Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I hope you all are having a wonderful festive time, among the festivities I got an hours fresh air outside earlier when I fixed myself up with a very nice additional antenna. Its coming up to about a month since I installed my old YAESU FT-890 neatly in the corner of our dinning/craft hobby room. I had strung up a 20 meter dipole at first and made a few qso's into Europe but noticed I was picking up some noise which spoiled the reception quality.  I changed antenna's from the dipole to a delta loop to compare and as expected the delta loop was much better with hardly any noise. I tested the loop for about a week until the YL noticed a corner tied off to the washing line pole which resulted in the "look" which translates to "move it now". So today I got my weights and rope along with the delta loop and began throwing a weighted rope up into a big tree which is part of a wooded area at the bottom of my garden. The land after my wall is a steep banking tha...

On my way in to work I was amazed to hear loud signals from every corner of the Earth. I received  ZL1BD as well as VP8LP both on 20m at about 8.15 utc, (I have previously worked these guys). Shame I had to do a days work instead of playing radio, lets hope the bands are just as good during the two week holiday starting next week. Happy DX & 73.

On my way to work this morning the 20m band was wide open and I made a nice QSO with PT2GTI from Brazil.  PT2GTI  Roberto was 5/9+10 db to my mobile and I received a 5/9+ report back. A nice way to start my working day. 73

This little beauty has been hiding in the top of my wardrobe since I first moved in, I had almost forgotten all about my first ever HF Transceiver the YAESU FT-890. I built a 20m dipole and went with the easy option of inverting the dipole fed with coax  from my sat array mast which is nearby on the outside wall. I hooked up my old Nevada TM1000 antenna tuner also tucked away in my wardrobe along with a brand spanking new 30 amp PSU I bought a few years back as a backup.  Out with the soldering iron and the little setup was soon fired up and tucked away in the corner of our dining room. It is working well on 20m with the inverted V, I use the Nevada to tune the Inverted V for best reception on the other bands with ease as the old unit is well put together. I had always thought that the FT-890 was a great radio and I am planning on keeping it set up for a while. I can have a listen to the bands when I am sat at the table having a snack h.i.So far I made a QSO into Lith...