Beaming Long Path - Tasmania - VI7ALARA

Early morning DX was in great shape today as I beamed west I could hear plenty of US stations coming in well working stations active in the worked all Europe contest. I haven't been in the contest so I qsy'd to 17M (18 megahertz) and was hearing some big signals coming in loud and clear from down under. Australia and in particular Tasmania where I worked the Australian Ladies Amateur Radio Association VI7ALARA. I got through the pile up easy only one call and was using my Cushcraft MA5B Yagi antenna and Yaesu FTDX101mp transceiver, running the full 200w. Good DX and thanks for passing by Ham Radio Operator .Blogspot .Com. 73 good DX. de Simon M0YKS

 

Russian Satellite RS-44 Contacts With AM1SAT, UR5HXR, GB1AA & F1FPL

This pass was directly overhead which meant my antenna array had to turn a full revolution as it hit the stop point N 0 degrees. This happens sometimes but still good to see the antenna on video live as i tracks. The image is a bit dark but that is because it is actually my bedtime and its late here in Yorkshire England.  73 thank you as ever for following this old blog.Good DX!

Stealth Cushcraft MA5B 5 band Yagi "mini beam"

Well it's been up for 8 years and is still working really well for me. Yes I am talking about the HF mini beam which has a small footprint and a big signal. The largest element is aprox 17.10 ft wide and the boom is only 7.30 ft long. Despite its relatively compact size it works absolutely Fabulously and I would not change it as it's a perfect fit for my garden.

As you can see in the picture my MA5B is not a sight for sore eyes but is instead very difficult to find. It's mounted via a heavy home brew tripod base which houses a mast taking the antenna to just 20ft above the ground. The trees are old and well established towering above the beam. 

After years of operation with previous poor conditions and now with much better band conditions I can honestly say what a great antenna the Cushcraft MA5B really is. I can usually work who I can hear unless they are running extra high power QRO and have a high noise level at their end. 

The recieve is something special about this multi band mini beam as many that watch my YouTube live streams have said how well I receive and how clear the signal strength is as well as no noise. Obviously my location has something to do with this but when I compare signals with my other antennas - delta loop, dipole and 6BTV (multi band vertical) it stands out a mile how superior to them all the MA5B is. It's great having a few antennas to switch around and to be able to compare. 

The construction quality.

As some of you know I am half way up the Pennines. This obviously is great for DX but lousy for calm gentle weather patterns. The past few years have provided plenty of storms with wind, damp, ice and other antenna nasties. The Cushcraft MA5B is really well constructed with thick walled tube and good quality fibre glass central connection tubes. My antenna was up at my work place for a number years before I bought our house so it's actually almost a 20 year old antenna. 

Why am I writing this review now? Well I wanted to let you know that although it costs more than other antenna it lasts a long time with no trouble in between and the performance is virtually the same as a full sized Yagi. So if you are considering spending your hard earned cash I can give you the thumbs up with confidence that you will be happy with the Cushcraft MA5B antenna. 

Last night I Just switched my radio on heard Japan with a big pile up calling. Gave one call and bingo straight in to Tokyo with Mac (Mitsuya) JG1OUT on 20m first call. CQ Dog X-ray! Cushcraft MA5B power! With 200w.

So here are the specs:

Antenna type:  5 band 3 element YAGI

Coverage HF Bands: 20, 17, 15, 12, 10 Meters. No ATU required. 

Max power: 1200w

Turning Radius: 8.80ft

Almost A Overhead Pass Today- SSB Satellite RS-44

This morning I caught the almost perfectly overhead pass of one of my current favorite satellites RS-44. I have made some awesome contacts via this bird and with my satellite antenna array I can work into it up to 3000 miles away which is more or less a full footprint.Here is the action caught on video as usual of course. Hope to hear you on the birds soon.

 

Satellite SSB DX with RS-44

 

I finally got around to adjusting the UP-link on the SatPC32 software. It now matches the Doppler correction required to operate the SSB Transponder much easier with less adjustments whilst in QSO..

RS-44 Russian Sputnik Satellite.

A couple more contacts made and a final Doppler adjustment made towards the end of the pass. Now I am bang on frequency. Every radio differs slightly when setting up SatPC32 pre configured settings for the up link and down link. Careful adjustments using the CAT tab can be made when the pass is nice and clear. This helps to save time next time I use this bird as I will not require further fine tuning and will have a better copy. 73 thanks for following! I hope you have fun on the Satellite bands!

