As we say goodbye to another weird year of disruption caused by the ongoing pandemic, ironically everyone has caught Covid In my household including myself. The good thing is we seem to be not too ill just temperatures, aching and fatigue so far. As for ham radio it has been a good year for sure. I have enjoyed the next solar cycle starting up and have had plenty of good DX on HF. My activities via Space has been good with great results into the Satellites and ISS as well as improving the reception by moving the antenna array. I would say my /M operation has been less than I would have hoped for which of course is down to the fuel prices being unreasonable here in the UK. Our Government is determined to limit our travel one way or another. I will be glad when this year is finished with for sure, let's hope 2022 heads us all in a much more desirable direction. The best thing for me of 2021 is M7ELC Elsie my daughter getting on the air and not much else can beat that happy feeling. Have a good Christmas holiday all and a much better New year!
M7ELC - Elsie Operating In Her First CQWW Contest.
This years CQWW managed to get the attention of YL Elsie M7ELC and I had doubts as to if I would be active myself as she took over the shack. Of course I was totally happy that Elsie wanted to make plenty of DX and it was a proud moment watching her in action.
As you can see she did amazing for her first ever contest.
My efforts were also quite good once M7ELC moved over and I got in the hot seat.
I managed 22 zones this year which is my previous high score from a few years ago. I have yet to beat 22 out of 40 zones but I thought conditions were pretty good with plenty of nice signals and lots of DX.
As usual I had an assistant taking care of tracking the Zones, this year it was my youngest daughter Martha. She probably will be going for a licence herself once she is ready to learn the less fun stuff. In the meantime a great job with the tracking and art work with her CQ WW Zone chart below.
Catch you all again on the next post or better still on the air.... For now stay healthy and have fun best 73 from us all!
THANKS for passing by Hamradiooperator.blogspot.com. The UKs longest running Ham Radio blog.
Just 10 days to go before my favourite radio contest takes place! I will be checking out that my station is working properly in advance and plan to be active from tomorrow on and off all week. I wonder what the results will be like this time now that we are experiencing some decent regular openings on all of the HF bands. Looking forward to catching up with some of you on the air! Good DX and best 73 enjoy your weekend because next weekend will be radio chaos lol.
Its been an awful long time since I posted here on my old blog! Well I am still in good health and of course still playing lots of Ham radio when I have spare time.
The past month or so has been crazy at work so my live streams on YouTube has suffered and I have not been as active on camera as usual. I have of course still been here in the shack just slightly with more of a lower profile whilst hunting for the precious DX.
The station at M0YKS is still working exceptionally well, all antennas are holding up well so far and I have a nice new three section ladder to help maintain and keep them that way.
I also have a second valve amplifier which runs the same Russian military tank GI7BT Ceramic valves. This one is currently in use and is in a nice shiny Ameritron casing. My original GI7BT amplifier is now rebuilt with new valves and a few other bits and pieces. I had converted the Valve mounting setup after advise from a local amp guy but found it not suitable to operate that way so I ended up recently rebuilding the amp back to the original specs. Its now safely stored away as a back up secondary amplifier.
Right now I am about to call into the 40m RSGB post News net read by Geoff GM8OFQ and send a signal report of 5/9 +40 to the Island of Hoy, part of Orkney Islands above Scotland! I always try my best to listen in on a Sunday morning to find out what we have to look out for over the coming week. From the sounds of it, we can expect more openings on the higher HF bands, some Aurora and possibly meteor scatter on VHF as well as EME.
Catch up again with all of you soon, stay healthy and thanks for passing by one of the U.K longest and oldest running original Ham radio blog. 73 de M0YKS Simon and Hamily!
Well its been a great couple of weeks and to cap things off we recently had a fantastic Van camping expedition up in Galloway Scotland. M7ELC and myself M0YKS got the chance to use the MM prefix whilst out and about in the DX Machine.
The band conditions were fair and I worked Puerto Rico and USA as well as into Russia and across Europe. I heard Indonesia and my FT-857 performed well using both Hustler mobile and Maldol mobile antennas.
On our return Elsie M7ELC was straight back in the shack and this time she worked her first Space contact using the ISS repeater which was awesome!
So after a busy week which included getting my FT-817 repaired by a very nice guy called Karl - M0KRL from South Yorkshire. The FT-817 has a new PA output for both HF and VHF after it was blown many moons ago. I will be playing /p out and about and also trying it on the satellites in the coming week. I am pleased to have got it repaired as well as opened up across the full 40m band.
