Reasonable reception at my end with my FT-847 and Innovantenna - loop fed 6 element X YAGI on G-5500 Rotator.

I have also been active on the Satellite bands working mostly into Europe on both SSB and the FM birds. 

Today I thought I would have a go at working a reasonably new Satellite CAS 5A also known as FO-118. I haven't quite setup my radio steering software SATpc32 correctly with the Doppler correction known as a Doppler sqf file yet, so I had to manually change the downlink frequency but still managed a few nice QSOs. The new Satellite was built by CAMSAT and has a FM V/u repeater as well as V/u and interestingly a H/u linear transponder on board for amateur radio use. 

If you don't quite understand what it all means this is it: V = VHF, U = UHF and H = HF. So for example in the case of V/u it would mean VHF uplink TX and UHF down link RX. For this Satellite CAS 5A, V/u is 145.925 FM TX and 435.600 FM RX. 

Today's first trial of working the bird proved to be easy enough with a decent signal back down from the bird using the FM repeater. The next thing is to try the linear transponders and maybe operate the H/u mode with a 15m band uplink. That will be something new for me for sure. The V/u SSB transponder should be easy enough to hit and probably will be decent if it is anything like the earlier XW Chinese satellites. Hope to hear you soon from IO93CU. H N Y.

Talking of DX..... This evening was decent on HF as I worked some nice DX up on 10m - KP4PR and LU5FC and then down on 20m I was able to work TO9W, K9NEM and ZF2OO with some lovely signal reports exchanged. All SSB voice, using 200w barefoot from the 101MP  hooked up to my trusty  Cushcraft MA5B multi band yagi antenna.

I will catch up with you again soon and hopefully catch you on the Air over the holiday period. I may try a couple of live streams in and among the festive fun. In the meantime SEASONS GREETINGS and Have fun!  

This years highlights if you have not seen it already.

CQ WW SSB 2022

Thanks to all involved, our logs have been uploaded and we both had a blast. See everyone in the next DX Contest and also next years CQ WW. 73 Good DX M0YKS and M7ELC

73 de M0YKS Simon 

The past few weeks of superb band conditions has meant that I could see just how good this radio is. I have spent most evenings up on 10 and 15m working DX and it's been absolutely buzzing with activity. The FTDX101MP is totally awsome on all of the HF bands with an exceptional quality receive capability. I still love my FT-1000mp but the noise does not disappear the same as it does on the 101mp. Infact the 101mp is incredibly good at pretty much everything including putting out a very nice sounding audio. I still haven't tried the Heil GM5 microphone on it as the M70 YAESU desk mic seems to be very good  the reports coming in are pleasing. The M70 came free with the radio as an incentive to buy. It is a nice microphone and I'll be continuing with it for now. I set the eq up with it and thanks to Jay W4ZXT I seem to have configured it to suit my voice. I followed Jay's YouTube video audio/eq settings (thanks bro).

So with a few weeks of playing I have soon got to grips with the layout of the 101mp, it's very user friendly and well designed for chasing DX quickly up and down the bands. I've not used the amplifier recently and my signal has been solid into VK, JA, South Africa, South America and USA. Its definitely a good time to get into the higher HF bands with excellent DX openings daily. The higher bands have provided lots of new stations that I normally don't catch so you can imagine the amount of rag chew qso I have been making. That's another good thing about the higher HF bands you get interesting conversations thst last for as long as you want without too much QRM. Hope to hear you guys and girls on your radios operating 15, 12 and 10m soon. 

73 have a good weekend. GOOD DX.