Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

80 Meters was in great shape early this evening as I heard Ray - W2RE booming in and working a huge pile up. Ray W2RE operates his Ham radio station remotely and often has a live stream on facebook. I worked W2RE during the QRM that some joker was making which I am happy to see the QRM was not strong enough to block my home brew 80m dipole and 400 watts of RF from my humble hill top. Best 73 catch you again soon!

Another weekend flies by with plenty of fun with the family. I visited the science and media museum, hiked over the Moor and also got some DX in and there is still a bit more time this evening to check the bands. Learning about solar flares at the Science and media museum Out on our local Moor earlier, can you spot the heron flying off. In my radio shack in Baildon near Bradford City, Yorkshire UK IO93CU. I also got to try my new feedline on my 80 meter dipole over the weekend and made some stateside qso on 80m with a couple of nice DX openings in the evening with K3ZM, WU2X and also into the Azores with CU2CE. 80 Meters hasn't been very busy but one or two DX stations are being recieved at my end on an evening. The Dipole is working pretty good as is the HUSTLER 6btv (vertical antenna). I also made a video of a qso on 40 meters with R3XE and caught a strong US station working a pile up which I tried to no avail. The video shows a high noise level at my end which ...

Another lunch time operation from the MK7 transit mobile Ham station. I decided to head a couple of miles up the hill during my lunch break to a place called Rombalds Moor which is 1200 ft asl and great for DXing. It was very windy so I didn't bother to change over antenna as planned, the Maldol works well and the time available was short. 20 meters was very active with plenty of big signals coming in. I heard Indonesia again and tried to get the qso but decided to try some easier contacts. I got into Russia and the USA and ended up working RA6AA and KE5EE before heading back to work. More mobiling and base Ham radio to come, thanks for the visit  73.

My Ham mobile - YAESU FT-857, 80 - 100 watts into a Maldol HFC 20 mono band base loaded antenna fixed on the rear of the van roof.  Location Keighley College car park Keighley West Yorkshire UK.  Loc: IO93CD My lunch time at work was spent wisely in my Ford Transit MK7 DX Machine, as I ate my home made sandwiches I heard Indonesia 5/9 in the clear. I didn't have much time to try get in through the pileup as well as much power from the van, but the signal was good to hear from YB0AR and it was plenty fun enough trying. I will see what conditions are like tomorrow and maybe I will get out my full size Hustler mono band antennas for a bit more punch. Best 73, see you again soon.

I have decided to stick with my home brewed dipole for 80m but fancied an upgrade for the feedline. With weight being an issue I went for light weight military spec RG58. The coax I purchased has a stainless flex core inner and the outer braid ia also stainless steel. The PVC insulation is also top grade. I re installed the dipole back in position and managed to gain an extra meter in height at the lowest end. The SWR remained the same all that is left to do is to get on the band and play. 73  have a good week.

Conditions are continuing to offer decent DX opportunities on the 80meter band. I caught some activity last night just as the band opens up in the evening.

Live feed via Facebook at W2RE Ray's shack. I managed to break through the pile up and heard my signal coming back over the net. Pretty cool, I mixed a video of my Ham radio station to go with the audio recording. Best 73.

Hope you are all enjoying the beginning of 2020. It's been a very enjoyable festive break spent with my family and I have also heard quite a few interesting stations coming through on the 20m and 80m band over the last 2-weeks. At around about midnight I managed to work across the Atlantic into the States down on 80m a couple of times using my vertical and dipole antenna systems, as for 20m I've heard decent signals from stations out of Indonesia, Australia and also Afghanistan, which is a very good indication that radio conditions are beginning to improve. Let's all hope that the Bands will continue to get better as lighter nights start to creep back in and we will have some great openings throughout 2020 as we all make DX on the ham radio bands. Best 73 from my family and myself and happy new year to everybody passing through hamradiooperator.blogspot.com