Posts

Solar Activity Creates DX Opportunities

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click on log to enlarge ......... (blue spots highlight propagation peaks on 20m) The last week has kept me active a lot on some of the HF bands due to some great openings into South America as well as VK. I have noticed some interesting findings regarding the use of my Vertical Antennas and the home made full wave 20m Delta Loop, at different times during the day due to the ionospheres variable F layer. Up until this weekend the WX has been good with sunshine and pleasant conditions. The bands have definitely begun to improve especially at my QTH on most Evenings. During daytime conditions I have experimented around on 20m with a Mono Band ½ wave vertical and the Infamous Loop. With the second F layer seemingly being present at this time I have found the Vertical to perform noticeably better than the loop on 20m into Europe and the Middle East. But from 1800 UTC there is a sudden change of received angle of radiated signal and the Delta Loop is phenomenal and provides outstanding

Four stacked five element 20 meter yagi antennas

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Ian VK3MOs Tower and four stacked five element 20 meter yagi antennas worked by 2E0HTS using a Home brew 20M Delta Loop Last Night I battled with the sleep that was forming in my Eyes and stayed up late working a few Distant DX Stations that were coming through on 20m SSB. I worked Argentina first, LU2QC Osvaldo, with a 5/9 signal, followed by W1/GI0MPT Eamon, 5/9+ from south of Boston. Just after that my luck continued and got even better with VK3MO Ian, at 11.11pm UTC (12.11 Local time BST) who gave me a 5/9 report on 14.177.30. USB using his awesome antenna array, 100 watts and I think Ian was running an Icom rig and was also 5/9. I used the good old ft767, 50w, with my full wave vertical home made delta loop to make both contacts.Whilst in RX, I compared the Loop to the Mono band vertical 20m ant, G5RV, and the Hustler. Sorry Guys the home made Delta loop(vertically configured) put them all to Shame with no comparison, in fact none of the other antennas came close to the Loop'

HamInfoBar Web Tool Bar Browser, Proves To Be A Valuable Tool For Radio Enthusiasts

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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

eQSLing

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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

The Sunday Afternoon 2 Meter Loop Project

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.

OX4BX friend of Hamradio.blogspot.com worked on 40M

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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

HF pile up from 2M0HTS mobile in the North West of Scotland

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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

Sporadic openings on 6M, 10M, 12M & 15M

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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

Good Openings on 20M Most Evenings

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

HF Mobile Working Well

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

The New 2E0HTS Mobile

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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

Here's Three Different Ways To Make QSO

Delta Loops and DX QSOs

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

Echolink via a Repeator-R or Link-L

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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

BBC Radio Leeds Broadcasts Live From The SkillWeld 2008 Contest At Park Lane College Keighley

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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