Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Greetings and 73 Just a quickie to share this great little tool for our Computers with those of you that like experimenting a little. click on image to enlarge I came across this useful addition to the Shack Computer and have found it to be a very useful and interesting tool for all Radio enthusiasts. It is called "HamInfoBar" and can be downloaded here HamInfoBar The Tool bar doesn't seem to cause any conflicts and offers a wide range of Ham radio and radio related content. It is neat to look at and simple to explore, there are many useful and innovative features, too many too mention. So far I have come across cool things such as links whilst browsing, these have taken me to some interesting up to date Ham Radio Information. Feeds, Propagation Forecasts, DX Clusters, DXpeditions for LF, HF, VHF, UHF and everything else that Ham Radio is involved with, including techy stuff. Have a look yourself and I can honestly say I was nicely surprised with the Tool bars gadgets an

eQsL Log on Screen eQSL Home Page My eQSL Design. Here Is Where You Create Your Card Design eQSL Log eQSL Archives eQSL The Effective and Quickest Way To Confirm your DX and Local Ham Radio Contacts There are lots more functions and pages as well as programs to check out on eQSLs web site once you become a registered member. It is best to send information about your Licence to become AG (Authenticity Guaranteed). It makes claiming eQSL Awards much easier. SWL (Short Wave Listeners Can Also Use eQSL and Obtain a Unique SWL Call Sign) Countries Confirmed by eQSL by My Base Station 1 ALGERIA 2 ARGENTINA 3 AUSTRALIA 4 AUSTRIA 5 AZORES 6 BELARUS 7 BELGIUM 8 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 9 CANADA 10 CEUTA AND MELILLA 11 COLOMBIA 12 CRETE 13 CROATIA 14 CZECH REP. 15 DENMARK 16 DOMINICA 17 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 18 ECUADOR 19 ENGLAND 20 FINLAND 21 FRANCE 22 GERMANY 23 GREECE 24 GUADELOUPE 25 GUERNSEY (BAILIWICK OF) 26 HONDURAS 27 HUNGARY 28 IRELAND 29 ISLE OF MAN 30 ISRAEL 31 ITALY 32 JERSEY (CHANNEL ISL.) 3

Watch to see how I spent my Sunday afternoon making a simple full wave 2 meter Delta Loop and then make a 200 mile QSO with MM0GPZ/P in Scotland on 144.285 usb.

Tonight I had the pleasure of working Tomas OK4BX who regularly shares information here on Hamradio.blogspot. Tomas came through 5/8 on 40m (7.093 LSB)at around 19.50 UTC, we tried 20 meters and was unsuccessful but managed it on 40 meters. I was using 50 watts, a 102 ft G5RV, and the FT-767 with the Heil Goldline Mic. Hopefully Tomas will leave a comment containing his Station equipment used to make this QSO. Thanks Tomas and hope to hear you again on the bands soon. 73 de Simon

A chance to view the beatiful scenery whilst seeing 2M0HTS/mobile in action We have just returned from a weeks Camping in the Scottish Highlands and had a fantastic time. The WX (weather) was good and we both managed to obtain a sun tan as well as a paddle in the lovely Arisaig Sea. We stayed at a lovely campsite over looking the Isle of Skye, Isle of Eigg, and the Isle of Muck, which is situated 6 miles south of Malaig and is called Portnadoran and is locally known as Portnalucaig. This fabulous location was very beautiful, we managed lots of touring, walking and quite a bit of ham radio. I got the opportunity to use the Call 2M for Scotland which caused quite a bit of pile up on a few occasions from some remote places in the North West Highlands operating 2M0HTS/M. Here is what happened during our stay, Thank you to all who managed to make the QSO it sure was fun! We can’t wait until we go back up there and do it all again! It was very beautiful and also an excellent radio opera

