Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I finally got around to re running the carolina windom feed line to try and gain an improved/optimum arrangement. The previous arrangement was temporary as the feed line intercepted the balun at around 45°. The new feed line installation is now at 90° and allows the feed line to terminate at the choke with much more of a straight drop. As an idea to try cut down unwanted QRN, I  added a short ground wire to a copper stake which is attached to the base of the choke via the plug connection. This is a simple experiment that I have been pondering over for a while. So far I have noticed signals received seem much quieter with very low noise levels on 80M as well as improved noise levels on 40M. I shall be once again comparing and experimenting as I switch between my other antennas as I conduct some tests. It will be interesting to see if the different feed line route changes the direction of the radiated RF field from the antenna and hopefully help it work even...

Shack - B locked down for the winter!

When I got in from work I grabbed some camera shots of my antennas handling our first significant snow fall since moving into this QTH just over two years ago. My Satellite Array for 145/435MHz  Here you can see the wire antenna which is a Carolina Windom 80M - 10M.  Its up at around 25ft  and is 131ft in Length.  The picture below shows my CobWebb and Hustler 6BTV looking upwards.  The view in horizontal gives you an idea of how well my garden is elevated The nearest chimney can be seen in the lower part of the image. Finally a picture of my Tri-band Snow-linear, I mean Co-linear vertical antenna. The next thing to do is to see how the SWR is before any transmitting takes place, snow can cause undesirable effects to SWR.  These two don't really care about the SWR they just like to play out in the snow! 73 de Simon 2E0HTS

Follow the link to see if you card has made it to my QSL Gallery 2E0HTS - Latest Received eQSL cards 73 and thanks!

The Eu AmSat Forum has recently migrated to a new web address. The forum is well worth a visit and will be particularly interesting if you are a satellite fan or operator!

The holiday was great fun with the family and we all had a wonderful few days of pure enjoyment. Our daughter experienced her second Christmas which proved to be very exciting indeed. Dudley the DX hound also enjoyed the festive fun especially the part which included a 2 foot marrow bone treat! Louise and I were kept busy throughout the week and unfortunately for my blog and transceivers, I did not manage much radio time until the new year kicked in. More recently, I have been  operating in the evening after 10.00 utc and have found conditions fairly quiet, the higher end of the HF bands have been more or less completely closed down but 40 meters and 80 meters have remained open. My FT-1000 MKV and Carolina Windom antenna are still doing a great job along side my CobWeb and 6BTV. Up to press, the Winter WX has not troubled them to much and I am hoping to get away with minimum antenna maintenance this winter h.i. (All hell will probably break loose now I'...

Tomorrow is the last working day of the year and I am looking forward to enjoying the Christmas and New Year holiday celebrations with the family. Wishing you a very merry Christmas and happy new year!