February QSO Challenge (Guest Post from M3TLL)

Hi everyone, Louise (M3TLL) here.

Louise - M3TLL and ham-in-the-making Elsie

Just thought I'd share with you a radio-themed challenge I've set 2E0HTS which begins tomorrow. Every day throughout February Simon must make at least one contact on the radio. There's no conditions other than he must post the callsign, frequency and time he works the contact here on his blog. It can be any band, any time of day, any country, mobile, portable or from home.

Feel free to join in his February QSO challenge or just visit his blog to see if he actually can make at least one radio contact every day. Listen out on the bands for 2E0HTS who should be more active than usual this month.

Now I just need to think of a reasonable forfeit (if he fails the challenge) and get some earplugs (in case he succeeds and I get sick of it!)

Good luck Simon!

M3TLL - Louise

Ham Radio Links - Update

Just a quickie to inform you that I have removed any tired or inactive links found on the right hand side of  my home page. In return I also added quite a few new useful and informative links which include many satellite sites. All links to other amateur radio information and resources can now be found in an organised list, enjoy checking them out during your visits to my site. 73

SAUDISAT 1C SO-50

I managed some nice QSOs via SO-50 earlier this evening whilst operating from my radio shack. I caught the contacts on camera as the bird passed me by at around 46º above my horizon.



The video shows me working into the bird without too much difficulty running 25w from my FT-847 into my Satellite Array. During the pass signals were coming in well, I worked a total of 4 stations – CT2GOY, F0FVK, SP6XSD & EA6SWportable 6. My Daughter gets very excited when I am active on the Satellites as you can see she is taking after her Dad and straight over for some radio hi hi.

AO-7 Satellite QSO - Video

I was active earlier on the Satellite bands and made QSO with F6HRO, DG1EA, IK8YSS & OH5LK all via AO-7 during a 45° Pass.

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My YL caught me on camera getting a little help from my new shack assistant as I Worked F6HRO & DG1EA via AMSAT OSCAR 7. My new assistant is showing signs of having good radio com skills already? Especially rotating & elevating my SAT Antennas. 73

4U1WRC Special Call - On Air 23 Jan - 17 Feb

During my lunch breaks from work I usually get the chance to "ride shotgun" as my YL - Louise (M3TLL) picks me up from work and brings some lunch followed by a pleasant walk with our dog Dudley and baby daughter Elsie.

 I try to get 10 minutes of SWL-ing in as I eat my sandwich, catch up with Louise and grin like a fool at Elsie. Today however, we were waiting for a rainy spell to ease when I came across Nic operating  the World Radiocommunication Conference special call sign  4U1WRC

4U1WRC is operated at the station of  4U1ITU (International Telecommunication Union) which is located at thier headquarters in Geneva.
4U1WRC is only on the air from today 23rd of January until the 17th of February. There is a special QSL card to collect confirming DXCC Entity - ITU HQ EU 28 14.

Lucky for me I was told by ITU Op Nic that I was the first station to work the 2012 4U1WRC station, which was pretty cool especially from my mobile station.

Our QSO took place earlier today on the 20M band - 14.264MHz at around 12.12 utc. As usual the signals exchanged were nice and strong, I received Nic at 5/9+20 and my report was 5/9 solid copy.

I am still running the same equipment: YAESU FT-100 into a mono Band Maldol HFC 20 antenna. I have had several years of excellent results using the same radio and antenna that I got back in 2005.
I might consider changing the vehicle but the ham radio gear will be staying!

The FT-100 can be seen below

Shack B

With the dark days of winter nearly over we decided to head up to our moor top retreat to check on how things have been holding up.We have been getting lots of gale force winds lately however my antennas were all where I left them and still in good shape.

 Our hill top holiday shack is now becoming very interesting to our 10 month old baby girl, she spent the afternoon exploring the long corridor.  I got some spare minutes when she had a short nap where I managed to set up some of my other radio equipment.

 I shuffled my rigs around to find a pleasing lay out and then connected them up to my antennas. Shack B is now up and running ready for our visits up there once the WX starts to change.

I plan to be experimenting with various kit and equipment in the future but for now Shack B consists of: YAESU FT-2600M - X200 Vertical & IO Beam
YAESU VR5000 - 10 EL 435 Yagi
YAESU FT-767GX - Hustler 6BTV & 20M Delta Loop
HAM INT Multimode II - 10M Vertical

Listen out for me working portable from Shack B from spring time onwards, until then I will be operating from my QTH and hope to catch some of you somewhere on the bands! 73

National Communications Radio System Cabin

I stumbled across the perfect portable radio shack and would love to have it parked outside. Someone will be grabbing themselves a bargain as the MOD (Ministry Of Defence) are having a surplus equipment sale.
Check out National Communications Radio System Cabin for more details.

Radials

I hope you are all having a great New Year! Its been a busy couple of weeks and its great to be finally back here on my old ham radio blog catching up with some of my Ham buddies around the globe.

 Last year I fitted a selection of wire radials covering 40m through to 20M which have now become almost hidden in the grass. If you look carefully you can make a few blue radials out at the base of the mast in the picture above.

 I have been making up some additional radials for my 6BTV which I cut for 20m, 15m and 10m. This time I wanted to fix them slightly above the ground so I fed them directly at the antenna base where I used a mounting bolt as a stud to clamp too. The picture above shows the new radials attached and pinned to the ground which keeps them tidy as well as trip free.

