Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

   Some of you will remember me getting the Arrow Mk2 antenna back in 2007 and as you can see it still does me a very fine job. I still enjoy the QRP satellite work which is always a surprise on how well it actually works. Tonight's efforts paid off as I cracked the pile up and worked two stations through the International Space Station. The ISS has its FM repeator active for radio amateurs to work each other on 145.990 FM up (Transmit with a CTSS tone 67hz) and 437.800 FM down (Receive frequency) Good luck if your going to have a go yourself. 73 thanks for following my madness. For more on ISS, FM and SSB Satellites as well as weather satellites check out all my Satellite adventures in one place. This image was received this morning at my shack in Baildon Yorkshire from the NOAA-18 Weather Satellite using WXtoIMG to decode. *Thanks to WRAASE Electronic for the stable free download version and Kepler update info and program. All working great for me!

Today has been a good day for ham radio here at the shack. The DX has been coming in really nicely throughout the 20, 17 and 15m bands. I made some great DX into China, Indonesia, South America and as seen in the video Japan. The QSO with Kazuhito JH3NGD was a really good example of having a decent QSO with fantastic stable band conditions, I really enjoyed the oppertunity and from the sounds of it Kazuhito san enjoyed looking at my old classic japanese motorcycles seen on my QRZ page. Kazuhito had some intresting pictures of his amazing set up which I also enjoyed looking through whist we made QSO. I hope to hear Kazuhito JH3NGD again soon a great operator from Japan, Thank You for the QSO!. My next great QSO tonight was into Mildura, Victoria, Australia with a nice chat with Moz VK3CWB exchanging a 5/5 report. Moz is located spot on for the hobhby with plenty of space and has a very nice antenna. Thanks Moz! It has also been a typical Yorkshire day regarding the WX but we...

My satellite activity has proven to be popular so I decided to hit the record button whilst trying my luck on the SSB satellites JO-97 and RS-44. I got into JO-97 easy enough but it was a quiet pass regarding working anyone. It was a bit noisy on the downlink but a good signal for sure. I used the BHI DSP filter on my external speaker to kill the noise, it works well on the SSB birds. RS-44 was awsome, I had a decent run and worked some great operators during the pass. SSB Satellites provide great DX oppertunities with a reasonable portion of bandwith to allow multiple stations to make a qso at the same time unlike the FM sats. A bit trickier but worth the effort. Good luck and thanks for the visit.

I still have a go at recieving NOAA weather Satellite signals on 137 MHz. There are just three currently operational which still provide a decent image of the Earth. The decoding is done with the same software as before which is WXtoImg. I use a program to update the satellite position called Kepler update which WXtoImg reads and keeps up to date for accurate decoding. The WXtoImg program used to update within the program but that stopped being supported so a add on method as mentioned must be used. Anyway hope you enjoyed the decode and image.

Well I was surprised to see how long ago I last posted on my blog. It has been a busy few months with time passing quickly.  As for the bands they have been on and off but overall I would have to go for more of the on with some pretty cool DX  I have as usual been making the most of the great outdoors with the odd attempt of operating both mobile and whilst walking. My next plan is to take my FT-817 and have a go at some long wire QRP. I might get an opportunity over the next few weeks as it's the end of the college year and I am off for a month.  Space communication has still been keeping me occupied as has ADSB aircraft tracking and of course I am active daily on the HF bands. This coming weekend on Saturday 22 July at 20:00 UTC a few YouTube hams are getting together including myself and plan to break the 40m band by simultaneously live streaming on 40 meters. This has been organised by James M0GCQ and is a great opportun...