Solar Activity Creates DX Opportunities

click on log to enlarge......... (blue spots highlight propagation peaks on 20m)



The last week has kept me active a lot on some of the HF bands due to some great openings into South America as well as VK.

I have noticed some interesting findings regarding the use of my Vertical Antennas and the home made full wave 20m Delta Loop, at different times during the day due to the ionospheres variable F layer.

Up until this weekend the WX has been good with sunshine and pleasant conditions. The bands have definitely begun to improve especially at my QTH on most Evenings. During daytime conditions I have experimented around on 20m with a Mono Band ½ wave vertical and the Infamous Loop.

With the second F layer seemingly being present at this time I have found the Vertical to perform noticeably better than the loop on 20m into Europe and the Middle East.

But from 1800 UTC there is a sudden change of received angle of radiated signal and the Delta Loop is phenomenal and provides outstanding performance on RX and TX with no comparison from the Hustler 6btv or mono banded vertical antenna from all directions.

This must be when the second F layer becomes unstable and allows signals to penetrate through, reaching the outer F layer with a different angle of radiation (Take off angle of signal from my antenna) which is more favourable to the Delta Loop as it seems?????.

Here is some more about those elusive layers of the Ionosphere that we love to bounce our signals off of.


The Ionosphere reflective layers

Solar radiation, acting on the different compositions of the atmosphere with height, generates layers of ionization.

Known more commonly as:

D layer

The D layer is the innermost layer, 50 km to 90 km above the surface of the Earth.

E layer

The E layer is the middle layer, 90 km to 120 km above the surface of the Earth.

Sporadic E

Sporadic E propagation is characterized by small clouds of intense ionization, which can support radio wave reflections from 25 – 225 MHz.

Sporadic-E events may last for just a few minutes to several hours and make us radio amateurs very excited, as propagation paths which are generally unreachable, can open up. There are multiple causes of sporadic-E that are still being pursued by researchers. This propagation occurs most frequently during the summer months with major occurrences during the summer, and minor occurrences during the winter. During the summer, this mode is popular due to its high signal levels. The skip distances are generally around 1000km (620 miles). VHF TV and FM broadcast DX'ers also get excited as their signals can be bounced back to earth by Es. Distances for short hop events can be as close as 500 miles or up to 1,400 (or more) for a long, single hop. Double-hop reception over 2,000 miles is possible, too. Hopefully things will continue to improve and bands such as 12M, 10M, 6M, & 2M increase in activity with regular openings.

F layer

The F layer, is 120 km to 400 km above the surface of the Earth. It is the top most layer of the ionosphere.

The F region is the most important part of the ionosphere in terms of HF communications.

The F layer combines into one layer at night, and in the presence of sunlight (during daytime), it divides into two layers, the F1 and F2. The F layers are responsible for most skywave propagation of radio waves, and are thickest and most reflective of radio on the side of the Earth facing the sun.

I usually listen to the RSGB news on Sunday mornings 9.30 local time on 145.525 fm operating as GB2RS.

The local broadcast covers information related to the Ham Radio hobby from solar forecasts, Dxpeditions, to local Events organized by Clubs etc.

You can also catch other GB2RS News readers at various times on different bands during sunday, or via the HamInfoBar i player. If you like reading only, check out the RSGB site via the link on the right side of this page.

I often find the solar forecast quite reliable as the recent sun spot activity reported was coincidental to the contact made into VK earlier last week.

It is always amazing as well as exciting to be able to put a reasonably low powered signal into Countries at the opposite side of the world.
Using simple home made delta loop antennas and the good old F layer with some freshly charged particles to Ionize and reflect!

Four stacked five element 20 meter yagi antennas

Ian VK3MOs Tower and four stacked five element 20 meter yagi antennas
worked by 2E0HTS using a Home brew 20M Delta Loop


Last Night I battled with the sleep that was forming in my Eyes and stayed up late working a few Distant DX Stations that were coming through on 20m SSB.

I worked Argentina first, LU2QC Osvaldo, with a 5/9 signal, followed by W1/GI0MPT Eamon, 5/9+ from south of Boston. Just after that my luck continued and got even better with VK3MO Ian, at 11.11pm UTC (12.11 Local time BST) who gave me a 5/9 report on 14.177.30. USB using his awesome antenna array, 100 watts and I think Ian was running an Icom rig and was also 5/9.