So like I said a very busy week of holiday family ''Hamily'' fun its back to work in the morning for the final college term leading up to summer. This one is a six week term so I will be off on my travels again in the not so distant future. In the meantime I will be playing Radio which will be along side my new shack partner M7ELC at times lol. Not so much live streams as the return to normal life at the moment is pretty much complete thankfully. I will be making the odd flash stream here and there but mainly having fun on the air with a few video uploads here and there when something interesting is happening that is worth sharing. Enjoy the sunshine, Band openings and plenty of fresh air! Catch up soon folks!
I would like to thank all of you guys that entered the competition, it was a bit of fun to mark the end of lockdown and my regular weekly live streaming check ins. I'm sure you have all seen enough of me keeping you up late at night lol. So finally the time is here for at least a bit less of the live streams. lol. I'm amazed how many of you guys have kept up. Thanks for the company throughout the past year and half of a very unusual time and we made it! Yeah!!! From now on as we move into the next solar cycle and summer freedom I will be doing the live stuff as and when I am in the mood lol, the same goes for the regular video recordings.
Anyway the answers to the competition for the microphone stand are:
1. My 1st Call - M3HTS
2, How many Valves in my amp - 2
3,What is my most popular YouTube video of all time - Hustler base station antenna used on my mobile
So a few got some correct and three of you got all of the right answers. Well done! I did a live draw on the YouTube Ham Radio Sunday Night Live Check in and Sparky Clark - Jordan M0PIR was the lucky winner 🏆😀. Well done Jordan the tower is on its way already posted out.
So that was fun.... now I am back playing some Satellite and Late night DX on 20m. Great signals on both Satellite and HF this evening 👌 73 Good DX de M0YKS Simon.
Well its been far too long since i posted here so I thought I best sort that out. What have I been doing lol. Lots of radio including livestreams, a few repairs and plenty of work. You might have seen on my YouTube channel that my eldest daughter Elsie has now become one of us and now holds her own Call sign at the sweet age of 10 years (only just as well). Her Mum M3TLL, Sister and I are all very proud of her amazing achievement. We have been working together throughout lockdown teaching Elsie and she has been an awesome student that's for sure! Well done M7ELC - Elsie.
As well as playing plenty of radio I recently achieved the QRZ DX100 using only a microphone and antenna no digital modes or internet!
I have also had a bit of time to take down the satellite antennas and rotator for a 5 year service. This went well, I since refit the installation in a different more accessible location to the side of my QTH as well as replace a broken reflector and change the polarisation from horizontal to vertical which has made a massive improvement on all of the satellites. I am now booming into both FM and SSB Satellites and receiving excellent NOAA weather images. I am looking forward to ISS switching back across to the repeater which is due to happen in the next couple of weeks.
Satellite Rotator YAESU G-5500, 5 Element Yagi 145 MHz , 15 Element X Yagi 435-437MHz - The Latest Position a few feet lower but working much better than before.
Radio propagation on HF has been much better and I am spending more and more time on the higher portion of HF such as 20m again and really making the most of the late night DX openings into North and South America and the Caribbean. I have had some great reports from Argentina and beyond and currently I am chasing Master Of Radio Communication - South America award. I have a way to go as I am at 54% so far.
Finally over lock down I have done lots of hours live on YouTube operating Ham Radio and amazingly the subscription numbers have doubled I am currently at around about 2.42K and climbing. So as a thank you to each and everyone for watching, following and keeping me sane through a couple of long a difficult lockdown periods I have decided to make a second mic stand. This one has been improved and will be given to a lucky competition winner which will be happening on my Sunday night Live check in (tomorrow). I will also post the competition here with an entry link. Keep an eye out from tomorrow eve late.... The comp will be open for a week or so and is free to enter. Good luck.
This is the finished off Prize - One Mini Lattice Tower with a Mic Clip and Separate PTT switch which needs wiring to your radio mic PTT input. The Heil GM-5 is NOT included lol Its just to give you an idea of what to expect. the Mic stand will hold most studio microphones. Good Luck!
Another successful improvement to the station this winter was putting some 12 ft radials at the base of the Hustler 6BTV antenna. Since I did the performance has greatly improved with regular DX contacts into Monserrat in the Caribbean, Canada and USA. Chris GM4ZJI was the one who told me to try the 1/8th wave radials which work amazingly well. Thanks Chris!!! As you can see the signal on the QSL card from Adam KA1KA is not 5/9, the band was quite poor so that is why I am over the moon to make the QSO and QSL with the 6BTV. My fan dipole on 40m is very similar in performance, almost as good but slightly down on outgoing signal with about 5-10 db less signal reports back in. (just for info).
