Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Today I managed a nice QSO with Tom ZD7X who is located at St. Helena which is quite a distance away from my location. I managed to work Tom ZD7X with a 5/9 report operating my FT-767GX with my home brew 20m delta loop assisted with the MFJ-969 to tune the antenna with 50 watts on 12 meters. 12M is rarely open and I have only had a few QSOs on this band so I guess the new Cycle has begun at last! Good DX de 2E0HTS 73

This information is courtesy of QRZ.Com, I thought Id share it with everyone especially those who might of missed it! QRZ.Com for those of you that don't know it is well worth a look. QRZ.Com SOHO: the new solar cycle starts with a ‘bang’ The European Space Agency (ESA) reports that the SOHO solar observation spacecraft witnessed the start of the new solar cycle. The appearance of a very special solar spot on the sun surface a few days ago, signalled to scientists around the world that a new solar cycle had begun. This solar spot also produced two solar blasts. Each solar cycle lasts an average of 11.1 years. The new solar cycle, called ‘Cycle 24’, started on 4 January this year, when SOHO observed an event scientists have been anticipating for about a year. A fairly small and, at first sight, inconspicuous sunspot on the Sun’s northern hemisphere showed a reversed magnetic polarity compared to sunspots of previous years. A sunspot is an area of highly organised magnetic activity o...

Happy New Year to all! The final few weeks of 2007 did not seem to bring any good propagation making DX openings few and far between. I was fortunate to work just one distant station during the festive season on the 27th of December, and using eQSL.cc I sent and gratefully received an eQSL card confirming QSO with ZP5MAL (Juan from Paraguay). This QSO was on the Yaesu FT-767GX with the hustler 6BTV operating on 20M exchanging 5/3 reports. The Ft-767GX has also been working well for me on 7.038 mhz with the aid of my P.C and nomic rig blaster as I have had many successful QSOs using winPSK31se digital mode. The 40m band has been fairly flat for phone contacts just like 80m and 20m for most of the time. Most of my radio talk time has been taking place on 2m running the FT-847 & FT-857. A distinctive increase of activity has been happening on 2m lately which has been welcomed locally. This is probably down to the many new recently licenced operators that have come into the hobby over ...

Chris on the Right of the picture with his pass certificate who is a fellow work colleague at Park Lane College Keighley. Chris is a lecturer in Electrical Installation and has been spending lunch times and the odd couple of spare hours with Louise and myself over the last two months. Louise is a registered Examination officer for the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB). I am RSGB registered as a Foundation Licence instructor. Chris has been undergoing Foundation Licence training comprising of practical and theory lessons as well as self study. On Friday the 15th of December Chris sat the Foundation Licence Exam successfully gaining a Pass result. Chris has now applied for his Licence and will be operating his Yaesu ft-847 in the next few days. I am looking forward to working him on some of the bands. Well Done Chris! (Non Amateurs) If you are thinking about becoming a Licenced radio ham, there should be a local club or School/College that might be able to help. More info on this at ...

Seasons Greetings to all from our Dog Dudley who is practicing his Reindeer pose, He is ready to help Santa sniff out some chimneys I might get him to try some Antenna Antlers next!. Have a Happy Christmas from Louise (M3TLL) and Simon (2E0HTS)

This week was my YL Louise's birthday, I had arranged a short break in Cumbria which we thoroughly enjoyed. We were based at Barrow-In-Furness in the South West of Cumbria and we found the town very interesting with all of its engineering history, Submarines and historic Port. The locals were very friendly and there were some interesting Islands that we visited where I got to make one or two nice QSOs. Here is a video of some of the radio contacts I managed to make during our stay in Cumbria and the Lake District. I decided to do this as some of you guys have been asking me to make some new Youtube videos, so thanks for all the emails and I hope this is OK! Regards and 73 Simon 2E0HTS

CQ100 is a program for use exclusively by licenced radio amateurs and is a simple and effective way to keep in touch with hams all over the globe 24 hours a day without any propagation. If you are interested you can download a 3 month free trial if you follow this link http://qsonet.com/programs.html I have already heard many CQ calls through the CQ100 virtual radio and I will be listening out for you all, and monitoring all the other bands at the same time on my real rigs! 73 C u agn Simon