I used the good old ft767, 50w, with my full wave vertical home made delta loop to make both contacts.Whilst in RX, I compared the Loop to the Mono band vertical 20m ant, G5RV, and the Hustler.

Sorry Guys the home made Delta loop(vertically configured) put them all to Shame with no comparison, in fact none of the other antennas came close to the Loop's performance.

VK3MO, Ian is located in Melbourne Australia and he was a booming signal creating a nice little pile up, as you can see he runs an impressive antenna array so you should hear him fairly easily, where ever you are in the World.

73 and I hope to hear and work more nice DX signals to blog about in the near future.

HamInfoBar Web Tool Bar Browser, Proves To Be A Valuable Tool For Radio Enthusiasts

Greetings and 73

Just a quickie to share this great little tool for our Computers with those of you that like experimenting a little.


click on image to enlarge



I came across this useful addition to the Shack Computer and have found it to be a very useful and interesting tool for all Radio enthusiasts.

It is called "HamInfoBar" and can be downloaded here

HamInfoBar

The Tool bar doesn't seem to cause any conflicts and offers a wide range of Ham radio and radio related content.

It is neat to look at and simple to explore, there are many useful and innovative features, too many too mention.

So far I have come across cool things such as links whilst browsing, these have taken me to some interesting up to date Ham Radio Information.

Feeds, Propagation Forecasts, DX Clusters, DXpeditions for LF, HF, VHF, UHF and everything else that Ham Radio is involved with, including techy stuff.

Have a look yourself and I can honestly say I was nicely surprised with the Tool bars gadgets and features.

I am grateful to the creators of the HamInfoBar along side the many other Hams that have left there comments on the HaminfoBar Web Site. HamInfoBar


Best 73 de Simon and Company

eQSLing

eQsL Log on Screen


eQSL Home Page


My eQSL Design. Here Is Where You Create Your Card Design


eQSL Log


eQSL Archives

eQSL The Effective and Quickest Way To Confirm your DX and Local Ham Radio Contacts

There are lots more functions and pages as well as programs to check out on eQSLs web site once you become a registered member. It is best to send information about your Licence to become AG (Authenticity Guaranteed). It makes claiming eQSL Awards much easier. SWL (Short Wave Listeners Can Also Use eQSL and Obtain a Unique SWL Call Sign)

Countries Confirmed by eQSL by My Base Station

1 ALGERIA
2 ARGENTINA
3 AUSTRALIA
4 AUSTRIA
5 AZORES
6 BELARUS
7 BELGIUM
8 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA
9 CANADA
10 CEUTA AND MELILLA
11 COLOMBIA
12 CRETE
13 CROATIA
14 CZECH REP.
15 DENMARK
16 DOMINICA
17 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
18 ECUADOR
19 ENGLAND
20 FINLAND
21 FRANCE
22 GERMANY
23 GREECE
24 GUADELOUPE
25 GUERNSEY (BAILIWICK OF)
26 HONDURAS
27 HUNGARY
28 IRELAND
29 ISLE OF MAN
30 ISRAEL
31 ITALY
32 JERSEY (CHANNEL ISL.)
33 KAZAKHSTAN
34 LATVIA
35 LITHUANIA
36 LUXEMBOURG
37 MACEDONIA FORMER YUGOSLAV REP
38 MADEIRA ISL.
39 MONTENEGRO
40 MOROCCO
41 NETHERLANDS
42 NORTHERN IRELAND
43 OMAN
44 PARAGUAY
45 POLAND
46 PORTUGAL
47 PUERTO RICO
48 ROMANIA
49 RUSSIA (EUROPEAN)
50 SAUDI ARABIA
51 SCOTLAND
52 SERBIA
53 SLOVAK REP.
54 SLOVENIA
55 SPAIN
56 ST. LUCIA
57 SWEDEN
58 SWITZERLAND
59 THE GAMBIA
60 USA
61 VENEZUELA
62 WALES


