The 2010 CQ World Wide Contest

Once again the Bands have become a mass of squawks and rumbles as Radio amateurs around the World battle it out across the HF bands trying to work as many SSB phone contacts amongst the racket of zones and signal reports. This is of course the very popular annual CQ WW Contest.

The main objective of the CQ WW Contest is for radio amateurs around the world to contact other amateurs in as many zones and countries as possible within 48 hrs. The World is divided into a total of 40 Zones. The Bands used during the contest are all bands, from 1.8MHz through to 28MHz, except for WARC bands.

I enjoy this Contest very much as it coincides with the anniversary of when Louise (M3TLL) and I first dated, Louise lets me play radio every year during our special weekend, as long as I pamper to her every need in between which is easily achievable hi hi.

During this year’s CQ WW Contest, I don’t believe that radio conditions were as good as previous years. I did not hear the volume of regular DX stations that I am used to hearing. I also noticed the higher end of the HF bands closing down completely in the early evening.

Despite poor conditions I was able to work some nice DX such as, Canada, USA , Kazakstan, Turkey, Brazil, Argentina, Senegal, U.S. Virgin Is and lots of Europe.
Despite my hard efforts which comprised of an FT1000mp MK-V and a CW160 & Hustler vertical antenna, I only managed 13 out of the 40 Zones before The Dog nearly left home. At this point, Louise was also considering chatting to the milk man. So with that in mind hi, I decided to call it a day a couple of hours shy of the finishing line which was 12 midnight local time.

Before I did, I managed to catch some Stations up and down the Bands on video (seen below) during the CQ WW Contest. Hope you enjoy watching the CQ WW video from my shack. 73

Todays NOAA 19 WX Satellite Image of N.Africa - Europe - Arctic Circle

Image received at 12.30 utc
Below is a screen shot of my computer screen as signals are received from the NOAA -19 Satellite on 137.100 MHz(fm)
To do this I use my IO-10 Satellite beam coupled to the Yaesu FT-847. The signal is fed to my P.C via a soundblaster sound card to be decoded into the image seen above.

Shack to Shack

I recently received the provisional Results from the IOTA 2010 Contest which took place back in July. I took part in this years IOTA Contest for the very first time really enjoying the whole experience and to my recent surprise doing quite well considering my low output power. I entered the Fixed, Single Operator, Unassisted, Single Sideband, 24hr, Low Power Section of the contest (a bit of a tongue twister to say the least). The shortened abbreviated version can be seen below with my score and position.

11 - 2E0HTS - EU005 - Great Britain - IOTA FIX SOU SSB 24H LP - 143 - 57 - 68913

Follow this link to see the full IOTA 2010 Provisional Results .

Other recent activity has been mainly on the HF bands especially 40M, 20M, 17M and 15M. Over the past week I have worked some nice DX using the FT1000mp MKV and recent CW160 antenna, the good propagation has provided some excellent openings on the higher end of the HF bands. On 15M, I have worked into Brazil - PY2DN & New Zealand - ZL4LP, On 20M I worked several stations from the USA, including - WX3B. On 40M Saudi Arabia - HZ1BL and the USA - N9NC as well as other USA stations were worked throughout the week. I picked a few of the stations out of the log, many thanks to all other Stations from near and far also worked throughout the week.

I have also been active via the HO-68 and VO-52 Satellites, where I managed a couple of nice little pile ups as I worked a few Stations out of Europe during one of the many passes. I also got into AO-7 for the first time which is another Satellite I am going to have to find more time to play around with.

The past three evenings has rekindled the fire for the 2M band as I have heard spectacular openings all over the band both on SSB and FM. I was able to work into Germany on 2M FM making QSO with DL1EBQ due to the Tropospheric Ducting that has been taking place. I have also made plenty of QSOs down into the South of the UK on both FM as well as SSB. The band has remained open this evening and looks like it will stay open until tomorrow. Check out theforecast and see for yourself.

