Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Since I installed the Hustler 6BTV at my new QTH I have been planning on making some radials similar to the ones I have attached to my other 6BTV which is up at the Moor top QTH. The original hustler has done me proud for over six years with its ground mount and simple wire radials. I really like the performance of these antennas as well as there durability, that's why I had to go for a second one! I got hold of some brass sheet which I cut into strips about 40mm wide. I then cut one end of each strip into a sharp V shape. The next job was to fold the opposite end over and tap it flush to provide extra strength when hammering the stake into the ground. I then folded the complete strip into the final V shaped angle approximately 45º creating a nice brass ground stake. The finishing touch was to drill a small hole to attach a soldered lug/wire radial which can be hammered beneath the ground surface in the garden. The second part of the job involved cutting some more brass sheet whic

Earlier this week whilst out and about in my mobile I was lucky enough to hear one of my radio pals coming through 5/9 + on 14.216MHz. I gave a call back to Marko - S56CW, who was working portable from SOTA S5/KA-018 (a summit located on top of a Slovenian Mountain). Marko was running bare foot 5W QRP, using his Yaesu FT-817 which can be seen working superbly in the video below that Marko made from the Mountain top. I have had the pleasure of working Marko from many locations whilst he has been out and about /P, from my mobile Yaesu FT-100 & Maldol HFC20 antenna. This particular summit was putting out a very nice signal from His SOTA station. Until the next time, thanks goes to S56CW - Marko for the video and pictures. Hope that you guys enjoyed the video.

We have been in our new house for a month now and at last I am starting to get through some of the decorating and DIY that is required when moving in. With less than 5 weeks to go before "baby HTS" will be with us you can imagine the QTH is undergoing a serious facelift with the smell of paint becoming the normal everyday occurrence. Over the last couple of weeks I have managed to temporally install 3 antennas allowing me to operate on HF and also hear local activity on VHF. The 3 antennas that I have erected for now, are a 135ft dipole with ladder feeder for 80m, a Hustler 6BTV (6 band trapped vertical) 80-10m and a tri-band vertical covering 50MHz, 145MHz and 433MHz. As of yet the satellite antennas and new GS5500 azimuth/ele rotator set-up, is still collecting dust as a nice long ladder or scaffold tower will be required to go ahead with the satellite install. For now working the Sats will have to be when I am at my Portable shack on the Moor. As you can see in the backgro

Next months (February) RadCom magazine arrived earlier this week courtesy of the RSGB. Inside the radio magazine I found myself appearing in the IOTA 2010 article which was a very nice surprise indeed. The picture inside RadCom shows myself in action during the IOTA 2010 contest which I enjoyed very much. The picture was taken at my Moor Top shack which is now my portable location as I have recently set up a second shack at our new family home. You can see my new table which is housing the FT1000mp and FT847 on the image above. The image below shows the page in Radcom where you can find 2E0HTS - IOTA Contest Station on page 26. The editor of the RadCom magazine has commented on my home made microphone mini tower which reads "Even the microphone is on a tower, but does it rotate?" The answer of course is yes! As long as you don't mind turning the mic by hand only, as of yet I haven't fit a motor h.i But you never know what I might get up to in my workshop next time I&#

CQD was the international distress code that predated SOS. It celebrates its 107th birthday today as on January the 7th 1904 it was established by the Marconi Company as the first international radio distress signal. CQD is transmitted in Morse Code as — · — · — — · — — · · and although it is widely believed to be an acronym for ‘Come Quick Danger’ that is not the case. It is a general CQ call followed by D meaning distress. Before CQD was established ships would just go missing at sea, when radios were introduced onto ships they initially used CQ as a general call, however the introduction of a distress signal was widely accepted to be a good idea. Sadly CQD was short-lived as it was replaced by “SOS” at the Berlin Radiotelegraphic Conference of 1906 as three dots, three dashes and three dots could not be misinterpreted by anyone hearing it unlike CQD . Still, happy birthday to CQD a ground-breaking use of Morse Code and radio, the introduction of which no doubt saved lives.

Hi All, I trust you are all having a great start to the New Year so far! For myself this has been a very busy time. We have moved into our new QTH that I mentioned a few posts back. So far the progress with the decorating is going well and I have temporarily installed a Hustler 6BTV and 135 foot Dipole allowing me to monitor HF in between the brush strokes and paper hanging. Louise (M3TLL) has also been busy propagating the baby which will be arriving in around 8 weeks time. I will be shortly posting pictures of my new QTH/Shack, but for now this is a quick update and opportunity to say Happy New Year to you all and I shall be back online at the new QTH as soon as the new internet connection is switched back on. 73 watch this space for more info on the latest escapades.