1808 Stations have been QSL confirmed using eQSL since I have been a member (4 Years), and there are more and more Radio Amateurs joining every day. You can see if there is a card waiting to be retrieved by yourself by following this link
Eqsl
Registration is simple enough and doesn’t take too long. I have many outstanding eQSL cards sent to far away DXCC that are still in the system waiting for the particular Stations to join eQSL. The good thing is when a new member returns your eQSL maybe 2 years later, as the card’s you send remain in the system until they are claimed by the recipient. eQSL is free to send and receive cards and for a small donation you can upload your own graphics/designs. There are simple step by step instructions helping you design your own QSL card as well as other interesting Ham related stuff on the eQSL web site.

I hope those of you who dont use eQSL already, found this useful.

73 have a nice weekend de Simon 2E0HTS

The Sunday Afternoon 2 Meter Loop Project

Watch to see how I spent my Sunday afternoon making a simple full wave 2 meter Delta Loop and then make a 200 mile QSO with MM0GPZ/P in Scotland on 144.285 usb.

OX4BX friend of Hamradio.blogspot.com worked on 40M

Tonight I had the pleasure of working Tomas OK4BX who regularly shares information here on Hamradio.blogspot. Tomas came through 5/8 on 40m (7.093 LSB)at around 19.50 UTC, we tried 20 meters and was unsuccessful but managed it on 40 meters. I was using 50 watts, a 102 ft G5RV, and the FT-767 with the Heil Goldline Mic.
Hopefully Tomas will leave a comment containing his Station equipment used to make this QSO.

Thanks Tomas and hope to hear you again on the bands soon. 73 de Simon

HF pile up from 2M0HTS mobile in the North West of Scotland

A chance to view the beatiful scenery whilst seeing 2M0HTS/mobile in action


We have just returned from a weeks Camping in the Scottish Highlands and had a fantastic time. The WX (weather) was good and we both managed to obtain a sun tan as well as a paddle in the lovely Arisaig Sea. We stayed at a lovely campsite over looking the Isle of Skye, Isle of Eigg, and the Isle of Muck, which is situated 6 miles south of Malaig and is called Portnadoran and is locally known as Portnalucaig. This fabulous location was very beautiful, we managed lots of touring, walking and quite a bit of ham radio. I got the opportunity to use the Call 2M for Scotland which caused quite a bit of pile up on a few occasions from some remote places in the North West Highlands operating 2M0HTS/M.

Here is what happened during our stay, Thank you to all who managed to make the QSO it sure was fun! We can’t wait until we go back up there and do it all again! It was very beautiful and also an excellent radio operation location.

Weds on 20Meters – 2M0HTS
Mobile on the way to Oban, Fort William, and then Stationary from our Camp site at Portnadoran near Skye. (We watched a Herron fish for its supper whilst playing radio)
1. G0OKD John 5/7 QSB
2. M3DFW Darren 12 Miles North of Newcastle 5/9+
3. M0GIQ in Scunthorpe Gordon 5/7
4. IZ0IMU 5/3
5. GI6DCC 5/9+ Charlie in Omagh
6. G6BDV Rob located in St Albans was 5/9 with QSB
7. G0BSD Dave near Liverpool 5/9+ *Dave stayed on frequency and continued having a good rag chew with us. Hope to hear him again!*
8. 2E0JJB John in Bridlington 5/9
9. M0WHC Bill near the Liverpool football ground 5/9+20
10. 2E0ZMS Matt in Kirkby Moorside near York 5/9+10
11. G0BSD Dave near Liverpool 5/9+ asking how our BBQ went
12. M1AZZ 5/9 Tom South of Bridlington
13. 2E0LSB Andy from Dudley 5/9
14. 2E0CSG Derrick 5/9 from Burnley * I know Derrick we sat our Exam together*
15. M0HRC Wayne from Neverton 5/9
16. M0KOM Lenny from Middlesbrough 5/9+
17. G1KVQ Tony 5/9
18. 2E0NCH Nathan from Middlesbrough 5/8
19. G0OWU Rick from Dudley 5/9
20. PA/DK1GLM/M 5/9 Ludwig
21. EB1BSU 5/5
22. M0JHA Billy from Manchester operating QRP (5 watts) 5/9
23. EA3/GI3NVW Bill 5/9
24. 4U1ITU Geneva 5/9
25. HB2008FS 5/9
26. OS??? QSB sorry!

