Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

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 ov...

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 m...

The word HAM is often used by many as a shortcut for amateur radio “ HAM RADIO ”. As a radio operators we call ourselves “ HAM ” or “ HAMS ”. The actual meaning of HAM is taken from the three pioneers that helped to make it possible for us all to become “ HAMS ”. The letter H stands for Hertz ( Heinrich Hertz ) who helped to develop the theory of electromagnetic waves . The letter A stands for Armstrong ( Edwin Howard Armstrong ) who was successful in inventing FM ( Frequency Modulation ). The letter M as you may have guessed already stands for Marconi ( Gugliemo Marconi ) who was the first to transmit signals across the Atlantic. H = HERTZ A = Armstrong M = Marconi

This time of the year here in the U.K certainly puts any outdoor antenna systems under a lot of strain from windy, wet, winter weather. I decided to do some routine maintenance on my antennas. The first job was carried out on the reasonably recently erected delta loop cut for 20meters. I took the loop down from the horizontal configuration, which also meant that the mast it was supported by which was also the fixing for my vhf vertical also had to come down. This allowed access to both antennas, so I began with the loop by shortening the overall length of the loop, which involved cutting 500mm of each length. The shape being triangular meant removing a total of 1500mm (1.5 meters) of wire and then re measuring each side of the loop to ensure that it was still divided into 3 equal sides. Each side now measuring 6.2 meters in length, giving a total wire length of 18.6 meters. Previously the swr had been at 5.0 on 14.200, the swr with the adjustment was now 2.0 a much more resonant leng...

The Bands have been very unpredictable lately with frequent openings around late afternoon on HF. I was lucky enough to tune around 20m whilst driving home from work when I came across 9Y4W(Trinidad & Tobago). He was booming in 5/9, with a big pile up. I gave a couple of calls whilst on the move, and made the contact from the mobile. This was quite surprising in the middle of a pile up with only a simple mobile antenna. Later on during the weekend I worked LW9EOC(Argentina) on 15M using the FT-767, and Hustler Vertical from the QTH. The past few days have been difficult conditions during the evening time due to excessive QRN that I seem to be suffering from every now again. The noise levels have been unusually high, probably down to the extreme wet winter weather we have been getting up here in the North Pennines. It’s been gale force at times with frequent weather warning bulletins given out. The wind has visited my QTH quite a few times recently as well as some snow and more rain...

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...