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.

Here is another opportunity to see the new Arrow antenna with the the two Hand Held Rigs in action working Amateur SAT SO-50. TNX To all Stations worked during the pass 73.

After making many successful QSO on AO-51, SO-50 and AO-27 with the Arrow antenna using the two handheld Rigs, I have made a few new Ham friends who gave me some good tips regarding home brew SAT antenna's. One Station Steve DL1YAL, gave me the link to EA4CYQ Juan's website showing his impressive SAT antenna the IOIo. The site contains detailed home brew construction information, which I followed using some 3mm TIG welding wire and PVC Tubing of Three different Diameters . I made Three IOIo antenna's in total, the first one (MK I) worked well into VO-52 using SSB on the FT847 in the Shack. I was very impressed and wanted to experiment further, so I decided to try a slight change by changing the polarisation on 435MHz, making the antenna X shape. I gave the completed MK II to Phil M1PAC and as you see in the picture Phil has mounted it to a Tripod. Good luck with your set up Phil, and I hope to work you via one of the 'Birds' soon. I then knocked up the MK III where

Watch the video to see how M1PAC-Phil and 2E0HTS-Simon Work Multiple Contacts on AO-51 with the new QRP set up. We used 4watts and two handheld radios(FT-470 + TH-7) and the Arrow antenna. 73 thanks for watching.

I have recently received the US Imported Arrow LEO 145/435 hand held Satellite antenna which I purchased from The Antenna Warehouse in The US. I decided I would like to try work a few Satellites with my hand held radios after watching fellow Ham and Youtuber K7AGE Randy, in one of his many excellent Youtube videos. I particularly enjoyed Randy's video which showed him making a QSO via AO51 with the Arrow Antenna mounted on a tripod using a simple hand held radio. I also found other Hams on youtube with similar videos, one video with EA1GHW using two hand held radios which made the job of listening to your own transmission via the down link much easier. So with the inspiration and ideas both taken on board as well as some ideas of my own, I began to set up my own Portable QRP Satellite Station. The first job was constructing the extension boom which would incorporate two radio mounts as well as providing somewhere to site a compass and my HP Ipaq which runs windows mobile softwar

The past few weeks I have been exploring the world of VHF by listening and playing around on 2M SSB as well as VO-52. I have had some success on 144.300 with my vertical and home brew Loop with DX opportunities such as GM4PPT (Richard) located in Scotland near to Ayr and one or two other interesting QSOs. The rest of the time apart from HF operations, I have been tracking VO-52 and trying my best to put a signal into its Transponder and making some QSOs. I successfully had a QSO with DL6HP via VO-52 and tonight's pass brought signals to my Earth Station once again but this time I received them with my new home brew 2M Yagi. Tonight's contact was with G7BTA (Dave) who was approximately 200 miles south of my QTH down in Hereford. The Home brew Yagi received well but my TX was still going through my vertical so you guessed it, the next job is a 433/70CM Yagi. Here is the story so far, I used a broom handle, some 3mm thick aluminium sheet, and some 3mm Brass sheet. I cut the sheet

The best way to work Amateur Satellites is to program your radios memory with the up links, down links and any necessary PL tones required to activate the Transponders. Here is the result, which if you are new or are just getting in to Satellite Communications, you may find the frequencies shown helpful. The rig seen in the pictures is an FT-847. SO-50 AMATEUR SATELLITE TX Up Link 145.850 FM 67HZ Tone. RX Down Link 436.795 FM +/- AO-51 AMATEUR SATELLITE TX Up Link 145.920 FM 67HZ Tone. RX Down Link 435.300 FM +/- VO-52 AMATEUR SATELLITE TX Up Link 435.250 LSB RX Down Link 145.900 USB+/- Hello to All at Planet Ham and Tnx for linking to Ham Radio Blogspot 73

