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Back To Work After The Summer Break

I hope you like the new blog look that Louise has found me.


The past week has been very busy at the College where I work.There are many new Students starting new courses in various Vocational subjects. Its the one of the busiest times so you can imagine I am running around trying to remember everyones names. I am looking forward to seeing these young learners progress and succeed and at the moment its good to see some good behavior and enthusiasm from young learners.

As you may have guessed it has not been so easy to play radio the last few evenings.
I have been riding the recently purchased Kawasaki 750 to work due to the good weather lasting, so working mobile has been limited.Its been fun and also saved me a fortune on petrol.

This Thursday evening I am gonna be in the STAR Centre with Louise M3TLL, we will be helping a group of Ranger Scouts learn a bit more about radio and propagation with the aid of the Centres Radio Communication shack situated next to the MARS Landscape. It should be a good night and the course will be in two parts so i get to do some more in a fortnight. I shall probably have more to say in the near future.

Coming up in OCTOBER on Saturday the 20th will be Jamboree on The Air where we usually have Cubs and Scouts visiting from West and North Yorkshire. I will be mainly on the HF Bands, 80m,40m and 20m from 9-4pm with my own callsign and hopefully we will operate MX0KSC once i get conformation that my fellow club mate Phil M1PAC can attend.

I shall attempt to call CQ on 2m in the hope that we hear another local Scout station as previous calling on 145.500 has proved to be a rare thing when any response is heard from well received local amateurs.

I am always happy to speak with distant amateurs who take the time to quickly say a few friendly words to the students in the shack, this always puts a smile on all who are in the vicinity of the Yaesu FT 1000 mp mkV. This rig is the same one used in the video of MX0KSC/p and has performed well up until the minor fault we had the other week,but seems good now.

The students often log many other stations and usually i try to split each group up giving them all certain tasks to do with a 30 minuet time span encouraging each group to compete against the other. This usually results in hundreds of Radio Amateur and broadcast stations been logged and found on the many bands using the rigs and receivers in the facility during the day. Its usually a good fun day for all.

that's it for now and hopefully ill be more active on the bands in the up and coming days. So if you hear me give me a shout or just say hello.

73 all the best Simon.

Worked All Europe Contest and JN4VWH Contact

Hi again from 2e0hts, This weeks radio activity has mainly been on HF from my radio shack and earlier in the week I managed to also make an Internet QSO with my blog friend JN4VWH Nash in Japan.

I made the contact for the first time with Nash with the help of msn messenger, this was fun and helped us to arrange a radio sked which we tryed on 7mhz, 18mhz and 21mhz without success. However I then decided to interface the radio to the computer and managed to allow Nash JN4VWH to receive my radios incoming signals via the msn system. I then set the monitor level on the rig which allowed my audio to be also heard through msn each time i transmitted on the air. So Nash could hear myself and any stations that i was working on HF, allowing him to know what was going on here in North England. Fortunately the bands were very busy and I made many QSOs on 20m, 40m, and 80m, I also mentioned to some of the Stations worked that Nash JN4VWH was in SWL mode via my radio and p.c. The stations I spoke with were highly amused and sent greetings messages to Nash and i received Internet msn message back allowing me to pass them back to the other operators i was working. This was quite an interesting experience and I am looking forward to trying it again when i catch up with Nash on msn messenger, and hopefully we will make a HF contact next time if the propagation is good.To do this i ran a lead from the ext speaker of the rig to the line in or mic in on the p.c. soundcard. I then selected the voice conversation option on msn but used the radio rather than a p.c mic, it is simple but effective.

