Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

The past couple of days have been a bit on the damp side here on Baildon Moor so I have been keeping my self amused with radio and the latest NASA activities regarding the docking of Endeavor to the ISS which Ive been keeping a close eye on since lift off last Wednesday the 8th. I have done this via the NASA web site Live TV Feed From ISS , you can get to via the link on the right of this page. I recommend view in media player. ISS SIGHTINGS As well as watching the live feed Ive been in and out looking into the Sky's at night, this was to be successful with three consecutive evenings of clear sky I was able to see the ISS and Endeavor Space Shuttle as an extremely bright Star travelling across the Horizon and night Sky. I am not so clever with the camera so practice makes perfect but I did get some shots of one of the pass byes, taken on long exposure. The top image is the best, if you click on it to enlarge and look closely you can see some resemblance of the ISS and Shuttle. This

Hi Folks, We have been playing Radio and looking at the Stars, Planets and Galaxies up in the very beautiful and historic Galloway area of Scotland. I would recommend this part of the World to you all if you get chance to visit! It offers beautiful scenery, lots of history, friendly people and for those of us who like operating HF, zero noise interference allowing many good QSOs . As far as Astronomy goes, Galloway boasts some of the darkest skies in the U.K making observations extremely interesting and easy to see other Galaxy's , Globular clusters, Meteors, orbiting Satellites and the International Space Station which I had the pleasure of viewing with the naked eye. Whilst operating I was 2M0HTS/m which is my call sign for Scotland. I find this a bit confusing?As intermediate licence holders we have to drop our County locator's prefix which in my case is 2E0 (England) replacing the E with M for Scotland becoming 2M0. This is kind of ridiculous as MM/2E0HTS would be

Ive been quite busy this week with a lot of driving it worked out well as I got the opportunity of playing radio /mobile, I have the choice of 4 bands with the antenna systems i have installed to my Toyota rav 4. The picture above shows a Diamond 2m/70cm ANT, a 40m Maldol HFC40, and a 20M Maldol HFC20. This weeks QSO from the mobile have been made on 20m and 40m, the most of the time I was operating on 40m with some excellent results on my ft100 running 50 watts. I made contacts with Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Poland all on 40M and from the Mobile. I am once again impressed with the performance of the little Maldol HFC40 like its partner gripped to the back of my tail gate the HFC20, both of these antennas have been in use daily for over 2 years and are still in top shape providing an experience of pure joy and surprise with some of the distant Counties worked. I have one of the 80m Maldol HFC80 but I haven't managed to make QSO with anyone so I wouldn't rec

Click on image to ENLARGE Once again NOOA 15 gives a good look at what is happening around 17.50 utc I have not been so active on the HF bands as I have been busy fabricating a tow hitch/bar for my Vehicle.This is not a problem as I am a fully qualified Welding and Fabrication Engineer, so I was what we say? Playing! I made two attachments one is a straight forward tow ball bracket and the other will allow the mounting of a 6BTV from Hustler.The new home brew Tow bracket will shortly be put to the test as I am picking up a new toy which is a Kawasaki 750 spectre US import this thursday on the motorcycle trailor I am borrowing. The Antenna mount will get tested when I set up Portable Station in about a month at the annual Keighley Show. There I will errect the Six Band Trapped Vertical( Hustler 6BTV) and fix it to my Vehicle using the homebrew Bracket/Mast so expect to here more about the Keighley Show nearer the time. As far as the new edition to my Motor Cycle Collection I am looki

Click on Image to ENLARGE Hi Folks :-) I am happy to be able to say that we have been able to enjoy a rain free weekend with nice sunny intervals here at the QTH. Thankfully this has changed our moods too Happy, after a Terribly wet couple of months and I am pleased to say that after the bad weather all is well up on the Moor Tops of West Yorkshire. Over the weekend Ive been listening on the bands, it hasn't been great but has had occasional DX openings especially on 20M with the odd strong Signals been heard from Indonesia and other DX countries. I have been quite busy listening out for Weather satellites around 137.300mhz, 137.400mhz, 137.500mhz, 137.620mhz, 137.850mhz, & 137.912.5mhz. I have had some good results as we had some clear Sky's allowing better images of the different Countries of Europe possible. As you can see from the above image of tonights pass over my QTH I managed to receive signals on 137.500 mhz that were coming from NOAA 15. NOAA 15 is just One of

