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Showing posts from October, 2008

2008 CQ World Wide Contest, Thought's and Report's by 2E0HTS

CQ World Wide Contest Every year I look forward to using my HF Ham Radio Station during the World Wide CQ Contest. CQ WW is where World Wide participation makes it possible to work new DX locations and rare activations brought to life by enthusiastic radio amateurs from all nations spread around the globe. The Contest lasts all weekend, 48 hours in total. This year's Contest brought some new Countries and call signs into the humble 2E0HTS station. In total I worked 15 Zones and 64 different Countries without trying too hard. I managed 131 different QSO's in between the constant searching up and down the bands, compared to most Station's I was only playing h.i Some Station's make Thousands of QSO's as we Ham's Know already! ;-) I really enjoyed giving a few points away during the Contest and it was nice hearing some of the regular Contest Station's as well as the new ones of course! One big Thank you to All Station's worked! I did manage to get some of th

NA1SS over Europe at 10.11utc

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Today's SSTV transmission received from NA1SS at 10.11utc with a 5/9+40 signal at 2E0HTS Simon's QTH. I also heard Richard call out and I managed to get into the ISS and Richard came back, but it was very quick as half of Europe was calling at the same time. Hopefully I will get a better QSO next time. Thanks Richard and all at ARISS.

Inside ISS at 10.28utc RX by 2E0HTS Earth Station

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ISS at 08.53 UTC over France and Spain

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This mornings SSTVs transmission whilst passing France and Spains border.

NA1SS Making Multiple Contacts Over Europe

NA1SS Working Multiple Contacts and Sending SSTV Images Of The Earth

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We have all been reading about the latest radio activity on board the ISS and many of us have been following the passes of the ISS, whilst waiting in anticipation to see if we can hear any interesting transmissions from the other side of the Ionosphere. Today I got lucky and managed to not only receive a couple of Earth Shots from space, I also heard Richard Garriot (W5KWQ) working multiple contacts across Europe under the International Space Stations call sign, NA1SS. Here MMSSTV Software is decoding the received ISS transmission A closer look at the received image of N.West Europe An image of the Atlantic Satscape Screen shot of the position of the ISS as it moves away. I used Yaesu the FT-847, the home brew IOIo beam, GS 250 rotator and MMSSTV to decode the images whilst tracking the ISS with Satscape. Incidentally I recently un-installed the Java version of Satscape and reverted to the previous version, as I found the Java version slowed down my connection speed an awful lot? My Co

20M PSK31 QSO N3TEE and 2E0HTS On Sched

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The past few days have seen some good openings on HF for me especially on 20M, with QSOs being made from my Mobile Station as well as from inside the Shack. Shawn N3TEE from Newark in the USA and myself 2E0HTS, have been exchanging emails ever since Shawn commented on one of my videos. We have been trying to make QSO on 20 and 40M over the last couple of evenings and tonight using PSK31 we finaly made the QSO! Shawn N3TEE came through quite loud at times 57-599 running an Icom Rig but there was slight QSB. Nether the less, we managed a 10 min QSO and can now exchange QSL. N3TEE Shawn Click to Enlarge, Shawn N3TEE's Lap Top p.c screen in RX with myself 2E0HTS coming through in The USA. Click to Enlarge, Simon 2E0HTS's Screen with Shawn N3TEE coming in loud and clear. I used my FT-767, Nomic Rigblaster, 3800Dual Core Computer,40-50 Watts through a Full wave Delta LOOP Vertically polarised. The Actual Transmission received and transmitted at N3TEE's QTH 2E0HTS 2E0HTS 2E0HTS

Shack Activity

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Latest Satellite confirmed QSL cards < As usual the radio's have been in use during the evenings after a days work and I have been working various Bands and Modes making some good QSOs. I also made a number of QSO's into the USA via Echolink. During one of the QSO's I tried to arrange a PSK sched with N3TEE-Shawn, but with one or two QSB issues we still have to make the QSO. Echolink can be a very useful tool for arranging radio contacts with DX Stations. I also received two nice QSL Cards sent direct to me confirming Satellite Contacts from AO-51 and VO-52. The Cards were from IK3VZS-Vinicio and EA3AGH-Jose, Thanks Guys my QSL cards have been posted and should be with you soon! With the propagation offering some reasonable evening openings and my Amateur satellite addiction still maintaining a good hold over my radio operations, I had to get back on HF and give my FT-767 a good airing off.h.i. So I have tried to do what us Men are not supposed to be able too do which is

Ham Radio Poems by M3TLL (Louise)

Ham Radio HF There's a voice inside the static And it's calling out CQ CQ DX is anyone there? He wants to speak to you You've set up your antenna You're receiving loud and clear You're going to call out to the voice That you can loudly hear You shout out your callsign He says he can hear you fine Receiving you above the noise Your signal's 5 and 9 You exchange all of your info Find out what you want to know Say 73s and 88s QSL via the bureau Ham Radio 2 Metres There's a voice on 145.500 He's calling out CQ CQ DX is anyone there? No. For more non-radio related poetry and articles visit Louise's Helium site here or maybe if you're lucky you'll catch her on air some day.

New Hardware Installation Gives Improved Performance

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Computers have been running many amateur radio programs since the birth of the P.C. I have always tried to keep reasonably up to date with most software and recently decided to give my Intel Dual Core 3800 some new hardware which was to be some more Ram memory and a HD Graphics adaptor. I compared the required hardware on the net where I got a good insight into the specifications available as well as the costs. Once I new what I wanted, I set off to my local shop and came away with both. 1 gig of ram memory(DDR) this was to compliment the existing memory, now doubling up to give 2 gigabytes of ram memory. The graphics adaptor is a NVDIA 9600 GT 512 Megabytes HD card, I fitted it and with both items installed correctly the computer should give excellent performance. With the new hardware installed i decided to back up my logs/data and then I formatted the C: drive completely wiping it clean ready for a fresh install. The re-installation takes some time but is well worth it once all soft