Thursday on 40m
Tried My Maldol HFC-40 Antenna near Mallaig, (I saw a pack of Stags and Deer roaming r the hillside)
27. OT2A 5/9

Friday morning on 20m
Heading To Ardnamurchan
28. PA0?KO Gerard on 5 watts 5/5 QSB
29. PD1LVK Louis 5/5 with QSB
30. PC4U Marc in the Netherlands 5/9
31. G4WQZ John in Portsmouth 5/9+20 with QSB
32. G4ACS Geoff in Kidderminster 5/8 - 5/9+
33. DL4EDC 5/8
34. DL4DZL Fred 200km South of Berlin 5/9
35. M1CXK Dartford 5/9
36. M0WYB Russ 5 miles South of Bath 5/9 *Told Me I was on the DX cluster*
37. PD0RXK Jan Netherlands 5/5 – 5/7
38. PA9RB Luuk operating QRP (5 watts) 5/9
39. G3RWF Nick in Canterbury 5/9
40. M1CXK Dartford 5/9

Friday Afternoon 20m
Near to Loch Moidart and then Portnadoran (We saw a Golden Eagle looking for its lunch)
41. MU3VWQ 5/9
42. G7JAK David in Lowestoft 5/9
43. M3KUZ Ken in Newquay, Cornwall 5/9
44. DL2FJK 5/8
45. OO4P/m Phil 5/8 – 5/9 * Mobile to Mobile*
46. PA3FRD Brian 5/9
47. PA0KT Jan 5/9
48. DL7UCW Ben collecting WAB squares 5/7 5/9 * gave Ben 2 new rare WAB squares *

Friday Evening 20m
Near Mallaig and Portnadoran
49. IZ6BXU 5/8
Heard JY4CI Rafiq in Amman Jordan 5/9 on 1421205 with a massive pile-up
50. OM2VL Lotti 5/9
51. 3A2MD Laura in Monaco 5/7
Heard A61I Hammed in the UAE 1417642 with a massive pile-up 5/9
52. CX1TG 5/5

Saturday 20m
On The Return Journey whilst approaching Fort William
53. EG8CID Gran Canaries 5/9
54. ON4TWS/P – contest VB031 – 01 5/9
55. ON6VG/P Gilbert – contest VB033 018 - 02 5/8
56. ON4DST/P 132 IM3113 – 03 5/9
57. OZ7AM Alex in Copenhagen 5/9
58. ON7IDX Hans in Antwerp 5/9

Saturday 20m M74 Southbound
59. 9H4CM Charlie in Gozo 5/9
60. OZ1JVX/P – contest EU171 – 04

Saturday 2m – 2E0HTS– English Scottish Border signing as 2E0HTS/M

61. G7THI/M Frank near Penrith knows an old work colleague from my plumbing days Eric Spofforth (Mountain Search and Rescue)


Saturday 20m – 2E0HTS
Whilst passing through the Lake District on the way home Heard HZ1ZH Maan 1429500 59 big pile up, and also on the M6 near Lancaster I worked
62. CT7LTZ 59
63. E73DP Zoki 59
64. DL3AO Rolf from Stuttgart 59
65. EA3AS Mike 59
66. DL5MU 59
67. UA4CA Nick 55 – 58

I also worked a few other Stations that were not recorded and as you know it is difficult enough just getting the call signs correct whilst on the move in the mobile. A Big Thanks to Louise (M3TLL) most of you are mentioned above, Louise did a great job of managing the mobile operations and has a fantastic tolerance of radio.

We covered almost 1000 miles during our travels, the return journey took 10 hours I was grateful of all the fantastic QSOs I made which kept me awake and alert for the complete journey arriving back in Baildon West Yorkshire safe and sound.

View from Portnadoran beach looking out to the Isle of Eigg

Scotland is one of my favorite places, thanks to all of the locals for making our stay brilliant!

