Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

CQ World Wide Contest Every year I look forward to using my HF Ham Radio Station during the World Wide CQ Contest. CQ WW is where World Wide participation makes it possible to work new DX locations and rare activations brought to life by enthusiastic radio amateurs from all nations spread around the globe. The Contest lasts all weekend, 48 hours in total. This year's Contest brought some new Countries and call signs into the humble 2E0HTS station. In total I worked 15 Zones and 64 different Countries without trying too hard. I managed 131 different QSO's in between the constant searching up and down the bands, compared to most Station's I was only playing h.i Some Station's make Thousands of QSO's as we Ham's Know already! ;-) I really enjoyed giving a few points away during the Contest and it was nice hearing some of the regular Contest Station's as well as the new ones of course! One big Thank you to All Station's worked! I did manage to get some of th

Today's SSTV transmission received from NA1SS at 10.11utc with a 5/9+40 signal at 2E0HTS Simon's QTH. I also heard Richard call out and I managed to get into the ISS and Richard came back, but it was very quick as half of Europe was calling at the same time. Hopefully I will get a better QSO next time. Thanks Richard and all at ARISS.

This mornings SSTVs transmission whilst passing France and Spains border.

We have all been reading about the latest radio activity on board the ISS and many of us have been following the passes of the ISS, whilst waiting in anticipation to see if we can hear any interesting transmissions from the other side of the Ionosphere. Today I got lucky and managed to not only receive a couple of Earth Shots from space, I also heard Richard Garriot (W5KWQ) working multiple contacts across Europe under the International Space Stations call sign, NA1SS. Here MMSSTV Software is decoding the received ISS transmission A closer look at the received image of N.West Europe An image of the Atlantic Satscape Screen shot of the position of the ISS as it moves away. I used Yaesu the FT-847, the home brew IOIo beam, GS 250 rotator and MMSSTV to decode the images whilst tracking the ISS with Satscape. Incidentally I recently un-installed the Java version of Satscape and reverted to the previous version, as I found the Java version slowed down my connection speed an awful lot? My Co

The past few days have seen some good openings on HF for me especially on 20M, with QSOs being made from my Mobile Station as well as from inside the Shack. Shawn N3TEE from Newark in the USA and myself 2E0HTS, have been exchanging emails ever since Shawn commented on one of my videos. We have been trying to make QSO on 20 and 40M over the last couple of evenings and tonight using PSK31 we finaly made the QSO! Shawn N3TEE came through quite loud at times 57-599 running an Icom Rig but there was slight QSB. Nether the less, we managed a 10 min QSO and can now exchange QSL. N3TEE Shawn Click to Enlarge, Shawn N3TEE's Lap Top p.c screen in RX with myself 2E0HTS coming through in The USA. Click to Enlarge, Simon 2E0HTS's Screen with Shawn N3TEE coming in loud and clear. I used my FT-767, Nomic Rigblaster, 3800Dual Core Computer,40-50 Watts through a Full wave Delta LOOP Vertically polarised. The Actual Transmission received and transmitted at N3TEE's QTH 2E0HTS 2E0HTS 2E0HTS

Latest Satellite confirmed QSL cards < As usual the radio's have been in use during the evenings after a days work and I have been working various Bands and Modes making some good QSOs. I also made a number of QSO's into the USA via Echolink. During one of the QSO's I tried to arrange a PSK sched with N3TEE-Shawn, but with one or two QSB issues we still have to make the QSO. Echolink can be a very useful tool for arranging radio contacts with DX Stations. I also received two nice QSL Cards sent direct to me confirming Satellite Contacts from AO-51 and VO-52. The Cards were from IK3VZS-Vinicio and EA3AGH-Jose, Thanks Guys my QSL cards have been posted and should be with you soon! With the propagation offering some reasonable evening openings and my Amateur satellite addiction still maintaining a good hold over my radio operations, I had to get back on HF and give my FT-767 a good airing off.h.i. So I have tried to do what us Men are not supposed to be able too do which is

Ham Radio HF There's a voice inside the static And it's calling out CQ CQ DX is anyone there? He wants to speak to you You've set up your antenna You're receiving loud and clear You're going to call out to the voice That you can loudly hear You shout out your callsign He says he can hear you fine Receiving you above the noise Your signal's 5 and 9 You exchange all of your info Find out what you want to know Say 73s and 88s QSL via the bureau Ham Radio 2 Metres There's a voice on 145.500 He's calling out CQ CQ DX is anyone there? No. For more non-radio related poetry and articles visit Louise's Helium site here or maybe if you're lucky you'll catch her on air some day.

