Satellite contact for February de MW0MJB

I was only QRV on the ham sats from the 18th of February.

So not many contacts went in the log book.

Here are the few I worked.....

MM0KJG AO51

UT1FG/MM AO51

EA1GAR AO27

G0HIK AO27

DH1DHC VO52

F1DOI AO7

UR4HD AO51

2E0SQL SO50

I tried listening for AO27 on vertical polarization, but after a few days it became apparent that horizontal was best.

Both AO27 and AO51 work ok on vertical receive, but the horizontal position is far better in my opinion.

de MW0MJB

Off to the hills......

I seem to be getting a lot of interference on the radio lately, thought my QRM poem was very apt considering the noise at MW0MJB.

QRM Blues

If it wasn't for the T.V.
and the thermostatic clicks,
and the noisy pink vibrators,
and the switch mode powered things.

If it wasn't for the cars
running up and down the road
I wouldn't need DSP
to lighten the static load.

If it wasn't for the neighbours
creating electronic smog
I wouldn't have to write
this bloody sodding blog..

But there is an answer
to the QRM blues......
Buy a tent and camp
on any hill you choose.

Take your leisure battery
Set up your antenna mast
Switch on the rig....

RF peace at last………….


Mark Lee.. MW0MJB

MW0BBU QRP on 15 metres

After deciding to have a go at QRP from MW0BBU this week I was all expectation as the band had seemed to be picking up a bit.

Anyway on Monday 31/01/2011 tuning around it was starting to look somewhat grim as the band was vacant of signals. After an hour of tuning a few signals started to drift in and I managed to work DL, RA6, SV9 and LZ all with pretty good signals given the way the band had been an hour earlier.

As work summoned that was it for Monday.

Tuesday kicked off In a very dire way, signals on 15m were at best abysmal and nothing really raised its head until the late afternoon when I worked K4LTA in Tennessee and greatly to my suprise HK1R ten minutes later was a 599+ here and was worked first call, which incidentally was a new one for me on 15m CW. Again that was it for the day as the band closed here shortly after.

On Wednesday however the band was quite open to the east from first thing and 4Z5NX/M was the first in the bag followed by a RW4, UR and RU9. Later on a TA4 and CT3 were worked fairly easily.

It has been quite a bit of fun to have a go again at QRP from here and as the log shows you can clock up quite a few kilometres with low power and simple antennas. Just remember its all about having fun with radio, trying different things as well. I have listed a small log below for the last couple of days....

MW0BBU/qrp 5w and a Dipole

12.46 DL1RTD 559 1150 km
13.17 RA6AS 579 3439 km
13.25 SV9MBH 599 3004 km
13.42 LZ1NJ 599 2544 km
15.15 K4LTA 559 6523 km
15.26 HK1R 559 7680 km
09.34 4Z5NX/M 559 3948 km
10.11 RW4CU 579 3448 km
10.21 UR3LL 589
10.58 RU9UC 559 5754 km
12.47 CT3AS 559 2331 km
13.35 TA4/DL6RO 559 3242 km

The station of HK1R works out at 1536 km per watt....

Who needs an amplifier when you have the Code..long live CW.

All the best for now..

Steve.. MW0BBU

Swansea Radio Rally...

27 FEBRUARY
SWANSEA ARS RALLY -
Court Herbert Sports Centre,Neath Abbey,
Neath SA10 7BE.
OT 10.30am, £2.50





Thought it was time to put on the Swansea Rally details.....

I wonder if I'll get there this year??.....mw0mjb

Satellites at MW0BBU.

I had often wondered about the Ham Satellites and just how difficult it might be to work through them, after all you always see these great arrays of educated aluminium pointing skywards. Anyway one day I just thought " What the heck" and stuck up a couple of the VHF/UHF Beams I had laying around here which happened to be a 2m 5 ele J beam and a 9 ele tonna for 70cm.

I connected the 2m to the FT897D and the 70CM to the FT817 and just proceeded to listen for the "birds", to my suprise even without a preamp I was getting pretty good signals off the FM satellites so decided to have a crack and haven,t looked back since.

Mind you I have changed out the J beam for a 9 ele Tonna and the rig is now an FT847 which does make it somewhat easier on the SSB sats. Anyway even with fixed elevation and a little practice I have managed here at MW0BBU to work over 300 stations via satellite.

DXCC Entities Via Satellite..

I Italy ES Estonia
EA8 Canary Isl LY Lithuania
PA Holland YL Latvia
ON Beligum OH Finland
SP Poland LA Norway
UR Ukraine DL Germany
LX Luxembourg EI Ireland
GM Scotland G England
GW Wales EA6 Balaeric Isl
SV Greece YT Serbia
W USA F France
OE Austria OK Czech Rep
OM Slovakia SM Sweden
HA Hungary OZ Denmark
YO Romania 9A Croatia
RA Russia UN Kazakhstan
CU Azores TF Iceland
CT Portugal HB9 Switzerland
S5 Slovenia UA9 Asiatic Russia

Thats 38 DXCC entities and with only around 20w.
VHF/UHF isn't dead it just needs using in the right place.

Have fun with radio and don't be afraid to have a go at something new.

All the best from MW0BBU.

73,s
Steve... MW0BBU.

January 2011 on 15m de MW0BBU

The month started off quite quiet here at MW0BBU on 15m with only a couple of JT65-HF qso,s in to Scandinavia and Eastern Europe working ES2MA ,OH7FMT and SP2IPU all with quite strong signals.

On the 11th the band started to open up a little more with stations of 9K2UU being worked on SSB with good 59+ signals. The next couple of days proved to be quite good on 15m with stations of HZ1AN Saudi Arabia, JY4NE Jordan, J28RO Djibouti, VQ9LA Chargos Isl, EA8/DL3KVR Canary Isl and CT9/OH2OT Madeira Isl all worked on CW with very good 599 signals.

On SSB in the same period the stations of OX3KQ Greenland, W2RE Usa, HZ1BO Saudi Arabia and 9H5JW all worked quite easily on the Dipole.

After the 19th of the month it seemed to go quiet with just the odd station on the band but still managed to squeeze out the stations of 9J2KK Zambia and ZS5DJ on JT65-HF even though their signals were very weak.

Around the 26th the band opened into near Europe and the stations of UT5IP, SP9XCJ, UY1CI, LZ2CF and HA6VH were all worked with very good signals on CW. Later in the afternoon the band opened slightly and the stations of XT2RJA Burkina Faso and KP2M US Virgin Is were worked again on CW reasonably well with 559 signals.

Lets hope that February will bring some improved conditions and allow some good DX to be worked.

Thats all for this month, enjoy the bands which ever one is your favourite, good DX.

73,s.
Steve.... MW0BBU.