The weekend was a great chance to try out the ft1000 Mark-V Field which I was using at last weeks portable event (MX0KSC/P previous post). Last week the rig developed a minor fault during the last 5 minuets of the day, so i swiftly dropped it off at my local friendly radio shop LARS-Leeds Amateur Radio Shop. Steve who is M5LAR had the rig back with Me fully functioning with a couple of new diodes fitted on the IF board
which some how previously managed not so well to deflect RF from the little ft-857 that we used at the same time on another band. Whoops and what a load of rubbish were the thoughts that I had as my older rigs at home can run on different bands whilst playing psk31 on 14mhz and talking on another band at the same time without Even a flicker. I suppose the modern technology is great but also very fragile as compared with the older robust heavy duty ft767gx still in perfect working condition 20 years on.
Well where was I ? oh yes the Worked All Europe Contest, this was the best way I could test the ft1000 and after picking it up Saturday lunch time i was keen to connect to my antennas situated high up on the moor top. I was even more happy to work three new countries which included Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Kuwait all worked with 50watts through the hustler 6btv on 20m.I have spoken with Saudi Arabia and recieved a QSL from my mobile also Kuwait but this was the first time from my Base Station. I went on to work the same Kuwait station again on 40m with my G5RV, twice in one day, same contest that's pretty good going! So i guess the radio is working just fine, Thanks to Steve from LARS the STAR Centre can continue to enjoy this radio as a teaching aid and as I am the STAR Centre Station Manager you guessed it, there is a big grin on my face, know that we have our toy back.

I was on the Air during the contest for a couple of hours and I gave a few points away to Stations outside of Europe working around 30 Contest Stations. You can see who and where I worked on my log, if your on it thanks very much see you again next Contest.

click on Log to enlarge

Thats all for know see you all soon here on Ham radio operator.blogspot 73 to all and thanks for visiting. Simon 2E0HTS

MX0KSC/P

Today I was active alongside Louise(M3TLL) and Phil(M1PAC) and other colleagues from my Workplace which is Park lane College Keighley. We were operating the STAR Centre Club Station which is part of the College and the Call Sign is MX0KSC which stands for MX0(ENGLISH CLUB STATION) and KSC(KEIGHLEY STAR CENTRE). The Location of our portable Station was at the grounds of The Keighley Agricultural Show, at Marley Stadium Keighley West Yorkshire in the North of England.
The Videos below show our Station in Action.
PART 1

PART 2

We had a fantastic Day and I managed to test the new portable Hustler 6btv antenna system recently mentioned in this blog with an amazing first QSO of the day with JA7NVF from Japan. So I guess you could say that the new antenna and home brew mounting bracket is working just fine.

During the event we made contact with 58 stations from all around the World and all over over the U.K. We operated 40m,20m,2m on phone and some SSTV and PSK31 on 20M.The HF Bands were busy with lots of activity as there were at least 3 different Contests going on, however it was no surprise to find 2m to be dead with very few takers. The antenna stood out in the crowded show ground attracting many Radio hams whom we had the pleasure of meeting,We met 2 G0 stations from the local area of Keighley and we were also visited by 2E0PMM, G8IC, and G0GNU.
We had at least 200 other visitors into our marquee with all ages Boys,Girls,Ladies and Gents. There was no shortage of interest and enthusiasm regarding radio and 3 young Ladys operated the Station making lots of QSO for the very first time, in fact they stayed in the marquee for almost 2 hours. The other STAR Centre staff had some interesting things like Rockets, Robots, Laptops and Space related things for the public to check out. The whole event was a big success and the Agricultural Show was very busy with lots of Stalls, and events which included Horse Show jumping as well as pet show competitions and other interesting Show Ground stands. Fortunately the weather was good, I am looking forward to next years event.
A big thank you to all Stations that we worked under the Call Sign MX0KSC/p and also I worked quite a few as I was setting up under My home Call which as you know already is 2E0HTS/p. Also thanks to Phil(M1PAC) who is a Club Member and Volunteer for the Colleges STAR Centre and He also holds the Club Call Sign MX0KSC.
73 to all thanks for visiting my blog see you again soon. Simon

Hustler 6bTV Base Station Antenna used from My Mobile

Here is my latest Ham Radio antics where you can see how I made a home brew mounting bracket that fixes to any Vehicle Tow Bar allowing large base station antenna systems to be used.

