Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

This week Louise - M3TLL and myself were invited to attend the Craven Radio Amateur Group  Club meeting at their Club headquarters. The CRAG group are a very active group of radio amateurs that operate from North Yorkshires Craven District. On arrival we were well received by all of the Craggie's and it was great to be able to put faces to the voices I have been speaking with for so long. The evening was very interesting as the Club had an video evening  arranged which featured the latest digital mode - D-STAR. The video was very informative and was quite exclusive as the R.S.G.B region 4 Deputy region manager Nigel - G1JKE who presented the film had not had the opportunity to show at his local club yet.  The evening also included a special presentation to Chris - 2E0XLG who has recently upgraded his licence from his foundation call M3XLG.  Chris had made tremendous progress whilst operating under M3XLG with a maximum output power of 10 watts. Chris's achievements were outstand

Since last summer many off you have contacted me regarding the Satellite antenna designed by EA4CYQ which is known as the IOIo beam. I already have built a total of 5 IOIo antenna's so far, all slightly different made up of anything available at hand. As many of you already know I have been working the ISS and many Satellites from my shack using IOIo beams with good results running QRP. So with the feedback and fantastic comments I have been receiving I thought I would try a next version using some materials I had knocking around.  But this time I thought I would share the build and decided to post the step by step instructions here at ham radio operator blogspot and planet ham. The EA4CYQ original design was followed and this is how it goes! Materials used: 12mm aluminium box section tube. (boom) 3mm plastic sheet. (insulators and clamps) 2.4mm Welding wire. (elements) Various self tapping screws. Cable ties. 50 ohm feeder/coaxial cable. (2 lengths for dual bands) Sponge foam a

The Northern Cross Radio Rally took place earlier today and saw myself and Louise M3TLL  check out it's new venue at Ossett School near Wakefield. The new venue took a bit of finding and gave both Louise and myself a good chuckle when the guys operating the talk in frequency had difficulties in directing us in. Once we found our own way we were able to advise them and other rally travelling hams how to get there h.i The Venue Ossett School Once we ventured inside there were one or two interesting seller's with the usual plugs and fittings This vendor got it right, very well organised in bags of 10, I bought £10 worth of PL259 plugs. It should keep me quiet for a week or two. Tempting but I must have enough antenna's (according to the YL). Some good reading courtesy of the RSGB book stand. A nice selection of mobile antenna. Junk Sale? Is there such a thing when it comes to radio equipment? Myself 2E0HTS in shopping mode. Other Yorkshire Hams on the hunt for a bargain. The W

The last week has made me go bog eyed as I have been busy creating a new blog where I can display all of my received eQSL cards from Hams/SWLs from all over the globe. After uploading almost 500 eQSL card images you could imagine the relief of finally being able to switch on the radio's and take a well deserved break from my recently purchased 22" HD flat screen monitor. Yes the old eyes are definitely in need of a night off so hope you can spare me a couple of minutes to take a browse over some of the eQSL images I spent all week uploading. At least now that the new blog is up and running it will be quick, easy and painless to add any future received eQSL cards! Thanks for looking and what do you think so far? 2E0HTS eQSL Gallery Simon - 2E0HTS (the one with the red eyes!)

Today the U.K is battling with the inclement weather and as many of the nation face heavy down pours of snow, I decided to take a look myself to try determine what we could be expecting our glorious British weather to bring us. As usual I fired up the radio equipment and computer which I regularly use to receive images from Earth orbiting weather monitoring NOAA satellites. I also like to receive weather faxes from Northwood, which show detailed pictures of changeable weather fronts intended for Ships/sea bearing vessels within our ocean - region 6 (Europe). click on any image to enlarge Northwood's facsimile transmissions are scheduled throughout the day every day and include: Fronts Centres Winds. Surface Analysis. Gale Summary. Milli Bar (MB) Height/Thickness. Surface Prognosis. Signal Wind Areas. Frequencies used to receive the Fax transmissions are: 11.084.600 USB, 8.038.100 USB, 4.608.100 USB, & 2.616.600. USB. (HF - LF). Software: Radio Com 5.2 or any Fax decoding softw

Searching round the internet I found this useful site for those of you that don’t have satellite tracking software. The site shows real time satellite tracking for a range of satellites. The ISS is the default satellite tracked on the homepage and it gives you useful information such as speed, altitude, elevation and azimuth position as well as the current longitudes and latitude. The site automatically works out your location from your computer’s IP address, you can also choose to add the satellites footprint and direction line At the top of the page you can find menus for most popular, most tracked and latest launches. If you click on All Categories you’ll find a list of satellites listed which includes Amateur Radio and Weather satellites. Click on the type of satellite you are looking for and you’ll find a list of information including launch dates and the options to either ‘Track it’ or ‘Passes.’ If you choose ‘track it’ it will show you the satellites current position on Google

Earlier this evening (Saturday) I managed to get in to the ISS (International Space Station) cross band repeater during its oncoming orbital approach and worked M0IKB Angus from Scarbourgh, E.Yorkshire. The ISS’s onboard Transponder was very active with many Hams being heard during the ISS pass over my location, IO93CU Baildon Moor. I used my Yaesu FT-847 & IOIo beam to work through the ISS and Satscape on my computer to track and get the correct position to turn the beam. Thanks for watching, best 73.