Living with a radio ham means you instantly have ideas for Christmas gift buying. If you want to buy your radio amateur a hobby themed gift here are a few ideas you might want to consider. Ideas for Stocking Fillers * Anything with his callsign on it I can't begin to describe the joy on 2E0 HTS's face when he received through the post from an Slovenian ham friend (S57CW/S57ORG) a miniature Slovenian registration plate with his callsign on it. I can only assume the same would apply for any merchandise with his callsign written on it. A mug, a tshirt , a woolly hat for his DXpeditions . The possibilities are pretty much endless. * Earphones If, like me, occasionally you want some peace and quiet from the endless CQ calls and other amateurs tuning up then why not invest in a good pair of earphones. He'll think you care, you'll be able to watch telly in peace! Happy Christmas! * Stationery A radio ham always needs something to scrawl on and with. I learnt early on not

Whilst sending out some recent eQSL cards I got curious and decided to check how many Countries I had actually worked/logged with eQSL. I was interested to see just how well I was doing from my mobile whilst out and about away from the shack. The eQSL /M cards can be few and far between as I have to depend on the other stations that I work whilst mobile to send their eQSL as I stick to driving rather than logging. So with this in mind you can imagine that plenty of nice QSOs/DX doesn’t always get confirmed by eQSL. Thanks to all you guys that are keen eQSLers, I still managed to compile a good start to a hopeful longer list to come of Countries worked and confirmed. I also added Countries I have worked whilst mobile in Scotland and Wales. I use a different eQSL card when operating from the mobile, the shack or any portable stations which can be seen heading each section. Please don't worry radio amateurs from Wales, I will try much harder to make more QSO next time I visit ;-) Mob

I spent most of this afternoon on my computer logged on to the eQSL website confirming and downloading the latest batch of eQSL cards, which I then upload to my other blog - 2E0HTS QSL Gallery . I have been uploading eQSL cards that I receive from both Hams and SWLs to the site for a couple of years now. There you can find eQSL cards displayed that I have received dating from early 2004 to present day. If you have worked or heard my station active and have sent me a eQSL, it will be there somewhere. Follow the older posts link found at the bottom of the page to find earlier eQSL cards I uploaded. For the latest upload to the 2E0HTS QSL Gallery , I decided to put the received eQSL cards into categorised headings which slightly helps to organise things when dealing with a lot of uploading. In this case I had a back log of 131 eQSL cards to get through. The new simplified Headings that I will be using from now are as follows: 2E0HTS HF Bands eQSL Confirmed Amateur Radio Contacts 2E0HTS

Video of QSO between S57ORG and myself at Marko - S57ORG portable location in Slovenia on Sunday 7th November Thank You Very Much for this Video Marko, its great to hear myself sounding nice and loud in Slovenia. 73 Hope to catch you again on HF and the Satellite Bands.

I continued chasing the Satellites yesterday and managed to get into HO-68 before I called it a day. I caught the HO-68 pass on video which can be seen below. Enjoy! During this pass HO-68 is operating in FM mode. Contact is made with SW6KRV, UT3NW & ES5QA whilst the Satellite is at a distance of around 750 miles from the Station of 2E0HTS.

In between cleaning my motor cycles, I have spent today in and out of the shack as I have been closely monitoring the various Satellite passes over my QTH. I started the day early making QSO via the AO-7 Satellite at 08.44 utc with three stations from Europe - 9A2EY, EA1BYC and ON5NY. The next "Bird" I worked via was VO-52, where I made QSO with OZ2SAT & DL7UHF at around 10.32 utc. I then tried my luck again at 16.11 utc where I got into AO-51 which is an FM Satellite which always proves a bit more difficult than the SSB Sats that I worked through earlier. Despite the European pile up and only one station working at a time via the FM transponder, I still managed to work S57ORG who was quickly followed by ES5QA. I heard many other European Ops calling through the bird during the pass, as usual it was chaotic but still lots of fun. To work the Satellites, I am still using my reliable home brewed IO-10 dual band Sat yagi with its 30º fixed elevation (seen on my QRZ page &

Today's weather Satellite Image courtesy of NOAA-19, decoded by 2E0HTS using Radiocom 5.2 software. The UK can be just about seen in the centre of the decoded image. Yorkshire (my QTH) can be seen quite clearly with little cloud cover especially at the coast. Spurn point in Humber Estuary can easily be seen when you zoom in on the image. Fellow Yorkshire folks - Enjoy the Sunshine!