And Finally The Big Story
2E0HTS is proud to announce that he is a Father to be, as Baby "hts" will be arriving early next year around the 25th of Feb. My lovely YL - M3TLL is doing a brilliant job so far and I will be starting He or She off with Ham radio as soon as there is a voice hi hi, watch out for an up and coming new baby ham. 73 from a happy 2E0HTS.

Nice openings into VP8 - Falkland Islands

I recently added some more radio gear to my ever growing collection which comprises of a few more antenna's and a Ft-1000MP Mark-V to help bow the shack table some more.

I strung up a Carolina Windom 160 by Radio Works last weekend which joins my collection of home made delta loops, wires, beams and verticals. You can never have too many radios or antenna's hi hi.

Since the the CW160 was up I have made lots of great QSO,s on 80m, 40m, 20m, 17m, 15m & 12m. I have yet to try it out on 160m, 30m & 10m but the results so far on the other bands have been very surprising.

The antenna is 265ft long and is suspending by trees in a more or less straight line and it is nice and stealth like not causing any complaints so far which always helps to keep things peaceful.

The new addition - Yaesu Ft1000MP MK-V fine tunes the antenna well using the onboard atu, the antenna is less than 2:1 at worst across all of the HF bands and is at 1:1 on 160m without the atu in its present configuration.

I've put good signals into K, VE, CO, 7V & CU on 18m using the CW160 and WX, K, TR, VO, VA, CO, & VP on 20m. VP also on 12m. On 40m & 80m the CW160 is working as expected putting out a big signal whilst receiving a very low noise level, I have heard plenty of JA coming in on both 40m & 80m at around 5/7 signals.

The highlight of this weeks radio activity from the shack has got to be working TR8CA - Gabon on 14MHz and best of all was VP8LP - Falkland Islands on 12M where I got to work bob for a second time at a distance of 8000 miles.

I got lucky again Saturday evening on 14MHz and managed to work VP8DLB also on the Falkland Islands. The picture below shows the MK-V receiving VP8DLB - Gary at 5/7 through the CW160 which at the time was the strongest performer out of my Hustler 6BTV and Delta loop which I kept switching between.

I am really enjoying some of the nice openings that have been happening of late with QSO's over very long distances becoming a daily occurrence, I have also worked a few nice openings into VK from the mobile again, whilst driving to work in the mornings.

Hope to catch some of you somewhere on the bands, thanks for passing by & best 73. Good DXing!

HI FI

As well as Ham Radio I have had a history of playing music - DJing on local community broadcast stations. I was involved with a local station for over 15 years before I got my amateur radio licence, broadcasting live to about 250,000 listeners three times a week never missing a show.
So as you can imagine I have an extensive collection of Vinyl recordings. To sum it up, if I ever melted them down I would have enough plastic to manufacture 10,000 hand held microphones.

On a more serious note I try to spend the odd weekend playing some of my records and at the same time I have the PC interfaced to my sound system allowing me to convert the tracks to mp3.
I have had my "HI FI" equipment for over 20 years and it still sounds as solid as ever. It is connected to some PIONEER CS-777 speakers powered by a DENON PMA350 amplifier. I still have some 22" base boxes fitted with horns that I can "string up" if needed for venues etc.

I obviously don't listen to music when I am active on the bands but in the future I might consider using some of my HI FI equipment such as a mixing desk and a graphic equaliser in the shack. I think it could be interesting to see how I can experiment around with my audio settings. A mixer will allow various microphones and the rig-blaster to be easily faded in or out when required using one output/mic lead. I will also have the capability of recording stations directly to my PC with instant replay possibilities.

So a next project in amateur radio brought to me whilst listening to some good old Reggae!

As far as making QSOs I have had quite a few good long path QSOs into VK recently from both the shack and the mobile on my regular favourite band - 20M.