You will see on the video that I sucessfully mounted a Base Station Vertical 80M-10M HF hustler 6BTV (6 band trapped vertical).
You can also see how and why I decided to try this with the Big Signals that I got on 80M, 40M, 30M and 20M all booming through the Hustler 6btv into My little Yaesu FT-100. The mount proves to be secure and quick to install, all I have to do know is try it out again when the propagation is good or perhaps a contest?

Keep an Eye open for any future activities regarding this monster mobile Vertical here or on My YouTube Channel. 73 thanks for the Visit

International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend (ILLW)

This Weekend brings International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend (ILLW) on the Air to the Ham bands, I have been on Air and have made QSO with many Stations that have set up portable Ham stations, some with special Callsigns at various Lighthouses around the world.There are over 15000 possible Lighthouses to contact around the world so you can imagine that's an awful lot of potential contacts to make and I doubt that all of the Worlds Lighthouses/Lightships have been activated by Radio Amateurs from all over the Globe.
During the afternoon of Saturday i managed 22 contacts working 14 different Countries on 3 bands which were 80M, 40M and 20M. I was happily surprised to run into Ian GM3SEC under the Call GB2LS located at Southerness Lighthouse SCO223 with his fellow Hams from Wigtownshire Amateur Radio Club SCOTLAND - U.K.
Ian GM3SEC was putting out a big signal on the ft100 He was running, this was received by my ft847 and G5RV antenna.
If you have read the post on Radio and Astronomy you find info on My visit to Ians Shack in the form of a nice picture of Ian GM3SEC. It was a real pleasure to find and speak with him on 80Meters from my home QTH and I hopefully will get many more QSOs with Ian and the other Scottish Hams I have spoken with whilst been in Scotland on our holidays.

I used the G5RV on 40M and 80M and the Hustler 6BTV on 20M with good reports for the 50Watts of power I was running. I feel that the many compliments on my audio quality is probably down to the Adonis AM-DX1 ceramic desk microphone I have in line with just a bit of processor set on the fT847 Earth Station. This has been a good rig working well for Me alongside My FT767GX and FT857 which I also am more than satisfied with. .

I went on to working many more Lighthouse Stations on HF with some good conversation being shared and interesting information regarding the Lighthouses history.
GB2LT Turnberry Lighthouse also located in Scotland and was operated by Peter who went on to tell Me that it was also the site of Robert the Bruce's Castle which had been destroyed and the site was now a lump where Peters antenna system was fixed via the Lighthouse.

Some of the Lighthouse Stations had massive pile ups so some contacts were quick exchanging the relevant info required but even the busiest Stations refrained from just a boring 5/9 & 73. I always enjoy these type of activations/special events as you get to pass a few words and meet some interesting stations from all over the World.

Thanks to all who made the effort to activate the Lighthouses World wide 73 ;-)
Here are a few of the International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend (ILLW) On The Air I worked and managed to get in My log
click on log to enlargee

Here is LEASOWE LIGHT HOUSE Activated by GB4LL and worked on 80 Meters by myself among many other Lighthouse Stations which have been active on all bands this weekend and if you have missed todays activities there will more Lighthouse Stations throughout this Weekend.
LEASOWE Lighthouse on The Wirral Peninsula 6 KM SW of the City of LIVERPOOL. The Lighthouse is the oldest brick built Lighthouse in the U.K and the first cavity wall Lighthouse in the World built in 1763 using over 1.000000 hand made bricks it stands 110FT high. As you probably know already there are many different types of Lighthouse old and new, some are in remote places on the shoreline and some are out at sea on a small rock some where. Where ever they are located you will find a friendly Radio Amateur calling CQ WLOTA, good hunting as you turn the VFO on your radio receiver!

Short wave listeners can find activity around 3.600-3.800 Lower side band (LSB), 7.40-7.100 (LSB) and 14.110-14.350 Upper Side Band (USB) 73 thanks for visiting good luck with monitoring and listening.

