M8BAF- All About Mission Control

Hi Everyone out there in amateur radio land

My radio callsign is M8BAF (formally 2E0BAF) and I live in a little town called Carlton, which can be found on the eastern side of the wonderful city of Nottingham, England. Home to the legend that was Robin Hood and the place that the English Civil War started in August 1642 (many years before I was born apparently!).

I have been licenced since May 2005 and hold a UK intermediate licence and at the moment I’m not planning on upgrading to a full UK licence any time soon.

My main radio is a Yaesu FTdx101MP and M1 Reference Mic for my primary HF work. It’s fair to say that this is a dream radio combination for those DX QSLs. The radio is connected into a Ciro Mazzoni Baby Loop sitting on top of a Yaesu G-450c rotator controlled by a Microham Arco controller. This is giving me contacts across the entire world.

I’m also running a Yaesu FTM-150 into a Nagoya MAG-77EL-WH antenna which I use for and 2m/70cm TX into local repeaters and a little local simplex.

Additionally I use an Icom ID-52e (DStar), a Yaesu FT5D (YSF) and an AnyTone AT-D168 (DMR) via a Zum hotspot.

And finally I have an AOR AR-DV1 digital scanner sitting in the background monitoring local repeaters, civil/military ATC, local services like the bus company, PMR, DMR and all manner of digital/analogue signals along with an Icom IC-15 analogue scanner for when I’m out in the car.

Location

  • Latitude 52.965163 (52° 57′ 54” N)

  • Longitude -1.089904 (1° 5′ 23” W)

  • Grid Square IO92kx

  • CQ Zone 14

  • ITU Zone 27

  • ITU Region 1

  • IOTA Number EU-005

Station Equipment List

  • Yaesu FTM-500 VHF/UHF Transmitter

  • Yaesu FTdx-101MP HF/50m 200w Transmitter

  • Yaesu FH-2 Memory Keypad

  • Yaesu M-1 Reference Desk Microphone

  • Yaesu FTM-150 VHF/UHF Transmitter

  • Yaesu FT5DE YSF Hand Held

  • Icom ID-52e D-Star Hand Held

  • Yaesu FTdx10 HF Portable Transmitter

  • Icom IC-R15 Analog Scanner

  • AOR AR-DV1 Digital Receiver

  • AnyTone AT-D168 DMR Hand Held

  • Tecsun PL-330 SW Receiver

  • Zum 3.5 Elite Hotspot

  • Antenna 1 – Ciro Mazzoni Baby Loop 40m – 10m

  • Antenna 2 - Diamond D-130 Discone Wide Band RX/TX

  • Antenna 3 - Nagoya MAG-77EL-WH (home use)

  • Antenna 4 - Nagoya MAG-77EL-WH (mobile use)

  • Antenna 5 - Yaesu ATAS 120A HF Portable

  • Antenna 6 - Chelegance MC-750 HF Portable

  • Yaesu G-450c Rotator

  • Microham Arco Smart Antenna Rotator Controller

  • Icom V-S3 Bluetooth Mic

  • Icom HM-186LS Mic

  • Tiny SA Spectrum Analyser

  • Nano VNA

  • Jetfon FX 35 SW Switching PSU

  • Geekom GT1 Mega, Mini PC

  • Gemini Gem-12USB mixing Desk

  • Focusrite 2i2 Audio Interface

  • Fduce SL40 (XLR Version) Podcast Microphone

  • Behringer FBQ1502HD Ultragraph Pro 245 15 Channel EQ

Links