Computers have been running many amateur radio programs since the birth of the P.C. I have always tried to keep reasonably up to date with most software and recently decided to give my Intel Dual Core 3800 some new hardware which was to be some more Ram memory and a HD Graphics adaptor. I compared the required hardware on the net where I got a good insight into the specifications available as well as the costs. Once I new what I wanted, I set off to my local shop and came away with both. 1 gig of ram memory(DDR) this was to compliment the existing memory, now doubling up to give 2 gigabytes of ram memory. The graphics adaptor is a NVDIA 9600 GT 512 Megabytes HD card, I fitted it and with both items installed correctly the computer should give excellent performance. With the new hardware installed i decided to back up my logs/data and then I formatted the C: drive completely wiping it clean ready for a fresh install. The re-installation takes some time but is well worth it once all soft

With the new Autumn beginning the WX (weather) is not expected to allow outdoor operations to continue as regularly as the last months Satellite operations here at the 2E0HTS QTH. With this in mind Louise(M3TLL) and I decided to invite our friends/fellow Radio Hams, Phil-M1PAC and Josh-M0DIT to a last bash of BBQ, Out Door fun and some Radio QSOs using my ARROW LEO set up and Phil's IOIo set up. We also had a play around with the FT-847, GS-250 and IOIo during the busy day. The WX was great, the sausages, burgers, steak and corn also went down great! We had lots of contacts on the FM SATs outside and a couple of VO-52 passes were worked inside the shack. We also heard Scotland-GM4PPT from up near AYR on 2M SSB (144.300) and on the FT-767 the US stations were coming through well as were stations from Brazil on 20M HF. The Sun was on our side, here Louise-M3TLL is busy taking pictures and enjoying the day. Myself-2E0HTS re-positioning the ARROW. Operating as BBQ Chef In Between pa

After watching a selection of second hand antenna rotators on eBay, I decided to go for a brand new model which I got through Nevada's eBay shop at a buy it now price. Nevada have been selling the Yaesu G-250 Rotators at a promotional discounted price so it wasn't to hard to decide to purchase a new item rather than a used one which gave me peace of mind instead of not knowing the life expectancy of a pre owned unit. I've been using the recently purchased antenna rotator for the last 10 days and have found it to be excellent value for money. I installed the recently mentioned IOIo beam on the GS-250 and have had successfully greatly improved 5/9 exchanges on the LEO Satellites, as well as the DX worked on 2m SSB. The Rotator is well constructed and assembles easily in minuets, it comes with u-bolts ready to fix to your poles. Its design and choice of material has been well thought out as its shape is pleasant to the eye as well as practical and usable with good water resist

After progressing from my vertical to the broom stick yagi and then experimenting with the IOIo beam, I finally ended up using some 10mm alum bar for the 144-145 Loop and Reflector and 6mm alum bar for the 435-436 Loop and Reflector. Mainly to stand up to the WX and Winter. The finished model of the IOIo beam was then mounted at 20 degrees elevation on the new Yaesu gS-250 rotator that I have just added to my Shacks equipment list. With the new antenna and rotator installation I have made many QSOs over the last weekend and found it to be very successful on VO-52 using SSB. At present I have not experimented fully on the FM SATS such as AO-51 and SO-50. I have made a few QSOs on both of the FM birds and have so far noticed that the horizontal polarisation on the RX 435-436 Loop is not as good as the Vertically polarised previous design. I might consider altering the antenna but it's too early to say at the moment, as you can see in the video it does a good job and is working v

Using the The IOIo Beam To Work Satellites and also 144MHZ SSB DX During A Contest. /Portable Hope you enjoy the video.

Here is another opportunity to see the new Arrow antenna with the the two Hand Held Rigs in action working Amateur SAT SO-50. TNX To all Stations worked during the pass 73.