Up here in the North of England I've found the best time to work long path stations seems to be from 7.00 utc up until 9.30 utc.
I have also been regularly hearing good openings into JA and State-side on 17m quite a lot lately during the day time.

Hope to catch some of you on the bands during the evenings and weekends. I will try to post a bit more regularly again now that the Summer is almost at an end (my motorcycles will be getting less of my attention).

73

OSCAR Satellites AO-51, VO-52 & HO-68

Since I settled for the 10 element 435MHz and IO 145MHz loop antenna (IO-10EL) I have been getting into the OSCAR Satellites with ease. I have been making lots of QSO's with the home built beam fixed at 30º elevation for the past year or so on FM and SSB.

Earlier this evening I made QSO's on AO-51, HO-68 and VO-52. On AO-51(FM) I worked ON5NY, on HO-68(SSB) I worked IZ7JXJ, DJ8DT and for the second time this evening ON5NY. On VO-52(SSB) I worked IZ5AVK and DK1IE, all were good signals and all Stations could hear me at 5/9. I was running approximately 35Watts from my Yaesu FT-847 and managed to still get in to HO-68 at a total distance of 2500 miles as the the Satellite headed over North America.

I am always amazed how well my homemade antenna performs and I still get the biggest buzz when the "birds" pass over, in fact my hard done by YL - Louise M3TLL thinks I have a problem and calls me a "Satellite Junkie".

Unfortunately for Louise, there doesn't seem to be a cure available on prescription yet!

Holiday In 2M Land

We spent last week relaxing at the Galloway Coastline in the south west of Scotland. We had a very enjoyable stay at The Isle of Whithorn just 7yds from the sea.
Our accommodation was excellent on the Harbor row, which was only a stone’s throw away from the historic landing place of St Ninian
We visited this area for the first time three years ago when we stayed at the Galloway Astronomy Centre and have been revisiting as regular as we can, ever since. The area has lots of historic sites not to mention the stunning views, large empty beaches and plenty of wild life which for us makes up a great holiday.
One of our favorite beaches is at Monreith where there is one of Scotlands best kept secerets The Church of Kirkmaiden hidden away but easily found along with St Medana’s Well.

The Church of KirkmaidenSt Medana's beach at Kirkmaiden
During our many visits to the beach I was able to get some HF Mobiling done with the trusty Yaesu FT-100 on 20m, 40m and 80m with some great contacts worked with my recently acquired Hustler mono band antenna.I enjoyed the many QSO's and managed to get a few of the stations I worked in my log thanks to my YL Louise (M3TLL). Thanks! to all of you guys that came back to my call.

I also took my telescope and I spent some time watching the Buzzards look for their lunch. I tried to catch some pictures so you can see what I was looking at.
The little Ft-817 also got some use when I was walking around the Isle of Whithorn with Louise and our Dog Dudley. I could hear many Stations on the HF bands using the Miracle Whip however I think I would need some kind of miracle to actually get some kind of a signal out.
I did manage to make a local QSO on 2M FM with the FT-817 and Miracle ha ha Whip, which was fellow holiday maker 2M0IOB, who was about 10 miles away. Once again a good time was had by all and I got a few heads turning in dismay I as bellowed into the little rig whilst sat on the top of a large rock.

I returned home just in time for the IOTA Contest and managed to log 146 Stations during the 24hr contest from back home in the shack in Yorkshire. It was the first time I have taken part in the IOTA Contest and I really enjoyed the experience, the Set up at home worked well over the weekend as I managed over 70 Islands On The Air running low power 50 watts.

I am hoping to be fairly active on the HF bands over the next week as I continue to enjoy my Summer holidays. 73 have fun!

Working The Satellite's From The Shack

Over the weekend I worked a few amateur satellites using my Yaesu FT-847 radio and home made IO-10EL Satellite antenna.

Satellite & Station worked

SO-50 - EA1JM .