Summer fun and plenty of DX

Well it has been a busy few weeks as we enjoy our summer holiday, we have been to many places from beautiful riverside walks, moor tops, coastal beach walking and beyond. Some of the places I was at included ham radio and I have been busy with my mobile and portable operation's. 

The mobile HAM Radio station is still the same old original YAESU FT-857 and Maldol mobile mono band antenna's. This still works awesome as ever despite been 20 years in service. I have been making quite a few FM 2M mobile contacts recently as well and that has been pretty cool as well as providing impressive performance with my second antenna that is permanently mounted on the van roof. It is a Diamond dual band VHF UHF antenna. I have also had that one years as well 😀. 

Whilst in Scotland (last week) I had plenty of time to work portable and we also had electric hook up on the beach side camp at Port William. This allowed me to set up my 50amp PSU which I used to power the fridge as well as my very old first HF radio that I bought.

 Yes it is my YAESU FT-890 which is still a great radio to operate. 

I had it nice in our Van Awning right at the side of the Irish Sea on the West coast in S.W Scotland. My van was used as the ground plane and  antenna base which I connected a second length of coaxial feed line to the van mount straight into the radio in the awning. I also got out my big Hustler antenna and tried out both the RM-20 and RM-40 resonators (20m and 40m band). 

The FT-890 and Hustlers worked fabulous /p as I operated as MM0YKS/P. I made some great DX into Indonesia, USA, South America and The West Indies whilst /P and /M. It was lots of fun and also confused as few lol as my call changed to MM0 from my usual M0.

The week before that we were over at the East Yorkshire Coast

we stayed at a converted farm house near to the sea which again was great for radio in between the family fun and sand castles.

My latest enjoyment mission was yesterday when we visited Yorkshire Air Museum and spent the afternoon admiring the amazing aircraft on display. A good place to visit if you are up in Yorkshire. 

The weeks off have been busy but we have done a lot of good things and made every day count no matter what the weather has had to offer. I have walked miles lol 😅. 

A few more things to enjoy before a brand new year of teaching begins again. One of those is my YAESU FTDX-101MP which I am getting in with very well indeed. This morning I was into the South Cook Islands for the second time this year. I also have had some amazing contacts worldwide as we enjoy the solar activity of cycle 25. Some recent favourite DX include China, Japan, Peru and even Pakistan and Iran. There are too many to mention but it is very good to hear so much DX and to be able to work them. 

thanks for reading this blog and following my ham Radio adventures. I will be listening out on HF and the Satellite bands and hopefully back with you live from the the shack on another livestream this Sunday around about 21.00 UTC 22.00 local. 

Here is something to keep you busy until then. Best 73 to all.

Using The YAESU FT-4X Portable - Beamsley Beacon Summit N.Yorkshire

When Elsie M7ELC obtained her foundation amateur radio licence my good friend Pat W0OKE, Norm and the whole Portland Oregon HRO team sent her a fantastic first radio to celebrate her achievement as at that time, 2021, Elsie was 10 yrs old . She was very happy to receive this lovely radio which is the YAESU FT-4X. She uses it every now and again but not as often as the mobile FT-857 or shack station. So I decided with her permission to give it a go myself. After all my FTDX-101MP gets her attention so its a fair deal.

  

 So today's adventure was to hike to the top of one of the local trig points about 15 miles to the North West of Baildon. The exact location is overlooking Bolton Abbey situated higher up above on Langbar Moor and is known as Beamsley Beacon which is 1300 FT ASL. 

A great walk and also spot on for VHF UHF QRP. 

 The YAESU FT-4X is really nice radio to operate and is nice and simple to use so with my eyesight not as good as it was I found it great. The most impressive bit was its clear receive quality and from the reports it gets out well. When I got back home I ordered a 1/4 wave (aprox 40cms long) antenna to try it with next time around. I definitely would recommend this radio after using it. If you had two of these dual band radios your well on your way for the satellites and ISS. All you would require further is an Arrow antenna or something similar. Anyway back to Beamsley Beacon with the video of the adventure below.

