Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

I fancied a last cup of of coffee before I went bed and as the kettle boiled I powered up my dining room mini station to see if anything was happening on the HF bands. My Yaesu FT-890 pictured below is one of my original spare transceivers that I have had since the beginning of my Ham intrests  and works great especially on receive hooked up to a full wave 20m delta loop. This evening/morning at around midnight the coffee was smelling good when I tuned my FT-890 onto 14.209.5 MHz where I heard CP6XE coming in loud and clear from Bolivia. Normally I would have rushed to the main shack station which is my FT-1000MK V but the signal was so clear peaking at 5/9 I decided to call Miguel - CP6XE on the dining room listening station my little FT-890. To my pleasure the home brew delta loop and 100 watts of old school FT-890 did the trick and I made the contact into Bolivia with a 5/3 signal! A great way to end the evening, the only snag is I am feeling thirsty again and fancy...

Apologies for my absence....... It has been too long since I posted on my blog so I thought I would put you in the picture as to what has been keeping me from my beloved radio antics. You may remember I started installing a new central heating system which ended up taking me quite a few weekends of crawling about under the floorboards with my pipe and blow torch. After that I proceeded to rip out the original lead pipe work and then I successfully switched over to my new copper pipework system.  I was assisted by a very beautiful pipe bender and screw passer who helped me on numerous occasions which was especially helpful when I was running out of enthusiasm!  No holding back as I let loose on the old bathroom. Phew! I can get a shower again and a bath. But better still I have finished! Work has been busy, last month I sat lots of exams and carried out some welding practical examinations and became a coded welder and welding inspector. Th...