73 for now I am feeling recharged and ready to work some more stations.

de Simon

Sporadic openings on 6M, 10M, 12M & 15M

Today brought some long awaited activity to the usually quiet portion of the HF spectrum. From early morning the bands were at times busy with the sound of lots of stations from Europe working other stations and big signals were flying around, at last 6 meters SSB, 10 meters 12 meters and even 15 meters were alive.

I worked Spain, Italy, Belgium, France and Portugal on the lively opened up bands with good signals both ways. I did not hear any real DX but still I was more than happy to make plenty of European QSOs and I also got the chance to try out my other radio equipment at the same time.

I made the QSOs using the Yaesu FT847, Yaesu MD1 desk mic and around 50 watts into the Maldol 6 Band vertical antenna which is mounted outside with an excellent ground plane system. The antenna has been in my collection for almost three years and covers 40m, 15m, 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cms. The contacts that I made on 12 Meters were worked on the home brew 20m delta loop which was tuned with my MFJ 969 Roller Inductor Manuel ATU which worked very well.

It was a real pleasure to use the other HF bands that are exceptionally good when conditions are favorable. Hopefully the conditions will become Even better and 10M will be World Wide status again.

73 have a great weekend, Good DX to all who want it.

de Simon

Here Is The Maldol 6 Band Vertical

Good Openings on 20M Most Evenings

Greetings Ham Radio People, thank you Nash and Tomas for the recent Comments they are always appreciated.

The past couple of months have been busy for Me at my workplace which as some of you know already it is a College . This time of year is when we have to make sure everything has been covered and our students will achieve their qualifications. So you can imagine theirs lots to do, I've also just about completed my first year on a part time University course. Which once completed next summer I will have a full Teaching licence and be able to continue practicing teaching in FE. So I have found myself getting in front of my HF Rig a bit later in the evening when usually 20M has closed.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been fortunate to find some good openings on 20M in the evening into the early hours of the following day.

Using the Hustler 6BTV and the Delta Loop I made some great QSOs with big signals exchanged both ways.

On the Hustler 6BTV I worked 5N8NDP(NIGERIA), W1AW(USA), CN8ZG(MOROCCO) PY6RT(BRAZIL) & YV5OHM(VENEZUELA).

On the home brew Delta Loop I worked CO6LC(CUBA), YV5MSG, YV5HNJ(VENEZUELA), LW4EU(ARGENTINA), 9Y4LDK(TRINIDAD & TOBAGO), N8OO(USA) & HC2FN(ECUADOR).

All contacts were made on 20M between 16.15 and 23.00 UTC, the majority after 21.30 UTC from my home station.

I used the Yaesu FT767GX and about 50W of output power, I received some good audio reports and comments about the Heil Goldline Mic I was running. The Home QTH has been back to normal regarding QRN, as noise levels have dropped back to Zero on 20M and around S-5 on 80M. The WX has been good so I believe the noisy conditions previously were down to a particular Wet Moor Land Earth I endured over the winter. Accompanied the rest of us Northerners, at last improved WX and Band conditions!

10 Meters has also been open around 18.00 UTC, with strong QSB and some big signals out of Europe. I havent heard anything Exotic as yet on 10M, but after 25 years of 11M before I got my Licence which was feb 2004, I know from experience there is a real good chance I will hear some distant stations coming through like a few VKs and ZLs.
10 Meters is a truly great band when it is open and I have had some good DX Contacts on QRP equipment in the past so I am looking forward to the Cycle getting some more momentum.

Well that's about it for now, I haven't been /Mobile for the last couple of weeks as the Kawasaki 750cc has been my Iron Horse on most of my journeys. The Mobile station is working well as mentioned in the lat couple of posts, so whilst the sun is shining, and the price of fuel is soaring, I shall be /Motor Cycle for as long as possible h.i.

Hope to catch you guys who are hams on air sometime soon, once again thanks to All for passing by Ham radio Blogspot.Com.

73 Listen out for me /Mobile and Home Base sometime soon on 20M.

de 2E0HTS Simon

HF Mobile Working Well

THE EQUIPMENT, A FEW ADJUSTMENTS LATER... UP AND RUNNING...

