Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

This weekend brought freezing temperatures to the Yorkshire Moor where we live, I couldn't resist putting this spectacular view looking north west from my QTH up the Aire Valley on here for all to see. Normal visibility from this QTH is usually up to 30 miles, this weekends view was almost from a fairy tale. The QTH is at around 1000 ft above sea level and as you can see anywhere below a 1000 ft has been eaten up by freezing fog. click on image to enlarge Other news apart from the WX is I tried the Maldol HMC-6S on my mobile set up. The antenna is a bit on the big side for driving around with, but when stationary I was pleased to hear the multi banded beast pulling in some big signals on 20m. I checked the SWR on the 20m band and it was 1.1, the other bands were also working but propagation was not so lively. I will be fully testing the antenna in the near future on the other HF bands, more than likely when Spring arrives. click on image to enlarge That's all for now, just a q

The WX-Weather has brought snow, wind and freezing temperatures to North Europe. At my QTH-Location Baildon Moor, N.England, at 1000ft above sea level the temperature dropped to 0 degrees Celsius last night and we had a threat of snow but it did not settle. The bands were in good shape late last night/early this morning, as I worked Russia, The Ukraine, The USA and lots of other Stations from Europe using PSK31 on 40 & 80M. All signals were loud on both bands with plenty of activity, I dragged my self away around 2am to get some sleep but it wasn't easy! h.i At present the sun is beaming with outside temperatures at 5.0 degrees Celsius and the wind is stirring making it feel even colder. The image I have just received is from Earth orbiting weather monitoring satellite NOOA 17, which just passed by heading South West. The image shows N.W and W Europe with N.England under heavy cloud cover. I believe this is probably the best image I have received for a while using the IOIo beam

My journey to work on my Kawasaki Z750 was becoming unnecessary now that the dark nights and late sunrises have got under way and we are now into Winter. So for the last couple of weeks I have had the opportunity to use the FT-857 on 20m and 2M from in my Toyota Estima Lucida mobile Ham shack. Conditions have been quite remarkable most mornings at around 8.00utc as I embark on my work bound journey, I am listening up and down 20m ever hopeful of some distant signals. Recently without to much tuning around I have come across some big signals, real 5/9 from the Far East. Last week I heard a few VKs on the morning run as well as ZL1BD, who boomed through and as usual with a large following from G-land and Europe. I worked AL ZL1BD some time last year when conditions were good in my old mobile RAV-4 using the FT-100. It will be good to make the QSO on the FT-857 and latest Toyota, I will get lucky one of these fine mornings I am sure! h.i AL ZL1BD was loud again this morning at around 8.15

I have had a passion for tracking and receiving NOOA weather Satellites for a few years and have tried a few different antenna's along the way with some reasonable images being received. I have had the home brew IOIo beam up for the last two months and have been pleasantly surprised with its performance. The best way to ensure a clear image is achieved by having an almost inaudible sound level from the output of your radio to the sound card. In other words make sure the sound-in to your computer is set very low from the radio. The software I have been running since 2004 is Radio Com 5.2 which has now been superseded by version 6.0. Radio Com 5.2 seems to work exceptionally well still, and I have had a lot of Radio Hams around the world getting in touch with me since they have watched the Weather Satellite videos I did for this site and Youtube. A lot of other Hams told me that they were using WXtoIMG decoding software which allowed the user to play around with the received imag

I’ve been using the Multi band Maldol HMC-6 S antenna, for the last 3 years at my QTH as a stand by antenna and have been pleasantly surprised with its overall performance. The Vertical Mobile/Portable antenna covers 6 bands, 40M, 15M, 10M, 6M (HF) and (VHF) 2M & 70CMS. I’ve used it a lot for listening across the HF bands as well as some short wave frequencies, I’ve also put out some good signals and made some good DX contacts on 40M, 15M and 10M as well as 6M using a good ground plane system (20 foot Metal Container). It even Works well on 2M, I have not tried 70cms but the SWR appeared to be good across the band. I have also got a range of Maldol Mono band mobile HF antenna’s and have been planning to try the HMC-6 fitted to the Toyota’s rear fixing instead of the mono bander’s. This has proven to be difficult to stop running the mono band Maldols, down to the good results that I can honestly say I have had. The Mono band Maldol,s especially 40M, 20M and 15M will be a hard act to

Over the weekend we managed to team up with Phil M1PAC and Craig M3CSD and headed off South in Convoy style to The Great Northern Hamfest located in Barnsley South Yorkshire. The drive took just short of an hour and passed by quickly as we enjoyed rag chewing on 2M FM. On arriving we were joined on the frequency by Mick a local G station who kindly refreshed our memory's of the rally's location and best parking positions, which proved to be very helpful. On entering the rally I began searching the different stalls with the aid of Louise M3TLL and it wasn't long before we both spotted some bargains. The first of three nice extension speakers I picked up was this heavy little maxon at the cost of £1.00. This had made the trip well worthwhile and is now connected to the FT-847. I picked up at CAT interface lead for the FT-847, some dipole centre's, Coaxial plugs and some wire type antenna insulators, all in mind for further projects. As well as grabbing some bargains I bum

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.