All posts by Steve Marshall

My Kenwood TH-D72E recently ceased to work in battery mode but powered up via the charge lead, neither Kenwood or their recommended UK repairer were interested so I decided to replace the jack socket myself. Initially I opened the radio up to identify the jack socket and found one which looked right, see picture for…

On 27/06/2024 my 100th contact for this award was confirmed by DK9JC who was operating portable in Liechtenstein. There are 340 separately designated countries and territories (“entities”) in the world so I will continue to chase as many of the outstanding 240 as possible. As of now my 100 contacts qualify for the DXCC Certificate;…

The VHF/UHF Century Club (VUCC) is awarded for radio contact with a minimum number of map grids, a system used by radio amateurs known as Maidenhead. Further information can be found using the link at the bottom of this page. At present 19/04/2024 I have made confirmed amateur satellite contacts with 550 grids, see certicate…

This week I received my certificate for WAS (Worked All States), the award is Issued by the ARRL to radio amateurs who have confirmed contacts with radio amateurs in all 50 US states. My award is in the satellite category; all contacts were made via satellites constructed by amateur radio operators or educational establishments. There…

Until quite recently I’ve been tracking amateur satellites using software for the PC, my first experiments were with a package called SatPC32. It took a while to get to grips with it but I eventually managed to use it quite well with the FM and transponder sats. Then along came GreenCube or IO-117 an MEO…

On 13th February I tried to put a signal through Greencube (IO-117) using my 70cm Eggbeater antenna, reception proved easy but the antenna didn’t have enough gain and directivity to put a signal in. Having recently bought a 70cm circularly polarised beam I decided to rig it on a tripod in the garden; azimuth and…