ABOUT ME

Unless you did not see my previous section. My name is Anton Koval, M0EDX. II have had a number of calls and operated from a number of countries, including UT/MW0EDX, UT/M0EDX, ES4/MW0EDX, ES1/MW0EDX, ES4/M0EDX, ES1/M0EDX. I am married to my my Estonian wife, Julia and we have our beautiful girl, Rita. Rita may claim the youngest person to be on the air as she exchanged a proper "hello" contact on the air with a local station, G4HOM :-). Rita also helps me with my hobby and I do remember she was under 2 years old shen she was helping me with my yagi antenna installation by sorting out the tools, moving the coax cables etc. She enjoys playing with my 2 m protable and her favourite is my tool box, too :-). My XYL is sceptical about Rita's ham radio future, but I do belive if Rita becomes a ham, she will not regret ! 

MY QTH

My amateur radio station is located in Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdon. I am a class A amateur radio license holder. The population of Birmingham is approximately 1 million people and there are quite a number of radio amateurs and radio clubs in the area.

MY SHACK

This is my current shack and my main arials as of early 2009.

I have had quite a number of different brands of equipment, including Kenwood, Yaeasu and Icom. After a couple of decades on the air my current choice has been Icom, therefore most of my main transceivers are Icom transceivers.

MY HF ANTENNAE & ROTATORS

UK gardens are quite small, and you can witness that by looking at the picture right, where we struggled to raise the antenna. Luckily, I had a neighbour's father, Paul (pulling the rope over the pine tree on the left) and my good friend Fred, G4HOM (middle of the picture) to help me (far right on the picture). Eventually we used the pine tree to support the erection of the antenna while G4HOM and me pulled the antenna up and then lifted it with a par of our hands and finally put it on the rotator. I was honestly told by the team not to ask them to help me to take in down next time if I want to swap the antenna, hi !

My main HF antenna is a 7 element 5 band HF yagi by Mosley, model Pro-57B. It is mounted on a 3 section special order 14 m extra heavy duty tilt-over Tennamast. The mast is capable of carrying 90 kg vertical load, which it does now with all antennas on it.  I am turning my HF antenna with a Yaesu G-1000DXC rotator. I also have inverted Vees for 80 and 40 m fed with a single coax, a wire vertical for 30 m and a 92m long L-shaped wire for top band. The top band aerial was only posible due to kind permission of the local pub's owners to use their car park and a tree as an additional space and support for my top band aerial.

MY VHF/UHF ANTENNAE & ROTATORS

For VHF/UHF and Satellites I am using an F9FT Tonna 9/19 elements crossed yagis ( 2m/70 cm), mounted on the extended alloy extended scaffold pole fixed with T-brackets to the side of the house. I am turning my VHF/UHF yagi  with a Yaesu G-5500 azimuth elevation rotator. The Satellite signals are weak, therefore I am also using Icom AG-25 and AG-35 preams (2m/70 cm).

TRANSCEIVERS

I am currently using 2 x Icom IC-7700 HF transceiver for HF positions 1 and 2 and Icom IC-910H transceiver (144/430) for VHF/UHF and Satellites as VHF/UHF/SAT position (3).  

TUNERS

I am currently using an Icom PW1 linear amplifier as a main tuner as well as I use MFJ-941E as a tuner for my top band L-shaped long wire aerial.

AMPLIFIER

I am using ICOM PW1 linear amplifier running just 50% of its nominal power due to the high gain of my main HF antenna.

MORSE PADDLES

I operate CW with a CT 599MX dual lever paddle, CT 775 single lever paddle (now marketed by my successor, Yury, UR5CDX, www.ur5cdx.com) and occasionally a Kent single lever lever paddle. Occasionally I get lazy and use keyboard to send CW via Ham Radio Deluxe Software.

OTHER SHACK ACCESSORIES

My other shack accessories include Heil Pro Set and Pro Set Plus headsets (I use them for everyday HF work), home made Icom adapter for my PC headset for VHF/UHF/Satellites, 3 x RigExpert USB modems for interfacing my radios to my shack PCs, MFJ-259 antenna anylizer,  Watson 40A switching power supply, Ham Radio Deluxe and Orbitron software.

I have also addred a personalized number plate to my ham radio collection - M8EDX. There was not possible to have a "0" on the number plate in the UK, hence I had to be creative, hi !

AUTOMATIC CONTROL

The reason I am using Icom transceivers and amplifier is a capability to automatically band change. My station is automatically controlled for band switching with a click of a mouse button, which is very handy when working DX/contest, especially when you need to work a few stations on different band in a minute. I can now run 3 stations myself at a time, that is, running 2 stations of HF DIGITAL and 2 m FM. If you call a contents a challange, try the M0EDX challange, hi !

ON THE AIR PREFERENCES

I spend 50% of my time on the air on SSB, 45 % on CW and DIGITAL gets the rest of my attention. Currently you can normally hear me on 80, 40, 20 and 17 m SSB, CW and DIGITAL.

SECRET PART OF M0EDX SHACK

Due to popular demand I am disclosing the item behand my operating position :-). There are no more secrets left after that disclosure :-). For those who are unfamilair with this item - this is a York multygim fitness complex. This implies that my shack is probably unique in its location...in a gym, hi ! Ever wondered where all those 2 other operators were ?

MULTY OP POSITIONS AND OPERATIONS

The M0EDX multy op positions were created just for fun and with the aim to acommodate friends such as Fred, G4HOM and Tinko, M/LZ3DB, both from Birmingham/Lichfield. Maximum of 3 people can operate the station at the moment, practically putting the station in a multy op position, although this is not the aim for such a small antenna field of mine as it currently is.

SEE YOU ON THE AIR !

Thank you for taking your time and browing through my web-site. Please give me a call when you hear me as well as mention my web site. The benefit of ham radio and modern technology is that you can now communicate with people and also see who you are communicating with as well as what other peoples' equipment is. I hope to work you on the air one day.

73 ! Anton, M0EDX