Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

Over the next few months I shall be active with a couple of different temporary call signs marking both the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty The Queen, as well as the London 2012 Olympics. The first of the two temporary call signs will be Diamond Jubilee special call “Q – Queen” with 2Q0HTS active on all bands from 80m upward & Satellites. The 2Q0HTS call can be heard from 00.00 BST 5 May 2012 to 23.59 BST 10 June 2012. I shall be active with the other Special Call Sign later in the summer when the London 2012 Olympics begin. I shall be using my temporary Olympic call sign 2O0HTS. You can also hear this Special “Qscar” call active across the bands from 80m up, starting from 00.00 BST 21 July 2012 to 23.59 BST 9 September 2012 inclusive. I am looking forward to using both of my temporary special call signs and hope to work some of you somewhere across the bands in the process! 73

Over the past few weeks it appears my Twitter Account has been hacked into by some sad arsehole. I can no longer log into my account so can't see the messages this spammer has been sending but have been getting a load of irate replies from Radio Hams that use Twitter. Thanks to these irate replies I realised my account has been hacked as I hadn't been on for a while so didn't notice. I tried logging in and resetting my password for a good few hours but have been completely locked out. When this finally gets resolved I am seriously considering closing my Twitter account as it's supposed to be fun but all I've been receiving in my email inbox are angry replies from Radio Hams. All people who I've never communicated with via Twitter in the past angry at allegedly getting links to weight loss sites - as if I need to go on a diet?!!!! hi hi! Most of my blog followers will realise I have a good sense of humour but I am the sort of guy who doesn't take any sh

Earlier I managed to work the pileup down on 3.770MHz and make a QSO with special event station GB4T  (follow the link for more info) 73!

I was lucky to catch some nice band conditions this morning as I made some nice DX qso into Belgium and Germany. ON6ZT, ON4KHG, OO7K and DL6YBF were all worked using SSB on 144MHz. I received some excellent signals from all stations, the 2m band is wide open today and I hope to catch some more activity whilst the conditions last. The VHF propagation forecast looks good all week!  Have a nice day. 73

The Year has gone very fast for the HTS family as today our baby daughter has had her first birthday party earlier this afternoon. I cant believe she is one already, Happy Birthday Elsie Grace X.

My 29th QSO - final Challenge was succeeded as I made a QSO tonight on 14.196MHz. I ended the challenge by working "Cubical Quad Master" Mike-W2YP at 21.13 utc on the 20m band. As usual Mike-W2YP was cracking through at 5/9+25dB to my FT-1000MKV and CW80 antenna, my report back from Mike was 5/9+15dB. It was a real pleasure to catch up with Mike as it had been a while since our last QSO and Mike always has time to exchange a few enjoyable overs rather than just a signal report. Mike is located in New Rochelle, New York State, locator FN30CX. The total distance of the W2YP Station is 3328 Miles away from my location hear in Yorkshire (IO93CU). I have certainly enjoyed this challenge of making at least one QSO a day. Louise-M3TLL(My YL) came up with the idea and I am pleased to have accomplished the challenge with success as well as gaining some satisfaction out of it all. There could be a celebration cake on the dinner table tomorrow h.i. The actual idea it would be a

My challenge for today was also a brand new experience for me as I have never tried to work anyone on the 30M band before.  I tuned my FT-1000MKV to 10.141MHz and found quite a few stations coming in well on PSK31 with my Hustler vertical in line. Earlier in the QSO challenge, PE4BAS had commented in a previous post where I had used PSK31 Deluxe to make a QSO. Bas recommended DM780, so I thought I would give it a go on 30M.  I made my first ever 30M QSO successfully running just 20W at 20.19 utc, when I worked Andy - UW8SM from The Ukraine. The signal reports were good, 599 both ways. Our QSO using DM780 can be seen in the screen shot below. It will take a bit of time to familiarise myself with the program but I shall give it a good trying out! 73 & see you tomorrow for the Grand Finale of the February QSO Challenge.

I made my first QSO of today at 21.18 utc on 3.771MHz where I worked Patrick operating special event station EI80IRTS . EI80IRTS celebrates the 80th anniversary of the founding of The Irish Radio Transmitters Society (IRTS) . Patrick was working a huge pile up and putting out a very impressive 5/9 +40dB signal when I snook my call sign in amongst the many stations through to EI80IRTS. I received a 5/9 +20dB signal report back as well as some information about the IRTS up and coming CQIR International Radio Contest taking place on March the 17th from 12.00 utc. Check out more information about the station EI80IRTS including the EI80IRTS award via QRZ.com. Today's QSO challenge has been completed, the equipment I used was: FT-1000MKV and CW80 Antenna. 73

