Ten Meter Band - Late Shift

A nice surprise just now as I worked across the Atlantic into Eastport in Maine USA on 28.400 Mhz better known as the magic 10 Meter band. I worked Ray-W2RE with his massive antenna array with a 5/9 signal exchange both ways during a nice pile up at around 22:12 utc, which is most unusual on that band at most times of day h.i. I also heard K6JO and gave him a shout but struggled to make a proper exchange as I lost his signal which was only 5/1 at best. Nether the less a nice late night DX catch on a most unpredictable band.

Operating from GM/MM

The DX machine will be getting packed and ready for another adventure up north. The holiday times are here again and we will be planning on hitting the road and operating the Ham mobile station from Scotland on 40m, 20m & 17 m as well as the 2 meter band.
Keep an ear out for MM0YKS/M or P.

Early Morning DX into Hawaii

I usually switch my transceiver on around about 6.00 UTC most work days as I eat and prepare for work. Today was extra special as I heard a 5/5 signal coming in on the 20m band over the north pole from the north Pacific area. The station was KH7XS who was working on a split frequency and operating by numbers. I was quick to act and fired up my valve amplifier as I new it would need a few minutes to warm up first. So with a mouth full of wheat, oats, raisins and bran I waited for number zero to be called. With one call I was straight through with a 5/6 to 5/5 signal report with my FT-1000, Russian amp and cushcraft 3 element yagi. A great start to my working day for sure and 127 DXCC logged so far under M0YKS. 

A short video made just after my qso.

DX Window To West Coast California

After finishing off a week at work I started my weekend by firing up my ham radio station where I heard K6YRA coming in loud on 14.193 Mhz. K6YRA - Al was on the west coast of N. America in California and I was hearing him with a signal strength of 7-9db and Q5 audio. As I waited for my amplifier to warm up its ceramic valves I set my antenna position to 310 degrees and listened in. After a few contacts by Al across Europe I gave one call and got straight through to K6YRA - Al who gave me a 5/9 signal report from California. Not a bad catch and a great DX qso once again in the log. Have a good weekend and watch out for some interesting openings.

73 Simon M0YKS

Antenna tower/mast project - welding

I managed to get a bit more done on my latest project which is the antenna mast which I will use for my Cushcraft HF beam.

It's still work in progress but going well so far and easy enough as well as great fun to build. Im making it up as I go along, let's wait and see how it all pans out. Best 73 see you soon. 

Home made antenna tower project

I've been planning on building myself a small neat lattice tower and today I made a start. So far I have produced some guides that will hold the tubes in place as well as providing some strength to the tower.

The next stage is to build it up using tube and then fully weld each joint.

CQ Dog Xray

Another good evening of DX on the 20 meter band as I work into North, South and central America.

Once again the radio propagation is providing great conditions with some excellent signals coming in to my Ham radio station here at Baildon Moor. If you haven't already been on your radio this week I would recommend tuning around the 20m band between 1900 - 0000 utc. I have been making lots of good qso and so have lots of other radio amateurs as we all enjoy the long awaited reliable openings across the Atlantic every night this week. Dont miss out, get on the band! Best 73 and do you like my new CW key made by Bencher?

Plenty of DX!

It sure is great to be able to tell you that the past month or so has shown significant improvement regarding radio propagation and DX. I am still mainly active operating towards the end of the day and into the night after work and family are taken care of and for a long time the bands have not  been open for DX. Lately it has been a different story as the 20m band has finally come alive and  woken up for the night shift allowing regular state side QSO and also some big DX signals from Argentina, Chile, Peru and Japan. I also got a nice one on the short skip earlier as I managed a couple of hops again on 20m over to the Isle of Man when GD1JNB came in booming through like a local. The short skip wasn't around for long but was pretty cool whilst it lasted, as for the DX you catch me in QSO with LU9MBY from Argentina as I bust the pile up!

80m DX - W2RE

I often enjoy listening to other Hams working some DX stations on 3.795 MHz just before bedtime and also in the morning at first light.  I've been doing this for years and have worked a few nice DX myself occasionally when I've picked up the microphone. This evening I heard a cracking signal coming in from across the Atlantic which belonged to W2RE. He was a real 5/9 + at my end to my FT-1000 and I received the same report back as I made the contact with 400 watts out of my G17B amplifier into the 6btv Hustler antenna. Now that is what I call a good way to end the day! Best 73 I'm off to bed.

80m Off Centre Fed Dipole

It's been a busy start for me so far this year with little time to blog. I hope you are all enjoying life to the full and getting on. As for Ham Radio it's been a bit slow with not so many opportunities to make DX or any kind of decent qso. My evening operating has been mainly swl style on 40m and 80m as the higher end of HF has more often than not closed down at sunset. About six months back I put up a balanced doublet for 80m but now I have come to the end of the experiments and have concluded that the configuration is not best suited to my setup. The dipole was very noisy compared to my vertical Hustler 6btv and at times was unusable due to extreme noise levels on 80m.
Earlier I remade the configuration of the dipole into an OCF dipole which basically means one leg is 81 feet long and the other leg is 50 feet. The total length is 131 feet and it's fed with 50 ohm coax into a 4:1 balun at 25 feet above the ground. I have used 3 support points with nylon insulators allowing most of the length to be straight and at both ends I have around about  10 - 15 feet of wire bent down towards the ground.

The OCF dipole is showing SWR readings of less than 1.8 on 80m and 40m all the way across the bands without the ATU with much less noise than the balanced dipole. I tried it on both 40m and 80m with the amp inline and its looking much better so far. I cant wait to get on with more tests and experments over the next few month's, the bands might offer some surprises as I keep hearing the odd rare DX when the bands open up. This happens quite a lot but it's getting the timings right to play radio, but we all have that problem. Until next time, best 73.

Happy New year 2019!

Happy New year to you all. Can't wait to get started with some Ham Radio fun and games. Happy New Year DX ing 2019!

Merry Christmas 2018

I decided to remember an old friend and re use this picture of our never forgotten buddy Dudley.

Have a very Merry Christmas 2018!

I like the QRZ assistant app

I sometimes try the odd radio app that I come across on playstore but find most to be not that exciting or beneficial to my needs or requirements. I recently tried QRZ assistant and I quite like it so far. The best bit is the built in compass that moves to the coordinates of any station that you look up. I think it could be fun and useful for anyone using rotatable antennas and their smartphones, perhaps from a portable location away from a pc. It's also free!

WW1USA

I was lucky to catch WW1USA earlier this month at the top end of the 20 meter band. Today I received the certificate which is very nice and also a great way to remember the fallen heroes of present and past. Best 73

My Raw Score - CQ WW 2018

The Raw Scores are available in case you were wondering. I didn't do as well as I have done on low power but still came a respectful 8th place (Country) 126 place (Continent) and 351 place (World) in the Single Op High power All Band CQ WW SSB Contest. I will find out more once the scores have been finalised and checked over and also I will be downloading my participation certificate/award for my collection. In the meantime I will be playing ham radio in between the chaos of life. Best 73 all!