Greetings and hello, hope all is well. Since I built the 40-80m Fan dipole antenna I have been much more active on the 80m band, this antenna with its 1:1 balun has been receiving many excellent signal reports from both short and long skip local and DX.
The SOTA wire is an excellent radiator and combined with a 1:1, 50 ohm balun which I bought a Diamond BU-50 rated to 1200 watts seems really good despite its small physical size, it appears to be working very well so far with 400 watts. I am pleased to report it has not shown any problems or issues over the winter months where we have had lots of snow and ice. The homebrew 40-80M FAN DIPOLE, YES! I would definitely recommend. Also, I recommend fitting a balun to any dipole made for HF as it does help to prevent unwanted RF return and reception interference that is often picked up on the feed line. Since I fitted the balun, I have noticed a positive difference whilst using it. The dipole seems to be a very good performer all round on the 80m band and I have been hitting North and South America as well as Asiatic Russia and North Africa up on the DX portion of the band over the winter months as well as booming up and down the UK and across to EU. This winter has been really good on 80m since I built the 40-80 Fan Dipole, much better than my previous antenna set ups. I am glad I went to the effort, well worth it and it was easy and inexpensive. Have a look at the homebrew 40-80 fan dipole video if you want to see how I made it with all of the dimensions. Its on my YT channel or further down the blog posts.
I hope to hear you later maybe on the 80m band during my Sunday night live check in, on my ham radio YouTube channel from around about 22.00 utc (10pm Local). It wont be long before 20m is back in full swing each evening and the DX will be plentiful so I best get on 80m a few more times before hand and work a few more amazing stations. Thank You for all of the Calls, keep them coming in! 73.
A very late Happy new year to each and everyone, I hope you are all keeping well and safe as we enter another year over shadowed by this dreadful virus. Once again I am working online with my students rather than being in the welding and fabrication workshop where I belong. Despite the chaos there is plenty of fun and laughter in the household and I have also been very active on the ham radio bands. My log has never looked so healthy and I have been making many QSO meeting some great guys and girls on the air.
The last few months have flown by and I now seem to be live streaming both welding sessions and ham radio from the shack. Every Sunday evening I have been live on YouTube working lots and lots of other radio amateurs on 80 and 40m as well as up on 20m when conditions permit. Its started to become a weekly ritual and I have almost formed a virtual gathering of regular friends via the YouTube channel stream and of course on the air. It is a real pleasure to finally get to meet/make qso with so many of you guys and girls that have been following my ham radio antics. The weekly check in is becoming very popular and I would like to thank each and everyone of you for making the effort and trying to call in.
The weekly check in usually happens after I settle down my two fast growing daughters and get them into dream land. I try to get on the air for 22.00 utc and sometimes a little bit earlier if at all possible. Each week the number of callers seems to be growing and last nights live stream was great fun with a mini pile up at one point.
My good friend and fellow blogger/youtuber Bas PE4BAS was one of the many super contacts that I made last night and as ever was coming in superb with an arm chair copy. Many of you guys come through exceptionally well on my recently home brewed 40/80 fan dipole. Its certainly working very well for me and with the 400 watts I have been hitting the USA and Caribbean on a regular bases, its fantastic to work so many great operators from around the world and see so many regulars on the live stream chat. There are too many great guys and girls to start naming everyone but please keep it up guys as I am really enjoying the fun and banter.
Some of my favourite contacts have been with Barry - G6JMX, Chris - GM4ZJI, Jimbo - G1JSP, Michael - W3MLJ, Brayden - KC1KUG, Marija - YU3AWA and Frankie - VP2MNI. But in all honesty you have all been top guys and girls and have really helped me to de-stress in the current lock down situation. I cant wait to catch up with all of you and some of you that have been trying but not quite made it through yet.
See you all next Sunday around about 22.00 zulu for some more fun in the shack live and direct on my ham radio YouTube channel.
Here is a sneak peak of what kind of craziness we get up too.
Once again a Big Big Thankyou to all callers/friends that have made the evening so much fun. If you haven't managed to join in yet I hope to catch up with you soon.
In the meantime keep playing ham radio or SWL or CB or what ever it is that makes you happy and helps to pass the time in lock down. Stay safe and best 73 as ever de M0YKS Simon
Greetings friends and followers around the World! 73 Seasons blessings and good will and health to each and all! Merry Christmas!
