Posts

Engineering and Electronics Class

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ICE - Industrial Centre Of Excellence One of the courses I am delivering at the College where I work comprises of Engineering and Electronics (ICE) . The ICE students on this course are into their second year of having me as their tutor and so far they have developed skills in MIG, MMA and TIG Welding, Metal craft and Fabrication, Plasma arc cutting, Sheet metal and are currently focusing on Electronics. So far my students have built basic soldered circuits using boards, resistors, diodes, and LEDs, as well as Morse keys which work with buzzers. The students have also been learning about amateur radio and responded well to sending messages to each other in Morse on their home brew kits. Over the past few weeks they have come on very well with their soldering ability and have moved onto the final project which is a Digital FM receiver . The FM radio receivers are quite nice kits and it was very exciting when the first student to successfully complete the receiver had radio 1 coming i

Update's To The 2E0HTS Ham Radio Main Site

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I added another way of viewing my Ham Radio Main Site's Guest Book by creating a second book simply entitled "View The 2E0HTS Guest Book," both books can easily accessed and are pictured below. They are available for anyone including non Hams and can be found attached to the front page of my Ham Radio Main Site Its early days but so far I have received a good response, Thank You! To all who have dropped by and left a comment and name. Don't forget to sign and say hello! Best 73 de Simon 2E0HTS.

Sad News

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I just read the sad news that G4ILO Julian Moss has passed away after a long illness, I will always remember the banter and encouraging comments Julian always left for me on many of my blog posts. He will be truly missed by many and our thoughts are with his wife and family.

Early Riser

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Its half term at the College where I work so I am off for the week, my youngest daughter Martha has been wide awake since 6 am so I thought I might get up out of bed and show her some early morning DX. 20 meters was not open yet and 80 meters was closing down, however up on 40 meters things were happing and I worked W3DIY loud and clear 5/8. I was running my FT-1000mp into my Hustler vertical and received a nice report from Rick who was booming in.

CQ World Wide DX Contest 2014

The CQ World Wide DX is my favourite contest it is the best way to work lots of DX from all around the world on the HF bands. This year I had lots of fun as did one of my Daughters Elsie, I let her join in with her own DX Zone chart to fill in each time I worked a zone. This proved to be a good idea, she really enjoyed it and kept asking me to get another! This was the best encouragement that any Ham dad could ask for during any contest h.i. As a single low power operator I had a real blast and ended up working into 21 different zones which included 46 different Countries logged by the time the contest had ended. The 21 Zones I managed were worked on 10 and 15 meters, I also made QSO,s on 20, 40 and 80 meters toward the end of the contest. Conditions were reasonable throughout the entire 48 hour contest, I have known even better conditions in past contests but I am more than happy with the performance of my main amateur radio station during this CQ WW (2014). I worked 21 zones

Download - 2e0hts CQ WW DX Zone Check List

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Just in case you wanted a copy, I made this years CQWW Zones check-list available to download or share.

Working Into ZL4AA From My DX Machine

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A nice start to the working day as I drove my DX Machine I worked special event station ZL1AA . ZL1AA was celebrating 90 years since they first worked into the UK. Follow the link to read the full story .  ZL1AA came in well at around 7.15 utc up on the 20m band with a 5/9+ signal to my FT-857, I received a 5/9 report back!

Mobile Again!

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Its been almost 3 months since I got injured on my Motorcycle and I am almost back to my usual self. My torn quadriceps is on the mend and is becoming less painful day by day. I am enjoying being back at work and I am also pleased to be able to continue my latest DX-Machine project which is coming on strong! I have been active on HF from my new van on 20, 15 and 10 meters where I have had many successful QSO's into VK, USA and throughout Europe. The YAESU FT-857 and my old Maldol mono bander's are still performing well for me, I have yet to experiment with the other bands which I am well equipped for with antenna's such as the large Hustler mobile antenna with loading coils for 80, 40, 20, 17 and 15 meters as well as the rest of my trusty Maldol's. I have produced a part 2 video of my "DX-Machine" which shows the latest installations and improvements to the van such as its passenger privacy tinted windows, stainless steel bling, lots of carpet, some join

SSTV From RS0ISS

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I have been back to the docs regarding my injured leg that I obtained during my recent motorcycle accident.The Doc said I must take it easy as I have damaged the quadriceps in my knee which explains the pain and swelling I am getting! Anyway rest is what I have been doing and of course playing radio is a good way to keep happy as I heal! Whilst being active I have worked some great stations from Europe to Australia on 40m, 20, 17 and 10 meters. The bands are up and down but can be pretty good if the timing is right. Earlier today I was checking ISS on 145.800 MHz when I heard a burst of SSTV coming in well. I wasn't set up to decode the signal at the time but I did manage to record the transmission from ISS on my mobile phone, using its voice recorder. Later I plugged it into my pc and decoded it directly from my phone using MMSSTV. As you can see pictured above, it worked out quite well. I hope to catch some more Images from ISS tomorrow if RS0ISS is active! 73

This Years Summer Break Started With A Bang!

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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

VO-52 - Favourite Satellite Is Silent Key

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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

Wide Open on 20m Mobile.

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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

Hamtastic Spring Bank Break

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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

Amateur Satellite QSO With CT2GOY Via SO-50.

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!

YAESU G - 5500 Elevation Rotator Repair

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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