Vissable ISS Pass and HF Bands Open Up for DX

The past couple of days have been a bit on the damp side here on Baildon Moor so I have been keeping my self amused with radio and the latest NASA activities regarding the docking of Endeavor to the ISS which Ive been keeping a close eye on since lift off last Wednesday the 8th. I have done this via the NASA web site Live TV Feed From ISS, you can get to via the link on the right of this page. I recommend view in media player.

ISS SIGHTINGS

As well as watching the live feed Ive been in and out looking into the Sky's at night, this was to be successful with three consecutive evenings of clear sky I was able to see the ISS and Endeavor Space Shuttle as an extremely bright Star travelling across the Horizon and night Sky.

I am not so clever with the camera so practice makes perfect but I did get some shots of one of the pass byes, taken on long exposure.

The top image is the best, if you click on it to enlarge and look closely you can see some resemblance of the ISS and Shuttle.

This Image gives you an idea as to how bright it looks in our Sky's, when looking for the ISS I use the Heavens above web site on the right of this page to give me an accurate schedule of when a visible pass with the naked eye is possible.It is surprising how bright the ISS is and how easy it is to see with a bit of planning and dark Sky as possible away from street lamps for the easiest results.


GOOD OPENINGS ON HF

Ive been making some good QSOs on the bands with openings on 6M, 10M, and 20M allowing some nice QSOs and rag chews with a few interesting stations such as Rit N4BNM, who came through with a 5/9 +20 signal on 20m late Tuesday evening. Rit N4BNM can be seen in his shack here in the picture, I am looking forward to making more QSOs with Rit in the not so distant future.

Here is another Station from the U.S.A that I managed a lengthy conversation rather than a 5/9 and 73. It is AD4EB Jim, who shared similar interests with Satellites and space. Jim AD4EB pictured below was also coming through very well on 20m.

This was the furthest DX contact I made during the evening, it was to be the second time I have had the pleasure of working Amado ZP8VAO from Paraguay. Amado was 5/5 and he said I was 5/7 in Paraguay which was a good report for the 50 watts I was running from the FT 847 through the Hustler 6BTV Vertical antenna, once again I was on 20m.

I managed some good QSO on 10m and 6m earlier in the day working Spain, Italy and other English Stations. It is nice to get some good openings on the HF bands.

73 good DX and hope you get the chance to see the ISS pass by.

Radio & Astronomy in Galloway Scotland

Hi Folks, We have been playing Radio and looking at the Stars, Planets and Galaxies up in the very beautiful and historic Galloway area of Scotland. I would recommend this part of the World to you all if you get chance to visit! It offers beautiful scenery, lots of history, friendly people and for those of us who like operating HF, zero noise interference allowing many good QSOs. As far as Astronomy goes, Galloway boasts some of the darkest skies in the U.K making observations extremely interesting and easy to see other Galaxy's, Globular clusters, Meteors, orbiting Satellites and the International Space Station which I had the pleasure of viewing with the naked eye.

Whilst operating I was 2M0HTS/m which is my call sign for Scotland. I find this a bit confusing?As intermediate licence holders we have to drop our County locator's prefix which in my case is 2E0 (England) replacing the E with M for Scotland becoming 2M0. This is kind of ridiculous as MM/2E0HTS would be less confusing, but I don't make up the rules I just try to bend them a bit.
hi hi.

We arrived on Tuesday at the Galloway Astronomy Centre where we were greeted by Mike & Helen Alexander who where great hosts and very nice people. The Cottage was lovely and Mikes knowledge of Astronomy was fantastic. Helen made some terrific home cooked meals and they both looked after us very well. Thank you guys!
During the Two Night stay we were able to observe many Stars and different Galaxies, Mikes Telescopes and observatory was amazing again his Knowledge of the Skies was second to non!