Earlier today I made some QSO's via SAUDISAT 1C SO-50. I used my FT-847, G-5500 controller and dual Satellite beams to work F0FIG at 10.44 utc this morning. During a fast set of overs we exchanged locators and signal reports via the satellite. F0FIG - Marcel from JO1OJE was coming in with a 5/9 signal during the pass amongst quite a lot of QRM from other ops also trying to get in to the bird. F0FIG came back to me over the QRM where I received a 5/9 report back from Marcel - F0FIG. I went on to work a couple more stations before the SO-50 satellite was out of range. Todays Challenge completed with plenty of time left to check the HF bands and continue playing some Ham radio. 73

As I continue completing at least one QSO every day to qualify for the challenge, I made today's QSO on 14.210MHz whilst working Brian - KB2UZY at around 19.33 utc this evening. Brian is located 3228 miles away in Springfield Massachusetts, locator FN32QC. KB2UZY was working a pile up of stations that were calling him, his signal was a very strong 5/9+20 db to my FT-1000MKV during our QSO. I received a 5/9+10 db report back from his station which can be seen pictured below. Brian - KB2UZY pictured above was using an FT-1000D from YAESU and running 500 watts from his Kenwood TL922A amplifier into his hy-gain TH11DX antenna mounted 50 feet above the ground. I was running my vertical ground mounted Hustler 6BTV with radials. Only 4 more days left before my computer keyboard gets a rest. 73

I completed today's QSO challenge as set by my YL M3TLL - Louise by working VE3YJ at 1905 utc on 14.195MHz. VE3YJ - Rocco was calling CQ DX when I came across his very respectable 5/9 signal. I gave a call back to Rocco where I received a 5/3 report back during a nice conversion about our equipment as well as mentioning that we had worked each other on 40m and 17m in the past. I was pleased with my 5/3 report and enjoyed the QSO with Rocco as I got to test out both of my HF antennas, my CW80- Carolina Windom and Hustler 6BTV with radials. The test this evening provided me with matching signal reports both on transmit and receive, the radials on my Hustler vertical seem to have made a noticeable improvement. I was using 50w from my FT1000 MKV, Rocco - VE3YJ was running 1KW into his very nice 4 Element Yagi as seen pictured above. Another fine QSO challenge completed at a total distance between our two stations of 3460 miles to Guelph, Ontario. Locator EN93UN.

As the QSO challenge continues into the final week I decided I would try and make some QSO's up on the VHF bands. I opened up my Satscape software to see if any satellites were in range and powered up my FT-847 Earth Station just in time to work into VO-52. I found myself coming in well on the satellites downlink frequency 145.900MHz as I transmitted my signal via uplink on 435.250MHz. At 19.43 utc I called "CQ SAT" and was soon making QSO with OH5LK - Jussi from Finland, grid locator square KP30ON. OH5LK was putting a nice signal into the "bird" and coming back to my station at 5/9. I also received the same report back from OH5LK - Jussi. VO-52 is in orbit at an altitude of 391 miles above the earth and puts out a very good footprint. I went on to work OM5CM - Palo in JN98DF Slovakia, also on the same pass which lasted around 10 minutes before heading beyond my horizon and out of range of my satellite array. My FT-847 is a very pleasing rig to operate th

Today's challenge QSO was made on 18.147MHz at 20.36 utc. The HF bands were in reasonable shape at my end, I had heard Japan on 40m and some strong US stations coming in well on 20m. On 17m I heard a big signal working a steady pile up of stations which turned out to be a DX station located 4167 miles away on the Island of Martinique, IOTA, NA-107 in The West Indies. The station I was hearing with a 5/9 signal was FM1FV - Manuel, locator FK94LO. I tried calling FM1FV for a good 20 minutes before my signal made it through the big guns that were also calling. Finally patience and determination paid off and I eventually broke through the pile up managing a good QSO with a couple of overs. I received a 5/9 signal report back from the station of FM1FV- Manuel. During the QSO I used my Carolina Windom 80m - 10m wire Antenna and YAESU FT-1000MP MARK-V Transceiver. 73 enjoy the band conditions!

I powered up my shack this evening wondering what signals I would be able to hear on HF as my initial tune around 20m - 10m showed that band conditions would probably be more favourable down on 40m. On 40m, I could hear quite a few stations coming in when I came across special event station HF35APAS -  Arctowski Antarctic Award part of the Worldwide Antarctic Program . HF35APAS - Janusz was working quite a nice little pile up down on 7.153.5 MHz, his signal was 5/9 solid copy. I called him using my Windom antenna and FT-1000MK-V  where I received a 5/9 report back at 20.16 utc. HF35APAS is located in JO90NK with a total distance of 914 miles from my station. Check out Janusz on QRZ for more information about the HF35APAS station. Another completed challenge in the log and only 8 more days left to air my call sign each day to successfully complete the February QSO challenge.