Bed Time Stories

I usually spend the last hour of the day unwinding with the sound of HF before hitting the sack. I enjoy listening to the different bands hearing lots of interesting stuff from the comfort of the shack chair, there are some great radio style bed time stories!

Last night band conditions were wide open with signals bouncing in loud and clear from all over the place.
I heard Australia at 5/9 as well as Argentina, both stations were on 20 meters. The USA were also coming in very well across the 20 meter band right through to 15 meters. As usual I switched between my 6BTV, Windom and CobWebb antennas checking to see which was working the best.

The CobWebb seemed to be best last night as I tried it out during a QSO with  VP2EKG - Keith, from Anguilla up on the 17 meter band. I went on to work EK6TA - Hovik, from Armenia also with a big signal up on 17 meters. Yep, I was pleased to be putting out a reasonable footprint created by my little Webb antenna!

Before I pulled the plug I was back down on 20 meters hearing Ian VK3MO at 5/9 + working lots of stations. I tried my luck but was unsuccessful on this occasion, but I did manage a QSO into Saudi Arabia as I worked HZ1TT and drank my last cup of coffee before heading upstairs.

I'll be back for some more bed time radio tonight, 73 happy DX!

Climbing The Ladder

Over the past twelve months I have been carrying out a different job at work which has been temporary for 12 months. Earlier this morning I attended an interview where I competed for a permanent position in teaching.
After a good interview and teaching session in front of a panel of managers, I am proud to be able to inform you all that I was successful in obtaining the position of welding and fabrication lecturer.

Perhaps some of you regular followers have been wondering what has happened to 2E0HTS due to the lack of posts. I can confirm I have been trying hard to better myself and can now get back into posting more regularly here on my Ham radio blog now that my future is looking good! 73 thanks for passing by.

5N7M

A very nice start to Saturday, at 0802 utc I worked 5N7M - Ivan operating out of Abuja in Nigeria on 18.145 MHz. Ivan heard me on my first call and we exchanged 5/9 and 5/7 reports. 73 Good DX!

Latest Model Please Dad!

You guessed it......She's a YAESU kinda Girl!

Something For The Weekend

This was sent to me via facebook. I am unsure who created it, but it sure did make me smile! 

I thought I would share it with you all. 73

CobWebb 5 Band HF Antenna - Resurrected

The past week has been a very enjoyable holiday break away from work with lots of quality family time. As mentioned earlier in the week we have been enjoying ourselves up on the moor tops at the holiday home where I get to play with my other radio equipment whilst soaking in some r & r. During the middle of the week we headed off to the coast where my little girl got to take her first paddle in the Sea.

As well as playing with my daughter and YL, I got some spare time to resurrect my old CobWebb HF antenna. On Thursday afternoon I managed to install it at the bottom of our garden without getting too much ear ache from Louise (YL). The last time I tried using this antenna was back in 2005 when I was told to take it down, I have had it in storage ever since and have been itching to try it out again. 

I decided to use this CobWebb antenna with my FT-847 radio as my FT-1000 is already hooked up to my Carolina Windom and Hustler 6BTV. The plan is to play around and compare the 3 antenna's using the two radios operating from 20m through to 10m during the reception of stations from various locations. 

Over the past couple of days whilst testing I was surprised just how well the CobWebbs reception was with zero noise levels on all 5 bands allowing 0-Signal levels to be heard.

The CobbWebb is designed for operation on 10m, 12m, 15m, 17m & 20m bands.

Back in the shack, over the weekend I was active later on in the Evening time and managed a new DXCC in the log whilst using the CobWebb. The new DXCC was claimed when I worked JX9JKA from Jan Mayen. I also worked HK3JJH from Columbia on the same CobWebb antenna.

My favourite DX QSO's of the week were both worked on my Carolina Windom which were JY4CI - Jordan and VK7ZX - Tasmania both stations were worked on 15M. 

Conditions are good again tonight and as you can see my young apprentice is ready to help me work some more stations! 73 

Baildon Moor Beacon

 We decided to head up to the moor top shack over the weekend so we could enjoy the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The moor top celebrations started off in fine fashion with a great party followed by the lighting of Baildon's jubilee beacon as seen in the picture.

