Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Whilst enjoying the half term break from work we have been getting a few household jobs done. One job I have been considering doing involved moving my radio gear from one side of the room to the other. I made a metal racking system that has been on standby and today was the day I was going to get to use it. I began by dismantling my radio equipment carefully and then I moved one coax at a time avoiding any possible mix ups. I decided to run a new earthing wire to the outside, where I soldered it to a brass grounding spike. I made the box section rack big enough to house all of my equipment and rigs including my PC tower. It fits nice and snug inside a corner alcove wear I can operate the various rigs and bands nice and comfortably with ease. The new layout is more spacious and user friendly than the previous shack set up and better still, the YL likes it! I took a few pictures showing the new radio shack layout with my home brew rack housing my YAESU powered station. View of the Shack

Up early as usual and listening around 21.290MHz this morning, I heard a strong signal coming out of Australia. It was coming in at my station at around 5/7 to 8 from the Ham station of VK2GWK, operator - Henk. VK2GWK - Henk was calling CQ DX so I gave Henk a quick call back making it back around the globe into Henks QTH which is nearby to Sydney, making another great DX qso. During the contact I was running my FT1000mp MK-V hooked up to the CW-80 wire antenna. Henk was beaming long path to my QTH coming in loud and clear as seen in the video. After our qso I checked VK2GWK on QRZ.com and found a neat link by Henk where I downloaded his QSL card for our recent QSO. Great idea Henk! Tnx & 73.

I continued the early breakfast DX by working into New Zealand. I tried my luck on my Carolina Windom this time and got my signal heard at 5/1 when I made QSO with Wayne - ZL2WL. Once again the good old 20m band performed its magic and another good DX QSO enters my log. 73

Another advantage of having a 7 month old baby Daughter is that I am up and awake very early. Lucky for me I can also catch up with some long path DXing on my Ham Radio Station. This morning at 06.25 utc I was tuning around the 20m band when I heard Neil - VK2IZI coming through with a 5/9 signal out of Australia. The exact frequency where I caught up with Neil was 14.178MHz, I gave just one call using the Hustler 6BTV which was received long path by Neil 5/7. I was surprised the vertical was working so well for me, I did my usual comparison test whilst receiving Neil on my wire Carolina Windom, which was almost the same as the vertical. The wire RX the signal from VK at the same 5/7 to 5/9 strength, so I decided to stick with the vertical during our QSO. Neil - VK2IZI is located in the Blue Mountains near by to Sydney and was running an Optibeam antenna system. The Optibeam was working very well for him. Yesterday morning I heard lots of Japanese Stations coming through up and dow

Strong winds have continued throughout the day so I decided to receive some forecast information from Northwood RN (London). I tuned my receiver to 4.608.09 MHz USB where I decoded a +20db signal using Radiocom 5.2 on my P.C as seen in the screenshot. The surface pressure analysis received at my location shows tightly packed isobars across the UK indicating strong winds. RX 2 RX 1

It's 54 years since the launch of the Russian satellite Sputnik. Launched on Oct 4, 1957 Sputnik paved the way for satellite communications which has been enjoyed by many radio amateurs around the world. Named after the Russian word for satellite Sputnik was 22 inches in diameter and thanks to heavy batteries weighed 184 pounds. According to Wikipedia: "The satellite had a one-watt, 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) radio transmitting unit inside, developed by V. I. Lappo from NII-885, that worked on two frequencies, 20.005 and 40.002 MHz. Signals on the first frequency were transmitted in 0.3 sec pulses (under normal temperature and pressure conditions on-board), with pauses of the same duration filled by pulses on the second frequency. Analysis of the radio signals was used to gather information about the electron density of the ionosphere." The satellite travelled at a whopping 18,000 miles an hour. Its elliptical orbit varied from between 584 miles and 143 miles from the Earth which it

I am pleased to report that conditions are again quite favourable for some evening DX as I just worked into Martinique on the 17 meter band.I was scanning the 17m band on my MARK-V Field and CW-80 antenna when I stumbled across FM5BH booming in with a 5/9 signal on 18.154MHz. His signal sounded great as he worked through a nice pile up of callers, I got through after a couple of calls receiving a 5/9 report back. I am spending more and more of my radio time on 17m these days and enjoying the band very much. I am pleasantly surprised how well the Carolina Windom works on that particular band especially into South America and the Caribbean. I hope to work some more DX stations soon and maybe catch a few on video. 73.

Over the last month I have been mainly active in the late evening time where I have spent my radio time mainly on the HF bands. I have managed some nice QSOs with reasonable conditions using the Ft1000MP MK-V, Carolina Windom and a mug of hot coffee. As usual a big thanks goes out to all stations worked. I decided to list a few of my favorites including the bands that I operated on. 17m - HZ1BL Saudi Arabia & FG5DH Guadeloupe. 20m - WA1P U.S.A. & CO6LC Cuba. 40m - OJ0OUR Market Reef, LU1IV Argentina & CM8AKD Cuba, I wonder where and who I will be getting in the September log? 73 happy DX!

