Strong Winds Take Out Carolina Windom

The wind has been battering the trees at the bottom of the garden for the last two days which is a pain in the rear as I use the nice tall trees to support the far end of my wire antenna, you can imagine the rest.
I had been watching my Carolina Windom wire slap about until eventually it fell to the ground. In between a rain shower I decided to brave the gusts and managed to get a next piece of rope up into the tree and wound the wire back up in the air.
It looked good, nice and straight with an extra 10 feet of height after a lucky throw that I pulled off earlier.
I ended the evening the way radio amateurs like best as I made a very nice QSO on 17 Meters into Tokyo Japan with Yoshi - JA1OJJ. JA1OJJ signal was a 5/8 solid copy on my Ft1000mp MKV, Yoshi give me a 5/6 report on the tree swaying Carolina Windom (CW-80).

When I awoke this morning the CW-80 was still in the air but not for long! The dreaded wind took it out again sometime today, as you can see in the picture above I wont be active on 17 Meters tonight.

Ham Radio Station Reaches Completion

Since moving in to the new QTH I have been regularly tweaking my amateur radio set up and testing out various equipment configurations. I have now finally got my station working effectively and have settled for a lay out that I can comfortably work with, which can be seen pictured below.

Equipment Used
YAESU FT - 857
YAESU FT - 847
YAESU FT – 1000MP MARK – V
YAESU SP – 102 Ext Speaker
YAESU FP – 1030A Power Supply Unit
YAESU G – 5500 ELEVATION – AZIMUTH DUAL CONTROLLER
YAESU MD – 1 Mic
YAESU MH – 36 DTMF Mic
HEIL GOLDLINE GM5 Mic
Labtec Head set & Mic
RIGblaster plus Interface
MFJ – 962D VERSA TUNER III
1942 CW Key

22” Monitor and Dual Core 3800, 2Gig Ram - P.C, Running XP Pro.
Software Used
Winlog32
RadioCom 5.2
Satscape
MMSSTV
PSK31 Deluxe
DX Atlas
Ham Radio Deluxe

Decorative Equipment
I also enjoy making models in my spare time usually out of metal. In my shack you can see a couple of models I made for my collection.
Supporting my HEIL Microphone, I made a mast like structure with a PTT switch fitted neatly to the side.
I also have made a few mini towers that have manually rotating miniature scale Yagi beams on top.
My favorite model radio mast and antenna can be seen on top of my SP – 102 Loud Speaker. My other model tower is up at the holiday Shack along with the rest of my equipment.

Well that’s all for now, I look forward to working some of you somewhere on the bands from my fully tried and tested ham radio shack!

Good DX & 73 thanks for the visit.

Great Path to Japan

Earlier this afternoon whilst receiving NOAA weather images on my FT-847, I was listening to 17m on my FT-1000MKV mp hooked up to the Carolina windom, when I heard Mega - JA3EGZ. I listened for a while as he worked a nice steady flow of Stations located across the globe.

After about 30 minutes once the initial pile up had diminished I heard him with a signal strength of 5/7 calling "QRZ." It was then when I gave just one Call and to my great satisfaction was heard by Mega - JA3EGZ.

JA3EGZ gave me a 5/5 signal report during our qso, I am very pleased with the CW-80 antennas performance on 17m as well as from 80m right through to 10m.The Carolina Windom is a great wire antenna when installed well, with the 6 band Vertical as a second choice, this new QTH is working well on the HF bands and seems to have a great path to JA.

Happy DXing, 73!

2R0HTS - Special Prefix Celebrating The Royal Wedding

I applied for a Royal wedding special Prefix which is "R" and have been celebrating the Royal Wedding on the airwaves working lots of stations and getting spotted on the DX cluster a couple of times in the process. The best DX I have worked with the 2R Royal call so far is VO1JNS on 80M. Thanks to all other stations I worked and catch me throughout the week airing the Royal Call sign 2R0HTS..73!

Flight Engineers Cady Coleman, Paolo Nespoli and Ron Garan send a congratulatory message to the royal couple on behalf of the Expedition 27 crew.

Final Antenna Installations Completed!

I am halfway through my two week break from work and I have had a great week so far spending lots of quality time with Louise, Dudley and our six and a half week baby Daughter. As you know from my last post I have also been busy in between times trying to get my antennas set up and working more effectively.

I finished off my antenna installations by putting up a second mast to support a Tri-band vertical covering 6m, 2m & 70cms. The shorter leg of my Carolina Windom is also attached to the same mast and terminates at my out building. You can also see Dudley keeping an eye on what's going on in the doorway.

My HF antennas are simple but effective, in the background is my Hustler 6BTV and the previously posted homemade radial kit. Hanging at about 30 feet is my Carolina CW-80 wire antenna which is working really well on all of the HF bands, so is the 6BTV. Its nice having both antennas fed into the FT1000mkv mp as I can easily switch between the two as and when required, making the most of the varied angles and radiation patterns that change throughout the day.

Here is a different angle showing my Sat array, CW-80 wire and Tri-Band Vertical nice and elevated up above the QTH.
Here is a close up of my Satellite Antennas comprising of a 16 element X beam, a 5 element Yagi and a G-5500 Rotator. This antenna set up is now putting an excellent signal into both FM and SSB Satellites. I changed the 145MHz Yagi back to Horizontal polarity allowing me to also use the sat set up whilst working on 144MHz SSB now that it is up high clear of obstructions.

Listen out for me via the birds and on the HF bands over the next few days as I test out the completed final Antenna installation, that is until my next antenna idea. 73 for now.

Raising The 145/435MHz Satellite Array

Earlier today we had a visit from a fellow Radio Amateur and friend Adam - 2E0LXA. I had asked Adam if he wouldn't mind lending a hand to fit my 145/435MHz Satellite Array up on the house. Adam installs antennas as well as supplies various radio communication equipment for a living so I was extremely fortunate to have his expertise on board and the antenna array went up a treat! Thanks Adam!

The 435MHz X beam and 5 Element 145MHZ Yagi dismantled from its tripod and fixed to a 15ft ally mast

Adam 2E0LXA up the ladder drilling the brick work to fix the home made "very heavy" mast brackets.

The result - 25 ft above the ground my 145/435MHz Satellite Array which is now working really well now it is clear of all obstructions. The tripod used previously was great but the house blocked signals from the south that were below 45° elevation which was a little annoying when the Sats passed by on that particular path. A problem no longer thanks to Adam and his ladders!

I borrowed Adams ladders for the rest of the day and also managed to fit my 6/2/70 Triband vertical up high on a second set of brackets I made. I attached a leg of my Carolina Windom off of the Triband vertical which now has also gained in height.

The remainder of my day was spent with the Family who are doing very well indeed seen below checking out the motor Cycles. I'll get some snaps of my Triband Vertical Antenna and post them tomorrow.

Happy Easter All, 73.