Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

After a great weekend of CQ World Wide contesting I ended up with 103 countries and 21 zones with almost 400 qso's in my log. Conditions were reasonable and I had lots of fun whilst operating on and off throughout the 48hrs. A video will follow shortly. Best 73.

I just spent a couple of hours checking out my radio equipment making sure everything is nipped up tight, I also gave the radios and accessories a wipe down and dust off. I re-positioned the layout which ended up with a more user friendly line up which lines up better with my comfy chair! The CQ WW Contest is on for 48 hours this weekend and starts this evening at midnight local time, I wont be operating for 48 hours but I do plan on getting a good lengthy duration of contest fun. I wouldn't say I was much of a contest operator as compared to others but I do enjoy the CQ WW contest as it is the best one in my opinion to catch some new distant countries in the log, and for that reason I will be once again participating over the weekend aiming to smash my record of 22 out of 40 zones. Last year was lots of fun but poor band propagation with only a few long distant stations and the 10 meter band never opened up at all at my end. Hopefully this years conditions will be slightly impro...

I recently wrote an article that was published in one of West Mountain Radio quarterly ham radio news letters - The Beacon. I have been enjoying testing out the PWR Check device over the past couple of months and was very pleased to see my story appear in their news letter - The Beacon  Five Reasons Why I Love Ham Radio So Much Many Thanks to everyone at West Mountain Radio. Best 73.

My windom antenna has been in an inverted vee configuration for the last twelve months, I have carried out a few experiments with the antenna supported by the off center fed balun but have found the vee configuration far too noisy on reception.So today I managed to get the windom back to horizontal and in a straight line. I also increased the antenna height above the ground from 20 feet to around about 30 feet sloping slightly at both ends to around about 20 feet at each end. To make life easy I got out my 30 ft telescopic pole and attached a homemade hook into the top of the pole for easy hanging. The fiberglass pole is the quickest way for me to get a hook up high without too much trouble and with a steady hand its simple enough to extend with the antenna attached. The neighbors probably think I am going fishing, maybe flying fish? Anyhow up she goes, where it stops no one knows! The face of concentration as I 'hook a duck' at 30 feet, I am aiming the pole ...

As I hit the sack I had a last look out at my antennas as they dance about in ex hurricane Ophelia's footprint. So far so good, I'll try to sleep but it's a bit on the noisy side so tomorrow morning could be slightly more grumpy than usual. On that note I'll say 73 and fingers crossed that the antennas don't suffer to badly.

It's been a good weekend regarding band conditions as I have been busy working world wide on the 17 and 15 metre band. There has been some nice signals coming through which have provided lots of quality qso's as I played ham radio. My two daughters are growing up quickly and are always eager to get involved in anything that dad does, so I decided to treat them to a day out with some super heroes and other cool characters. We payed a visit to our local football club Bradford city where the Comicon was on. A fun time had by all. Best 73 happy DX