RADIO
The radio installation in the vehicle mentioned in the last post which comprises of the Yaesu FT-100 Field Commando radio, it is fed by 12V and wired directly to the vehicle battery (In line Fuse Protection close to the battery).

ANTENNAS
Maldol HFC mobile mono band antennas, and a nice big ground plane (Toyota Estima vehicle body).

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Good ground connections are essential to provide maximum performance and good SWR.

The method I use is, by using clamped on antenna mounts, that are grub screwed to something conductive, like a gutter or rear door which provides an excellent ground.

During the installation I had problem tuning the Maldo HFC antennas on all of the bands as well as creating RFI within the vehicle engine management system and music player.

I sourced the problem and found that the HF antenna mount had not pierced the Toyota paintwork on the inside door seam.

I tightened the two grub screws until the paint was penetrated and the bare metal contact of about 4mm diameter X 2 grub screws, was now providing a good ground connection.

The antennas were now fully resonant across the HF bands apart from the HFC 80m, which surprisingly seemed to be resonant over a wider portion of the band than in the previously installed Toyota RAV 4.

The RFI was now minimal, but I still fitted clamp on Ferrite chokes on most of the wiring harnesses that I came across around the Toyota "Brain" engine management system.

Good antenna grounding and the Ferrite's seem to have solved the problem and will hopefully protect the unit.

Even on the output power of 50 watts it is still possible to cause serious damage if these kind of precautions are not taken, so for the sake of a few pounds on ferrite's I was feeling Confident and itching to make some HF /Mobile QSOs.

USER FRIENDLY STATION
Radio Operation was much easier now with the in-dash fitted FT-100 situated conveniently allowing VFO Tuning whilst on the move.

The greatest thing of all was the auto gearbox and steering column mounted shift lever, giving my left hand more opportunity's to engage the PTT.

Last weekend we were Camping in Anglesy which is an extremely beautiful Island located off the North Wales coast.

Anglesy always manages to treat us to a great time, with its beautiful beaches and radiant sunshine. It is also an excellent location surrounded by sea water which is more than likely responsible for putting out a good signal from my Mobile HF Station.

THE RESULT & CONCLUSION
I worked some great QSOs with some good reports of a "good signal for a mobile" which was a pleasure to receive and also confirmed the new Mobile installation was working well.

During this last week The bands have become a bit more interesting and I have worked many Stations during my Work Run around 07.15 UTC and 16.45 UTC active on 20 Meters.

I managed to make Mobile Contacts with DX Stations from places like the MIDDLE EAST, RUSSIA, CANARY ISLANDS, USA, BELARUS, SLOVENIA, GREECE, UKRAINE, ANDORRA, and MOROCCO.

I am pleased with the Set Up and hopefully will continue to enjoy using the equipment for a long time to come, making many QSOs and contacts on the way.

73, Hope to hear you on AIR, Thanks for passing by Ham Radio Blog spot.com!

The New 2E0HTS Mobile

I have been considering a different vehicle for a while and I have been more than happy with the Toyota Rav 4, so the decision was difficult to make especially considering the performance of my mobile Ham Station with its three antenna mounts.

Eventually after careful consideration and Our love of travelling to nice remote scenic places that are great for radio, I decided to try another reliable Toyota. This Time I chose the Toyota Luicida, a 2.2 turbo diesel 4X4, fresh Japanese import. The vehicle is low mileage for the year and A1 condition, and with the price of fuel these days I am slightly better off by changing from a petrol 2.0 4x4 to a 2.2 turbo diesel 4X4. The MPV is also useful, spacious and very comfortable especially whilst CQing and catching a few Zs.

I managed to mount the FT-100 (Yaesu) into the dash by removing the Japanese banded radio tuner and cassette player, which then also allowed me to fit my Panasonic CD MP3 Player below the Rig. The Antenna mounts were clamped to the rear door without to much trouble and once I established a decent earth between the door and mount. all of my HF antennas tuned to 1:1 swr with ease (80m-10M Mono Band).

