Shack B - QRT Till Spring!

Shack - B locked down for the winter!

Snow Covered Antennas

When I got in from work I grabbed some camera shots of my antennas handling our first significant snow fall since moving into this QTH just over two years ago.

My Satellite Array for 145/435MHz

 Here you can see the wire antenna which is a Carolina Windom 80M - 10M.

 Its up at around 25ft and is 131ft in Length.

 The picture below shows my CobWebb and Hustler 6BTV looking upwards.

 The view in horizontal gives you an idea of how well my garden is elevated

The nearest chimney can be seen in the lower part of the image.

Finally a picture of my Tri-band Snow-linear, I mean Co-linear vertical antenna.

The next thing to do is to see how the SWR is before any transmitting takes place, snow can cause undesirable effects to SWR.

 These two don't really care about the SWR they just like to play out in the snow!

73 de Simon 2E0HTS

QSL Gallery Update

Follow the link to see if you card has made it to my QSL Gallery 2E0HTS - Latest Received eQSL cards

73 and thanks!

The EUropean AMateur SATellite reflector

The Eu AmSat Forum has recently migrated to a new web address. The forum is well worth a visit and will be particularly interesting if you are a satellite fan or operator!

80 Meters & Beyond!

The holiday was great fun with the family and we all had a wonderful few days of pure enjoyment. Our daughter experienced her second Christmas which proved to be very exciting indeed. Dudley the DX hound also enjoyed the festive fun especially the part which included a 2 foot marrow bone treat!
Louise and I were kept busy throughout the week and unfortunately for my blog and transceivers, I did not manage much radio time until the new year kicked in. More recently, I have been  operating in the evening after 10.00 utc and have found conditions fairly quiet, the higher end of the HF bands have been more or less completely closed down but 40 meters and 80 meters have remained open.

My FT-1000 MKV and Carolina Windom antenna are still doing a great job along side my CobWeb and 6BTV. Up to press, the Winter WX has not troubled them to much and I am hoping to get away with minimum antenna maintenance this winter h.i. (All hell will probably break loose now I've said that).

Over the next few weeks I expect conditions will improve especially now that we have passed the half way mark of the dark nights. Until then I shall continue operating the twilight shift down on 40m & 80m during the week and as the saying goes "the sky's the limit" come the weekend!  Have a good one, happy DX and a late but sincere Happy New Year!

Have A Ham Merry Christmas!

Tomorrow is the last working day of the year and I am looking forward to enjoying the Christmas and New Year holiday celebrations with the family.

Wishing you a very merry Christmas and happy new year!

80M Path Open To NP4

Earlier this morning just as daylight broke I managed a nice QSO down on 3.793 MHz with Pedro - NP4A. Pedro was booming in at 5/9+20dB at my end as I used my Carolina Windom off set wire dipole (131 feet long) to work him. I received a 5/9 report back from Puerto Rico to my trusty transceiver - YAESU Mark V field.

NOAA-19 WX Image RX at 14.30 utc On 10-12-2012

NOAA-19 WX Image RX at 12.50 utc On 10-12-2012

NOAA - 19 Satellite Weather Received at 13.00 utc by 2E0HTS

 Today Sunday the 9th of December at around 13.00 utc I managed to receive a good live image from Earth orbiting weather satellite NOAA-19.  In the received transmission, the UK can be found close to the centre of the image which shows the forecast for the next 48 hrs. It doesn't look so good, cloud can be seen rolling in off of the Atlantic.

I received the weather satellite signal 5/9+60 from NOAA-19 using my satellite antenna array and YAESU FT-847 transceiver which are hooked up to my PC. The software I used to track NOAA-19 is Satscape and the decoding software is RadioCom 5.2.

EasyPal On 80M

The past few evenings have been quiet up on the usual HF bands so I decided to have have a play around with EasyPal down on 80M. Here are a couple of nice quality images that I received with my FT-1000 transceiver hooked up to my PC.

