Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Over the weekend I celebrated 4 years of romance with my lovely YL Louise M3TLL. I first met Louise at work during the 2005 CQ World Wide DX Contest when we were involved with the STAR Centre project. Louise and I hit it off during the contest and I have managed to continue to catch the yearly contest ever since. I look forward to the CQ WW Contest every year as Louise always supports me by encouraging me to take part in the contest; it reminds her of when and how we met. I guess I am the lucky one when it comes to how we celebrate our anniversary playing radio during the CQ WW DX contest. I sure did get lucky and picked a good one there! Thanks for putting up with me Lou! This Years CQ WW results gave me, 48 DXCC and 15 Zones. 14MHz, 21MHz, & 28MHz were worked using the FT-847 and Hustler 6BTV Vertical. Both 3.5MHz & 7MHz were worked using the FT-767 and a 135 ft Dipole. I made just over 100 QSO and gave away lots of points. Thanks to all participants and for all of the effort

I had a go at making a slightly different mini tower and yagi out of TIG welding wire and this is what I came up with. The tower is two sections with a six element yagi antenna that can be rotated 360º simply by hand. The model is made by myself from 3.2mm TIG welding wire which has been built using the MIG welding process. As usual it was fun making it and there is no doubt that I will be fettling up some other project soon. Hope you like it!

Since I last blogged about the latest tweak with the modified IO-10Element 145/435 dual band Sat Yagi, I've been watching out for AO-51 and VO-52 in order to continue testing the latest antenna. The performance is proving to be excellent both the AO-51 & VO-52 down links have been coming in loud and clear, I have made plenty of QSOs this week after work in the evening. Its been a lot of fun, I am addicted again h.i. List of Stations and which Satellite was worked to make the qso with latest IO-10 dual band Sat Antenna. VO-52 * 2M1EUB/P *11/10/09 * 1950 * 432 * J3E * 59 55 * Scotland VO-52 * SP9UNU *11/10/09 * 1954 * 432 * J3E * 59 59 * Poland VO-52 * SP5MG *11/10/09 * 1956 * 432 * J3E * 59 59 * Poland AO-51 * MWOBBU *12/10/09 * 1825 * 144 * F3E * 59 59 * Wales AO-51 * MOITF *12/10/09 * 1827 * 144 * F3E * 59 59 * England AO-51 * EB1HBW *12/10/09 * 1828 * 144 * F3E * 59 59 * Spain VO-52 * EB1DGH *12/10/09 * 2147 * 432 * J3E * 59 59 * Spain AO-51 * MOJMO *13/10/09 * 1748 * 144 * F

Being content with something is often easier said than done when it comes to Antennas, yes you guessed more messing with the Satellite beam. In the past, the FM Satellite signals that I have received have been very weak compared to the portable outdoor ARROW Antenna. The SSB SATs such as VO-52 & FO-29 have always been stronger and much easier to work compared with the FM Birds whilst using the IOIo Antenna. I have been using the FT-847 Noise Reduction and DIG Filter to assist in pulling out the voices from the FM hiss but still have had a struggle on my hands with most passes. I had another look at my A430S10 Yagi and decided to fix it above the 145 IO Beam using 30mm wooden spacers at a fixed 30º elevation. I have tried 15º, 20º and 45º elevation fixed in the past and have found 30º to be the best compromise. The Compact IO 145 Loop out performed a 4Ele Yagi, I just need an edge on the IO 435 loop. The 10Ele was the answer! A more accurate aim is required which I have now mastered

The weather is once again lousy here in N.England so I decided to leave riding the Motor Cycle at home today and drive to work instead. On my return journey back home from work, I came across a nice 5/9+20 signal on 20M which belonged to K7ZSD - Brad, who is located 25 miles N.W of Portland, Oregon in the US. I listened to Brad - K7ZSD working Stations all over Europe as I drove home and decided to give him a call from my mobile Station which worked out great. Brad came straight back to me with a 5/5 report and very good sounding audio from my trusty FT-100. When I got back home I checked Brads call sign on QRZ.com and released why Brad sounded like he was sat with me in my vehicle! Here is Brads - K7ZSD ham station tower array which is so impressive I thought you guys would like to see it.

Check out the latest 2E0HTS Satellite video filmed by my YL Louise-M3TLL. This video is aimed at newcomers to the SSB Satellites and shows me using a home made IOIo antenna and a Yaesu FT-847 making Contact with IK3VZS-Italy and LY3L-Lithuania. Both contacts are made on SSB via Earth Orbiting Amateur Satellite - VO-52 and are worked from my home location in N.England. VO-52 was launched on the 5th of May 2005 from Sirharkota (India) and is still performing very well.

After work I was out in the garden making the Neighbours look confused as I waved my tripod mounted Arrow into the skies in the search for AO-51. I shouted over to my Neighbour "Signals from space" He looked at me with one of those puzzled looks similar to the ones you get when someone spots your vehicle covered in antenna's, you know the look I mean. He didn’t wait to see what the fuss was all about which turned out to be 3 nice QSOs into Ireland, France and Estonia running just 5 watts QRP out of the TH-F7(uplink) and back into the Ft-470 (down link). I always get a real buzz when outside with the Arrow QRP Satellite set up, I got lucky tonight putting in some good signals from the Moor Top QTH. I will be trying to get in to AO-51 on the next pass which has a possibility of getting across the pond to the U.S as AO-51 will be on a low pass on the horizon with a maximum elevation of only 5 degrees, it will be short quick and I will have a good chance for some QRP DX. If y

Today's weather image from NOAA-18 on 137.912.5 MHz, received this afternoon as it passed over Northern Europe. You can just make out the U.K in and amongst the cloud to the right of the image. Spain and the Balearic's are easily visible.

