Ham Radio Operator - M0YKS

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!! Sometimes even when its raining you end up helping out.... AS you can see here i am helping Ron 2E0DOG get that antenna to stand out a bit more

Greetings once again to all Radio people and Bloggers,this post is about operating Radio and Computer with a device connected to my Com-port on my P.C which connects to my Yaesu FT847. Last weekend i bought a Rig-blaster off a fellow Ham operator G1YPQ-Karl a good friend of mine. Ive had the Nomic Rig-blaster for a while on loan but had not got round to using it,Karl G1YPQ asked me if i wanted to buy it so i dropped off the cash and decided to give it a go. The Rig-blaster was fairly straight forward to connect,it fitted directly to my Com port1 and came with a couple of of output leads with mic plugs fitted. The mic lead went into the 847,the Rig-blaster has different jumper connections inside which are quite simple to set for most Rigs microphone wiring. The audio out of the 847 went to the line in on my p.c sound card. You then connect your p.c speakers to the audio out on the Rig-blaster. Hey presto! that's the connecting done, the next stage was to transmit some data and get t...

Sunday evening is radio night for me I usually chat to my friends who are local however this week none of my locals were on air so I spent some time trying to works a few stations up and down the HF bands. I listened on 20m and found there was no-one on until I came across PT7CB Barreto from Brazil. We had a quick 5 and 9 on 20m I have worked him many times in the past and we have exchanged QSL cards. I went on to the other HF bands it was very strange as again there were only a handful of stations from Europe so I headed down to 80m and worked a British and German station and heard a VK at the top end of 80m. Back up to 40m where it was still fairly quiet and to my astonishment I cam across Barreto PT7CB for the second time this evening. And amazingly managed another 5 and 9 on 40m using the good old G5RV. Who says G5RVs don't do DX?! Especially amazing as propogation is very poor. It just goes to show you should never give up hope when the bands are poor.

Tonight I have been operating on 80M in QSO with John F4AWH whilst waiting for a Contact with my YL M3TLL Louise who was operating from the STAR CENTRE with some SCOUTS on 2M. The SCOUTS were working with Louise in the Radio Shack Logging Stations, learning Q codes and radio Knowledge to obtain the Scouts Communication Badge.

Hello Radio People and Bloggers, I wonder what the HF Bands have been like in your neighbourhood? Here in wet and windy West Yorkshire it has been extremely poor propagation for the last two weeks, infact ive not heard any Stations on 20M after mid afternoon and by the time i get in from work its been totally flat. Early morning has not been much better on 20M, however i did here a ZL Station this morning whilst operating on my mobile-Toyota Rav4,Ft100 DX machine. I have worked a few Stations in Europe whilst been /M, last weeks best contact from the home QTH was 5A7A from Libya operating on my FT847 with 50watts through the Hustler 6btv i managed a 5/9 report both ways. The Hustler Vertical still seems to be an excellent performer for working DX stations, My antenna is ground mounted to a solid steel bar 1 &1/2 inch diameter by 5 feet long this is hammered into the ground. I do have a great take off of 1000ft above sea level and no QRN from mains powered households as i am out in ...

Portable at The STAR CENTRE The Last couple of weeks The YL M3TLL Louise and Myself have been running a training course at the works QTH The STAR CENTRE,this is where the Ham Station is based down at Keighley College. The picture above shows the Communcation Centre where the rigs are in company with computer technology.To the right is a 6/2/70 tri-band Beam parrallel to an Oscar 437 30 element XSat-Beam.Below a view across the mars landscape to a Science Pod and Rocket, and bottom right shows an image recieved from NOAA 12. The Cushcraft MA5B mini beam for HF operation We also use a Hustler 6BTV and a Carolina Windom160 We have been Teaching some Air Training Corps Cadets.The Air Cadets are from Bradford and are 44F squadron A.T.C. We have worked with other squadrons and some have become Licenced Amatuers. This Course covers theory and practical tasks followed by an Examination so hopefully these cadets will achieve the Foundation licence We will be both on Air with the Cadets on Monda...