For those of you that like working satellite or possibly the ISS, have you come across the latest version of SATSCAPE? SATSCAPE has been around for years and is now written in Java which allows a better graphic display to be used whilst tracking your favourite NOAA Satellites and the ISS as well as other Space Comms such as AO-51 and VO-52. I use SATSCAPE to assist me when trying to call CQ on the Earth Orbiting Voice repeaters which are FM and SSB, so far success on SSB but still trying to make it on FM. The new version can be downloaded via the link with support and updates also found at the SATSCAPE Website AS you can see it looks very nice Satscape screen shot click to enlarge Here you can see the ISS's Orbit and course click to enlarge ISS Zoomed closer and over Europe in Range of 2E0HTS Earth station click to enlarge FT-847 Yaesu Radio is listening on 145.800 the ISS downlink but no signals are being transmitted by the crew during the overhead pass which is plotted and tra

This afternoons walk was another chance to make a video and play radio using my little hand held transceiver. We headed up to Bardon Moor from our QTH of Baildon Moor. Yes we are Moorland addicts due to the peace and quiet, tranquility and the spectacular views you get in the unspoilt Moorland Country side. Bardon Moor is even higher than our QTH(1000 ft) with heights of 1600 ft in places which work well for VHF hand held equipment. I did'nt quite get to the maximum altitude as we only had a couple of hours and one bottle of drink each, which was needed at 23.5 degrees in the shade! We got to 1165 feet and with a scenic view in all directions I decided to get the little 5watt Kenwood out of the bag and I commenced calling CQ CQ. As usual on 2m FM there was an abundance of listeners but no takers, until after three or four shout outs were I received a reply. The Station that had returned to my call was Chris M3XLG who put a 5/9+ signal to the TH-F7 with its Diamond SRH771 Aftermar

Since my return from EA6 the propagation seems to have improved substantially with terrific openings on 20m, and 40m late at night here at Baildon Moor U.K. click on log to enlarge I have had some amazing DX contacts each evening as I have operated into the early hours of the morning with contacts into Martinique and Netherlands Antilles on 40M using the G5RV. The biggest surprise happened whilst in SWL mode as I came across a nice informal Net on 7.185 lsb consisting of a nice group of US Hams. I have worked the US on 40m before during WWCQ Contest but this opportunity was not to be missed. I managed three different stations WA3QPX, K4KOM and W3ZKY with successful reports exchanged, the other guys were just in the noise as I was to them. The US guys were very pleased to be picking up little station 2E0HTS on 50watts and I went on to work more DX as you can see in the above log. I also got the opportunity to work Ian VK3MO from Oz again as well as the other DX stations confirmed by the

click any image to Enlarge We had a nice week in EA6-Mallorca and are now re-vitalised and ready to make some noise up on the Amateur Radio Bands from my Licenced Station here in the U.K During the last week we covered over 350 KM on two motorcycles, Kawasaki KLE 5oo and a Suzuki Marauder whilst touring the Island of Mallorca. We both got a great Sun tan and met some very nice Mallorcan people. So hopefully I should have some energy and new experiences to try out regarding Radio and get some inspiration to blog here on ham Radio Blogspot. ;-) There were opportunities to look out for Antennas, I saw quite a few on our travels. One antenna sighting you can see here at the old town of Alcudia. I spotted some interesting Arrays up and down the Island. There were some very nice locations to operate radio but my Licence allows all bands and modes but only in the U.K so it was just pure holidaying for me!! Other News Thanks to Eric PA1TNO for commenting regarding our recent QSO via VO-52, Hop

Today I successfully managed a contact using my FT-847 and vertical antenna by connecting with Earth orbiting satellite VO-52. I monitored VO-52s location using satscape and once the satellite was in range I called cq on VFO B which was set at 435.250mhz lsb (uplink frequency)and at the same time I was tuning around VFO A set at 145.900mhz usb +or- 10kilo cycles. You have to search up and down the receive frequency + or - 10ish quickly whilst transmitting audio, I did this until I heard my self on the downlink signal. Once my voice was clear on the downlink I was called by PA1TNO-Eric who was located in Amsterdam in the NETHERLANDS. Eric's signal and my own were constantly shifting frequency in an upward motion due to the speed of the travelling VO-52 satellite creating the Doppler effect. I maintained continuous adjustment to the downlink RX signal but kept the uplink signal fixed on 435.250mhz lsb. We both exchanged reports and locator's without any problems, I was excited an