 

ISS FM Repeater - ARROW Portable Satellite Station

 

 Some of you will remember me getting the Arrow Mk2 antenna back in 2007 and as you can see it still does me a very fine job. I still enjoy the QRP satellite work which is always a surprise on how well it actually works. Tonight's efforts paid off as I cracked the pile up and worked two stations through the International Space Station. The ISS has its FM repeator active for radio amateurs to work each other on 145.990 FM up (Transmit with a CTSS tone 67hz) and 437.800 FM down (Receive frequency) Good luck if your going to have a go yourself. 73 thanks for following my madness.

For more on ISS, FM and SSB Satellites as well as weather satellites check out all my Satellite adventures in one place.

This image was received this morning at my shack in Baildon Yorkshire from the NOAA-18 Weather Satellite using WXtoIMG to decode. *Thanks to WRAASE Electronic for the stable free download version and Kepler update info and program. All working great for me!

Excellent HF Band Conditions - Big Signal From JH3NGD

Today has been a good day for ham radio here at the shack. The DX has been coming in really nicely throughout the 20, 17 and 15m bands. I made some great DX into China, Indonesia, South America and as seen in the video Japan. The QSO with Kazuhito JH3NGD was a really good example of having a decent QSO with fantastic stable band conditions, I really enjoyed the oppertunity and from the sounds of it Kazuhito san enjoyed looking at my old classic japanese motorcycles seen on my QRZ page. Kazuhito had some intresting pictures of his amazing set up which I also enjoyed looking through whist we made QSO. I hope to hear Kazuhito JH3NGD again soon a great operator from Japan, Thank You for the QSO!.

My next great QSO tonight was into Mildura, Victoria, Australia with a nice chat with Moz VK3CWB exchanging a 5/5 report. Moz is located spot on for the hobhby with plenty of space and has a very nice antenna. Thanks Moz!

It has also been a typical Yorkshire day regarding the WX but we all still ventured out over the hills and far away for a family walk across the moor tops with the hounds. I hopefully will get out and try some portable or mobile radio over the next few weeks. Keep an eye out for the DX Machine.

In the meantime I will try to keep up with the videos and blog updates. For all of you that check my blog I will try to add some extra info each time I pin a video so you get a little extra info to have a look at. I appreaciate you all, I realize we are talking International so once again a massive Thanks for following the story so far. Good DX and enjoy the currently good HF band conditions. 73.

SSB Satellite Tricky But Fun! - JO-97 and RS-44

My satellite activity has proven to be popular so I decided to hit the record button whilst trying my luck on the SSB satellites JO-97 and RS-44. I got into JO-97 easy enough but it was a quiet pass regarding working anyone. It was a bit noisy on the downlink but a good signal for sure. I used the BHI DSP filter on my external speaker to kill the noise, it works well on the SSB birds. RS-44 was awsome, I had a decent run and worked some great operators during the pass. SSB Satellites provide great DX oppertunities with a reasonable portion of bandwith to allow multiple stations to make a qso at the same time unlike the FM sats. A bit trickier but worth the effort. Good luck and thanks for the visit.

Tonight's Weather Satellite Over Atlantic & UK. Live Reception and Super...

I still have a go at recieving NOAA weather Satellite signals on 137 MHz. There are just three currently operational which still provide a decent image of the Earth.

The decoding is done with the same software as before which is WXtoImg. I use a program to update the satellite position called Kepler update which WXtoImg reads and keeps up to date for accurate decoding. The WXtoImg program used to update within the program but that stopped being supported so a add on method as mentioned must be used. Anyway hope you enjoyed the decode and image.

Space Station Passing Overhead Can I make a Radio Contact?

Summer Activities On The Air

Well I was surprised to see how long ago I last posted on my blog. It has been a busy few months with time passing quickly. 

As for the bands they have been on and off but overall I would have to go for more of the on with some pretty cool DX 

I have as usual been making the most of the great outdoors with the odd attempt of operating both mobile and whilst walking. My next plan is to take my FT-817 and have a go at some long wire QRP. I might get an opportunity over the next few weeks as it's the end of the college year and I am off for a month. 

Space communication has still been keeping me occupied as has ADSB aircraft tracking and of course I am active daily on the HF bands.

This coming weekend on Saturday 22 July at 20:00 UTC a few YouTube hams are getting together including myself and plan to break the 40m band by simultaneously live streaming on 40 meters. This has been organised by James M0GCQ and is a great opportunity to try out your station with the live feed from each channel being so easy to access. You can work up and down the British Isles and try catch everyone that is participating on this event.