I received a nice diploma on Christmas day for receiving SSTV images which commemorate 20 years of onboard amateur radio activity. It was easy enough to obtain via ARISS SSTV Award link.
Here is an earlier one from the Sputnik series.
Its great fun receiving images from ISS and can easily be decoded using MMSTV free software on your pc. There are a few apps for phones and tablets that work well also. Check out my latest video as I decode ISS SSTV images if you want to see how easy it is.
Also if you like that you might want to decode weather satellite images which is a very similar method apart from you need a slightly more complicated decoder which again is free and is called WXtoImg
Above is a recent image from NOAA 18 below is a video showing how I successfully decoded the weather image.
Keep yourself amused this Christmas as we all stay safe, have a go at decoding its lots of fun... Merry Christmas, 73, see you soon! Be healthy!
What a year we have been having with little sign of any significant change as of yet. Some of the Positives of this year for myself Have to of been Ham radio. I have met many new amateurs and SWLs since lock down began on the air and online, I formed a Facebook group and doubled my YouTube subscription. Also I carried out maintenance on all of my antennas and made a new one along the way.
Ham radio has been a great choice of passtime this year and I would like to thank all of you guys and girls, new friends and old friends for all comments and encouraging feedback that helps keep me going. HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone ❤.
This week was my last working week at college, I'm finally on holiday for two weeks and hope to get on the bands. Earlier and through the week I have been active and I was also able to make a few videos of some of my qso and radio fun. Catch up on my YouTube channel. This week I worked some mobile and base HF, Satellite and ISS. I even decoded a couple of NOAA weather Satellites. I received an award for working 5 YOTA Stations which was cool 😎
Hope to catch up with some of you soon on air or online. In the meantime stay safe and healthy and have a restful but enjoyable Christmas 🎄 from M0YKS and family.
I noticed a swr variation when I switched between my dipole and vertical hf antennas. The swr reading on my Hustler 6btv was 1:6 and I noticed that when I switched back to it sometimes it was up to 2:0. I played around with the switching mechanism and sure enough it was back to 1:6. The next step was a quick inspection of the internal contacts and switch housing. I noticed that the central spindle was worn and this was allowing the switching pole to lean slightly towards the dipole pick up point. The slight movement rectified the closeness but the switch was well worn through years of operation. So I treated my station to a new better quality replacement as seen below.
my old switch has served me well but the new high power Avair switch has better isolation and is much nicer to operate.
I hooked it up and to my pleasure saw the SWR fall to 1:4 which is even better. Let's hope this nice neat upgrade has a good long lifespan as it seems pretty cool on day one of operation. 73 stay healthy!
Hi All! Hope you are keeping safe... We are in the same position as most regarding lock down and other than going to work I have been stuck indoors a lot lately. So, off outside into the garden it was and antenna building time once again was here.
I decided to replace the prototype 40/80 fan dipole that has been in use since the end of spring. It has been working really well even though I made it from some random used wire, I bought three reels of SotaBeam military spec heavy duty wire which come in 50 meter reels. The wire is stainless coated multi strand 50 ohm and is in a low impact green colour. It is very good for antenna elements or radials and solders up nicely.
I also decided I wanted to try out this new build double dipole with a suitable 1:1 balun that would help prevent unwanted coaxial line transmission and also help reduce unwanted reception noise on the feed line from random electrical sources nearby. The balun also helps to isolate the returning RF at the feed point and balances the dipole elements to 50ohm, as well as helping to produce a more effective radiation pattern on the transmit signal generated.
I looked into making my own, but in my possession had a gift voucher to spend on Amazon. So I opted for a commercially built balun capable of handling my 400 watts. I ended up with the Diamond BU-50A which is a really neat piece of kit.
I made a step by step video on how to make your own 40/80 fan/balanced double Dipole, If you want to have a go watch the video below.
Step by step how to make a 80/40m Fan Dipole with 1:1 Diamond BU-50A Balun
The result is great! I have 1:1 - 1:5 across the full 80m band without any need for an ATU and the same 1:1 - 1:5 also on 40m after a slight adjustment. I had made the antenna slightly longer and had to cut the legs equally to achieve the best match. The reception clarity has improved on both bands and the noise has lowered in strength. My out going signal as ever, is good to go and I will be DX hunting over the winter months! Thanks for passing by catch you soon. 73 Stay safe!