Since last night we have been suffering from gale force winds which are still hitting us hard up here on the hill. Despite the antennas taking a pounding from the wind and rain, conditions have been excellent on HF with lots of DX stations coming through on 17M, 20M & 40M. Last night (Friday) I was hearing stations from Peru, New Zealand and Stateside coming in strong on 20M. At 21.44 utc I made QSO with Cuba when I worked CO6LC - 5/9 on 20M. Later on 40M, I heard lots of big signals coming in from the U.S, at 22.31, I came across Richard - VE2ZVZ/P, who was on a camping Dxpedition in the forest of MONTREAL. We managed the QSO with QRM making it difficult at times but still getting there in the end with a 5/5 report. The wind was so bad this morning I had to move one of my Motor Cycles away from a scarily bendy old tree and park it up in a more sheltered space. The WX continued to get worse and during the morning the power lines were blown down somewhere near the local sub station,

As well as Ham Radio I have always been interested in Motor Cycles and currently have four Bikes in my collection. I enjoy restoring old bikes and I am always tinkering around with something. I work in Engineering which has its advantages and comes in useful when building antennas, brackets, masts and most things that can be made of metal. This week, I needed to replace the exhaust on the Yamaha XT600e and had decided to go for a full stainless system which just needed the finishing touch with a matching stainless steel heat shield. The Heat shield is now finished and can be seen in the picture. I have also started to fabricate a light weight alloy radio and antenna mount to fix to the XT600 (Road legal) Enduro bike. I will be continuing with that project in and amongst my other ideas with pictures and info to follow. I should be active on 20M & 2M tomorrow on our way to and from the National Ham Fest from the mobile during the daytime. I hope to be active on the Satellites as wel

I have heard a few Hams on the Air saying that they don't get any QSL cards "via the Bureau" very often. I always keep a stock of stamped addressed envelopes with my QSL Sub Manager awaiting any incoming cards. when enough cards are worth sending He posts them on to me. I have been active for over five years doing quite well with cards coming in every couple of months, as you can see I am going to be busy replying to the latest batch. The furthest DX was LU5ENM, on the 15-01-07, thanks for all QSLs received. More info at RSGB Bureau The cards were sent in 2007, 2008 and a couple from earlier this year. I guess the system is still slow, but effective and as long as you are not in a rush the Bureau, works just fine.

Most weekends I try to catch the Sunday morning local GB2RS News broadcast read by G4KQJ or G4IOD (The 2 Bills). Both stations do a fantastic job and can be heard from 8.30am utc on 145.525MHz, reading the National and Regional News compiled by the RSGB (Radio Society of Great Britain) live to Hams and SWLs within range. The News broadcast covers various category's from general radio news, to propagation, contests, dxpeditions and local club/rally information, lasting around 30 minutes. Afterwards the News reader QSYs to a clear frequency avoiding interference to the next scheduled neighbouring regional broadcast, where reports and any questions are invited. I call in often and did this week to the after news net, to say a quick hello, good morning and thank you, to the news reader who usually has a friendly little pile up of regulars. If you hear a Ham operator reading the news somewhere on the bands and have not yet called in to say hello and that he can be heard at your QTH,

Since the shuffle around with my radio equipment I have been listening around the bands whilst in my usual test mode of the equipment. There's been lots to listen to lately with the many recent contests and special event stations. As usual I have managed to work some interesting as well as a few DX stations as I came across them. I am still running my motor cycle for the daily work run and unfortunately have missed opportunities to use the mobile set up. Despite the lack of mobiling I did get lucky with two QSO on 20m last week into Japan when I was out in the Toyota. The FT-100 and Maldol HF-C antenna once again gave the result I like best with good signal exchanges taking place. Earlier this evening whilst mobile, I experienced some interesting conditions where I could hear long and short skip at the same time. Signals were plentiful and at one point I heard a VK and GM 5/9, in the middle of an EU pile up that was going on at the same time(typical of course). Back in the shack al

I decided to have a change around in the shack and get some use out of some of the equipment that I had forgot about for a while. I started by installing the robust little YAESU FT-2600M – 2M FM transceiver that I have owned for just over 5 years, I set the FT-2600M up with a separate PSU and a X200 Collinear (vertical) antenna. I remembered that I had a modular to 8pin din adaptor some where in my junk draw and once I located it I connected the Adonis AMDX1 desk microphone replacing the standard fist mic. The YAESU FT-2600M rig can be seen in the image below. The next “shack adjustment” was to involve both the base and mobile setup, I have been missing the good old YAESU FT-100 out in the mobile since I supposedly upgraded to the newer FT-857. The FT-857 has been working adequately over the last 12 months but it has still failed to convince me that it is the better radio out of the two multi mode, multi band mobile rigs. The FT-857 has a much smaller display than the older FT-100 whic

Its been exactly three years since I began blogging about all things Ham Radio here at Blogger and during the three years I have had lots of interest from fellow Hams, SWL's and Internet surfers. In fact I have made many new friends and adversaries since this humble radio blogger began ranting and raving about his radio obsession. Today's Site Meter reading was up to, Forty thousand, One hundred and twenty one visits and all I can say is Wow! Thank you, it has been and will be a pleasure for many more posts to come from Ham Radio Operator dot blog spot dot com. Monthly Visit Data I have been using site meter to monitor all Internet traffic to this site which has been a valuable resource. As well as the data above and the graph below, the site meter shows the visitors location, visit duration, referral, and in/out click. Monthly Visit Graph Last 100 Visitors World Map Once again thanks for visiting this site.