The Launch of 2E0HTS eQSL Gallery

The last week has made me go bog eyed as I have been busy creating a new blog where I can display all of my received eQSL cards from Hams/SWLs from all over the globe. After uploading almost 500 eQSL card images you could imagine the relief of finally being able to switch on the radio's and take a well deserved break from my recently purchased 22" HD flat screen monitor. Yes the old eyes are definitely in need of a night off so hope you can spare me a couple of minutes to take a browse over some of the eQSL images I spent all week uploading. At least now that the new blog is up and running it will be quick, easy and painless to add any future received eQSL cards!

Thanks for looking and what do you think so far? 2E0HTS eQSL Gallery

Simon - 2E0HTS (the one with the red eyes!)

Latest Weather FAX Images Received from Northwood Region VI

Today the U.K is battling with the inclement weather and as many of the nation face heavy down pours of snow, I decided to take a look myself to try determine what we could be expecting our glorious British weather to bring us.

As usual I fired up the radio equipment and computer which I regularly use to receive images from Earth orbiting weather monitoring NOAA satellites.
I also like to receive weather faxes from Northwood, which show detailed pictures of changeable weather fronts intended for Ships/sea bearing vessels within our ocean - region 6 (Europe). click on any image to enlarge
Northwood's facsimile transmissions are scheduled throughout the day every day and include:

Fronts Centres Winds.
Surface Analysis.
Gale Summary.
Milli Bar (MB) Height/Thickness.
Surface Prognosis.
Signal Wind Areas.

Frequencies used to receive the Fax transmissions are: 11.084.600 USB, 8.038.100 USB, 4.608.100 USB, & 2.616.600. USB. (HF - LF).

Software: Radio Com 5.2 or any Fax decoding software.

Radio and antenna used: Yaesu FT-847 and random length of wire.

Here is the Decoder (Radio Com 5.2) used on my computer.

Here you can see the program's vast choice of pre-programmed receiving/decoding options.

This is the first image received showing Surface Prog.

Image no 2 Surface Prog

Image 3 Surface Prog ( You can compare the extent of movement of the weather front from Image 1 to 3 ).

This Image Shows Thickness and Potential Height. (Tomorrow Feb 3rd, Prediction)
650 Milli Bar Wind prediction (Feb 3rd, Tomorrow)
I will let you decide for yourself tomorrow's WX, Good Luck
and look out for more Weather (WX) images/Fax in the up and coming future.
Till then keep warm and tnx for passing by!

Real Time Satellite Tracking

Searching round the internet I found this useful site for those of you that don’t have satellite tracking software. The site shows real time satellite tracking for a range of satellites. The ISS is the default satellite tracked on the homepage and it gives you useful information such as speed, altitude, elevation and azimuth position as well as the current longitudes and latitude. The site automatically works out your location from your computer’s IP address, you can also choose to add the satellites footprint and direction line

At the top of the page you can find menus for most popular, most tracked and latest launches. If you click on All Categories you’ll find a list of satellites listed which includes Amateur Radio and Weather satellites. Click on the type of satellite you are looking for and you’ll find a list of information including launch dates and the options to either ‘Track it’ or ‘Passes.’ If you choose ‘track it’ it will show you the satellites current position on Google Maps. If you choose ‘passes’ you will get a list of all predicted satellite passes over your home location for the next 5 days.

If you use iGoogle you can even get it as a gadget on your Google homepage, however the range of satellites you can track on the gadget are limited.

The site is well worth checking out. I will be giving it a more thorough test drive over the next few days to see how accurate it is, however it looks promising so far.

73 Happy Tracking!

ISS Cross Band Repeater Latest Video

ISS Cross Band Repeater Worked - RX-Down Link 145.800 FM -TX-UP Link 437.800 FM

Earlier this evening (Saturday) I managed to get in to the ISS (International Space Station) cross band repeater during its oncoming orbital approach and worked M0IKB Angus from Scarbourgh, E.Yorkshire.

The ISS’s onboard Transponder was very active with many Hams being heard during the ISS pass over my location, IO93CU Baildon Moor.
I used my Yaesu FT-847 & IOIo beam to work through the ISS and Satscape on my computer to track and get the correct position to turn the beam.
Thanks for watching, best 73.

