This Weeks DX Summary

The past few weeks have flown by, I have continued working online with my college students and staff which has been very busy and productive. On an evening I have made the most of the DX opportunities and managed some great DX most nights. Check out the past couple of weeks log entries...... Lots of Great DX....Plenty of decent into G conditions also.....

I have been catching my DX action on video and live stream on both my Ham Radio YouTube Channel and Facebook Group Ham Radio Operator Live Streams.

You can catch a couple of the videos here:

The bands are certainly picking up late on in the evening at the time I like to be active and I keep getting some great Stations in the log. I have also enjoyed meeting a lot of you guys on Facebook and getting to know you all a bit better. Thanks!
Have a great weekend Catch you soon 73! M0YKS Simon

Demo Of How To Work SSB Satellites

Hi everyone hope your enjoying the sunshine and if your reading from across the globe heading into the winter months I hope you are also having a good day. Its the hottest day of the year here in Baildon W.Yorkshire UK. I awoke this morning in my garden camping which was fun with my family, shortly after I was active on the Satellite bands trying to make a QSO. I did not make QSO this time but did get my signal into XW-2B quite nicely.

If you want to see the way I use CW to help locate my own signal on the down-link satellite band watch the video. I find this is the easiest way of getting a good up-link to the satellites that operate linear SSB transponders which in simple terms means: TX-UP On 435.100 LSB &  RX-Down 145.740 USB. Most SSB Satellites operate with both USB and LSB. The frequency is for XW-2B not all SSB Sats.

Out Of This World

What an exciting weekend

Hope you're all well, as you can see I have been having fun with the family watching the launch followed by camping in the garden.

Online Streaming From The Shack

THANKS FOR JOINING ME ONLINE!

Just a quickie to say how grateful I am of the online company and friendships especially in lock-down when we are not able to socialise. Thanks for watching the YouTube Videos and also joining me on the live stream on Facebook. I cant believe how many of you out there are coming on board! Its truly fantastic, best 73 have a great day! See you all on the next video or stream. Simon M0YKS.

Active and Well

Hope you're all well and safe during our World changing pandemic. On a positive I have been keeping my students from college engaged in online studies and experimenting with online streaming as well as using video to assist my learners.

I haven't done much if any live streaming previously so as you can imagine it's been quite good fun trying it out. Before I was a licensed ham I played music on a local broadcast station for 20 years and I have all my music as well as some new stuff. So I hit the decks and tried some live streaming on Facebook to a few friends. I must admit I have enjoyed it a bit too much lol. For information I play reggae.

I used the DJ setup to familiarise myself with Facebook live and see how I could get a clear and quality sounding audio with a view to trying it all in the shack. This turned out fairly cool and I have since live streamed my station on air working DX. The next thing that I thought I would have a look at was a group page to put the shack stream on where others could watch or add their own shack stream. So.....I created this group for anyone to join. Follow the link if you would like to listen or participate.
Ham Radio Operator Live

I will still be making my usual videos of DX and other Ham radio activities on my YouTube channel the Facebook streaming is an additional option to follow the latest antics from myself M0YKS Simon. Stay safe. Get a radio. 73

20m Is Back - Late Night DX

The past few evenings have been awesome up on 20 meters and also 17 meters has been good with reliable openings into the USA, Caribbean and South America. I also heard VK3MO two nights running and tonight I squeezed a quick QSO in with Ian before he had to do some work over there down under.

My log shows some great DX over the past week all of which have taken place late in the evening.

VK3MO	2020-05-04	20m	SSB	QF22fr		Australia
FG4SO	2020-05-04	20m	SSB	FK96GH68		Guadeloupe
VE3CRG	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	FN15wc		Canada
K1JB	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	FN43up		United States
K1TIG/M	2020-05-03	20m	SSB			United States
FG4SO	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	FK96GH68		Guadeloupe
AK1W	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	FN42eb		United States
NP4ET	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	FK68ol		Puerto Rico
8P5AA	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	GK03fd		Barbados
8P6NW	2020-05-03	20m	SSB	GK03ed		Barbados
8P6NW	2020-05-01	17m	SSB	GK03ed		Barbados
8P5AA	2020-05-01	17m	SSB	GK03fd		Barbados
PJ4DX	2020-05-01	17m	SSB	FK52ud		Bonaire
CO8LY	2020-05-01	17m	SSB	FL20ca		Cuba
KC1KUG	2020-04-30	20m	SSB	FN43LJ32		United States

I also made a couple more videos of my latest antenna set up as well as some late night DX fun which are available below to watch. Best 73 stay safe!

Antenna adjustments - Day 37 In Lock-down

Its been a while since my last post which is quite strange as I have had plenty of time to blog but not really been in the blogging mood, probably because of the world pandemic which we are all suffering. As it is for most the way of life has changed considerably at the moment but thankfully we are all holding out well and keeping healthy.
The radio however has been in use and I have been busy making DX on 80, 40, 20, 15 and even 10 meters. My new fan dipole pictured below is performing spot on with great reports into the US on 40 and 80 meters.

I thought a close up of the centre might help you see how easy it is to construct this amazing performing 80/40m antenna. My Fan Dipole is 1:1 to 1:3 across both 80 and 40m without any ATU required I definitely should have built one years ago!

