Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

My summer leave from work did not start so well as I was knocked off my motorcycle on the way home from work back in July. I survived with a few aches, knocks, bumps and bruises but never the less was fortunate not to get too seriously injured. The bike however was a right off! A real shame as I have looked after my Suzuki Bandit for 12 years and it was an absolute minter. As you can imagine I have been feeling stiff, sore and fed up with myself and my usual happy holidays was not quite as happy as it should. With this in mind my better half told me to go out and buy something cool to get my mind off of things, so I took her advice and came back with a new vehicle. I chose something that would benefit the family as well as myself and with this in mind I got a Ford Transit Van. The reason why I chose the Transit was because its a good size of vehicle to be able to convert into a day van/tourer and the Transit van has a good reputation for reliability as well as economy with a 2.0

My Google+ account keeps me up to date with all of the things and people that are important to me and it was there where I first received the sad news that my favourite earth orbiting amateur radio satellite VO-52 had become silent key. I had a look on the AMSAT-UK site to see in more detail what had happened to the long serving satellite. It appears to have been down to a problem with the battery unit as I read that during VO-52's 49,675th orbit, the on-board lithium ion batteries finally gave in and are not likely to be recovered. I first got interested in working the VO-52 satellite when I made my first home brew yagi  which I called the" broomstick yagi". Since then I have had hours and hours of fun working hundreds of radio amateurs and making antennas whilst trying my best to improve my satellite station. For many years I have caught lots of daily passes from the superb LEO satellite -VO-52 allowing me the opportunities to practice making qso's and perfe

Its been a couple of months since I drove to work in the car, I have been enjoying the good WX and making the most of being a motorcyclist riding my suzuki bandit to and from work. However this morning I was feeling a bit tired so taking the car seemed a good idea despite the lovely sunshine. I fired up my FT-857 and was impressed with how well stations were coming in on the 20m band. I heard some big signals coming out of the USA and Europe was also loud. As I dropped down from the moor tops I came across a very strong signal belonging to XE1RK - Rafael from Mexico. I heard Rafael tell another station he was up late and had not felt like sleeping, it was 2.00 am local time in Mexico which was 8.00 am local here in Yorkshire. XE1RK - Rafael was working stations from all over the globe as I continued towards my work place which is in Keighley West Yorkshire, I continued to call back to his QRZ call. Just as I hit the main carriageway on my last leg of the journey Rafael heard my mobil

One of the many advantages of being a college lecturer is getting plenty of time off to recharge the brain cells. For me, the best way to do this is spending quality time with my beautiful family. In between the fun (usually when they are asleep) I manage some hobby time to check out my Ham radio station. So far during the Spring bank break I have worked a few guys via Satellite whilst operating through AO-73 using my FT-847 Satellite setup. The HF bands have still been reasonably open into the late evening and using my FT-1000 mkv I  have had another nice qso with Ian -VK3MO, who gave me a 5/7 report on 20m. Over the next few days I plan to visit our holiday shack up on the Yorkshire Moors where I shall be active /Portable. I shall operate my old FT-767 on the HF bands from 40 - 10M, there will also be some 2E0HTS Satellite activity with the cobwebs dusted off of my old IO-10 and Arrow Sat antenna. Operating times will be very flexible h.i and may vary as we enjoy the view, enterta

From my last post you will be aware that I recently repaired my G-5500 elevation rotor. It had a seized gearbox and a faulty elevation position sensor. I have now had a chance to give it some stick on a couple of different satellites and are very pleased with both the antennas and the rotator performance. During one of tonights passes I  caught  a qso via SO-50 on video showing my satellite station back to its operational status. In the video I operate my FT- 847 Transceiver which is still doing a good job for me as I work my friend Luis - CT2GOY. I also am in regular contact with Luis over the net, we are both on Google+  and tonight was great to be able hear him loud and clear in the flesh over the SO-50 satellite. 73 thanks for passing by and watching another 2e0hts ham radio video extravaganza!

After 10 years of careful use my G-5500 eventually developed a couple of faults on the elevation rotator side.  Fault 1. For the past year I have had to guess the elevation as the readout was no longer working on the controller unit. I suspected the position switch which was located inside the rotator up above the house roof which was a pain in the butt to say the least. Fault 2. Over the winter the gearbox on the elevation rotor seized up solid. I plucked up some courage and erected my ladder and which with the aid of a rope to lower the mast it all worked out quite straight forward. Once down out with the impact driver and away I went. Once I split the case with the impact driver which was easy, I found lots of sandy grit and dried out remains of what should have or once was gearbox/bearing grease. The next step was to inspect the seized gearbox and then remove the main shaft which can only be carried out by first removing the entire gear housing unit. I start