Here is the vehicle during last weekends test drive and Ham Radio test transmissions at Keilder Forrest North England/Scottish Borders. I have made a few QSOs on 20m so far working Greece SV, Israel 5Z, Italy IT, and Spain EA, and have heard Japan JA2 5/8 this morning. Yesterday and the day before I heard two Australian VK Stations coming through, I gave them all a Call but was unable to beat the pile up at the time with 50watts. I am looking forward to having lots of good QSOs whilst working Mobile.

Here you can see how my antennas are mounted, they are far enough down the side of the door to still be able to open it without the antennas touching the roof.

Here shows the position of the FT-100 which is mounted in the dash.

Thanks for visiting and hopefully I will have some DX contacts to tell of next post, until then bast 73 and C U AGN

DE 2E0HTS K

Here's Three Different Ways To Make QSO

Delta Loops and DX QSOs

There have been some signs of improvement with regular openings on HF most days here at My Q T H.
My home brew 20 meter delta Loop has been Performing well since I repositioned it in a Vertical configuration.
DX. Stations are becoming more regular on 20 M especially stateside and the Middle East. 40 M has provided some nice openings into South America as well as Canada. Ive been fairly active lately making the most of the good conditions making many interesting QSO

I’ve also been putting out some good Signals from the mobile making plenty
Of contacts on my favorite band 2OM.
It’s always a Pleasure to work new Stations and especially nice to be able to say a quick hello to a nice group of regular radio amateurs. Like Ivan LZ2LP. Mohamed 7X4AN and Gary EW1MM.

I got the illness us Hams get regularly which was the itch and urge to have a go at another home brew delta loop over the weekend. So with the Sun shining I rounded up some tools and wire which turned out to be 3mm plastic coated copper wire. I decided to have a go at making an antenna that might work on 137MHZ which I would use to receive Weather satellites such as NOOA Satellites which transmit imagery data signals on FM. I’ve had good results in the past using the 2M 7/8 wave vertical, with this in mind the resonant length of wire that I cut was for 2M and luckily the SWR was good across the whole of the 2M band.

I used a formulae I came across on the Internet which is very simple to use, it helps you to work out the total length of wire used to make a closed circuit delta Loop on any band.

Length (Feet ‘)

= 1005
frequency

Example for a 20M Delta Loop like the one that I use.

1005
14.200 MHZ = 70.77

+ the length of wire used to secure and connect to feeder and dipole/loop centre = near enough 71 feet. This should be reasonably resonant if fed with a ¼ wave length of 75ohm coax terminating to 50ohm coax. An ATU is required for other HF bands.


The length of wire I used to build the Delta Loop which was mentioned earlier, was only 6feet 9inches in length to provide a low SWR. I came to this result using the same formulae which again proved accurate

1005
145.000 MHZ = 6.93 = 6feet 9inches which worked out well across 2M as well as 137MHZ-WX-NOOA Signals.


Once I crimped some lug connectors on each end of the wire. I laid the wire out on the floor in a triangle with equal sides, then I positioned the feed point approximately 4inches from one of the bottom corners.

Using cable ties/tie raps I was able to connect each corner to a thin piece of rope. This made the delta loop simple to install in the vertical configuration in the near bye tree outside.

As I was putting the new Loop up I had the FT-857 on 2M SSB 145.200 when an Irish Station started to come through the speaker. Louise my YL and HAM (M3TLL) came rushing outside to tell me the news. I followed him and another Station that I was not receiving down to the frequency they were using.I was receiving the Irish Station S-2, Q-5. I headed outside again and installed the loop vertically in the tree using the rope and cable ties. The Irish Stations signal was now up to 5/7 so I was extremely surprised on how well it was working.

I have made a couple of contacts on 2M with reasonable results and I have managed some quality images of the earth via the NOOA Satellites that I’ve managed to receive. I am still in TEST mode for a while before I can really provide accurate feedback, but so far so good.

As far as HF goes the 20M Loop, the 6BTV Hustler and G5RV have received and transmitted some distant signals, with a new DX Country ‘JAMAICA’ added to the collection last Friday night on 40M. I had a lucky break when I got in early during the pile that was about to happen when 6Y1V was 5/9 both ways during the speedy contact we made-Very nice!
Last night was also good especially 20M as I was hearing Mexico and The Caribbean coming through 5/7+.