With such a good result regarding the 40/80M Fan Dipole I was back playing around with the Hustler 6BTV. This excellent 6 band trap vertical has been subjected to many storms over the last 15 years and one particular storm bent the lower section many years ago. I was able to use my metal working skills and workshop to repair the bent tube to a fashion and have been using it with a slight banana type configuration ever since. With the wx been as it has been which is good I have been outside in the garden a lot and noticed the 6BTV had become much more banana like.
After checking I could only find a replacement section in the USA the price of a replacement was 50 dollars plus the same again and some more for shipping bringing it to $140 US dollars.
I measured up the tube size and sourced some similar suitable tube locally in the UK 1.25 inch diameter ally tube with a decent wall thickness, which worked out at £19 delivered. The section I wanted to replace was the bottom section for 10m and I required a length of 1800 mm aluminium tube, which is just short of 6 feet. The length I purchased was 2000mm which was ample, I got to work in the garden and swapped the bent section over and now the 6BTV looks great as it soars up in the air nice and straight! Whilst I was working on the Hustler I went to town on cleaning up the radial and coaxial connection points as well as the actual antenna. Its working great and I am happy to be able to use both vertical and horizontal polarisation on all HF with good results all round.

Hope you are all healthy and well, Catch up soon, Stay Safe! 73 Simon M0YKS and Family

40/80 FAN Dipole Test

I have been wanting to try something new for 40m and today I decided to add two elements cut for 40 meters to my 80 meter mono band dipole making it a FAN Dipole.
The end result for today was, the 40/80m Fan dipole is resonant without an ATU on both bands and works very well on my first test. I put a video together operating on 80m using 50 watts during a RSGB 80m contest. I wanted to be sure that the extra elements would not have any detrimental effects on the performance on 80m. I found that the low power did not matter the dipole is still working really well on 80m. I checked it on 40m and I heard signals slightly stronger with the new Fan dipole over the vertical. Japan was coming in very well and later I made a nice QSO using the Fan dipole on 40m with VE9FI - Russ over in Canada. A good result so far!

Sizes of each leg is 80m - 2 x 67 ft lengths and 40m - 2 X 33 ft lengths.

Here is the video which will help you to pass 20 minutes, Stay Safe! Stay In! Save Lives!

Working from home

Its been quite a busy week so far as I am able to work from home using my chromebook and currently have been in communications online with a lot of our welding students. Every morning I have been on video conferences with my work colleagues. Its been very interesting and quite surprisingly good fun at times as we all keep up to date with a little humour to help keep a bit of sanity at the same time. One of the biggest positives I have noticed during this pandemic, is that we all have improved our use of apps and general IT skills, especially video calling on platforms like Whats App and Hangouts. These trendy apps and latest technology are actually quite useful at times of need and so far our infrastructures in the UK seem to be holding up well.

As for personnel well being, my family are all doing well and keeping me busy and fully engaged in fatherhood, which I am happy to say is also extremely nice to get in all the special family time which would not normally be possible. I have also had some great fun operating from my Ham Radio Shack.
I was active over the weekend during CQ WPX and made some great DX contacts during the contest. The previous week I was also making lots of DX on 20M, 40M and 80M. The bands have been quite good and plenty of Hams are on the Air. I worked North and South America this evening as I caught a late opening on the 20 meter band. I have been catching some of my radio activity on video to help some of you pass the time and if you haven't already caught them, you can catch up right here.
Best 73 stay safe! Simon.

Keeping The Mind Stimulated with Ham Radio

I am sure we are all feeling anxious and maybe even a little scared as we all take to hiding out in our safe havens. The World is suffering and people are becoming cut off and lonely as they try their hardest to keep away from harm. The bands are in pretty good shape at the moment and have been for the past couple of months. Now is the time to get on the amateur bands and make contact with others and help to keep high spirits and well being by just making a few radio contacts and engaging in conversation with another Ham in the same situation either located down the road or even around the world. Pull out your old radio equipment and get back on the air, it will help take your mind off of the current situation and fill in some time. If your already set up get yourself out in the garden or in your roof space or maybe a balcony and make either: a long wire for HF, delta loop or a 10m dipole just for fun and then make a QSO on it.

Maybe its not for you but perhaps a QSO or even a regular Ham Radio Net is your thing, get in touch and I will be happy to get on board. I was contacted earlier today and asked to try make QSO up on 10 meters with a station not too far away. This contact didn't work out but I had fun trying and worked into Italy instead. Keep safe and stay at home as much as you can. Best 73 Simon M0YKS

YAESU FT-2980 80w Robust Transceiver

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.

Surviving Storm Ciara and Dennis

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 maintenance and all is well after the peak of the storm.

Band Conditions

With one eye constantly on the house and antennas I have not had as many opportunities to actually make some QSOs but I have made a few! Most activity has been across the Atlantic into the States and Canada with a few other good QSOs into Russia.  Its been reasonably good on both 80m and 20m with one or two nice DX openings along the way. Hopefully the WX will calm down and I wil be back to full operation. 73 catch you soon!

80m DX W2RE - M0YKS Busting Through The QRM

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!

DX BY DAY AND DX BY NIGHT

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 started some interesting discussion on video comments with Gary who follows me on my YouTube channel. Thanks to all you guys that follow my video antics and I know some of you have been there for years. Its appreciated and keeps me motivated. Here are a couple of ham radio contacts on video for you to check out at your leisure. Best 73 I will catch up again with you shortly.

40m Dx Night Shift

Beaming State Side - K2TRD - M0YKS

DX Mobile Working Into Russia and USA

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.