This is an Image I received tonight on my Yaesu FT857 from NOAA 15 You cant always trust what the TV weather presenters say! So my advice is to do your own Weather monitoring with a little help from the NOAA weather satellites. It has been Sunny and warm today for the first time since I returned from my holiday in Ibiza, but looking at the above image I best keep my water proofs at close hand. The Video below shows how I received this Image and also includes a special appearance from Dudley the wanna be Radio Ham Greyhound. 73, thanks for visiting, take care and please come back soon! Simon

Click on Images to Enlarge My home QTH is out on the Moor Tops in the County of Yorkshire, You may have seen on the World News channels that we have been getting a months rainfall every day for the last few weeks. I am fortunate to be high enough at 1000ft ASL to avoid any flooding! however the lightning has been striking very close to my antennas and I have to wear waterproof s and wellington boots an awful lot hi hi. Looking North Looking South East toward Europe Looking South West Towards South America & The Carribean Looking West Toward North America

I have plenty of places left to get my signals to go too! The Map is just a guide of where I have made it to so far. A more detailed Map breaking down the individual Countries hopefully in a future post.

I was watching some youtube videos when I came across some fellow Hams with the coolist mobile station I have ever seen. Good film fellows! I liked it so much I decided to share. Enjoy! 73 Simon...

Well as you can see it was lovely! I would like to praise all the people of Ibiza as we were very well looked after and had a great time. : ) I hope to return someday soon thankyou gracious! Anyway I feel fully recharged and after having a week off Air I shall be listening around the bands to see whats happening out there? 73

Its The New version of what I have been using to decode Weather Satellites and all the other Digi Modes. There is a Demo version available if you paste this link into google. :) www bonito net It looks good, I havent downloaded it yet as i am still playing around with Bonito Radcom 5.2. 73 have fun!

Anyone Lucky enough to make QSO with Japan may find this useful English --- [ Japanese ] ------------------------------------------- Hello [Kon ni chi wa] Good Morning [O ha yo u go za i ma su] Good afternoon [Kon ni chi wa] Good evening [Kon ban wa] ------------------------------------------- Thank you for your Call (Thank you [a ri ga to u] ) Your signal is 59 [ si gu na lu wa] five nine [de su] (signal report) this word is frequently used in japanese [ si gu na lu re po to wa] five nine [ de su] ------------------------------------------- 2E0HTS this is JN4VWH over. 2E0HTS [ko chi ra wa] JN4VWH [do zo]. ------------------------------------------- Back to you [O ka e si --- si ma su] Over [do zo] (Back to you over / [O ka e si --- si ma su] [do zo]) ------------------------------------------- 2E0HTS from JN4VWH 73 good-bye over. 2E0HTS [ko chi ra wa] JN4VWH [Seventy three] [sa yo u na ra do zo]. ------------------------------------------- Roger = receive = understand [ryo u ka i] Rog

Here are some of my more colourful and interesting eQSL cards that I have received. Maybe there is one from You! Thanks to all Stations and SWLs that have sent eQSL cards to Me.......... You can watch the show whilst listening to MM0LSB/portable have a chat with Myself, I hope you enjoy and thanks for visiting this blog 73.....Simon

please click on log to enlarge As you can see I have been playing PSK with 3 new countries worked and added to my ever growing DX countries list which is currently at 124 different Countries Worked in the last three years of the programme winlog 32 log that I am currently running. New DX added are FG5LA from Guadeloupe, TG9AHM from Guatemala and J69DS from St. Lucia. I have dis-connected my Rigblaster Nomic Interface from the FT-847, and I swapped the jumper setting around to work in the good old FT-767 gx. The FT-767 gx is My original Rig and I have decided that it would make more sense to have it permanently wired up for digi and data mode use, as the good old switches and buttons can be adjusted much more easily than the more modern menu driven rigs. This is much easier for audio input adjustment/fine tune. I have been running 30Watts into the home brew 20M dipole with terrific results, I can also operate through my already connected Maldol multi band vertical which covers 40M 15M 1