Our beacon's location provided a good view of our nearest neighbouring beacon pictured below. We could also make out see some more distant beacons in the distance.

Well that's it for now just a quickie,  I am off work all week and plan to be active somewhere on the bands. Lets hope that I get to work some of you along the way. 73!

12M into Japan

Whilst tuning around the HF bands over the weekend I found myself up on 12 meters listening to a nice signal coming in well on my trusty YAESU FT1000MP MKV transceiver and Carolina Windom antenna.
The signal I was hearing at 5/9 was Joe - JA1LZR( Japan), on his FT-5000 and 4Element SteppIR. JA1LZR is located at a short path distance of 5757.4 miles away.

Joe was running 1KW and came back to me after my first call giving me a 5/9 report back. I enjoyed the short rag chew with Joe very much, it was a great 1st QSO with JA1LZR as well as my first 12m QSO into Japan so far this year.
I hope to catch Joe - JA1LZR again soon on another band, with a bit of luck and good propagation it shouldn't be too difficult. Happy DX & 73!

FO-29 QSO Party!

Calling all amateur Satellite operators! Friday nights are now officially known as party night and I have been joining other satellite ops in some late night party style radio activities via the FO-29 Satellite.

If you can work FO-29 I  hope to meet you on the next Friday night Satellite QSO party. Certificates are awarded for all participants as seen below.

Check out the FO-29 QSO party sites via Sylvain's - F0FVK  and also Luis - CT2GOY   links for more information and times for the next FO-29 QSO Party.

Quebec & Oscar Special Call Signs

Over the next few months I shall be active with a couple of different temporary call signs marking both the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen, as well as the London 2012 Olympics.

The first of the two temporary call signs will be Diamond Jubilee special call “Q – Queen” with 2Q0HTS active on all bands from 80m upward & Satellites. The 2Q0HTS call can be heard from 00.00 BST 5 May 2012 to 23.59 BST 10 June 2012.

I shall be active with the other Special Call Sign later in the summer when the London 2012 Olympics begin. I shall be using my temporary Olympic call sign 2O0HTS. You can also hear this Special “Qscar” call active across the bands from 80m up, starting from 00.00 BST 21 July 2012 to 23.59 BST 9 September 2012 inclusive.
I am looking forward to using both of my temporary special call signs and hope to work some of you somewhere across the bands in the process! 73

Twitter Hacked

Over the past few weeks it appears my Twitter Account has been hacked into by some sad arsehole. I can no longer log into my account so can't see the messages this spammer has been sending but have been getting a load of irate replies from Radio Hams that use Twitter.

Thanks to these irate replies I realised my account has been hacked as I hadn't been on for a while so didn't notice. I tried logging in and resetting my password for a good few hours but have been completely locked out.

When this finally gets resolved I am seriously considering closing my Twitter account as it's supposed to be fun but all I've been receiving in my email inbox are angry replies from Radio Hams. All people who I've never communicated with via Twitter in the past angry at allegedly getting links to weight loss sites - as if I need to go on a diet?!!!! hi hi!

Most of my blog followers will realise I have a good sense of humour but I am the sort of guy who doesn't take any shit off anybody and will simply say goodbye to using Twitter rather than giving a toss (once I can login again!)

Thanks for following my antics hope to catch some of you actually on the bands rather than via email. Sorry for the bad language

73, have a great weekend

Happy Easter!

GB4T Special Call - Worked On 80M

Earlier I managed to work the pileup down on 3.770MHz and make a QSO with special event station GB4T (follow the link for more info) 73!

144MHz Opens Up

I was lucky to catch some nice band conditions this morning as I made some nice DX qso into Belgium and Germany. ON6ZT, ON4KHG, OO7K and DL6YBF were all worked using SSB on 144MHz. I received some excellent signals from all stations, the 2m band is wide open today and I hope to catch some more activity whilst the conditions last. The VHF propagation forecast looks good all week!  Have a nice day. 73

Happy 1st Birthday!

The Year has gone very fast for the HTS family as today our baby daughter has had her first birthday party earlier this afternoon. I cant believe she is one already, Happy Birthday Elsie Grace X.