On Sunday Morning myself and the YL headed down the M1 to Barnsley South Yorkshire.It was the 2006 Barnsley Ham Radio Rally and i was on the lookout for another mobile Antenna.I already own quite a few tryed and tested beautys which include Maldol 80m,40m,20m,mono-banders a Maldol multibander 40m,15m,10m,6m,2m & 70cms.A mono-band 6M,10m,2m,and a Tri-band 6m,2m,70cms from Watson. This mission was to obtain a 15m-21mhz mobile Antenna,after a tour round the stalls i ended up at the Lam Communications stall where Lee the owner offered me a Comet 15m mobile Antenna. I was really after Maldol but i decided to try the comet and after the friendly discount i was quite happy with the purchase. I installed the Antenna to my second HF mount which is fed through a 2Way Antenna Switch in my DX machine (RAV4 TOYOTA powered FT100). On the return journey back up North to my QTH i was recieving good signals from the Blueridge Mountain in the USA,also South America, and I had a QSO with a 5/9+ signa...

A few Stations from this years World Wide CQ Contest . I was operating on the FT847 Earth Station From Yaesu .The Antenna's i used were Hustler 6btv on 21mhz,and on 14mhz i was expermenting between the Hustler and a Hombrew 20m Dipole, which was horizontal in an L configaration.It is 33ft in total length and is made from good quality 3mm multi strand copper wire which is sleeved.The Antenna is resonant across the 20m band so i run direct from the 2 way switch i use to change between the Hustler and the Homebrew 20m Dipole ,i was extremley surprised with the Dipole's excellent performance i managed 14 Zones and 8 new countries. Here are some DXCC Worked on 21mhz using the Hustler 6BTV and 50W. 6W1RY Senagal,PR2A Brazil,3V6T Tunisia,CX5BW Uruguay,FY5KE French Guiana,K9BGL USA,V26B Antigua and Barbuda,VC3R Canada,ZS9X South Africa,8R1EA Guyana all worked and many others. DXCC Worked on 14mhz using a combination of Hustler and Hombrew 20m Dipole KC1XX USA,7S2E Sweden,UU7J Ukraine...

It was dark as I was waiting for Blackpool Illuminations (historical light show) to start when I heard an old friend, Steve WZ1Y from Conneticut USA. We made contact on 20m he was impressed with my mobile I normally work him from the home QTH, this was a first from my mobile station. Also you get to see the lights come on and a quick view of Blackpool by night.

More DX action on my day trip to Blackpool. I worked 3 Stations on 20M using 50 watts through a mono band maldol HF20 mobile antenna,the radio is Yaesu FT100.QSO's are with 3A/IZ2EID/P (Monaco),HA501CW (Hungary) and AB8AL (USA).

Here is one of many contacts I had on the way to Blackpool operating mobile.As you will see i live on the top of the Moors which is good for radio,however you need a 4x4 because its a bumpy ride down the the old dirt track.You can also hear my Dog trying to get in on the action!

Cq Cq Cq JOTA !!!! That was what you could hear today down at the works QTH the Starcentre at Keighley College .This is where i work im a full time teaching technician in fabrication and welding,also a part time position in the Star Centre which is the college's Science Technology Aeronaughtical Regional Centre (STAR). This Years JOTA/JOTI event went down great with a fun day for the 50 Scouts that attended the event which was being held world wide over this weekend. AT the Star centre i was operating from the shack, helping the scouts obtain there Communications Badge .I was part of a team that did a total of 5 activities. The Scouts had to,build a crystal radio,down load a pod cast, jamboree on the internet ,Cool codes and playing radio. My YL Louise M3TLL was delivering cool codes which was Q codes,Phonetics,Call Signs and Pre-fixes etc.She made what a scout leader said was usually boring, fun and interesting.So with the use of PMR radio's and a head full of radio s...

BONITO RADCOM 5.2 This is the software that I have been running for a while from my PC to my Yaesu FT-857. It is connected from a COM Port via a dongle to the back of the rig with a CAT Interface lead. The software includes DSP filter and decoder for RTTY, CW, PSK, Fax and SSTV, full radio control, real time 3D scanner, equaliser, sat-tracking frequency management and a frequency analyzer. WEATHER FAX FROM CANADA click on image to enlarge This is a weather fax received on HF from a Canadian weather station. There are many stations worldwide continuously transmitting weather information. You can receive many stations but obviously it all depends on the propogation. This image is showing isobars. SSTV PICTURES ON 20M BAND click on image to enlarge Here is an image of some SSTV - another feature of the software. There are many different filters and settings which are quite simple to use and allow good quality images. You can also transmit quite simply and drag your own images into the wi...

This video shows something else I enjoy doing to give you an idea of what I do as well as Ham Radio.