The Holiday seems a distant memory as the last couple of weeks have been flying by speedily here and I have felt the strains of work and the cold dark wintery days that we have been seeing. Despite the usual moans, the New Year has started off ok so far. As far as playing radio I have already had some fun filled hours of radio from the shack as well as some nice contacts being made from the mobile. The beginning of the month started quiet on the HF bands here in Yorkshire. The entire HF spectrum has not been very active with not much propagation during my usual radio time which is usually most evenings and weekends. The 2 meter band has however been quite interesting especially around the first weekend of the month (3rd) when contacts of over 200 miles were being made throughout numerous QSO’s up and down the country. I made the most of the sporadic E conditions operating the Yaesu FT-847 and 50W using FM and a 7/8 wave vertical antenna. I gave a couple of CQ Calls on the calling frequ

As the holiday draws to an end Louise (M3TLL), Dudley (Dx Hound) and I continue to make the most of our new walking boots and weather proof clothing and once again take to the Moorland high ground. We head up to Rombalds Moor totting up a few more miles whilst taking in the winter sights. After the walk I decided to change the 20m Maldol for the HFC 80 and see if I could get into the W.A.B Net that was active on 3.760.0 LSB. The Net Controller - GM3VTY Keith was receiving me well from SE14BRA and gave me the opportunity to work all of the other W.A.B Stations that were on the band. I have been a member of W.A.B since 2004 and don't activate squares as regularly as I could whilst out in the mobile. After having so much fun today you can expect to hear 2E0HTS/M calling CQ W.A.B! Hear is the video showing my W.A.B activity. Thanks to, GM3VTY, G8CBU, G0RQL, ON3WAB, G4JZF, G7WAB, EI9HQ, & G0TRB all worked from SE14BRA.

Happy New Year to all and hope to meet you on the Air Waves some time soon during 2009! The new year has started rather chilly hear at the 2E0HTS QTH, so I decided to try out one of my Christmas presents that Louise (M3TLL) had got me ;-). I headed outside into the cold (0 degrees) with my LG KU 990, a 5Mega pixel camera phone and took some shots of the antennas looking slightly frozen. Despite the ice formation on the elements, signals are sounding clear with very little noise on the HF bands which is a welcomed change as the noise levels were very high during the Christmas period. (Too many Christmas Tree lights causing QRN h.i). Here are a few pictures of my antennas which are basic but work well for me at 1000ft asl. I Hope to work some good openings during 2009 and wish you all Happy DX! Home Brew IOIo Beam (145/435 MHZ|) and One side of G5RV Leg Other side of opossite Leg of the G5RV and the Magnificent 1000 ft ASL View looking West 20m Home Brew Delta Loop Hustler 6BTV Ground M

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year To All! Thanks for all of the fantastic comments, advice, ideas and encouragement as well as all of the emails sent during the year. Thank you to All at Planet Ham . Thank you to all Stations worked and all QSLs received, hope to do it all over again in 2009. And finally Thank you All for visiting Ham radio operator.blogspot.com and reading my blog posts as well as putting up with the many radio video's h.i! Have a great Christmas holiday and all the best for the new year!

After hearing Al, ZL1BD most mornings for the last couple of months it gave me great pleasure to make QSO with Al this morning on my work bound journey. ZL1BD AL was a real 5/9 into Baildon Moor when I heard him calling CQ at around 8.15 utc, I gave him a shout back using my Yaesu FT-857, Maldol HMC-20 antenna and 50watts. Al, ZL1BD came straight back to me and gave me a 5/6 report and also remembered me from our previous QSO from around 18 months ago. Al had remembered that I was near by to some relatives he had here in yorkshire U.K. and knows my home area quite well. I can now rest easily regarding the FT-857s performance as it seems to be working very well making good DX contacts from my Toyota Lucida Estima. I Hope to work more early morning DX openings during the winter months.

The WX is very wet here in Yorkshire at the moment so I decided to make the most of the situation by playing some radio. I worked some stations via the Earth orbiting VO-52 Satellite, OM3VAN, HA6NM, DL3JIN and MW0BBU all on the same pass which lasted around 10 Min's. I then had a listen around 20m and noticed that the noise levels were very low allowing weak signals to be heard. I heard some European stations working Australia, and the US Virgin Islands the pile ups were quite crazy, it reminded me back to the day I heard a US station once say it sounded like "Wild Dogs in a meat shop". A good way to sum up a lot of the mad pile ups you here when those rare or interesting stations are spotted and discovered on the Ham bands. Picture of OH2FFY/Mobile It was around 11.30 utc when I came across OH2FFY Greg working mobile on 14.187 mhz with a signal of 5/7 - 5/9 with QSB and lots of QRM (Mad Dogs h.i). I listened for over half an hour and realised that we had already made co

Last night whilst tuning around 40M I managed to work some good DX into Senegal, West Africa which is a new Country for me. I was running 50W from the FT-767GX with a G5RV type Dipole when I heard a pile up around 7.092mhz, the voices stoped calling and I was able to hear the DX station 6W2SC. 6W2SC(Peter) was coming through up to Baildon Moor N.Yorks quite well with a 5/8 signal report received at my station. I worked Peter with a little patience form his good self, which he had as other stations were insistent on calling over me. h.i I still managed to make the qso despite the heavy QRM back to him sending a 5/5 2E0HTS signal. Its a nice bonus working a new one and lets hope propagation is improving at last! Thanks from myself to Peter 6W2SC for making it possible to add a next DXCC in the old log as well as the speedy eQSL confirmation ;-)