Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I was lucky to catch some nice band conditions this morning as I made some nice DX qso into Belgium and Germany. ON6ZT, ON4KHG, OO7K and DL6YBF were all worked using SSB on 144MHz. I received some excellent signals from all stations, the 2m band is wide open today and I hope to catch some more activity whilst the conditions last. The VHF propagation forecast looks good all week!  Have a nice day. 73

The Year has gone very fast for the HTS family as today our baby daughter has had her first birthday party earlier this afternoon. I cant believe she is one already, Happy Birthday Elsie Grace X.

My 29th QSO - final Challenge was succeeded as I made a QSO tonight on 14.196MHz. I ended the challenge by working "Cubical Quad Master" Mike-W2YP at 21.13 utc on the 20m band. As usual Mike-W2YP was cracking through at 5/9+25dB to my FT-1000MKV and CW80 antenna, my report back from Mike was 5/9+15dB. It was a real pleasure to catch up with Mike as it had been a while since our last QSO and Mike always has time to exchange a few enjoyable overs rather than just a signal report. Mike is located in New Rochelle, New York State, locator FN30CX. The total distance of the W2YP Station is 3328 Miles away from my location hear in Yorkshire (IO93CU). I have certainly enjoyed this challenge of making at least one QSO a day. Louise-M3TLL(My YL) came up with the idea and I am pleased to have accomplished the challenge with success as well as gaining some satisfaction out of it all. There could be a celebration cake on the dinner table tomorrow h.i. The actual idea it would be a ...

My challenge for today was also a brand new experience for me as I have never tried to work anyone on the 30M band before.  I tuned my FT-1000MKV to 10.141MHz and found quite a few stations coming in well on PSK31 with my Hustler vertical in line. Earlier in the QSO challenge, PE4BAS had commented in a previous post where I had used PSK31 Deluxe to make a QSO. Bas recommended DM780, so I thought I would give it a go on 30M.  I made my first ever 30M QSO successfully running just 20W at 20.19 utc, when I worked Andy - UW8SM from The Ukraine. The signal reports were good, 599 both ways. Our QSO using DM780 can be seen in the screen shot below. It will take a bit of time to familiarise myself with the program but I shall give it a good trying out! 73 & see you tomorrow for the Grand Finale of the February QSO Challenge.

I made my first QSO of today at 21.18 utc on 3.771MHz where I worked Patrick operating special event station EI80IRTS . EI80IRTS celebrates the 80th anniversary of the founding of The Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) . Patrick was working a huge pile up and putting out a very impressive 5/9 +40dB signal when I snook my call sign in amongst the many stations through to EI80IRTS. I received a 5/9 +20dB signal report back as well as some information about the IRTS up and coming CQIR International Radio Contest taking place on March the 17th from 12.00 utc. Check out more information about the station EI80IRTS including the EI80IRTS award via QRZ.com. Today's QSO challenge has been completed, the equipment I used was: FT-1000MKV and CW80 Antenna. 73

Earlier today I made some QSO's via SAUDISAT 1C SO-50. I used my FT-847, G-5500 controller and dual Satellite beams to work F0FIG at 10.44 utc this morning. During a fast set of overs we exchanged locators and signal reports via the satellite. F0FIG - Marcel from JO1OJE was coming in with a 5/9 signal during the pass amongst quite a lot of QRM from other ops also trying to get in to the bird. F0FIG came back to me over the QRM where I received a 5/9 report back from Marcel - F0FIG. I went on to work a couple more stations before the SO-50 satellite was out of range. Todays Challenge completed with plenty of time left to check the HF bands and continue playing some Ham radio. 73

As I continue completing at least one QSO every day to qualify for the challenge, I made today's QSO on 14.210MHz whilst working Brian - KB2UZY at around 19.33 utc this evening. Brian is located 3228 miles away in Springfield Massachusetts, locator FN32QC. KB2UZY was working a pile up of stations that were calling him, his signal was a very strong 5/9+20 db to my FT-1000MKV during our QSO. I received a 5/9+10 db report back from his station which can be seen pictured below. Brian - KB2UZY pictured above was using an FT-1000D from YAESU and running 500 watts from his Kenwood TL922A amplifier into his hy-gain TH11DX antenna mounted 50 feet above the ground. I was running my vertical ground mounted Hustler 6BTV with radials. Only 4 more days left before my computer keyboard gets a rest. 73