Ham Shack on The Hill

The Holiday seems a distant memory as the last couple of weeks have been flying by speedily here and I have felt the strains of work and the cold dark wintery days that we have been seeing. Despite the usual moans, the New Year has started off ok so far.
As far as playing radio I have already had some fun filled hours of radio from the shack as well as some nice contacts being made from the mobile.

The beginning of the month started quiet on the HF bands here in Yorkshire. The entire HF spectrum has not been very active with not much propagation during my usual radio time which is usually most evenings and weekends. The 2 meter band has however been quite interesting especially around the first weekend of the month (3rd) when contacts of over 200 miles were being made throughout numerous QSO’s up and down the country. I made the most of the sporadic E conditions operating the Yaesu FT-847 and 50W using FM and a 7/8 wave vertical antenna. I gave a couple of CQ Calls on the calling frequency 145.500 and a quick QSY to 145.350 FM, proved well worth the effort. I worked around 18 Stations over a period of a couple of hours, with some excellent long distance QSO’s and a nice little pile up (Rare on 2M FM)..

Here are some of the Stations worked and their locations including Locator and WAB Square (Where Known) During 2009 First Sporadic E.

1) M0STN, Steve in WAB Square SP75NHM. Northampton.
2) M3RVZ, Phil in Locator IO93GA. Belper, Derbyshire.
3) G1KDU, Andre in Locator IO92GM . Staffordshire.
4) G0HWK, Mike in Dunstable, Bedfordshire nr Luton airport.
5) M0IGG, Steve on Walney Island, Cumbria.
6) G4WPE, Malcolm, in Locator IO92FS, WAB, SK22, Newhall.
7) M3VXT Craig in Chesterfield.
8) M1AVV Simon in Locator IO84JC WAB SD27, Barrow in Furness.
9) M1DDD/P, Nick in Locator IO93AE, WAB SK06 Buxton.
10) M0BXR Ian near Warrington.
11) G1PPH Mathew in Locator IO92ER, WAB SK21 Lynton nr Burton.
12) M6SLE Stuart from Bolton, Lancashire.
13) GW6STK Robert in Locator IO83dg, WAB SH87 Cowling Bay, Wales.
14) M3SXV/M Shaun in Stamford Bridge, East Yorkshire.
15) M0GGR/P Andy/Tyke in LocatorIO93GP Woolley Edge Wakefield.
16) M6JCS/M Jason, in Huddersfield.
17) M3MOV Mark, in Locator IO83PI, Runcorn Cheshire.
18) G0VXN Peter nr Blackpool, Lancashire.
I went on to work my friend's/ local Hams M0XLT, Kevin, G0GNU, Jeff, G1YPQ, Karl, 2E0DOG, Ron and Phil M1PAC and heard that they had also experienced Sporadic E conditions and some were also jumping on the DX whilst the going was good! I wonder if you had similar conditions? As far as the 2M band at present it is still occasionally providing the odd opening and is well worth a listen. Thanks to all worked and hope to do it again soon.

HF & LF
Not quite convinced that the new solar cycle has got out of bed yet, as nothing to spectacular to report from the Shack or Mobile. So far I have heard only a few odd early morning DX openings taking place on 20 meters during my work bound journey and more often than not, nothing at all. I have heard the odd VK and also Al, ZL1BD but have not been successful on the call in. The best time to work the VKs & ZLs seems to be from 8.00 utc onwards, using the 20 meter band. By the time my working day is over the band has closed with no chance of making any QSO’s apart from surprisingly enough tonight (20M). I managed a Stateside QSO from my Mobile Yaesu FT-857 whilst returning from work around 17.00 utc. Tonight signals from the US were still coming in on 20M up until 19.00 utc, I hope things are on the up!

Despite poor HF-LF propagation I have still made some good QSO’s . I have had the best results operating PSK31 on 80M (3.582 MHZ) and 40M (7.038), always managing to find some activity somewhere using PSK31 on one of the LF bands.

Latest Satellite Operation using IOIo Beam, FT-847 via VO-52
I have still been following various satellite passes whilst spending time playing radio and have worked some good Locators and Countries this month so far via VO-52.

EA1QS, Pablo, in Locator IN52QK. Spain
OE3DSB, Gerald, in Locator JN78FA. Austria.
IK5QLO, Andy, in Locator JN53TU. Italy.
DL1SWB, Peter, in Locator JO53QH. Germany.
MW0BBU, Steve, in Locator IO71LR Wales.
IW6OVD, Fernando, in Locator JN62EA. Italy.
OK1UFC, Mira, in Locator JN78GV. Czech Republic.
Hope to hear you all via the “Birds” in the future passes!