VO-52 - G0FGX, HB9OAB, G6NQO & SP3GAD .

HO-68 - N1AIA & KB1RVT (FM Mode) .

AO-51 - LY1R .

HO-68 - M0ITF (SSB) .

I still prefer working via the SSB transponders rather than the FM birds, however its all extremely good fun with plenty of fellow Satellite ops that are always very friendly and happy to work you.
As usual AO-51 was the busiest of the birds with plenty of activity on each pass. I was especially pleased with my QSOs across the pond using FM via HO-68 which is proving to be a fantastic Satellite both on FM and SSB. I cant wait until HO-68 has been fully commissioned and is switched on all of the time.

Check out the Oscar Satellite Status to see which Satellites are operational and have been heard recently by fellow Hams and SWLs all over the globe.

TREE Band Antenna

I just got out of my mobile ham shack and noticed that something was different about my dual band antenna? I soon realised it had been modified into a Tree-bander or perhaps a "Twig" (for all of you that can remember the old CB slang for antenna).

So here is what happens when you drive down small country lanes with plenty of green scenery everywhere.

Luckily no birds nests were harmed in any way and the antenna is still good.

ICOM Competition Win

I am very pleased to have recently found out that I had been chosen as a winner of a competition I had entered after visiting the Icom Web Site. I signed up to Icom's news letter a few months ago and have been enjoying reading the latest news from Icom and entering some of the competitions found on their web site.

I didn't expect to be the lucky winner of the last competition prize, which is a well presented logbook & diary packed with lots of useful pages and an Icom pen to fill the pages with Call signs and DXCC.

Thanks to Icom for this great prize that I won, I now can begin ticking the boxes of all the many different Pre-fixes I work whilst on the air.

I hope to get some of you in my new Log soon!

/ Motor Cycle?

In 1984 I obtained my full motor cycle licence as soon as I turned 17, I had been riding dirt bikes and mopeds since the age of 11 and had developed a mechanical mind early. I have been interested in motor bikes for about the same time as I have radio and I can remember fitting my Honda C-50 out with a Binatone Speedway 40 channel CB and DV-27 antenna back in 1983.

These Days I still have four motor cycles that I ride and maintain regularly but since I have been a licensed ham(2004), I have not yet operated amateur radio from any of the four machines.

I might try something with the FT-817 on one of my bikes soon, but at present I'm enjoying the ride whilst the warm dry conditions last!

For now the Toyota Rav-4 "Mobile DX Machine" & Yeasu FT-100 are both on standby.

Right, where's my helmet and gloves........

YAESU FT-470 Battery Modification

I have owned my trusty FT-470 for over 6 years and have worked many DX with it whilst working through the FM Satellites.
I’ve used it whilst out and about Mobile as well as lots simplex and repeater use for years with excellent receiving capabilities compared to the more modern Hand held’s. I have been running with AA, NiMH 2.300mAh 1.2V Rechargeable battery’s housed in a Yaesu FBA-10 Battery case, which still works very well with hours of quality operating time.

About a year ago I managed to acquire a second FT-470 from a local rally for a bargained down price. The latest FT-470 came with an original FNB-10 - 7.2v 600mAh Ni-Cd Battery pack that held its charge for about 15 minutes whilst receiving and a lot shorter when transmitting.
To get around the faded FNB-10, I have been using the latest FT-470 with the PA-6, Dc Car Adapter/Charger, fed with a 12v Motor Cycle Battery and the original FT-470 on the FNB-10 Ni-Cd pack whilst hooked up to the Arrow Sat antenna.

I like the performance and look of the paired FT-470’s strapped to the boom but found the trailing power lead into the second FT-470 unit awkward and cumbersome. I had a quick reminder of the specs in the FT-470 Operating Manual where I read the unit would work from as low as 5.5VDC up to a maximum of 15VDC.

I had recently been given a box of 12, 9V PP3 Type Battery’s and I had a couple of old dead FNB-10 battery cases I wanted to open up and fiddle around with.

