Posts

Mills & Windmills on the Air Weekend

Image
This Weekend was Mill and Windmill on the Air event which is quite interesting to me as I started off in a Textile Mill as a Maintenance Engineer when I was just 17 Years old. The Mill was very old and i had spooky experiences during the 8 years i worked there encountering a Ghostly presence on one of the many evenings i was working alone. THIS IS THE MILL I USED TO WORK AT IN BAILDON This weekends Event was very good and i would like to thank all who took part and put in the effort of setting up the special event stations up at the Mills and Windmills. I made contact with 16 Mills and Windmills all on 80m , here are the call signs of the Stations worked.... GB2PWW,GB2GW,GB2TMI,GB0ETM,GB5HW,GB2NW,GB0HPM,GB2GG,GB0MW,GB2ARW,GB2UW,GB2BWT,GB2FWM,GB0EM, GB0SNM AND GB0WSM.... Once again many thanks to all involved and a special thankyou to Cliff (GB0WSM) who put a fellow Mill Engineer Derrick on the radio for a good rag chew about Mills and Mill life. I am looking forward to the next time!!

QSL 100%

Image
As you can see i am very pleased with my recent delivery of 500 QSL cards from QSL Factory.The Cards have been custom made with a design created by my ever talented YL Louise M3TLL,if you would like one listen out for Me on the Bands and I will send one to You. 73 and hope to work you on Air soon. If you are a SWL and here me on You can get one too! send me an email you can get the address from looking Me up on QRZ.com

eQSL Award

Image
Ive been using eQSL for about three years and i am currently a Silver Member.During this time i have had the pleasure of receiving many eQSLs and also sent them off to DXCC all over the Globe. I recently received an eQSL eDX Award for confirming 33 DXCC,and i am well on my way to obtaining the eDX100 Award,there are other eQSL Awards available to Hams and SWLs. To find out more visit the eQSL site via the link at the right column. You can become a member of eQSL for free and for a small donation you can be a Bronze,Silver or a bit more cash gets you Gold status.Membership allows you to upload your own designs and other privileges. Its still nice to receive paper QSL Cards and Ive had quite few of them lately via the Burro and a few direct.Many Thanks to all Stations exchanging both QSLs and eQSLS all are returned. And finally some development on my search for a QSL Card Printing Company has finally come to an end with success with a Company here in U.K QSL FACTORY The service so far h

Well Received Comments From Ken N2OBY Fellow HAM & Motor Cyclist

Image
Simon, Just wanted to say hi from the other side of the pond. Name here is Ken N2OBY, QTH is Fishkill, NY. I've been following your blog for a few months now and look forward to working you on the air. I ride also - 1986 Honda VF1000R & '84 VF1100S (V65 Sabre). In the process of re-working my web site, but you can see the 1000R at www.qsl.net/n2oby. My XYL Lisa and especially loved seeing the video where you and Louise took Dudley to the beach! Cats & dogs rock - along with radio and motorbikes! I was stationed in England at RAF Welford from 1982 - 85. That tour began my lifelong love affair with the UK. Been back a few times since. Favorite areas are North Yorkshire and the Lake District. Would love to win the lottery so that I could move back there. ;-) Again, I look forward to meeting you on the bands. Cheers, Ken N2OBY Hi Ken Sorry it has taken so long to read your comment on my post "The Things We Hams Talk About" I was Pleased to Hear You are a regular r

BEGINNERS GUIDE HOW TO WORK PSK AND DIGI MODES

Image
click on image to Enlarge Ive been playing around with Computers for many years and i have many programs that are interesting and fairly easy to use which are for Ham Radio use,most of which are free downloads of Ham websites e.t.c The program that i am using here is WINPSKse. Download it here. Once installed you will have to connect your Radio to your Computer.You need a double ended 3.5mm mono jack plug cable which connects to the ext speaker socket in the back of your Radio,which then feeds the audio/received data out into the Line in or Mic in, on your Computer.You can adjust the level using the P.C sound control there is usually a setting on most programs which allows audio in adjustment. You are now ready to receive PSK,select the waterfall window and click on the signal. The next stage there is a bit more expense you will need to acquire more kit,a radio computer interface better known as a Rigblaster.There are various models on the market as you can see in the picture the one

Good Opening Across The Pond

Image
Last Night was quite busy for me on 20M with lots of Stations to work.Thanks to all Hams that gave me a call! Here's my log containing the callsigns of the stations I worked. Click on Image to Enlarge Here is a video with a few of the Stations that i worked.73 I hope you like it!