 THE RESULT: My Hustler 6BTV now has a few more 1/4 wave radials and is working well on transmit as well as receive. During a test transmission I recently worked Ian - VK3MO again up on 20m at about 10.30 utc. As usual Ian was 5/9+.
 The 6BTV is also working really well on 40M as is my other antenna - Carolina Windom 80, its nice having the choice and switching between the two. 73 happy DXing

Have A Very Merry Christmas From 2E0HTS & Family

Today's NOAA 19 Weather Image For UK, Spain & France

Today's NOAA 19 weather satellite image recieved at my ham radio station in Yorkshire UK at 13.55 UTC. Equipment Used: Yaesu FT-847, Radiocom 5.2 Decoder, 5 element Yagi, G-5500 Elevation/Azimuth Rotator. The UK can be seen with lots of cloud cover at the middle right hand side of the decoded image.

More Ionospheric Ducting From The DX Mobile

As I entered the Car park at work this morning I gave a shout out to Chris VK1GG/P2, who for the second time this week was booming into my mobile "FT-100 Maldol Combo" on 20M.

VK1GG/P2 - Chris was working a pile of Europeans and fellow VKs (Australians) when he heard me calling him from my mobile at around 8.25 UTC this morning. We had a quick couple of overs and It was time for me to begin my working day. (With a smile on my face, you know the one. Only DXers have it hi hi)

Later in the evening at around 18.25 UTC, I was once again out and about in the mobile with the rig turned on listening in on 14.222 MHz.

Whilst driving, I heard JM1WBB - Isao coming in great as he worked lots of stations from various continents located around the world.

Isao - JM1WBB was hitting my little Yaesu FT-100 with a 5/9 signal all the way from Setagaya, Tokyo Japan. 

Once again I engaged the PTT calling "HTS/Mobile" where again I was in look as I was received  by Isao - JM1WBB with a 5/2 report into Japan. I was surprised to make the QSO at that time of day as well as being absolutely delighted.

Its always a great feeling getting good reports from DX Stations whilst using my mobile ham station, I hope you all have a great weekend, 73 happy DX.

Toyota Mobile Still Working Well On The 20M Band

My Monday morning work journey looked rather bleak for riding my motorcycle. It had been snowing over the night leaving icy patches and slippery surfaces which I prefer to avoid whilst travelling on two wheels.
So taking the easy option I proceeded to fire up the little Toyota 4 X 4 and at the same time I gave myself an opportunity to switch on my good old Yaesu FT-100 mobile radio.

Within a mile of  leaving my QTH I heard VK1GG/P2 calling CQ DX on 20 meters with a loud 5/8 signal.
 I gave Chris - VK1GG a couple of calls back and Chris heard me via the long path with a 5/4 signal. I was very pleased to make the QSO into VK2 land from my mobile at a distance of over 15000 miles.

I have worked many DX with the same FT-100 and Maldol HFC-20 mono band antenna throughout the years with excellent service and reliability not forgetting their superb performance. I first obtained this particular mobile set up back in 2004 and after today's DX performance into Canberra, Australia with Chris - VK1GG, I can say it is still doing a very nice job for me.

Ham Assistance Needed

Radio Amateurs are needed to help The Central Research Institute of Machine Building (TSNIIMASH) in Russia with some space plasma experiments taking place onboard the International Space Station (ISS) Nov 25nd - 28th and Dec 2nd -5th. The experiment will use the ISS Amateur Radio 145.825 MHz FM AX.25 1200 bps packet radio downlink.

For more information visit Amsat or find the website about the experiment here

Mexico On 10M FM

After work this evening I fired up my ham radio shack and started tuning up and down the bands.
I had heard recent reports that the 10m repeater KQ2H was coming in strong on a regular basis with lots of interesting stations working through it.

I tuned my FT1000 to 29.620MHz FM and sure enough I could hear the KQ2H repeater. KQ2H is located across the Atlantic near New York in the Catskill Mountains.

I heard lots of stations calling through to begin with, it was slightly chaotic at times but then I suddenly heard Jose - XE2YHR coming in well with a big signal.

After calling him three times Jose pulled me out of the crowd and we had a short QSO exchanging reports and location information.

It was very nice indeed getting into Mexico via a repeater in New York on 10 meters FM.
I'll be listening up on Ten FM over the weekend to see what activity might be found as well as enjoying time with the family.

73 all have a great weekend & happy DXing

Operating 10 Meters during CQWW

Over the weekend I enjoyed some of the fantastic openings up on the 10 meter band during this years WWCQ Contest.

I managed to work some excellent DX for the first time in a long time up on 28MHz. The last time I heard conditions as good as they were, was back in the 80s when I was an avid 11 Meter DXer as well as a spotty faced teenager. My old President Adams at the time brought exotic signals to my early radio days.

I still have some old chicken box kit from way back which includes a couple of 40 channel AM rigs, an original colt as well as a little president AR7. I also have a Ham International Multimode II.

This years WWCQ contest was worked mainly on 10 Meters for me using my FT1000mp MKV field and Carolina Windom antenna (CW80). I exceeded my previous total of 15 Zones by spending my time up on 10m more or less throughout the contest and working a total of 21 World wide zones. This is the best I have done since getting on the air during WWCQ and I am pleasantly surprised how well my humble station is working for me at my relatively new QTH.

I made many great contacts into 25 different DXCC during the 2011 CQWW contest and had a lot of fun doing it.

Countries I worked include:

1 The USA

2 Argentina

3 Cyprus

4 Iceland

5 Uruguay

6 Montenegro

7 France

8 Kazakhstan

9 United Arab Emirates

10 Asiatic Russia

11 European Russia

12 China

13 Japan

14 French Guiana

15 Turks & Caicos

16 Costa Rica

17 Bermuda

18 Brazil

19 Surinam

20 Dominican Republic

21 Turkey

22 Canada

23 Greece

24 Morocco

25 The Gambia

As usual I made sure that I caught some of this years WWCQ contest on video whilst working up on Ten meters. The video shows lots of fantastic signals booming in from various World wide zones.

I hope you enjoy it. 73!