I cut out the original rechargeable cells and soldered in a couple of quick release battery leads which would fit the PP3 9V Battery’s. The new leads can also be used later for a future plan which will be to find and fit a cradle to house some more AA, NiMH 2.300mAh 1.2V Rechargeable cells into the old FNB-10 case.

I decided to connect two 9V batteries in parallel circuit to the old battery case connection point. I can now power up the second FT-470 to receive the Satellite down link frequency for a lot longer without fading allowing the use of the original FT-470 for the Transmit uplink Frequency running my Rechargeable Ni-Cd Battery pack. I can now get a few days of use out of the two PP3’s as opposed to 15 minutes if I’m lucky or a power lead and adapter wrapped around my legs. Hurray! I now have two FT-470’s working well!

As usual I enjoyed getting the soldering iron out and having a play, I am pretty pleased with the result and I will be looking out for some kind of cradle to house 6, AA Battery’s to be used for my next FT-470 job.

In the meantime I can use my long battery life Kenwood TH-F7 for dog walking and when I fancy a few more bands the FT-817 is always fully charged and ready to roll.

The QRP side of Amateur Radio for me is what its all about, I have had some superb Satellite and SOTA contacts operating with the minimum amount of power that I need which is often less than 5 Watts. Long live my exceptionally good pair of old, but still up to date performance wise - Yaesu FT-470 UHF/VHF FM Handie Transceiver’s.

Chinese Porn!!!!!

Just a quick post to inform any readers regarding the abundance of Chinese comments that have been appearing here at my Ham Radio blog. They seem to be just another source of spamming in the form of porn enthusiasts rather than radio ops/ engineering fans.

Although I am quite open minded and allow all comments good or bad to be seen on my site I've decided to enable the feature that asks to Show word verification when commenting. This should filter out the Chinese Pornsters unless of course they are truly passionate about Ham Radio.

For all those interested in Chinese porn, see the previous comments. For those who like myself will get battered by there YL's for going anywhere remotely near those dubious dodgy sites, I apologise for any unsuitable links they may have attached with the seemingly harmless if not slightly puzzling comments left by my new Chinese followers?

Have a great weekend, hope to catch some of you on the bands!

10 and 12 Meter Verticals

Whilst having a sort out I came across some old mobile whips that I had stashed away. I found my old 9 foot stainless 1/4 wave 10M whip, a base loaded 10M whip as well as a 6M whip and a 2M whip. After playing around with the various 5/8 threaded antennas I decided to erect one antenna with radials for 10M and a second for 12M by joining two antennas (6M & 2M) together.
Here is the 10M whip with radials.

Here is the 6M joined with the 2M whip which is perfectly resonant on 12M

I have been hearing some nice signals on both bands earlier today whilst using the FT-857 to listen on 12M as the FT-847 was listening on 10M. I will be TXing on both bands soon with more to come on the results of each antenna.

The new mono band verticals join the rest of my HF antennas which still comprise of a home made delta loop for 80M, another home made delta loop for 20M, and one I bought which is the Hustler 6BTV.

On The Bright Side

After a week of holidaying at home in the glorious sunshine, our last day was spent watching the much needed rain falling hard up here on the moor top. During our travels I had managed to pick up some replacement 12V Lilliput LES lamps for my "in darkness" favourite old HF radio, the Yaesu FT-767GX.

Once I removed the screws I managed to get the iron in and replace a couple of rather short wires that were soldered to the lamp housing close to the meter. The job was tight for space (for a welder) but easy enough once I got stuck in and as you can see from the above picture the meter has two new bright lamps shining once again.

I have enjoyed using my regular Satellite radio The FT-847 on the HF bands but I have been missing my old mate the FT-767. Now that I have re-illuminated the good old fashioned mechanical meter, I am looking forward to many more hours of HF fun with the old beast.