                                       Received by 2E0HTS, transmitted from the amateur station G0MJD
                     

G0MJD

Received by 2E0HTS, transmitted from the amateur station DB2HS

I did manage a nice QSO into Jan Mayen earlier tonight when I worked JX9JKA on 40m. Signal reports were up at 5/9 both ways with some strong QSB thrown in! I have worked JX9JKA Svein before up on 20m, I was pleased to catch him this time in a pile up on 40m with my Windom antenna.

 73 Happy DX

JA4FHE Via Long Path

I awoke nice and early as usual and came across a big signal on 17m this morning where I managed to work into Iwakuni City, Japan. The 17m band was in good shape as I received a 5/7 report back from Aki - JA4FHE who was 5/9+10 at my end. Once again I made the QSO via the long path using my CobWeb antenna and Ft1000 MKV. It was a pleasure to meet Aki for the first time and I hope to work him again soon hopefully on a different band. 73 happy DX!

Long Path To VK6 Whilst Mobile

Earlier today on my journey to work I found time to scan through the 20M band on my mobile Ham Station where I heard signals coming in well from both Japan and Australia.
As usual my trusty FT-100 rig which is still going strong in its 7th year of mobile operation was doing a great job for me. I put just one call back to VK6ANC where I was heard and managed to get a 5/7 signal report via the long path. I was hearing VK6ANC from Perth loud with his excellent station (seen in previous post). His signal was up at a 5/9+10dB in strength at a total distance of  around 15512 miles away from my mobile Toyota FT-100/MALDOL HFC-20 combo.

I plan to strip the mono band Maldol antenna and mount over the weekend so I can clean everything up. I am thinking of renewing the grounding strap. The road dirt and grime combined with Yorkshire WX can clog things up and corrode connections. I like to carry out regular maintenance to ensure the continued excellent performance of the little YAESU FT-100 and MALDOL Mono band antenna continues.  I always enjoy operating the winter propagation a lot and I am active as 2E0HTS/M from around 08.00 - 08.30 utc most mornings during the week, I hope to work some more of you soon!  In the meantime I am now sat comfortable back in the shack and about to check in on the bands. 73 have a great weekend!.

CQ WW 2012

As usual I was active throughout the weekend on the HF bands during this years CQ World Wide Contest. I spent some cash on a new alloy pole which I used to raise the height of my Cobb-Webb multi band antenna just in the knick of time.

Despite my enthusiasm I did not beat last years result as I ended up working fewer zones than previously, but I still had some great DX even though conditions were not quite as good as last year. 

I worked lots of stations from all over using my FT1000MP Mark -V  and Cobwebb antenna. I  kept myself mainly focused on 10 meters, 15 meters and 20 meters with a few qso also made down on 40 & 80 meters.
Overall I had a blast! I must have worked the whole of the Caribbean as well as South and North America. My signals were radiating well into Africa, The Middle East and all the way up to Iceland and Greenland.
I heard Taiwan very faintly up on 10 meters but did not really experience any reliable openings to Australasia or Asia during this years contest. However there is always next year. See you then if not before on the bands. 73.

Every year this contest marks the anniversary of when I met my lovely lady Louise which is now 7 years ago. Louise M3TLL is always supportive of my "crazy hobbie" which is probably the best present that this radio ham guy could ask for. Happy anniversary Louise X

Satellite To Satellite CAS-2A1 and CAS-2A2

The Chinese Amateur Satellite Group CAMSAT are busy constructing two new birds that will have the potential to establish a radio link during certain orbital positions between the two. This will allow amateur radio communications to be made over a much greater distance.

Its exciting news for the many hams that enjoy the challenge of space radio communications which includes myself. I am already getting excited about the possible Space to Earth QSOs that  I maybe able to make!
Yep, I am looking forward to the future launch of CAMSAT's CAS-2A1 and CAS-2A2, Good luck to all involved!

Both birds will be equipped with linear transponders. For all the latest in much more detail including operating frequencies, check out the AMSAT UK write up here CAS-2A1 and CAS-2A2 linear transponder Amateur Radio Satellites courtesy of M5AKA.