This Saturday's Mega Stream YouTube Ham Radio Station list is:

@AmateurRadioUK M0GQC

@m0mcx M0XXT

@timg5tm941 G5TM

@G5STU G5STU

@M0JSX M0JSX

@M0YKSHamRadio M0YKS

@digitalanalogueham 2E0UKH

@IrishHamRadio EI5IMB

#MM0OPXAmateurRadio MM0OPX

There is word out that M0XXT Callum (DX Commander) is offering a prize to the first station that manages to work every live stream station on the Air. This is only available to you guys not the the stations streaming. So with that I hope to hear some of you coming in well  on Saturday night 21:00 local time, - 40m band.

Hope you make it, 73 for now.

ARISS School Contact

Today's ISS activity from OR4ISS on board making contact with a secondary school located in France via ground station ON4ISS.

Reasonable reception at my end with my FT-847 and Innovantenna - loop fed 6 element X YAGI on G-5500 Rotator.

Saint Anatoile secondary school is a French private catholic school located in a rural area in the department of Jura (258,000 population), Burgundy, France Comté region. In conjunction with hosting this ARISS contact, the school has developed a 2-year "ARISS contact" project to provide students a real opportunity to discover and understand an environment that is unknown to most of them. The objectives of the project are to deepen the scientific and linguistic knowledge of the students through workshops, and various STEM projects incorporated in their curriculum. All students participated in the project (about 100 pupils aged 11 to 14)..The workshops covered topics that included: an introduction to amateur radio, Morse code, Q code, radio directional-finding, rules of communicating on amateur satellites (using satellite QO-100), orbital mechanics, wave propagation, and much more.

To find out how your school could participate in a similar radio activity with the International Space Station follow the link - ariss.org

Today's Questions. 

1. Can the effects of global warming be seen from the Space Station?

2. Does weightlessness change the way you breathe?

3. Do you plant seeds in order to have vegetables and eat them?

4. Do you still have the notion of time inside the ISS?

5. What did you like the most when you first entered the ISS?

6. Why did you want to become an astronaut?

7. How is it possible to sleep in the space station with weightlessness?

8. Have you discovered anything unusual or strange during your last missions?

9. How can the Space Station supply itself with electricity?

10. How do you feel to be one of the few people to go into space?

11. What do you do with your waste?

12. What do you do if someone gets hurt?

13. What is the interest of weightlessness in your research?

14. What constraints do you encounter when you return to Earth in order to regain a normal life?

15. How long is the air reserve of the spacesuits?

16. How do you cook in space?

17. How did you feel during the take-off of the shuttle?

18. Is it hard to walk when you come back on Earth?

19. What is the best activity you have done in space so far?

20. How do you feel weightlessness now, as you are talking to us?

Working Into FO-118 CAS-5A

Greetings from the shack of M0YKS, I hope the New year has started well for you. I have been active on most bands from 80m through to 70cms. DX on 10m has been awesome so has 12, 15 and the other HF bands, my confirmed DXCC is now at 155 on QRZ using SSB phone mode. Hopefully this year I will improve the logged DXCC but either way I am enjoying the chase. 

I have also been active on the Satellite bands working mostly into Europe on both SSB and the FM birds. 

Today I thought I would have a go at working a reasonably new Satellite CAS 5A also known as FO-118. I haven't quite setup my radio steering software SATpc32 correctly with the Doppler correction known as a Doppler sqf file yet, so I had to manually change the downlink frequency but still managed a few nice QSOs. The new Satellite was built by CAMSAT and has a FM V/u repeater as well as V/u and interestingly a H/u linear transponder on board for amateur radio use. 

If you don't quite understand what it all means this is it: V = VHF, U = UHF and H = HF. So for example in the case of V/u it would mean VHF uplink TX and UHF down link RX. For this Satellite CAS 5A, V/u is 145.925 FM TX and 435.600 FM RX. 

Today's first trial of working the bird proved to be easy enough with a decent signal back down from the bird using the FM repeater. The next thing is to try the linear transponders and maybe operate the H/u mode with a 15m band uplink. That will be something new for me for sure. The V/u SSB transponder should be easy enough to hit and probably will be decent if it is anything like the earlier XW Chinese satellites. Hope to hear you soon from IO93CU. H N Y.