I have been waiting for the new bird ARISSat-1 to pass by and tonight at 21.03 UTC I was in luck. Above is my first ARISSat-1 SSTV image received at my home QTH using a Yaesu FT-847 and Dual Yagi Satellite antenna array. I am looking forward to some closer passes and better reception over the next few days.

During the weekends and holidays the family and I have been spending plenty of time up at the old QTH (the shack on the hill) taking in the fresh Moorland air. When we bought our new family home we decided to keep our old Moorland QTH which comprises of a luxury 40ft Static Caravan up at 1000ft asl on the edge of the Pennines here in Yorkshire. Its a great place to hangout with a wonderful view! The old shack is still working as well as ever with my trusty FT-767, FT-890, FT-2600m and VR5000. The rigs are all connected to my original antennas. The antennas are also holding up exceptionally well. I have still got my home made IO-10EL Sat beam up as well as the 20m Delta loop, Hustler 6BTV, X200 Co-linear and 10m vertical. Our lovely baby daughter is starting to take an interest in the hobby of amateur radio, She has the makings of becoming a keen SWL. Hope to work some of you from both of my shacks/QTH during the next couple of weeks as I enjoy my summer holidays. 73 have f

Whilst surfing the HF bands on a lazy Sunday afternoon I had my satellite tracking equipment on standby ready to receive and decode NOAA - 18. Here is the received transmission from NOAA-18 received at 3.15 pm (local) at the QTH of 2E0HTS - Yorkshire, U.K. If your intrested in recieving signals from NOAA Satellites check out NOAA SAT Status for frequencies and up to date information.

The video above was filmed in my recently finished radio shack, I hope you enjoy it 73! Video Information Stations worked in the video are: LU1IV - Argentina & GI1CET/p - Northern Ireland. Bands worked in video: 40m, 2m, & 70Cms Equipment used; Yaesu FT1000MP MARK-V & Yaesu FT-847. Antennas used in these contacts were 5 element Yagi (2m) 15 Element X Yagi (70cms) and a Carolina Windom wire antenna (80m - 10m) 131 feet in length. Thanks for watching and if you would like to see more amateur radio videos from my self, check out the 2E0HTS YouTube Channel

I arrived home from work earlier to find my Daughter investigating this months edition of my favourite amateur radio magazine - RadCom. It looks like she is following the "HTS" path hi hi, perhaps I could read some of the articles like SOTA, IOTA and tell tales of DXpeditions far far away during bedtime stories.

The wind has been battering the trees at the bottom of the garden for the last two days which is a pain in the rear as I use the nice tall trees to support the far end of my wire antenna, you can imagine the rest. I had been watching my Carolina Windom wire slap about until eventually it fell to the ground. In between a rain shower I decided to brave the gusts and managed to get a next piece of rope up into the tree and wound the wire back up in the air. It looked good, nice and straight with an extra 10 feet of height after a lucky throw that I pulled off earlier. I ended the evening the way radio amateurs like best as I made a very nice QSO on 17 Meters into Tokyo Japan with Yoshi - JA1OJJ. JA1OJJ signal was a 5/8 solid copy on my Ft1000mp MKV, Yoshi give me a 5/6 report on the tree swaying Carolina Windom (CW-80). When I awoke this morning the CW-80 was still in the air but not for long! The dreaded wind took it out again sometime today, as you can see in the picture above I wont be

Since moving in to the new QTH I have been regularly tweaking my amateur radio set up and testing out various equipment configurations. I have now finally got my station working effectively and have settled for a lay out that I can comfortably work with, which can be seen pictured below. Equipment Used YAESU FT - 857 YAESU FT - 847 YAESU FT – 1000MP MARK – V YAESU SP – 102 Ext Speaker YAESU FP – 1030A Power Supply Unit YAESU G – 5500 ELEVATION – AZIMUTH DUAL CONTROLLER YAESU MD – 1 Mic YAESU MH – 36 DTMF Mic HEIL GOLDLINE GM5 Mic Labtec Head set & Mic RIGblaster plus Interface MFJ – 962D VERSA TUNER III 1942 CW Key 22” Monitor and Dual Core 3800, 2Gig Ram - P.C, Running XP Pro. Software Used Winlog32 RadioCom 5.2 Satscape MMSSTV PSK31 Deluxe DX Atlas Ham Radio Deluxe Decorative Equipment I also enjoy making models in my spare time usually out of metal. In my shack you can see a couple of models I made for my collection. Supporting my HEIL Microphone, I made a mast like structure wi