That’s about it for Ham Shack on the Hill, from 2e0HTS. Until next time Thanks for passing by!! Best 73.

W.A.B (Worked All Britain) HF Mobile Station

As the holiday draws to an end Louise (M3TLL), Dudley (Dx Hound) and I continue to make the most of our new walking boots and weather proof clothing and once again take to the Moorland high ground. We head up to Rombalds Moor totting up a few more miles whilst taking in the winter sights.

After the walk I decided to change the 20m Maldol for the HFC 80 and see if I could get into the W.A.B Net that was active on 3.760.0 LSB.

The Net Controller - GM3VTY Keith was receiving me well from SE14BRA and gave me the opportunity to work all of the other W.A.B Stations that were on the band.

I have been a member of W.A.B since 2004 and don't activate squares as regularly as I could whilst out in the mobile. After having so much fun today you can expect to hear 2E0HTS/M calling CQ W.A.B!

Hear is the video showing my W.A.B activity. Thanks to, GM3VTY, G8CBU, G0RQL, ON3WAB, G4JZF, G7WAB, EI9HQ, & G0TRB all worked from SE14BRA.

Happy New Year from 2E0HTS

Happy New Year to all and hope to meet you on the Air Waves some time soon during 2009!
The new year has started rather chilly hear at the 2E0HTS QTH, so I decided to try out one of my Christmas presents that Louise (M3TLL) had got me ;-). I headed outside into the cold (0 degrees) with my LG KU 990, a 5Mega pixel camera phone and took some shots of the antennas looking slightly frozen. Despite the ice formation on the elements, signals are sounding clear with very little noise on the HF bands which is a welcomed change as the noise levels were very high during the Christmas period. (Too many Christmas Tree lights causing QRN h.i).
Here are a few pictures of my antennas which are basic but work well for me at 1000ft asl. I Hope to work some good openings during 2009 and wish you all Happy DX!

Home Brew IOIo Beam (145/435 MHZ|) and One side of G5RV Leg

Other side of opossite Leg of the G5RV and the Magnificent 1000 ft ASL View looking West

20m Home Brew Delta Loop

Hustler 6BTV Ground Mounted

Seasons Greetings

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year To All!

Thanks for all of the fantastic comments, advice, ideas and encouragement as well as all of the emails sent during the year. Thank you to All at Planet Ham. Thank you to all Stations worked and all QSLs received, hope to do it all over again in 2009. And finally Thank you All for visiting Ham radio operator.blogspot.com and reading my blog posts as well as putting up with the many radio video's h.i!

Have a great Christmas holiday and all the best for the new year!

Mobile DX into New Zealand

After hearing Al, ZL1BD most mornings for the last couple of months it gave me great pleasure to make QSO with Al this morning on my work bound journey.
ZL1BD AL was a real 5/9 into Baildon Moor when I heard him calling CQ at around 8.15 utc, I gave him a shout back using my Yaesu FT-857, Maldol HMC-20 antenna and 50watts. Al, ZL1BD came straight back to me and gave me a 5/6 report and also remembered me from our previous QSO from around 18 months ago. Al had remembered that I was near by to some relatives he had here in yorkshire U.K. and knows my home area quite well.
I can now rest easily regarding the FT-857s performance as it seems to be working very well making good DX contacts from my Toyota Lucida Estima.
I Hope to work more early morning DX openings during the winter months.

OH2FFY/Mobile pile up on 20m

The WX is very wet here in Yorkshire at the moment so I decided to make the most of the situation by playing some radio. I worked some stations via the Earth orbiting VO-52 Satellite, OM3VAN, HA6NM, DL3JIN and MW0BBU all on the same pass which lasted around 10 Min's. I then had a listen around 20m and noticed that the noise levels were very low allowing weak signals to be heard. I heard some European stations working Australia, and the US Virgin Islands the pile ups were quite crazy, it reminded me back to the day I heard a US station once say it sounded like "Wild Dogs in a meat shop". A good way to sum up a lot of the mad pile ups you here when those rare or interesting stations are spotted and discovered on the Ham bands.