I had to carry out a soldering task earlier in the week when I developed a fault with my HEiL GM-5 GOLDLINE studio mic. On inspection I found a wire had parted company with the board located in the head unit. As I disassembled the mic I found that practically all of the soldered wired terminals were not too good and could easily separate as well.   After removing the narrow/wide filter switch I re attached the wires using my soldering iron.  That wasn't so bad! Back together and ready to test back on the FT-1000. Fingers crossed and back in business once again on its lattice tower mount.  Yep, all working! The next day after spending time with my family I was back in the shack with my fully functioning microphone operating the late night DX shift when I got the opportunity to try my antenna's out on Ian VK3MO, located in Melbourne down under! it was around 11.30 pm local time when I came across Ian - VK3MO who was  in qso with another UK Ham, who I c

I am pleased to be able to report that our new baby daughter is doing fantastic on her 5th day with us, the sleepless nights are not as bad as expected and she is already settling in well to the "HTS" family life. Earlier today just after lunch baby Martha was resting and Elsie her big sister decided to rearrange her farm. I could not  miss out on the opportunity and once again back in the DX seat I was with my trusty FT-1000 MKV and Cobweb antenna HF setup. Time was short so I quickly checked the bands and heard HL5KY coming in very well up on the 15 metre band. I gave a few calls over the pile up and ended up hitting the jackpot getting Joe - HL5KY operating out of South Korea which is a brand new country for me and my winlog32 ham radio log . Cool! Another great result including some interesting and very local qrm in the shack created by Elsie. My YL Louise caught the QSO on video, I apologise for the noise from the toy farm during the video and for any difficulti

In the early hours of Wednesday morning we were blessed by the arrival of our new baby daughter - Martha Rose, who weighed in at 8lb, 10oz. Martha Rose is doing just great as is Mum Louise (M3TLL) and Elsie who is now graduated to big sister! 73 and listen out for some new qrm when I am active h.i

Over the weekend I managed to get some radio play time in on the HF Bands which were quite lively to say the least. I decided to catch some of my radio fun on video, I caught some DX up on 12m with the homebrew Delta Loop antenna and Yaesu FT-890 xmtr. The video also shows my Delta Loop and also includes further shack activity with my Yaesu FT-1000 MKV and Cobweb antenna system. I hope you enjoy it, I certainly had fun making it, its a bit raw and amateur as my video editing software has gone silent key. 73 happy Dx! Simon..

VK6WC SHACK  Once again on my work bound journey I was trawling the 20m band when I heard John - VK6WC  from Perth in Western Australia. I gave just one call to John and was heard by VK6WC in Perth loud and clear  with a 5/6 signal from my mobile. VK6WC - John was a solid 5/9 to my FT-857 as I drove my Toyota over the moors at around 7.20 utc. John was running 400w from a FT-2000 into a Stepper IR antenna which was beaming long path.  Another great qso from the mobile, with a DX distance of 15773 miles! Yep for me, Ham radio is definitely still very cool when you can do things like this. 73. Update: I was back in the mobile an hour later when I worked VK6ANC  operated by fellow Yorkshireman Barry, from nearby Huddersfield. VK6ANC was a big signal to my mobile peaking at 5/9+ at times and sounding nice. I was once again putting a 5/6 signal into VK6 and had a good long rag chew with Barry who was enjoying operating from the Northern Corridor Radio Group shack pictured belo

Monday mornings come around a bit too fast! This morning I was mobiling on my way to work when I heard quite a few strong signals coming in on 20m. One of those signals was Larisa - EU7LA coming in 5/9 solid to my little Yaesu FT-857 and Maldol mono band antenna. I made a quick qso with Larisa before arriving at work which was a great way to start the working week! When I looked Larisa up on QRZ I found some excellent paintings by EU7LA that are well worth checking out, I added one below. 73 happy "Ham"ing.

I just finished updating information regarding operating frequencies for amateur satellite and ISS operation. I also added some useful links and videos as well as live video feed from the ISS. Check out the satellite tracking section of my Ham Radio Site To view the latest updates . 73

Right now, I am listening to some DX on 17m and thought I would share the view from my armchair! 73 Happy DX. BTW I just worked W1AW/P1 on 18.143Mz with a 5/9 report both ways.

Earlier today I checked over my home brew Delta Loop and ended up re tightening the guy ropes. After that I was playing around with the recently self repaired Yaesu FT-890 which is hooked up to the loop and came across VU2SWS - Sarla who was working a "pile up" on the 17m band. After a few attempts I made it into India and received a 5/3 report from Sarla - VU2SWS pictured below. A great contact as well as a good result for the FT-890 and Delta Loop setup! 73 & thanks goes to Sarla for pulling my signal in through the pile up!