Today brought some long awaited activity to the usually quiet portion of the HF spectrum. From early morning the bands were at times busy with the sound of lots of stations from Europe working other stations and big signals were flying around, at last 6 meters SSB, 10 meters 12 meters and even 15 meters were alive. I worked Spain, Italy, Belgium, France and Portugal on the lively opened up bands with good signals both ways. I did not hear any real DX but still I was more than happy to make plenty of European QSOs and I also got the chance to try out my other radio equipment at the same time. I made the QSOs using the Yaesu FT847, Yaesu MD1 desk mic and around 50 watts into the Maldol 6 Band vertical antenna which is mounted outside with an excellent ground plane system. The antenna has been in my collection for almost three years and covers 40m, 15m, 10m, 6m, 2m and 70cms. The contacts that I made on 12 Meters were worked on the home brew 20m delta loop which was tuned with my MFJ 969

Greetings Ham Radio People, thank you Nash and Tomas for the recent Comments they are always appreciated. The past couple of months have been busy for Me at my workplace which as some of you know already it is a College . This time of year is when we have to make sure everything has been covered and our students will achieve their qualifications. So you can imagine theirs lots to do, I've also just about completed my first year on a part time University course. Which once completed next summer I will have a full Teaching licence and be able to continue practicing teaching in FE. So I have found myself getting in front of my HF Rig a bit later in the evening when usually 20M has closed. Over the last couple of weeks I have been fortunate to find some good openings on 20M in the evening into the early hours of the following day. Using the Hustler 6BTV and the Delta Loop I made some great QSOs with big signals exchanged both ways. On the Hustler 6BTV I worked 5N8NDP (NIGERIA), W1AW (U

THE EQUIPMENT, A FEW ADJUSTMENTS LATER... UP AND RUNNING... RADIO The radio installation in the vehicle mentioned in the last post which comprises of the Yaesu FT-100 Field Commando radio, it is fed by 12V and wired directly to the vehicle battery (In line Fuse Protection close to the battery). ANTENNAS Maldol HFC mobile mono band antennas, and a nice big ground plane (Toyota Estima vehicle body). IMPORTANT INFORMATION Good ground connections are essential to provide maximum performance and good SWR. The method I use is, by using clamped on antenna mounts, that are grub screwed to something conductive, like a gutter or rear door which provides an excellent ground. During the installation I had problem tuning the Maldo HFC antennas on all of the bands as well as creating RFI within the vehicle engine management system and music player. I sourced the problem and found that the HF antenna mount had not pierced the Toyota paintwork on the inside door seam. I tightened the two grub screws u

I have been considering a different vehicle for a while and I have been more than happy with the Toyota Rav 4, so the decision was difficult to make especially considering the performance of my mobile Ham Station with its three antenna mounts. Eventually after careful consideration and Our love of travelling to nice remote scenic places that are great for radio, I decided to try another reliable Toyota. This Time I chose the Toyota Luicida, a 2.2 turbo diesel 4X4, fresh Japanese import. The vehicle is low mileage for the year and A1 condition, and with the price of fuel these days I am slightly better off by changing from a petrol 2.0 4x4 to a 2.2 turbo diesel 4X4. The MPV is also useful, spacious and very comfortable especially whilst CQing and catching a few Zs. I managed to mount the FT-100 (Yaesu) into the dash by removing the Japanese banded radio tuner and cassette player, which then also allowed me to fit my Panasonic CD MP3 Player below the Rig. The Antenna mounts were clamped

There have been some signs of improvement with regular openings on HF most days here at My Q T H. My home brew 20 meter delta Loop has been Performing well since I repositioned it in a Vertical configuration. DX. Stations are becoming more regular on 20 M especially stateside and the Middle East. 40 M has provided some nice openings into South America as well as Canada. Ive been fairly active lately making the most of the good conditions making many interesting QSO I’ve also been putting out some good Signals from the mobile making plenty Of contacts on my favorite band 2OM. It’s always a Pleasure to work new Stations and especially nice to be able to say a quick hello to a nice group of regular radio amateurs. Like Ivan LZ2LP. Mohamed 7X4AN and Gary EW1MM. I got the illness us Hams get regularly which was the itch and urge to have a go at another home brew delta loop over the weekend. So with the Sun shining I rounded up some tools and wire which turned out to be 3mm plastic coated co

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