This picture was taken looking up the telescope into the extremely dark sky

Here is Mikes Telescope in observing mode
This is what it looks like in the Day light, with Mike the proud owner and Astronomer
Whilst staying at The Galloway Astronomy Centre Mike introduced Louise MM/M3TLL, Dudley our dog and myself to Ian and Nadine who are also Radio Amateurs. Their Call signs are GM3SEC Ian, and MM3YNW Nadine, They invited us over to their lovely home and We got the chance to tour their Ham Radio Station which was an impressive set up!. Ian GM3SEC is a technical writer for the RSGB Members magazine Radcom which I am a regular reader and member so it was a real pleasure to meet them both.
Ian GM3SEC in his Shack
One of the Antenna arrays at Ian & Nadines QTH. Ian was half way through constructing a vertical square four for use on 40M it looked quite impressive.

As well as Operating our Radio, looking at the Stars, walking and touring, We were able to take in some of the many Historic views. Here is My YL Louise MM/M3TLL standing next to an Ancient Antenna system which would probably transmit energy from lay lines. The Ancient Standing Stones are called The Drumtrodden Stones, there are many stone circles, Castles, Forts and other Ancient and old interesting places to visit in the near by area well worth a visit. We managed a five Day stay which included two nights camping in Port William and have still not managed to see everything.
In this view you can see the empty beach of Monreith and in the background is the Isle of Mann.

Of course it is a Dogs Life, Here he is (Dudley) sunning his self at the beach near Glen Luce.
I had many excellent QSOs from my mobile on 40M, 20M, and 2M. I worked Germany, France, South England, Norway, Italy, Bulgaria, Morocco, Tenerife, Belgium, The Azores and Tanzania on HF 40m & 20m. On 2M I spoke with local stations from the Stranraer radio club some of which originated from my home area of Yorkshire, this was quite amusing as I did not expect to hear other Yorkshire accents on the Air. hi hi

The local Hams where extremely willing to make QSO on 2m not like back home where there is a distinct silence when I call CQ 2 Meters! I guess that the lack of mobile phone coverage in the area makes Ham Radio more appealing and there was no shortage of Hams and Antennas on My mobile journeys. I am looking forward to my return to Galloway.

73 thanks for visiting.... Simon

Quad Band Mobile

Ive been quite busy this week with a lot of driving it worked out well as I got the opportunity of playing radio /mobile, I have the choice of 4 bands with the antenna systems i have installed to my Toyota rav 4.

The picture above shows a Diamond 2m/70cm ANT, a 40m Maldol HFC40, and a 20M Maldol HFC20.

This weeks QSO from the mobile have been made on 20m and 40m, the most of the time I was operating on 40m with some excellent results on my ft100 running 50 watts.
I made contacts with Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Poland all on 40M and from the Mobile. I am once again impressed with the performance of the little Maldol HFC40 like its partner gripped to the back of my tail gate the HFC20, both of these antennas have been in use daily for over 2 years and are still in top shape providing an experience of pure joy and surprise with some of the distant Counties worked.

I have one of the 80m Maldol HFC80 but I haven't managed to make QSO with anyone so I wouldn't recommend that one. The 15 meter comet can be installed quickly replacing one of the others, again this antenna has proved to be a good radiator. The Toyota roof has two large removable roof panels made from aluminium so I wouldn't be surprised if the Aluminium assists with my transmitted Waves helping them to radiate successfully from my Vehicle.

Ive got some Good Mobile touring coming up so I am looking forward to meeting you all on 40M, 20M, 2M & 70CMs whilst I tune around the bands on my journeys :-)

73 thanks for visiting

U.K Weather Continues To Improve

Click on image to ENLARGE
Once again NOOA 15 gives a good look at what is happening around 17.50 utc

I have not been so active on the HF bands as I have been busy fabricating a tow hitch/bar for my Vehicle.This is not a problem as I am a fully qualified Welding and Fabrication Engineer, so I was what we say? Playing! I made two attachments one is a straight forward tow ball bracket and the other will allow the mounting of a 6BTV from Hustler.The new home brew Tow bracket will shortly be put to the test as I am picking up a new toy which is a Kawasaki 750 spectre US import this thursday on the motorcycle trailor I am borrowing.