Nice to Meet you again on 40M

Image
Last Night was awsome on the HF bands, Stations were coming in thick and fast from all over the Globe all the way across the HF spectrum.It was nice to work YV1RDX again this time from his home Station in Venezuela.The last time we made a QSO was when Julio YV1RDX was operating on a DXpedition from Aves Island.

New QSL Cards

Image
Here is the design that My YL Louise M3TLL has done for Me,So its off to the printers and hopefully should have some new QSL cards to send out soon!

CQ DX With A Fantastic View

Image
Operating from Hardnotts pass in the Lake District Many of us like to get out in the Countryside with Mother Nature.This Weekend i had a special treat courtesy of my loving YL Louise (M3TLL),Louise had booked us in to The Boot inn at Boot in the Lake District as part of my Birthday present and of course she insisted on me bringing a few Antenna's to try out my /mobile operations. I had some great contacts on the HF bands and as you can see the scenery is spectacular! Thanks Louise it was Brilliant

The Things We Hams Talk About

Image
Last night i had a good solid 5/9 copy into U.S.A with Milt W3AEG on 20M from my home Station.I then decided to try some CQ calls on 80M for a change.My first contact was Steve M0EBJ who was located in Norfolk.We had a good rag chew and got on to the great subject of Motorcycles! I was glad to have met up with another Ham Radio Biker.I have been riding Motor Bikes since i was 13 and i am 40 on Monday so you could say I've been a biker for a while.This is the Motorcycle Steve M0EBJ is currently riding. This is my Long time friend i had it for many years its a 1985 Kawasaki GPZ750(now 810)cc.Its a bit of a handful but roars and rides like thunder in a straight line h.i. This is may Sports Tourer its a 98 Suzuki Bandit600cc,itsfast,reliable,good all rounder and very comfortable, Maybe ill work /M from my Motorcycle some time? I try ed it with my old CB when i was a teenager it was ok.73 have a good weekend

DXing on 20M SSTV

Image
After a days work i like to get in, turn the computer and radio's on and see whats happening on the bands Tonight i herd W3 GG calling cq on the SSTV 20M band. I returned and sent my SSTV picture with his signal report and small image of his transmission. This was his next transmission Which Acknowledged QSL of my transmission And the final after a nice QSO 73 This image was a welcomed sight to my P.C monitor all the way from Venezuela

HF Band wide open

What a great weekend!many US Stations were worked during the ARRL Contest.The 20m and 15m band were in great shape this weekend from my home Station with excellent contacts up and down U.S.A. One Station from Florida was impressed with my genuine 5/8 report on 15M using 50w from the FT847 into the Hustler 6BTV.I recently added 4 half wave lengths of 6mm copper wire to the Hustler vertical radials which seems to be helping out with its repeated good performance. Last night was still active after the weekend contest i was pulling SSTV pictures from U.S.A and South America. A friend who is local to me,Karl G1YPQ made a good contact on 17M into the U.S.A on his G5RV as i was listening on the side.Its good to hear everyone having fun and taking advantage of the Bands been open. 73 until the next post.

Working EA5CFM from the /Mobile

Image
This picture is Paco EA5CFM in his shack Whilst i was mobile this morning i heard 4Z5PG Station in Isreal calling CQ 20M,I responded from my mobile station and had a good QSO exchanging 5/8-5/9 reports with 4Z5PG.As i was in QSO a massive signal from Paco EC5CFM called in to me, so i QSY to another frequency and had another nice QSO.This was all on the way to work operating on the 20M band which was fairly quiet in comparison to last weeks DX that i worked.Its always a real pleasure making QSO with Stations all around the World from the mobile, and i thank all Stations that keep me company back and forth from my work QTH. 73 to all, have a good weekend

Fantastic results from my Mobile Station

Image
Wow! who says the bands are dead! this morning i was on the same journey to work when i stumbled across ZL1BD-AL.He was signing off with a G station when i called in on my humble ft100 with 50watts through my mono band Maldol antenna and to his amazement and mine we managed a 10 min QSO whilst i was driving to work.He was 5/7 to 5/9 all the way and i returned with a 5/7,i was more than pleased with that and had a good rag chew with AL rather than a usual 5/9 73 which what usually happens H.I. So anyone thinking about going mobile i can strongly recommend the Maldol HFC20 mobile antenna's.As far as the rig my FT100 is certainly proving to be a little gem,giving repeated regular fantastic results... On Wednesday 21st i was tuning around the 20m band whilst driving to work and come across a strong VK station on my mobile ft100.To my delight i managed to sneak into the pile up with a 5/7 with VK9DNX which was quite a surprise with my 50watts and 1.2m long Maldol hfc20 mobile antenna.I

SSTV on 80M

SSTV on 80M - 3.730 myself 2E0HTS in QSO with OH2BT from Finland.........