Hopefully the new cycle will bring even more rare and distant signals to be heard at The 2E0HTS Home or Mobile HAM Station.

73 all the best DX

De 2E0HTS Simon

Echolink via a Repeator-R or Link-L

Last night I was very happy to make my first QSO with Ham Radio blogger and fellow DXer Nash JN4VWH.

We have been in contact via the Internet for quite some time, so as you can imagine it was very exciting and pleasurable to finally make QSO using our radio equipment.

We have both tryed listening out for each other on HF for quite a while, but the bands have not yet been open when we have both found a mutual time that is convenient for us both to play radio.

With propagation not quite reliable enough to work JN4VWH the plan had to change, so we decided to use more Technology that is available to give us a helping hand. Using the Gb3YR repeater I was able to hear Nash JN4VWH coming through loud and clear via echolink through his local IRLP echolink link JE4YIZ-L.

It was a real pleasure to finaly be able to speak with Nash on his new Icom 7000 using my Yaesu Ft-847 and an echolink enabled repeater and Link in England and Japan. Truly great Ham radio Technology.

We had some interesting overs exchanging reports and information, which then lead on to making a second contact using our computers which are both running echolink software.

Once again a real pleasure to be making QSO with JN4VWH Nash.
I am hopeful of some good propagation soon and maybe hear Japan on 15M in the near future. Sayonara 73


Below is the Shack of JN4VWH Nash in Japan

Below is my Shack 2E0HTS Simon in England


Radio and Computers can work well together!!!

73 thanks for visiting Ham radio Blogspot. de 2E0HTS Simon Yorkshire N.ENGLAND

BBC Radio Leeds Broadcasts Live From The SkillWeld 2008 Contest At Park Lane College Keighley

SkillWeld 2008 is part of the World Skills Olympics and fortunately for myself I get the fantastic job of helping to arrange the regional final to be held at the College where I work. Thanks to a great team and the fact that we have just recently merged with Park Lane College Leeds, Park Lane College Keighley(PLCK) held a very competitive event 'SkillWeld 2008' at the fantastic state of the art Fabrication and Welding workshop based at Keighley.
The various welded joints were marked and examined by the judges to extremely high standards and there was quality competition from another college taking part at Keighley. But we still managed to deliver the goods with a victorious 1st, 2cnd and 3rd place finish. Well done P.L.C.K Lads!!!

The event involves using Metal Inert Gas(MIG),Manual Metal Arc(MMA) and Tungsten Inert Gas(TIG) welding processes on Mild Steel, Stainless Steel, Aluminium plate and pipe of various thicknesses. These skills also come in handy for constructing radio masts for us radio Hams.

The winner of this event has a chance to go through to the National final and then go on to the World Championship in Welding which will be held next year in Canada.

With such an important event representing the future of UK skills we were honoured to be Live on Air on BBC Radio Leeds with presenter Daragh at the controls.

As a radio Ham and ex radio DJ, you could guess that I was more than Happy to be talking with Daragh and teaching him how to put a MIG welded run on a piece of plate live on BBC Radio Leeds with 280,000 listeners. I got the chance to operate on the 3m band! hi.

Thanks to everyone involved for all your hard work and it was great to meet Daragh.

Here is Daragh in his mobile BBC Broadcasting VHF Station.


The inside of the BBC Broadcasting VHF Station

A very nice hydraulic mast.


Daragh's BBC Mobile VHF Station


Me and Daragh Live on Air Talking about SkillWeld


In Second Place here is JOE using the TIG welding process to weld a penetrating root run in a mild steel pipe.


The 2008 regional SkillWeld champion Craig Welding Pipe using the MMA process to cap the welded joint by using a weaving technique to create a nice looking welded bead/throat finish, as well as a flawless welded joint.


I am looking forward to what happens next in this high pressure welding skills event and very happy to be helping the lads to get on with the help from my Colleagues.

The next project for these guys might just have to be a tilt over mast.

Meanwhile Ham News for 2E0HTS. Conditions on the HF bands were great during the contest last weekend and I managed many Stateside QSOs on 20m, 40m and amazingly using split VFO I worked quite few USA stations on 80m.

73 de 2E0HTS