Picture of OH2FFY/Mobile
It was around 11.30 utc when I came across OH2FFY Greg working mobile on 14.187 mhz with a signal of 5/7 - 5/9 with QSB and lots of QRM (Mad Dogs h.i). I listened for over half an hour and realised that we had already made contact with each other via the Internets Youtube site, so I gave him a shout and we exchanged reports. Greg had made a half wave mono band antenna and sent me a message on one of my Ham Radio Youtube videos . It was great to get the chance to work Greg on his home brew antenna and Yaesu FT-747 from his mobile. Thanks Greg hope to hear you again and see you on Youtube.

New Country In the Log

Last night whilst tuning around 40M I managed to work some good DX into Senegal, West Africa which is a new Country for me. I was running 50W from the FT-767GX with a G5RV type Dipole when I heard a pile up around 7.092mhz, the voices stoped calling and I was able to hear the DX station 6W2SC.

6W2SC(Peter) was coming through up to Baildon Moor N.Yorks quite well with a 5/8 signal report received at my station. I worked Peter with a little patience form his good self, which he had as other stations were insistent on calling over me. h.i I still managed to make the qso despite the heavy QRM back to him sending a 5/5 2E0HTS signal.
Its a nice bonus working a new one and lets hope propagation is improving at last!
Thanks from myself to Peter 6W2SC for making it possible to add a next DXCC in the old log as well as the speedy eQSL confirmation ;-)

Ham Radio Weather Watch

With the WX (weather) bringing snow flurries to the UK, this weeks radio activity has been spent once again in listening mode. Both the FT-767GX & FT-847 have been in operation receiving signals on HF and VHF in combinations of weather Fax's as well as satellite weather imagery.
The snow was around 6 inches/30 centimeters at its peak which was on Thursday and is still present today (Saturday) despite the suns rays trying to melt it.

As usual the best satellite images came fro NOOA 17 using Radio Com 5.2 to decode and satscape to track.

This image shows the clear sky over the UK, but looking at the approaching weather front that is in the Atlantic we better enjoy it while it lasts! RX using IOIo beam & FT-847

Here was the scene earlier on in the week, I guess I wont be riding the Kwacker for a while. h.i


The Snow did bring some good openings on Tuesday on 2m ssb during the contest as I worked some good Scottish DX using 50W on the home brew IOIo beam. Thanks to GM4PPT dick, GM6JNJ David and all the others worked during the evening.
I am very pleased with the little IOIo beams performance on 2M SSB and will be listening out for any good DX!

Hope to catch you all on HF or VHF, 73 TNX for all of your comments!

Winter Wonder Land

This weekend brought freezing temperatures to the Yorkshire Moor where we live, I couldn't resist putting this spectacular view looking north west from my QTH up the Aire Valley on here for all to see. Normal visibility from this QTH is usually up to 30 miles, this weekends view was almost from a fairy tale. The QTH is at around 1000 ft above sea level and as you can see anywhere below a 1000 ft has been eaten up by freezing fog.
click on image to enlarge

Other news apart from the WX is I tried the Maldol HMC-6S on my mobile set up. The antenna is a bit on the big side for driving around with, but when stationary I was pleased to hear the multi banded beast pulling in some big signals on 20m. I checked the SWR on the 20m band and it was 1.1, the other bands were also working but propagation was not so lively. I will be fully testing the antenna in the near future on the other HF bands, more than likely when Spring arrives.
click on image to enlarge

That's all for now, just a quickie. 73

p.s Hope you had a great birthday Louise(M3TLL). :-)

Todays Weather From NOOA-17 Satellite At 10.30 utc Over Europe

The WX-Weather has brought snow, wind and freezing temperatures to North Europe. At my QTH-Location Baildon Moor, N.England, at 1000ft above sea level the temperature dropped to 0 degrees Celsius last night and we had a threat of snow but it did not settle.

The bands were in good shape late last night/early this morning, as I worked Russia, The Ukraine, The USA and lots of other Stations from Europe using PSK31 on 40 & 80M.
All signals were loud on both bands with plenty of activity, I dragged my self away around 2am to get some sleep but it wasn't easy! h.i

At present the sun is beaming with outside temperatures at 5.0 degrees Celsius and the wind is stirring making it feel even colder.

The image I have just received is from Earth orbiting weather monitoring satellite NOOA 17, which just passed by heading South West. The image shows N.W and W Europe with N.England under heavy cloud cover. I believe this is probably the best image I have received for a while using the IOIo beam, FT-847 and radio com software.

73 de The Weather Man, 2E0HTS Simon