Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

This week I have been enjoying getting to grips with my latest edition to the shack. A brand new YAESU FT-2980, 2m fm mono band radio which I am now using with my mono band Diamond F23 high gain vertical antenna . I purchased the FT-2980 from Ham radio UK after my YL Louise M3TLL suggested I treated myself to a new radio which came without fan noise. I am really impressed with the new Transceiver it's very well constructed with a substantial heatsink and great all round feel when using the vfo, volume, squelch and menu features. I have made a couple of nice qso so far and like the sound I am receiving. A great bit of kit for a very nice price.

Pictured above, I received Storm Dennis as it approached early saturday morning via NOAA-19 weather sat using my Satellite array, FT-847 and WXtoIMG decoding software. Below is the kind of image we are getting used to seeing around this part of the World. Its been hard going over the past couple of weeks here in Stormy Yorkshire UK. Just about two weeks ago the storms started to batter our neighbourhood and they have been relentless ever since. We suffered some roof damage to our house during the first big storm - Ciara which resulted in urgent work needing to be carried out in the form of some replacement ridge tiles. This was sorted out quickly and the roof is sound again, my next repair was to my Diamond F23 VHF vertical up on the gable end of the house. The antenna had worked loose due to it whipping around in the gale force winds, I decided it would make sense to take it down and tighten up the u bolts and other fixings before storm Dennis arrived. I carried out the antenna m...