The Antenna mount will get tested when I set up Portable Station in about a month at the annual Keighley Show. There I will errect the Six Band Trapped Vertical( Hustler 6BTV) and fix it to my Vehicle using the homebrew Bracket/Mast so expect to here more about the Keighley Show nearer the time.
As far as the new edition to my Motor Cycle Collection I am looking forward to playing around with a Custom bike this weekend I am a 750 Kawasaki fan as you may have noticed back in my archives where you can see my Kawasaki GPZ 750 as well as my Suzuki Bandit. ;-)

I enjoy Motor Cycles on an even parr with Ham Radio so dont be to hard on me when I occasionaly blog about Bikes.

73 see you soon

NOOA 15 Sunday Night Pass Over My Part Of The Planet

Click on Image to ENLARGE


Hi Folks :-) I am happy to be able to say that we have been able to enjoy a rain free weekend with nice sunny intervals here at the QTH. Thankfully this has changed our moods too Happy, after a Terribly wet couple of months and I am pleased to say that after the bad weather all is well up on the Moor Tops of West Yorkshire.

Over the weekend Ive been listening on the bands, it hasn't been great but has had occasional DX openings especially on 20M with the odd strong Signals been heard from Indonesia and other DX countries.

I have been quite busy listening out for Weather satellites around 137.300mhz, 137.400mhz, 137.500mhz, 137.620mhz, 137.850mhz, & 137.912.5mhz. I have had some good results as we had some clear Sky's allowing better images of the different Countries of Europe possible. As you can see from the above image of tonights pass over my QTH I managed to receive signals on 137.500 mhz that were coming from NOAA 15.
NOAA 15 is just One of the many other weather monitoring and communication satellites available to experiment with the use of Radio equipment that Hams and SWLs can have fun with. I used my trusty surprisingly good listening big eared Yaesu Ft857 into the home brew vhf antenna, The rig is hooked up to the line in on the P.C sound card which is picked up by radio com 5.2 SAT-FAX decoder software, this set up keeps doing a fine job producing many excellent views from outta space.

The FT857 has really surprised me on how good of job it does whilst receiving these kind of Satellite signals. I operate the radio at very low output volume and set to FM not FMN.Further adjustments can be made using the audio in mixer on your P.C. It is important that to produce a clear image not to over do the vol level out of the rig into the sound card.

Quite a few people have commented on my Youtube videos about satellite receiving that the image quality is very good for the type of radio i am using it could be luck or maybe its not as difficult as you believe? ;-) I use just straight forward kit nothing to special. lol

That's all for now, have fun and if you want to Know more check out my Archives.

For those who Know already thanks for visiting 73!

Dont Believe What The Weather Man Says!

This is an Image I received tonight on my Yaesu FT857 from NOAA 15

You cant always trust what the TV weather presenters say! So my advice is to do your own Weather monitoring with a little help from the NOAA weather satellites. It has been Sunny and warm today for the first time since I returned from my holiday in Ibiza, but looking at the above image I best keep my water proofs at close hand.
The Video below shows how I received this Image and also includes a special appearance from Dudley the wanna be Radio Ham Greyhound.

73, thanks for visiting, take care and please come back soon! Simon

Views from My QTH (when its not raining)

Click on Images to Enlarge

My home QTH is out on the Moor Tops in the County of Yorkshire, You may have seen on the World News channels that we have been getting a months rainfall every day for the last few weeks. I am fortunate to be high enough at 1000ft ASL to avoid any flooding! however the lightning has been striking very close to my antennas and I have to wear waterproof s and wellington boots an awful lot hi hi.

Looking North Looking South East toward Europe
Looking South West Towards South America & The Carribean

Looking West Toward North America

Map Of My Stations Radiated Signals Around The Globe

I have plenty of places left to get my signals to go too! The Map is just a guide of where I have made it to so far. A more detailed Map breaking down the individual Countries hopefully in a future post.